Small Business Marketing - How to Pull in Organic Traffic Without SEO

Small Business Marketing - How to Pull in Organic Traffic Without SEO

I talk to a lot of small businesses each month, and a common question is "How can I generate more traffic to my website without spending a lot of money on SEO and Advertising?" and the answer is pretty simple.  All they need to do is work on their social presence, strategically use hashtags, get referrals, and automate everything they possibly can to improve their website and conversions.  Now, to you and me that may seem like pretty basic stuff since we've been in the online marketing realm, but if you don't know how to do that then don't worry, it's not that complicated there's just a lot of jargon in there lol.

A lot of the easier tricks to pull in organic traffic without using SEO have to do with social media.  Yes, you can get organic traffic through social media platforms, it's not just a search engine thing lol.  Below are a few things to think about if you have a small business client or you are the small business looking to boost your organic visitors.


Know Your Social Media Platforms
Not every social media platform is considered equal because of the demographics that gravitate towards specific ones.  Facebook is considered the old persons' platform, whereas Snapchat and Instagram are more of a younger audience.  Platforms like Twitter and Pinterest are a good middle ground depending on who you're targeting.

Are you targeting older people?  Work more on Facebook.
Targeting the younger generations?  Post more on SnapChat and Instagram
Targeting the middle ground?  Get familiar with Twitter and Pinterest

Not sure who you're targeting?  You have a bigger problem than generating traffic lol.


Use Hashtags Strategically
If you're not already using hashtags, you should start immediately, and this is because hashtags help you show up for searches done within the platform itself.  I've run plenty of tests using hashtags on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. and noticed many more views on my posts that use the hashtags compared to the posts that didn't have a single one.

You can't use basic hashtags like #blessed #love #god and #squad if you want to target local people.  You need to think of the town you're in, events happening near you, and even the names of schools in the area then use those as the hashtags, so you are sure to show up when people search them.  There have been plenty of companies out there that get a huge local social following by using strategic hashtags like this and you can too.

Suggest Visitors Refer Others
Offer some incentive for referrals, and you will notice a slight spike in traffic.  The only problem with this is that people might share on Facebook, where they have thousands of friends, and those friends might not live anywhere near your business.  The benefit of this is that you don't pay for the traffic referrals are bringing in, so it doesn't matter if your visitors are 1,000+ miles away, and that's why I like doing incentivized referrals

Your incentives can be something like "Get 10% off your next order by sharing our website on Facebook!" and have there be a clause saying they have to purchase in-store to get the 10% off.  This will encourage regular shoppers and buyers to come in, share, and get a discount because they love your stuff.


Final Thoughts
Generating a lot of local traffic isn't the easiest thing to do, especially if you don't have a budget for advertising, but it's not impossible if you're strategic about it.  Know where to target people, use your hashtags properly, and use incentives to get referrals.  If you can do those basic tasks, then you will notice a traffic increase from month to month and your sales will likely increase without you paying a penny for advertising!


Thanks for reading


- Tommy
https://www.seoclerks.com/user/TommyCarey