This article doesn’t list every traffic strategy under the sun.

1. Target topics with search traffic potential

Besides word of mouth, this is our second best marketing channel, sending us hundreds of new users every month.

Without a doubt, search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the best ways to achieve consistent, long-term results. For as long as you rank highly in Google, you’ll be able to generate passive organic traffic to your site.

To do this, you need to write about topics people are searching for. In other words: topics with search traffic potential.

Here are two quick ways to get started.

Find high-volume, low-competition keywords

Enter one (or a few) relevant words, then choose one of the keywords ideas reports to see hundreds or thousands of ideas.

Filter this list by two metrics:

1. Search volume—the overall search demand for this keyword, or how many times this keyword is searched for in Google each month, in a specific country;
2. Keyword Difficulty—the ranking difficulty of a keyword, represented as a numerical value between zero and a hundred.

This gives you a manageable list of low-competition topics with decent search volumes.

For more ideas, play around with the filters until you get a list you’re satisfied with.

Use the Content Explorer ‘hack’

Content Explorer is a searchable database of over a billion web pages.

To find low-hanging content ideas that are easy to rank for, search for a broad topic and apply two filters:

• Referring domains < 5
• Organic traffic filter > 1,000

This will give you a list of relevant pages that get lots of organic traffic while having few or no backlinks.

Scroll through these pages and look for topics with business value that make sense to cover.

For example, if we were Beardbrand, we could easily create content about “grey beard styles” and “how to shape and maintain a square beard”.

Guest blogging is a tactic where you write for other blogs. In return, the editor/site owner will usually allow you to link back to your site.

The benefits include:

• More referral traffic;
• More backlinks (which correlate with rankings);
• Increased brand awareness

The biggest challenge with guest blogging is finding blogs that are willing to accept your guest posts.

To circumvent this issue, most SEOs use Google search operators to find sites with “write for us” or “become a contributor” pages.

The problem? This is tedious and time-consuming. Plus, if everyone follows the same process, then everyone finds the same opportunities. As a result, editors of these sites often receive more pitches than they can handle and so ignore many of them.

How can you solve this problem? Don’t limit yourself to only sites with a “write for us” page. Most sites are willing to accept guest posts, even if they don’t advertise for it.

After all, who doesn’t want free content?!

If you can find websites that have written about a particular topic before, then chances are they’ll be interested in a guest post about a similar topic.

The easiest way to do this is with Content Explorer.

Enter any word or phrase and then toggle the “one article per domain” switch to make sure you don’t contact the same sites twice.

Relevant online communities are places where your target audience hangs out on the Web.

You can find these communities everywhere:

• Facebook groups;
• Reddit;
• Slack;
• Forums.

Recently, we launched Content Explorer 2.0, which is rebuilt from scratch and has tons of new features.

Judging by the comments, it was pretty well-received.

Sounds easy right?

It is. Just don’t seek out a few Facebook groups and start spamming the heck out of them. There is no quicker and better way to get booted and banned.

What’s missing in this example is the effort required to be active in the group, build trust in the community and cultivate your relationship with the group admin.

Do this, and they’ll be more inclined to say yes on the rare occasion you ask permission to self-promote.

Quora is a Q&A site where anyone can ask questions or answer them.

That means you can respond to existing questions in your niche, establish your authority, and generate some traffic for your website along the way.

Finding the right questions

Searching for good questions is essential. That’s because Quora is a user-generated site, which means that thousands (if not millions) of people ask questions each day.

Answering questions well

There is no secret to writing good answers on Quora.

Good answers = good copywriting.

If you want somebody to read your answer, be glued to its story and then click upvote or share, you have to craft compelling copy.

Fortunately, there are copywriting formulas that make this easier, one of which is the AIDA formula.

Attention: Capture their attention with something catchy or relevant.
Interest: Tell them interesting facts, uses, examples, or stories.
Desire: Make them desire the product/service/etc.
Action: Get them to take action.

Some other tips for a good Quora answer:

• Provide value. Quora moderators will not hesitate to remove your response (or ban you) if they think you’re only there to siphon traffic to your site. They’re happy for you to link elsewhere, as long as you genuinely provide value.
• Include images. Images help capture attention as a user is scrolling through their Quora feed.
• Tell a story. Most Quora answers are dull and very matter-of-fact. Telling stories helps to engage the reader.