Susan Brown asks: “What’s the best way to get your website discovered by a lot of people in your niche besides forums, social media, and guest blogging?”

I smiled when I read Susan’s question above. It made me wonder why she chose to exclude those specific methods for free targeted web traffic. My guess, and I could be totally off base, is that Susan doesn’t enjoy the social aspect of marketing for one reason or the other. Or perhaps she doesn’t enjoy creating content.

Maybe you can relate to one or both of those issues yourself…

Two Requirements For Free Targeted Web Traffic in 2012

There are two things that are pretty much required to succeed at online business right now: content and social media. This is different than a few years ago, where SEO (Search Engine Optimization) would have been been my #1 answer.

Quality, unique content is particularly important since the Google Panda Update.

It also plays a huge role in your pages getting liked/shared across social media channels. Which brings us to why social media is so important right now…

Search is changing. It’s moving more toward “social proof” instead of “link proof”. So right now, and going forward, your “Social Media Rank” will be even more important than PageRank ever was.

Every Facebook share, Tweet & Retweet, Plus One, etc will play a role in how well your pages rank in the major search engines. And even more important – your Click Through Rate in the search results.

This means you need strong social media channels with frequent content & high levels of engagement with your market. If you’re not already on top of this, see the page I linked to for specific instructions.

Without these two marketing strategies, awesome content & social media engagement, you’ll be missing out on TONS of free traffic to your website. And that’s just plain silly!

Six Ways To Get FREE Targeted Web Traffic – Easily!

With that said, variety is the key to a great marketing strategy. The more sources you have for your site traffic, the better. Here’s a quick list of the bases you should be covering in your marketing plan:

• SEO / Search Engines
• Social Media
• Link Building
• Email Marketing
• Guest Blogging
• Leverage Market Leaders

SEO is first on the list for a reason. Everything you do should revolve around a Keyword Strategy so you can easily reach your market at the exact moment they are searching for what you offer. This involves researching keywords, and proper web page optimization for ALL of your content. Once you get the hang of it, it will be like second nature every time you write an article or blog post.

Social Media is a two-for-one. It’s like Link Building in that it helps with your search engine rankings, but you’ll also reach your market directly in the process. See How to Use Social Media, and also add Pinterest to your list.

Make sure you have social media buttons on every page of your blog/website so that your readers can easily share, like, stumble or vote-up your content FOR you.

Link Building is NOT dead, and you should still be searching out quality inbound links to your pages to help them rank higher in the major search engines.

See: Does Link Building Frustrate You? for a new perspective on this mundane task. Also see One Way Link Building and Quality Inbound Links.

Email Marketing and List Building are two things that should be HIGH priority in your marketing strategy. If you’re not building a mailing list, today is the day to start. If you have a mailing list, but you’re not emailing them consistently – again, today is the day to start communicating with your readers! See: Do You Ignore Email Marketing?

I highly recommend List Building For Bloggers by Phil Hollows. We have an exclusive coupon code for this guide. Download it for only $14.95 using the code “clicknewz”. This is one of my personal favorites and we’ll be working through this guide together in March, so grab your copy and stay tuned!

Guest Blogging is an awesome way to get the BEST possible quality inbound links (and a *free* permanent link at that!), and also get in front of an established readership. Often when you guest blog, you not only get in front of that blogger’s readers, your post will also be shared to their email list & social media channels.

See: How to Increase Blog Traffic – Fast! for proof, and to learn about my favorite resource on the topic. Also see: Blog Interviews & Guest Blogging for tips, examples – and a funny video.

Leverage Market Leaders: What does this mean exactly? It means you should find the top podcasts, magazines, blogs, forums, radio shows, etc in your market. Find out what content your market is consuming, and where, and leverage that to your benefit. Brainstorm ways to get in front of your market where they are, which is much easier than trying to get them to come where YOU are.

Comment on their blogs, join their forums, guest blog for them, submit content, interview them, review their products, submit testimonials, advertise with them, etc. Get creative and figure out ways to get in front of their established audience!

I hope this answers Susan’s question, and also gives you some fresh ideas for getting free targeted web traffic to your own blog or website.

Best,

p.s. Notice how I just created a 900+ word blog post from a single question on Facebook? That’s a little bonus tip for you. There’s no end to the sources for great content ideas! But if you find yourself struggling to come up with topics for fresh, unique content… see: Fast Content Ideas for Easy Writing!