Best Ways to Get FREE Shopify Traffic in 2023

Want more Free Traffic to your Shopify store? Here are my favorite three traffic sources for Shopify stores plus how to implement them on your store today.

Paid advertising can be great for a spike in traffic, however driving free traffic to your Shopify store is super important to keep your marketing costs lower and build more traffic sources for your store.

#1 Search Engine Optimization

So, let's talk about some ways that you can actually send some free traffic to your Shopify store because you don't wanna just be relying on a paid ads because that gets expensive. The first way that I absolutely love doing for my sites and for my client stores is actually really focusing in on SEO.

So, SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it's how you can get listed in the search engines like Google on page one. Whenever someone is searching for your specific product or your brand.

It's really helpful to get your site listed in the search engines because this can send a lot of people that are already actually your ideal customer, that are looking for your product already through keywords that they're searching for online.

I have a whole other video that goes step by step through how to set up SEO for your Shopify store. So if you're interested in that, check out the Mastering SEO for Shopify video here.

You really want to think about who your ideal customer is and what they're gonna be searching for when they're looking for your product online. Then create some content on your site that's going to be helpful and relevant to what they're searching for.

You can obviously optimize your product pages, your collection pages, your website overall for those search engine keywords that you know they're looking for.

SEO TIPS:

• WHO IS YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER?
• WHAT ARE THEY SEARCHING FOR ONLINE?
• CREATE RELEVANT SITE CONTENT

However, I found it can be really helpful to actually lean into blogging and creating content on your site that is going to be relevant to the keywords that they're looking for. So for example, I actually sell children's books that I wrote and designed, so I have on my site blog posts that are all still relevant to that ideal customer.

So talking about how to read to your children, how to get other family members involved in reading to your children, picking the best library books or books to read for a certain time of year. Anything like that which is going to be relevant to what they're searching for can be a helpful way to bring them to your site.

Of course, you can always link to your product pages in that Blog content article as well! By blogging on your Shopify store you're adding more keywords that you can get listed for in the search engines and again, still creating that relevant content for your customer.

Also, for SEO, I really recommend that you get your products showing up in the Google shopping feed. And to do this, you only need a Google Merchant account. I've got a recent video that shows you step-by-step how to set this up. If you are interested you can watch the Google Shopping Setup for Shopify 2023 video here.

But having your products listed in the Google Shopping feed can be really great if people are searching for your individual products specifically and showcasing you. I mean, they will show your competitors as well, but you'll have your product showing up in the individual shopping feed of Google, and again, more on that soon.

#2 YouTube Videos

Okay, next. My absolute favorite source of free traffic is YouTube. I know social media overall is great, however you put out content and then it kind of quickly disappears within a few days or even a few hours depending on the platform. YouTube though is forever.

You can create one piece of content and not only can that content then be ranked in Google, but it can also be just relevant for years to come. People can find it on either Google or the YouTube platform and still be actually driving that free traffic to your site.

You can then actually create YouTube videos about whatever Blog posts you have that you've already written for SEO for your site, and then embed the YouTube video into the Blog post as well.

YOUTUBE BENEFITS:

• CONTENT STAYS FOREVER
• SHOWN IN GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS
• EMBED IN SITE BLOG POSTS

I recently did a video of 2023 trends that I see for Shopify stores, and my biggest trend was that I'm seeing a lot of connection and building loyalty and transparency with your ideal customer. And a great way to do that is through video content where you can share more of your personality or behind the scenes of your store.

You can show packing videos or the process of actually creating a new product. Any kind of content you can create that's going to be interesting for your ideal customer, and also just make you feel more real and human than the big box chains.

VIDEO IDEAS:

• BEHIND THE SCENES
• PACKAGING ORDERS
• CREATING NEW PRODUCTS

This is a great way that you can just show a little bit more of that transparency and build the connection because you are a small business. People love supporting other small businesses and getting a look behind the scenes at who the owner is and what a day in the life or what their process looks like.

A great example that I've seen of a YouTube channel that I just think is doing a really great job is Cotswold and Co.

It's a mother and daughter team and they share behind the scenes of a day in their life actually fulfilling orders, making the products, ordering supplies and samples, and just getting their studio ready. But you get to actually kind of jump into their day and see their whole entire process.

Plus, you may actually see your own order being fulfilled! I think it's so interesting and you get more of that connection again to them to where you want to help them out.

They're also sampling and showcasing new upcoming products, so you're excited and they're building that hype as well. I highly recommend checking out what they're doing and thinking about ways that you can add in more of that connection and transparency and creating videos for your store as well. So that you can start building up that community and audience for your brand.

Oh, and by the way, you can also monetize your YouTube channel at a certain point, which can be a great additional income stream for you as well. So highly recommend YouTube, definitely something to check out for 2023.

#3 Press/Local News

My last free traffic source that I recommend is Press. What kind of Blogs is your ideal customer reading online? Where are they hanging out? Can you reach out to these Blogs and actually get your products featured in that? Or maybe you have a local community News network or local bloggers that you can reach out to to feature your products.

I find so many times for other businesses that focus on content like News channels or other bloggers, they're always looking for more content. And if you have a unique spin you can share more of your story or more about your product, why you've created the product, or just showcasing your journey of leaving the corporate world and now creating this product because you saw the need.

Any kind of these stories always do well in the Press and they're looking for that content, so why not be that content for them? Plus, it can be great because not only does it bring awareness to your brand and send traffic to your site, but they're also linking to your site, which can build up that SEO link juice that we kind of mentioned in tip number one.

WHAT IT HELPS WITH:

• AWARENESS
• SITE TRAFFIC
• LINKING TO BOOST SEO

So think about where your ideal customer is hanging out online and think about how you can reach out to those different outlets with maybe a unique kind of spin to your story. That can be something that's interesting for them to write content for and it would be interesting for their audience to read. They can also highlight your products or your process overall.