If you ask a marketer or an entrepreneur what they want most in the world, they'll probably say more customers. What usually follows that? More visitors to their website. 61% of marketers say generating traffic and leads is their most difficult challenge.
There are numerous ways to boost traffic to your website, and in today's post, I'll share 39 of them, almost every one of which is free.
How to Use Content to Increase Traffic to Your Website
Warning: you cannot increase traffic to the website without content. So, if you want to skip this section, go ahead! In 10 seconds, I'll see if you skip back up because you realised you can't do any of the other strategies without good, quality content.
Create a business blog
First and foremost, your company requires a blog where you can publish useful, long-form content consistently. This is unavoidable.
Businesses that blog receive 97% more links to their online sites.
Businesses that blog receive 55% more internet users than those that do not.
Bloggers are nearly 13 times more likely to promote good ROI.
The more value you provide on your website, the more likely people will visit it. And without a blog, most of the other methods in this piece will be difficult to implement (or any post on this topic, for that matter).
Create captivating headlines.
One of the most crucial aspects of your material is the headline. Studies have shown that excellent blog headlines may increase traffic by 500%. Even the most thorough blog article will go unread if it has an engaging headline. Learn the art of headline writing so that people will select your content from the SERP.
Invite people to contribute to your blog as guest bloggers.
Guest authors can not only broaden your themes and viewpoints, but they will also want to share the piece with their network and link to it on their site, thus bringing new readers to yours. Just make sure you only provide high-quality, unique material that is free of spammy links (lest you get a Google penalty and lose traffic). A set of standard guest posting standards can assist with this and keep your work on the brand.
Make stunning visuals
To depict thoughts, show data, and reproduce charts in your branding, use design tools like Canva. When other websites utilise your photographs, they will include a link to your site. Furthermore, Google is displaying more photos in normal Search results, providing you additional chances to rank and boost your popularity.
Include video.
Text-based material is fine, but the video may entice more visitors and keep them interested. Here are some ideas for using video to increase website traffic:
Include videos in your blog entries so that they may be found in video search results.
To rank higher on YouTube, perform YouTube SEO, and then include connections to your website in the video description.
Include a call to action button in your video that drive viewers to your website.
Establish a resource centre.
Videos and blog articles aren't the only sorts of content you should be producing to educate and establish trust with your audience. Don't overlook infographics, downloadable manuals, templates, seminars, and other resources. As you develop and utilise these lead magnets on the web, save them to a resources page. A multimedia content library will undoubtedly attract users who will return to your site time and again.
How to Use SEO to Increase Website Traffic
So all of the aforementioned techniques have one flaw. They won't bring traffic to your site if no one can locate them. With Google's top page collecting 71% of search traffic hits, you need an SEO plan.
SEO is the activity of improving a website for search engines (thus the term "search engine optimisation") for it to appear higher in search results for relevant searches. An SEO plan is a completely different beast. An SEO plan is a completely different beast, but here are the SEO fundamentals.
Keywords to consider...
Keywords are the words and phrases that people put into search engines, and as you can expect, certain keywords are searched more frequently than others. Using keyword research tools, you may notice that the term "how to boost website engagement" only receives approximately 10 searches per month, but the keyword "how to increase website traffic" receives 300 searches.
...long-tailed keywords
So, the larger the search volume, the bigger the prospective traffic, right? Not so quickly. Many extremely popular keywords are also quite wide and difficult to rank for (for example, "website" has a volume of 143,000).
Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are easier to rank for and will deliver you the most relevant traffic.
Put your keywords in strategic places.
This is the meat and potatoes of on-page SEO—optimising your content so that search engines can comprehend it and rank it in relevant searches. Make sure to include your target keyword in the following places:
Title tag (meta title)
H1 heading
At least two H2 headings
Naturally in the body
The first 100 words
Image file names and alt text
Meta description
Improve your SERP visibility.
Simply putting the term in your meta description and meta title is insufficient. You must optimise these critical bits of information to increase their appeal on the SERP and promote more organic clicks.
Description: Keep this between 155-165 characters long, identify the value the reader will gain from the content, and make it actionable.
Title: Make the meta title 60 characters or fewer in length, with the keyword towards the beginning, and suggest some form of value or advantage.
Internal link
When producing and posting material, provide at least 1-3 connections to other pages on your site. This not only increases traffic to those pages, but it also (a) keeps visitors on your site longer, (b) encourages them to see more pages on your site, and (c) helps them to get more value out of your site—all of which boost your ranking and bring more traffic to your website.
Increase the speed of your website.
Have you ever waited thirty seconds for a webpage to load? Neither do I. If your site takes an eternity to load, your bounce rate will be quite high. With the page experience improvement, speed has become even more of a ranking consideration. Make sure your pages are as practically optimised as feasible, including picture file sizes, page layout, and third-party plugin functioning. The more quickly your site loads, the better.
Google's PageSpeed Insights tool will offer you a score for your site's speed as well as recommendations for improving your Core Web Vitals and other factors. Use it!
Make your website mobile-friendly.
Today, mobile traffic outnumbers desktop traffic, so forcing users to squeeze and scroll their way across your site is essentially encouraging them to go elsewhere. Even if you have a simple website, you must guarantee that it is available and comfortable to browse on a variety of devices, including tiny smartphones.
Make use of Schema markup.
Implementing Schema markup (or another microdata form) on your website will not necessarily increase traffic, but it will make it easier for search engine bots to identify and index your content. Another advantage of utilising schema for SEO is that it can lead to better rich site snippets, which can increase click-through rates.
Refresh your material regularly.
Even the most evergreen material fades with time, and content freshness is a ranking factor. Even if your post is still on Google's first page, you'd be amazed at what a content update may achieve. A fresh SERP post date can considerably enhance CTR and move you up a few spots, perhaps leading to a higher ranking.
But you can't just modify a few words and then update your post's publication date. Google is smarter than that. Here are some tips from my piece on increasing traffic from evergreen content:
Update and/or add fresh data and statistics.
To demonstrate concepts, replace old graphics and/or build new ones.
Update existing connections to more recent materials.
Repair any broken links or photos.
In Search Console, add new keywords from the query report (more on that later).
Change your meta title and description.
Obtain backlinks
The number and type of links to your website are two of the most important Google ranking variables. The more connections you have from reliable sites with high Domain Authority, the higher your own Domain Authority will rise. The greater your DA, the better your rank, and the more traffic you receive—not to mention any traffic you receive from the connection itself.
There are various effective link-building tactics, however here are a few examples:
Contact trustworthy websites and offer to write a blog entry with a link to your site in the body or your author profile.
Find broken links on other websites with an SEO tool and offer yours as a substitute.
Make unique, high-quality material that demands to be linked to.
How to Use Social Media to Increase Website Traffic
One of the advantages of social media marketing is the increased traffic to your website. Here are a few ideas for converting these large platforms into traffic generators for your website.
Share your content on social media.
It is not enough to create excellent content and hope that people discover it. Promote your material on your target audience's most popular social media networks. Twitter is great for quick, snappy (and enticing) connections, but Google Business postings can help your site appear in local search results. If you're a B2C goods firm, image-heavy social networks like Pinterest and Instagram might help you get a lot of attention.
Not only will this increase traffic to your site, but the more eyeballs on your material you get, the more likely you are to earn the backlinks we just discussed.
Include hashtags.
Include relevant hashtags when posting your information on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and other hashtag-friendly sites to increase the reach of your contributions. However, keep the hashtags extremely specific to the topic of the article in order to be discovered by individuals who are most likely to read, share, and/or link to your material. Everything you need to know about Instagram hashtags may be found in this guide.
Target amplification
Who Will Amplify This? by Rand Fishkin is an outstanding book. And why is this so? He makes a fantastic point in his piece about providing material for future amplifiers, not simply potential buyers. Amplifiers of this type include:
Trade journals, news sites, major brand blogs, and social influencers are examples of industry periodicals.
External sources of influence include mainstream media journalists and social influencers outside of your area.
Customer evangelists are people in your field who utilize and recommend you.
Potential evangelists include clients with large networks and followings, as well as widely-read media.
Post original LinkedIn content.
LinkedIn, the world's largest professional social network, is a significant publishing platform in and of itself, therefore you should be contributing material there regularly. This may enhance traffic to your website, bring more visits to your LinkedIn Company Page, and improve your reputation in your sector. And you don't have to reinvent the wheel—write a reflection article on a current topic or recycle previously produced content.
Interview thought leaders in the business
Think interviews are reserved for the big leaguers? Think again. You'd be surprised how many folks are willing to chat with you if you just ask. Send out letters asking for interviews with industry thought leaders, and then post the interviews on your site. Not only will the name recognition raise your reputation and visitors to your website, but the interviewee will most likely share the information as well, broadening its reach even more.
Include social sharing buttons.
This is a simple way to increase website visitors. Social share buttons enable users to quickly share the page they're reading with their social networks. Another alternative is the click-to-Tweet tool, which allows users to post a prewritten Tweet with a single click. Check to see if any of these plugins are accessible for your site and give them a go.
Investigate the competition.
You're at a disadvantage if you haven't employed tools like BuzzSumo to see what your competitors are up to. These platforms aggregate the social performance of certain sites and content to provide you a quick snapshot of which issues are connecting with readers and, more significantly, making the rounds on social media. Learn what people are reading (and talking about) and use that material to drive traffic to your website.
Post at the appropriate time
If you want to dig into the weeds, you may look at your social media statistics to see what times of day and week garner the greatest engagement from your audience and then share your blog post links at those times. Begin with the general average best timings and work your way through the data to refine from there.
How to Use Listings to Drive Traffic to Your Website
Business directories are a promising source of internet traffic, but simply listing your website isn't enough. It is critical to improving your listings so that they rank on their respective platforms and are visible to local searches.
The most crucial is your Google Business Profile because a well-optimized profile will help you rank higher on Google Maps and Google Search. Facebook is also significant since it is the second-largest directory. Discover well-known sites like Yelp, Angie's List, and others. To improve your listings, do the following:
Fill out every available section.
Include your company's category.
Maintain as much consistency as possible across postings.
Gather feedback and reply to it.
Include images.
Keep your information up to date
More strategies for increasing website visitors
Organise webinars
People enjoy learning, and webinars are a wonderful method to share your knowledge with an interested audience. Webinars, when combined with an efficient social advertising effort, are an excellent method to drive visitors to your website. Send out an email around a week before the webinar, as well as a "last opportunity to register" reminder the day before. Make a point of saving the presentation for subsequent viewing and widely publicising your webinars on social media. If you're wondering how to host a webinar, follow this link for some pointers.
Create an online community.
People want to express themselves and weigh in on issues that they care about, so creating a community on your site is a wonderful approach to start a dialogue and drive traffic. Implement a strong commenting system, such as Facebook comments or Disqus, or develop a separate forum where visitors may ask questions. However, remember to supervise your community to ensure that minimum standards of civility are met.
Participate in online forums.
On the other hand, you may share your expertise by participating in forums and social media groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Reddit. Include links only if they are authorised and suitable, and if you do, don't post solely links or include links in every post. Also, ensure that the link points to a specific blog article on a related topic. The main purpose here is not to increase visitors to your website. Its purpose is to add value and raise brand recognition. Interested people will look for your site on their own or visit your profile to locate it.
Attend conventions
Whatever field you work in, there are likely to be at least one or two significant conventions and conferences that are important to your company. It's a good idea to attend these events; speaking at them is even better. Even a mediocre speaking engagement is a wonderful opportunity to position oneself as an industry thought leader and earn considerable exposure for your website.
Submit your material to content aggregator websites.
If you have a blog, it most certainly includes an RSS feed that aggregator sites may use to present the most recent information on a specific topic. People use these sites to follow their favourite blogs, news sites, and other websites, and they frequently opt-in to get emails with these connections. The majority of aggregators will discover your feed on their own, however, there are some sponsored aggregators to consider. Hubspot has compiled a list of content aggregators to get you started.
Create an email newsletter.
A newsletter does not have to be difficult to create. We have a weekly email called the Performance Tip at WordStream that features a blog post from the previous week. It's ideal for folks who use their email as a reading list, and it's also excellent for postings on topics that your audience may not know how to search for. For example, this piece about emotive copywriting receives roughly 1,000 organic search visitors every month. However, it was a huge success with our email list, producing over 4,000 sessions in only a few days. Just be cautious not to overwhelm your subscribers with too many emails, or even too many links in a single email.
Contact email newsletters
There are newsletters for every topic imaginable, and many of them accept proposals and contributions. Conduct some research to locate those in your niche who are seeking outstanding material, and then provide it. If you are featured, you will not only see an increase in traffic, but you may also discover more regular readers who return to your site regularly (or sign up for your newsletter!).
Make a free tool
What could be better than free and valuable content? Tools that are both free and useful. Assessments, quizzes, calculators, and other tools are available. If you optimise your landing page with long-form content, your tool may rank naturally. Make it something your visitors will want to use again and again, and you'll notice a surge in traffic.
Advertise
Okay, so it's not free, but if you play your cards correctly, your investment will quickly pay for itself.
SEO is great (really wonderful), but it takes a few months of constant blogging to generate traffic and links, and gain Google's favor. In the interim, you might want to think about running a sponsored advertising campaign. Search, display, and social advertisements are all great methods to drive highly targeted visitors to your site on a large scale. Each paid media platform has advantages and disadvantages, so consider your goals carefully before reaching for your credit card.
Google advertisements are a fantastic place to start. If you want increased visitors to your site to lead to more purchases, you'll need to include strong commercial intent keywords in your paid search strategy. Yes, competition for these search phrases may be strong (and costly), but the rewards can be worthwhile. Indeed, PPC is believed to return $2 for every $1 invested, and Google believes it's closer to $8.
Tools for increasing visitors to your website
Apart from the all-in-one SEO tools on our list, all of these are...wait for it...FREE!
Google Analytics may be used to track SEO data.
Google Analytics is a goldmine of information on almost every element of your website, from your most popular pages to visitor demographics. Keep an eye on your SEO KPIs and utilize this data to influence your marketing and content strategy. Discover what themes are most popular among your site visitors, their demographic profile, the channels they're coming from, and more—then harness and scale up what's working.
View your Google Search Console enquiries
Google Search Console is extremely helpful in determining the queries that are causing visitors to locate and click on your site in search results. This may help you ensure that your pages are ranking for the keywords you want to target, locate new keywords to add to an existing page and find new keywords to target entirely. In GSC, you can also see the organic click-through rate and address indexing difficulties.
Using SEO tools, examine the SERP.
Keyword research, backlink analysis, SERP analysis, identifying content gaps and ranking chances, auditing your site, and more are all possible using all-in-one SEO tools like Semrush and Ahrefs. You may also use them to study pages on the websites of your rivals.
Use website graders to audit your site.
These tools, like all-in-one SEO tools, will audit your website to uncover possibilities to increase your ranking and traffic. The reports are simple to understand and provide insights and concrete advice on how to enhance your score. Some examine additional features of your site, including accessibility and content readability.
DigitalxMarketing can assist you in boosting your digital footprint by establishing a website, SEO, Paid Advertising, and Email Marketing. You may be certain that your company is in the hands of people with extensive experience running profitable businesses.
DigitalxMarketing can help you grow your business.