20 FREE Traffic Sources For Websites: The Best Targeted Traffic That Converts

I'm going to share with you 20 free traffic sources that have the potential to drive thousands of visitors to your website.

They're attainable, accessible, and won't cost you a dime.

If your website is as popular as a fart in a spacesuit, then sit up, pay attention, and read this article.

Remember — without traffic, your site is practically worthless.

Let's get started.

20 Free Traffic Sources

The free website traffic methods listed below are still influential today and will drive organic traffic to your web pages. 

Whether you're an affiliate marketer, blogger, digital marketer, or you run an e-commerce store; you're going to need traffic.

Choose two to three methods, master them, and sit back and watch the traffic role.

1. SEO (The Greatest Free Traffic Source Of Them All)

In my opinion, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) traffic is the best free traffic you can get for your business.

The organic traffic you receive from the search engines like Google and Bing is worth its weight in gold and can provide a steady stream of visitors to your website.

The problem?

SEO traffic can be the hardest to come by, and you won't get traffic as fast as you would want.

If you want to rank for keywords, you'll need to optimize your site, produce quality content, receive backlinks (learn how to build high-quality backlinks here), and stay committed.

SEO traffic is targeted traffic and has the potential to drive thousands of laser-targeted visitors to your site every day. So, learn SEO, have patience, and above all else, produce quality, unique content, and over time, the free SEO traffic will start to happen.

Here are some good online marketing trainings that can help get you started.

2. Email Marketing (You Need An Email List)

You've probably heard the saying that ‘the money is in the list,' and that's correct, but the real reason why the money is in the list is because of the free traffic the list provides.

When you have a list of subscribers, you have a list of targeted traffic that you can call upon whenever you need to.

If you post an article, let them know. If you have a new product — email the list, want to promote an affiliate product, yes, send an email — are you starting to see how an email list is an excellent free traffic source?

Email marketing is essential for any business, and if you do it right, you'll have a free traffic source on tap.

3. Quora (Q&A On Steroids)

Quora is a social questions and answers website that has a ridiculous amount of viewers each month. The community will answer people's questions, and because of Quora's high website authority, the questions typically show up on Google.

These questions can contain keywords that thousands of people search for each day, so if you were to answer one of the questions on Quora with a helpful reply, you could potentially drive free traffic to your website.

Just remember, you will need to become a member of the community and provide helpful comments; simply spamming the site will get you banned.

4. Reddit (Awesome Potential)

Reddit is similar to Quora and has an insane amount of inbound traffic each month. We're talking billions of hits a month — it's one of the most visited sites online.

If you learn how to use Reddit correctly (or even how to make money on Reddit), you can piggyback some traffic to your site by providing helpful information to Reddit.

Reddits are like categories, and subreddits are like niche markets inside the main topic. So if you provide helpful information, then your traffic could seriously increase.

You need to learn, create, and participate on the site because the members are pretty picky and will let you know if they think you're winging it.

This helpful guide from Neil Patel is a must-read if you're going to use Reddit as a free traffic source.

5. Facebook (Groups)

Facebook has over 1.5 billion users, and if used correctly and avoiding Facebook jail, you can drive free traffic to your website. You will need to utilize the free Groups feature for your business and build a community of members who will become a source of traffic.

Facebook Groups are a way for you to bring together a community for a niche topic. For example, if your website is about ‘blogging,' you could create a blogging group. You can keep it private with permission access required or leave it open for anyone to join.

Either way, you could potentially build up a community of like-minded people who will see your posts and announcements whenever you post them — this is free targeted traffic.

You’ll need to provide helpful information, be responsive, and encourage people to join the group for this to work. If you keep working away, (and use simple feedback tricks like learning how to create a poll on Facebook) your Facebook group could grow into the thousands.

6. Twitter (Share Everything)

Twitter is another social media site that can bring you a stream of even million of traffic to your website for free. You post ‘Tweets,' which is a short paragraph of text about anything you want.

Typically, you would be posting about the niche market your business is focused on and will tweet whenever you post a blog post, make an announcement, or have something to sell, 

It would help if your tweets were helpful and interesting — this could be to highlight an article elsewhere or something related to the news.

The trick is to stay relevant to the audience that is following you.

The more followers you have, the more exposure your tweets will receive. 

To build up your Twitter followers, you will need to do the following:

• Follow others on Twitter
• Tweet useful information
• Retweet other tweets 
• Interact with others

7. Instagram (Images Attract)

Instagram is a top-rated social media site that can drive traffic to your web pages. However, like most social sites, you’ll need to build up a following for best results.

You can then drive traffic by linking to your website in your bio, adding links to your Instagram stories, IGTV videos, and products to your Instagram shopping page.

For best results, post good images, be creative, be responsive, and stay committed to the cause.

8. Pinterest (Visual Boards)

Pinterest is a social media visual board of ideas that you post (pin) to your board (check out lots of cool Pinterest board ideas here). In addition, you can post images, videos, infographics, all of which can cause a stampede of website traffic to your site.

It's all about making your pins creative and appealing. 

Make them stand out by using excellent images, good copy titles, and descriptions — don't forget to add keywords to the content.

Software like Photoshop and Canva offers some good resources (Free & Paid) to help you create visual images. 

This ultimate Pinterest Guide on Hub Spot is worth bookmarking if you want a proven strategy.

9. Snapchat (Urgency Drives Traffic)

Snapchat has grown popular over the years and is another excellent social site that can drive direct traffic to your website.

You send snaps (videos & text) to your friends and followers, which has a viewing time limit on them. The time limit adds a level of urgency to the messages, which can help you drive traffic.

You can post special offers, behind-the-scenes footage, and sneak peeks of new products or services.

If you build up a big enough following, Snapchat can work wonders and drive free targeted traffic to your site.

10. Guest Blogging (It still Works)

If someone tells you guest blogging is dead, they're wrong!

Guest blogging on high-traffic authority sites is one of the best free traffic methods you can use. It will build credibility, business relationships, and the potential to find new customers and subscribers in their hundreds.

You can link to your landing page, sales page, or website from the bio for the guest posting article you create (and you can use these bio generators to help make this process seamless).

As you will be posting on high-traffic websites that typically have high authority, this means the chance of your article ranking high on Google will be greater.

You will get traffic from search engines and also the blog’s regular readers. In addition, the website owner will probably have a massive email list of followers and will possibly email them when the post is published.

The potential is incredible with this method. Ping everyone you know when the post is live, link to it on social sites, and reply to any comments you receive.

A word of warning, though.

You will need to write an excellent article; I mean fantastic, unique, and helpful to the reader. 

11. Blogging (Content Marketing)

Blogging gives you a platform to provide content around the main topic of your business. You write blog posts for your readers, and if the content is good, it can bring you free traffic to your sales pages.

You can get traffic from posting your links on social media, email, and if you target keywords, you can receive organic traffic from search engines.

The secret with blogging is not to expect too much too soon. Instead, you need to add content regularly and promote your content using some of the methods in this article.

Over time, your articles will start to gain exposure, and your blog's authority will rise, which will lead to more free traffic.

12. Linkedin (B2B Paradise)

Linkedin has over 700 million users and is a brilliant social media site for b2b marketers. It provides a social platform for you to collaborate with others who have business desires and aspirations.

You can create traffic to your site by:

• Sharing useful content
• Having a great profile
• Building a page for your company
• Joining related Groups
• Creating Groups

If you provide helpful content and ask and answer questions, you will build connections with others who will start to see your posts. You can also put website links into your posts and profile page, and eventually, you’ll begin to see traffic to your website.

13. Youtube (Channel The Traffic)

You can create short videos and put them on Youtube to drive traffic back to your website. The videos can be walkthroughs, informational, how-to's, and tutorials.

You can link back to your site in the description, the video, and the comments.

For best results, create a Youtube channel and upload all your videos to your channel. You can create playlists that can separate the videos into series and build up a following of subscribers.

The better the videos, the more YouTube subscribers you will get. The more subscribers you have, the more potential traffic you can get to your website.

14. Forum Marketing (Yep, still works)

Forum marketing isn't as popular as it once was, mainly because of social media sites taking over, but there's still free traffic to be had from forums if you do it right.

First of all, you need to target forums related to your business. 

For example, if your business is about affiliate marketing, don't register on a weight loss forum.

Find relevant forums. To find an online forum, type the following string into Google:

“Powered by vBulletin” keyword here.”

For example: “Powered by vBulletin” Digital Marketing.”

You then post helpful topics on the forum and also write helpful replies. Over time people will start to see you as an authority and click on the link in your sig file — you may even get direct messages asking you for advice.

15. Word Of Mouth (Dress to Impress)

If you buy a product or service, and you're impressed by the quality, you're probably going to recommend it to somebody one day.

It's what we do.

Word of mouth is not only a free traffic source; it's also one of the easiest traffic methods to convert. The visitor is ready to purchase; they have their credit card in hand.

You can further push this by asking the client/buyer to share your link on their social media pages as soon as they have finished with the product you're selling.

Email them, and ask them to post a short review of your product/service on Facebook. Remember, you have just helped them to achieve something, and they will probably be willing to help you out by sharing a review (that you can write) on their social sites.

16. Free Advertising (Think Outside The Box)

You can post an ad on free sites like ‘Google my Business' and ‘Manta,' but the method I'm going to share with you is something a bit more interesting.

The steps:

It would be best to make sure that the article headlines are outstanding and let them know that this is a ghost-written piece of content so that they can put their name on it.

And remember, the content needs to be excellent.

You will get a few rejections, but one yes, can get you free traffic, and you can write another article the following week to get even more.

17. Write A Book (Screams Authority)

Writing a book is not only great for sales and authority, but it's also great for driving traffic to your website.

You can add links throughout the book and even have a further resources page at the end, which of course, will link back to your website.

People who author books are seen as an authority, so your links and recommendations are typically respected.

The more books you write, the more traffic.

You can write short books and publish them on Amazon; you can even write books and give them away for free on your website as a lead magnet; in fact, I recommend that you do.

18. Influencers (Be A Nice Creep)

If you're clever with your approach, love or hate them, influencers can bring you a stampede of free traffic.

They can share your links with thousands of followers and subscribers. The challenge is getting them to share your links without paying them.

Paying them isn't the worst idea in the world, but this would be paid traffic, and this article concentrates on free traffic.

So, that's not an option — we need to be smarter.

How?

Seriously, these three steps above work. 

You will be ethically stalking them online. Not in a creepy way, but a helpful way.

The aim is to get them to share your links with their huge following.

19. Get Interviewed (Be The Star)

If you can get yourself interviewed by a popular podcast, you can get yourself some free traffic.

These podcasts have thousands of listeners, and if they like what you say, and more importantly, what you have to offer, they will look you up.

The trick is to offer the audience a gift, only available to the listeners on the podcast. They can receive the freebie by visiting the link you provide in the interview and also in the podcast owner's episode notes.

For example, our very own Spencer Haws once got interviewed on the popular EOFire podcast. John Lee Dumas performed the interview and wrote the episode notes, which contained links to this website.

20. Joint Ventures (JV Partners)

The last free traffic source is the JV partner strategy. You partner up with another successful business owner and cross-promote each other's website, products, and services.

This opens up your partner's customer base and traffic.

You can ask the JV partner to email his list recommending your product or service, and you do the same for him.

You can place a banner ad or text link on your website for his products, and he does the same for you.

Granted, you will need an email list for this method, but if you do, it can work well and send you some targeted traffic for free.

What Is The Best Source Of Free Traffic?

The best free traffic source is the one that sends you the most traffic.

However, if I have to name one, organic search traffic as a result of good SEO is the holy grail of free traffic.

You can get thousands of visitors for nothing, but it does take some time for this to happen. 

Is Traffic From Free Sources Better Than Paid Traffic?

All targeted traffic is good traffic. You can get good results with both, but generally, free traffic is slower than paid traffic. 

Paid traffic strategies like Facebook ads or Adwords can get you traffic to your website by tomorrow, whereas most free traffic takes you a bit longer.

You also need to note that while free traffic is great, you will likely be paying for it with your time — so in a way, there's no such thing as free traffic.

My advice is to use both free and paid traffic methods. If you don't have the money for paid traffic, stick to free traffic until you do.

The Best Free Traffic Source

I've just provided you with 20 free traffic sources for you to use. All of them are capable of driving significant amounts of traffic to your website.

You can concentrate on SEO, social media sites, interviews, writing books, or even combine a few of them for more exposure.

However, do you want to know the real secret to getting free traffic?

Thousands of followers, fans, and buyers?

Here it is.

If you master your craft and produce helpful content, services, and products that fix a problem, the free traffic will find you like magic.

People will look you up. 

The search engines will show your pages, influences will share your links, and you’ll be the go-to person in your niche.

It all starts with becoming a master in your field.

Study, learn, and help people like no one else; the results will speak for themselves, and your success will be proof.

Now, go out there and be the best.

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