Every website owner wants to drive as much free traffic to their website as possible.  There are plenty of ways to do this, whilst avoiding expensive advertising costs.  But be prepared – it does require consistency and time to be effective!

Here’s 16 tips to get you started.

1. Optimise your website for your target keywords to make sure you naturally appear in search engine results. Use your target keywords in the page title and page content on your website.  Choose your keywords carefully, make sure your content reads well and avoid keyword stuffing.
2. Frequently update the contents of your site to improve your rankings with the search engines.
3. Write and publish articles on article sites such as Ezine and Article Base and include a link to your website in the footer, to generate additional exposure , backlinks and traffic.
4. Submit your website to as many high quality online directories as possible.  Some will require reciprocal links whilst others will be happy to simply add your website.  Avoid link farming where possible, this could have a negative effect on your ranking.
5. Claim your local listing on search engines’.  Start with Google making sure that you include all the relevant information (description, opening hours, website, photos etc).
6. Create a link building strategy – approach companies that are relevant to you and ask them to exchange links with you.
7. Always use your important keywords within the anchor text of your links – wherever you are placing them.
8. Social Bookmarking sites can drive huge amounts of referral traffic to your website.  In particular Tumblr and StumebleUpon have been doing really well in recent months.
9. Set up a Facebook Page for your business. Create interesting updates with content that your audience will value.
10. Create a personal LinkedIn profile for your own professional network as well as a company page.  Use groups and answers to contribute to discussions and post content.  All of this will raise awareness of your and your company.
11. Include links to all of your social network pages and profiles wherever you can, to inform and remind your audience that they exist.
12. For any content that you post online, make sure readers can easily share it across all social networks.
13. Set up a company twitter account and start following and networking with other relevant accounts.  Let your personality shine through and don’t bombard your followers with self promotion.  Instead share things of interest with them and occasionally promote your products and services.
14. Start a company blog and look to post at least once a week.  Blogging sites are ranked highly by the search engines and create an additional channel through which you can be found.
15. Look for opportunities to write guest posts on other blogs, making sure they are relevant to your business and your content will add value to their readers’ experience.
16. Participate in forums that are relevant to you and/or your business. Include links to the relevant sites in your signatures so that they are displayed in your posts. This will increase backlinks and exposure for your website.

All of these methods will drive traffic to your website, but they will require time and dedication.  You will need to prioritise in the first instance, which are the most relevant for your firm and target audience and try to allocate some time each day or week to work on them.

By starting with small weekly targets or goals (i.e. list yourself on 5 online directories per week; post 3 updates to your Facebook page each week; write two blog posts each week) you are more likely to maintain momentum and develop your marketing activity rather than becoming overwhelmed and giving up.

Of course, if you’re in a hurry and want to implement all of the above immediately, but don’t have the time or resource available, you could always ask a 3rd party to help.