Website marketing like pay-per-click campaigns can be pretty expensive to compete, I know. It’s a great way to get traffic, but most of the time it doesn’t really fit the budget. But, one does not need a big budget to drive traffic to your site. There are a lot of free things a client can do to increase traffic and get the right people to your site.

Here are a 5 FREE things you can do market your website:

1. Use Google Analytics – If you really want to understand why your site is not getting traffic or “the calls” aren’t coming in once your new web site was designed, developed and launched, then this is the place to start. Google Analytics is free and easy to set up. This tool can tell you just about anything you can imagine about your website. (Note: at least it can once it’s been set up long enough to gather data.) It can tell you you who went where, from where, for how long, and so much more it’s utter insanity.  And with this info you can make educated and solid decisions with what to do with your design, content and architecture. If you want to learn more about web analytics in general read this article. Once you have a tool to track and interpret data, you still have to do something.
2. Take Advantage of Social Networking – You have to get your name out and nothing is better then word of mouth marketing. There seems to be a blog out there for just about anything you can imagine. For every unique and not so unique thing out there to blog about, there is probably a community of people that feel the same way about their unique little thing. So what is your website or company’s Unique Selling Point? Find a few communities that share that same interest and contribute. Share stories, plug yourself, comment on peoples posts, just do something. Sites like blogger.com, WordPress, Facebook, Share This, Digg, MySpace are a great way to get your name out there and even a link back to your website for FREE. Why would having a link to your website do any good? That brings me to my next point.
3. Get Greedy with Backlinks – Backlinks are just that, a link back to your website from another site. Check your site’s here. The number and quality of backlinks a page/site gets will affect its search rankings. Contact other people in your similar community and trade links on each others website. Pick up the phone or send an email to any relevant site out there that has a links or resources page and see if they would participate in a trade. You’ll put their link on your site and vice/versa. The barter system rocks. What’s good for you is good for them in this case.
4. Remember Content is King – Nothing is more powerful then a site with quality content. It gives you better organic search results and it gives you credibility as a company or individual. SEO copywriters have the challenge to write not only search engine friendly content, but also creative content that would make people want to link back, check back and/or buy your product. Your web design should be driven completely by your content. Come up with a plan, spend time on your website’s copy and create a cohesive web design so you can publish useful, informative information. If you can get it to fit in the budget, hire an SEO copywriter or learn more about how to use rich search engine friendly keywords in your copy. Read more about keyword research here.
5. Learn More and Continue to Educate Yourself - Big Oak has a  blog that has some great SEO tips. If you read this post, your heading in the right direction. You go.