Ways you can generate free traffic

Awarded at Toronto "Ultra Advanced SEO Symposium" Nov. 2005.

Suppose you are an online bank. Your target market is Online Banking - or Internet Banking. Say for instance that you get some backing from a really large existing bank with a big powerful brand name that is well established.

How do you generate free traffic to your website? Big bill boards and TV advertising are anything but free. Radio and print adverts are not free. Hence people visiting your website as a result of this advertising is also not free.

Online, if someone goes to a search engine, and having never seen a TV advert or a bill board or heard about you on the radio, types in "internet banking" into say, Ananzi, and finds you as a result of your site being well positioned for this search phrase - now that's free traffic.

All you have to do is find out what people are really searching for and rank well for these phrases and you can generate free traffic to your website without spending a cent on advertising.

AND you don't have to have a brand to do it. People who type in brand names tend to already be customers of that brand. But people typing in "Internet Banking" are not yet brand loyal or brand aware. So they are your potential customers! It is your ideal opportunity to grab them before your opposition does...

There is an important corollary here. People who recall seeing your advert - and branding buffs love the word 'recall' - might recall your brand if you are strong enough. This might be sufficient for them to remember your website location. It also might not. Was it www.pickandpay.co.za? or www.picknpay.com? .net? .org?

In fact when it comes does to it, how do you spell pikanpay anyway?

Search engines are used to drive over 80% of all traffic to all websites. And this figure is rising. What it means is this: Even if you are HP and people know you are HP.com, search engines drive 80% of traffic to HP.com in any event.

In other words Search Engines are becoming, or have already become, a crutch for many people. Obscure sites are often found using search - because the searcher knows the search phrase and that result number 4 is the site that they use regularly!

By way of example, my wife has an interest in astronomy. She likes going to the local society to listen to their talks. But she cannot remember the website address of her society. So she types into Google a specific search phrase that she knows will list the site in position number 4 (out of about 28 possible results). Forget about bookmarks. Or Browser Histories. She doesn't use them. And if Google ever decides to boot the site out of the top 28 results the chances of her finding the site again are slim.