How often do you get frustrated because you spend hours creating great types of content only to see very little referral traffic? The unfortunate reality is that no matter how much time you put into SEO or social media marketing campaigns, you’ll never reach the success you want unless you invest time to drive traffic to your website.
SEO can be daunting. There are tons of strategies to choose from, and many of them contradict each other. Some methods may even hurt your rankings. But don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. Below, you’ll find 35 proven tactics to boost your traffic.
Here Are Tactics to Drive Traffic to Your Website
There are many ways to drive targeted traffic to your website. However, you can find that some methods are more effective than others. In addition, some strategies can be implemented during the design phase, while others require ongoing maintenance. Here are the best tactics to drive traffic to your website.
Using SEO
SEO is the practice of optimizing websites for search engines (hence, search engine optimization) so they can be more visible in local searches for relevant keywords.
Build Quality Backlinks
You must get links from other sites to rank well in search engines. These links are called backlinks. You should focus on building relationships with other bloggers and influencers in your niche, as these are link-building opportunities. You can ask them to link to you when you have these relationships. People like to give external links to authoritative sources, so if you ask someone to link to you, you’ll probably get a positive response.
On the other hand, external links can also drive a substantial number of referrals. That’s something to expect if you get mentioned on popular websites. You can also see referrals if you’re linked to an article ranking well for high search volume keywords and a steady stream of organic traffic.
If you own a website, you should always look for ways to expand its reach. One great strategy is to partner with other websites and help them grow. Several types of partnerships include reciprocal linkbacks, cross-promotion campaigns, joint ventures, co-branding, and paid advertising. Some examples of backlinks include adding a link to a blog post, exchanging guest posts, or even writing about another website on your own. In addition, there are numerous ways to boost search engine rankings if you run a small business website.
Google Ads
Google AdWords is an advertising platform owned by Google Inc., providing online advertisers with access to targeted advertisements. You bid on short-tail keywords and select the ads you want to appear on Google’s search engine. If someone searches for a keyword related to your offer, your Google Ads appears above other search ads. Your search ads may also appear below organic search results.
Use Schema Markup
Schema markup isn’t just about making your long-form content more visible to search queries. It also helps users understand what information you provide and how you present it. Microdata allows users to see what information is available on your page exactly.
Make Your Page Faster
If your website takes forever to load, you’ll lose customers. In addition, a slow loading time means your bounce rate will be high, negatively affecting rankings. To help speed up your site, follow Google’s best practices for web development. These recommendations include using small images, reducing JavaScript code size, and optimizing server configurations. You can also use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to check your site’s performance and suggest ways to improve its speed.
Strategize Keyword Use and Optimize for SERP
Keywords are the most important part of any page’s on-page SEO – where you optimize your original content for keywords so that the largest search engines can know what it’s all about and rank it appropriately.
Place your target keyword into these locations:
- Title Tag
- H1 Heading
- H2 Heading
- Image Source Alt Text
- Meta Description
- Don’t forget to include the target keyword in the body and the first 100 words of your original content.
Short-tail keywords help drive traffic to websites. You can use Google AdWords to find out what keywords people use to find information online. Then, you can create blogs, articles, videos, etc., around those topics. Use the right keyword strategy when writing viral content, and you’ll get more views and clicks.
If you’re using a broad search term like “website” or “blog”, it’s going to be hard to get any kind of traffic sources. Instead, you need to focus on long-tail keywords like “best website builder” or “best WordPress theme”. These terms have low volumes, but they’ll bring the most relevant visitors to your site. Long-tail keywords tend to generate the most relevant organic search traffic to sites.
Using Social Media
Social Media Marketing is an effective way to generate organic traffic to your website. There are many different ways to get started with social media marketing. You can start small by sharing links to your blog posts and other relevant pages on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. As you gain followers and begin interacting with them, you’ll notice your following grow. You’ll be surprised at how quickly your engaged audience grows when you reach out to others within your niche.
Add Hashtags
Hashtags are an easy way to expand your massive audience beyond what your followers already see. Using the right hashtags can increase the number of people who see your social media posts. Hashtagging is especially useful when posting about a specific event or product. You may also want to tag your friends if you’re trying to promote something fun for them.
Add Social Share Buttons
Social share buttons are a great way to share your viral content quickly. You can even add a button to your site, allowing readers to share it directly from your blog post. If you’re looking for a plugin to help you out, check out Shareaholic. It allows you to create shareable links within any WordPress theme easily.
Get In Touch with Industry Thought Leaders and Influencers
Influencers are experts in their fields. They may not always be willing to give interviews or answer questions about their expertise. However, they are often happy to share information about their areas of expertise. Influencers are usually well connected within their industry, making them great resources for discovering what is happening in other parts of their industry.
If you ask influencers directly, they will probably say yes. You can also contact influencers through social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc., where they may already have a following.
They will give you answers if you ask a thought leader about their thoughts. People love talking about themselves and sharing their opinions. Ask questions and listen carefully. If you want to understand something, ask questions until you get answers. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to explain something again because you didn’t understand it the first time.
You can hire an influencer marketing company to help you promote your brand. These companies will pay influencers to write about your product, post photos of your products on their social media accounts, or create videos promoting your brand.
Focus on Organic Social Media
Organic social media allows the ideal customer to share videos and photos, comment, and engage directly with brands and influencers. It creates conversations, allowing consumers to interact with each other about products and services instead of just sharing information to improve relevant traffic sources.
There are two considerations when it comes to using organic social networking sites:
- Don’t spam your readers. Do something useful for them, whether offering valuable tips or free resources. Your readers won’t mind giving you their email addresses because you’re doing them a favor by sharing the knowledge.
- Make sure to stay active by actively engaging with the ideal customer through social media community management. It makes your brand seem more personal instead of just another company.
Social media marketing strategies should be an integral part of any online campaign. The key to social media success is engaging with your potential audience. There are many different platforms, but you must pick what works best for your brand and target demographic. Some social networks are designed for interaction, while others aren’t. Check out each platform’s guidelines before posting to get the most benefit from your efforts.
Post Articles on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is an important tool for any business owner who wants to reach a wider audience and connect with potential customers. There are many ways to get started using LinkedIn, including writing articles, creating videos, sharing images, and writing blog posts. You can also create company pages on LinkedIn to showcase your products and services, attract new clients, and increase brand awareness.
Promote Your Social Media Posts
Content marketing isn’t just about creating amazing and relevant content and hoping people find it. You must promote your viral content across the most popular social media platforms for your target audience. Twitter is ideal for sharing quick, enticing links, while Google Business Posts can help your website appear in monthly local searches. For B2C products, you may find great success on image-centric social networks like Pinterest and Instagram. These sites offer an easy way to showcase your products; getting eyes on them will increase your chances of backlinks.
Using Listings
Listings are one of the best ways to drive more visitors to your site without spending money on paid leads. This is the perfect option if you’re interested in getting more links but don’t want to pay for them.
Business directories aren’t just useful for finding businesses nearby. You can also increase your visibility online if you add your business to them. Local SEO is optimizing your listing to rank well on search results pages. There are many different ways to optimize your listings, including ensuring that your phone number is correct, that your address is accurate, and that your photos are high quality. These tips will help you optimize your listings to rank on Google Maps and the largest search engines.
Google My Business is an online tool that helps local businesses get found online. It lets you manage all aspects of your business online, including your address, phone number, hours of operation, menus, images, positive reviews, ratings, and more. In addition, you can add additional pages like your website, blog, social media accounts, etc.
Make sure you have a consistent NAP across all platforms, including Google My Business, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and other social media sites. You should also monitor directories like Yelp, FourSquare, and others. Finally, research keywords and trends related to your industry and region.
Using Email Marketing Campaigns
Email marketing campaigns are effective because they allow businesses to reach customers at any time of the day or night and don’t require them to pay for expensive advertising spaces. Email marketing also provides a cost-effective way to communicate with customers. However, if not done correctly, email can become a very annoying form of communication.
Some key mistakes include sending too many emails, using automated messages, or not providing enough value to the customer. Email marketing is an effective form of advertising because it allows you to reach customers when they’re already interested in what you’ve got to offer. Email also allows you to send messages when people aren’t using social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Create an Email Newsletter
A newsletter doesn’t need to be complicated. You should always include a featured blog post from your site and link to the original source. This helps readers discover other things you’ve written if they’re interested in learning more about them. In addition, your emails will get opened more often when internal links are included.
When you send out an email campaign, keep it short – especially if you’re sending newsletters, because people will tend to skip through them if they seem like a lot of reading. Instead, you should aim to get subscribers interested enough to click through to your site, read your blog posts, and become loyal followers.
Don’t blast your readers with emails, or else you’ll annoy them and lose credibility! Also, avoid using all caps in your subject lines, as people won’t be able to tell whether or not they’re important. Finally, make sure to follow proper grammar conventions.
Build Your Email List
Promoting your relevant content to your readers is an effective way of driving a source of traffic to your site. You should consider starting with something simple like a guest post or a link exchange. You can start offering more complex promotions once you get the hang of it.
You should always start by growing your email list, then later focus on monetizing it. Here are a few ways to do that:
Include easy-to-find sign-up forms throughout your site. Ensure you include them on every web page, including your homepage, blog posts, and other pages. You can also create a form using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and PHP.
Share blog content using an opt-in form. Include CTA buttons to offer free downloads, products, or services. Your users must provide their email addresses before getting what they want. You can also promote products and services through social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter.
Posting an update about your email newsletter on social networks, whether through a status update, photo or video, is a great way to increase your ideal audience size. If you are using a tool like MailChimp, then this is very easy to implement.
Using Content Marketing
A website without any content is like a house with no walls; it can be seen by anyone who wishes to look at it, but it cannot be protected by anything. It is also impossible to give visitors per month an idea about how great your products or services are unless you have some kind of information about them. And there is only one way to get people’s attention – through good quality content.
Repurpose Outdated Content
The easiest way to increase your website’s consistent traffic is by repurposing other sites’ content. For example, you could create an article about the same topic using different long-tail keywords. Then submit it to article directories and social bookmarking websites like Pinterest.
Another option is to create a YouTube channel and upload videos. Regularly posting high-quality, informative videos will help visitors understand your brand and what you’re all about.
Refresh Your Content
Even the best evergreen content will lose its shine after a while, and content freshness matters regarding search rankings. If you haven’t updated your content in a while, it may not be showing up as “new” anymore, which means fewer clicks and less visibility. You can’t just add a few keywords and a publish date and expect to see results. Google knows better than to think that.
Here are the tips to help you get more traffic from evergreen content.
- Add new information and stats.
- Update old information and stats.
- Replace old visuals or create newer ones to illustrate concepts.
- Create new internal links to more recent sources.
- Fix broken links and image links.
- Add a new search term from Google Analytics.
- Tweak your meta title, meta description, and page titles.
Create Amazing Visuals
Canva is an online tool that allows users to create beautiful graphics. It’s free to use and easy to understand. Designers can choose from hundreds of templates, add text, photos, shapes, videos, and illustrations, then customize them any way they wish. Canva also offers an API, allowing developers to integrate its functionality into their apps.
Incorporate Videos
Video content doesn’t just help people stay engaged – it also attracts more traffic than text-based content.
There are several ways to use videos to drive web traffic to websites.
- Put videos into your blog posts for them to appear in video search results.
- Add internal links to your website in your video descriptions for YouTube SEO purposes.
- Insert a call to action (CTA) button directly into your videos that take people to your site. CTAs are clickable links at the bottom right-hand corner of your video.
Include Educational Content
Educational content is a great way to drive traffic to your site. For example, you could write blog posts about topics related to your niche or create educational courses that help users solve problems.
Write Evergreen Content
While news stories and trending topics can give a quick burst of traffic, they may not be worth the time and energy. Instead, create content around topics your ideal audience will love forever. These evergreen posts will continue to generate traffic and links even years after you create them. You’ll also get more engagement because your readers will come back, again and again, to see what you’ve written about today.
Try to Guest Blog
Guest posting is a great way to get links to your site. It helps you get listed higher in Google and also helps you gain traffic. Make sure you pick relevant sites that fit your niche and follow their guidelines. Look at their past posts to see what types of topics they cover. Then, start pitching them. Ask if they will share your post as one of your social media marketing strategies and if they will tag you. Don’t just send out random pitches. Find sites that are similar to yours and pitch there first.
Invite a Guest Blogger to Write on Your Site, Too
Guest posts are great for exposure to your ideal audience and growing your website’s reach. Your readers can read about other related topics and gain valuable insights. In addition, you’ll benefit from the exchange of ideas and the backlink to your website. That said, there are certain guidelines they should follow when doing guest blogging on your site.
Create Press Releases
To get your message across, you must put yourself there. You need to reach out to media outlets that will help spread your message. To tell your story to thousands of potential customers, you need to start talking about yourself and your company online. And if you want to increase your sales, you need to talk about your product and services.
Create Lead Magnets
Content offers are a great way to get visitors to come back to your website. Depending on the offer, you may need to provide an opt-in form to collect emails, or you may just ask them to subscribe to your newsletter. Either way, you’ll need to ensure you’re offering something valuable to your ideal audience. If you’ve already got a large following, you might consider running paid advertising campaigns to promote your content offers.
Don’t Forget to Use a Content Calendar
It’s important to keep consistent with your content strategy if you want to rank well in Google search results. But how? One of the best methods to do this is to create a content calendar. A content calendar is a place where you can store ideas and plans for future content. You can then go back and review those ideas at any time. If you have an idea for a post, you can add it to your calendar and see when you should publish it.
You can simply add something to your calendar if you need to write something down. There isn’t just one right tool for every job. You need to find the one that works best for you and your team. If you prefer to get organized with spreadsheets, try Google Sheets. And if you prefer pen and paper, try our Content Calendar Template.
Write Catchy Headlines
Headlines aren’t just for blogs anymore! Headline writing is essential for any marketer looking to attract attention online.
A well-written headline helps you stand out amongst your competition and increases the chances of someone reading your article. Therefore, you need to write a great headline if you want to get noticed.
Headlines should be short, punchy, and attention-grabbing. Headline length is not fixed, but some guidelines can help you write effective headlines. Remember that people scan titles when writing headlines, so you must grab their attention immediately.
You also need to consider what kind of potential audience you are targeting. Are you trying to reach SEO experts? Then you will need to focus on keywords. Do you want to attract general readers? Then you should focus on making your title interesting. A great headline can make all the difference regarding getting found online.
It is important to research what works best for your company. You should also look at your competitors’ headlines and see what they are doing well. Don’t be afraid to try out different things. If you can, get an A/B testing tool. Try to measure your click-through rates and adjust accordingly.
Adjust Content-Length According to Target Audience Needs
There is not one ideal content length. What matters is what will get the most engagement from your ideal audience. For example, it may be worth going longer if you write about something specific to your niche. On the other hand, if you’re writing a general post, it might be better to keep it short. The key thing is to stay true to yourself and your voice.
How many words should I write? How long should my articles be? These questions are often asked when writing content for SEO purposes. However, even though longer content might get ranked higher, you must consider other factors. For example, if you want to write about a topic already covered extensively, your article will not rank well because Google doesn’t want duplicate content. Also, if you are trying to rank for competitive keywords, you may spend time writing content that isn’t useful.
Publish List Content More
List posts are a form of content marketing that works well for businesses looking to drive website traffic. It involves creating a list of items and publishing them in a single post. List posts are often published on social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. These posts are usually accompanied by a link back to the source. For example, a list post will feature a photo, title, description, and a link back to the source.
Merge and Redirect
If you already have several articles about the same topic and keywords, you might consider combining them all into one article. If you have a lot of similar content, it will help you rank higher in Google search results. Also, combining your articles will get more organic traffic because people won’t need to click through different pages when searching for information.
How to merge similar articles into one:
- Decide what URLs should stay and what should go.
- Copy all the content from the old articles and put it into the new one.
- Format, edit and check twice before publishing. Setup redirects to the new page.
- Finally, delete the old pages.
Some More Popular Ways to Improve Traffic to Your Website
These are some more popular ways to improve traffic to your website. They can be very effective if done correctly but remember: they are about getting visitors to return to your page. So make sure these tactics work well with your website and complement each other.
Create a Resource Center
Video isn’t the only type of content you should be making. You should also be creating other kinds of content like infographics, downloadable guides and templates, webinars, and more. These lead magnets and other forms of content help educate your massive audience and build credibility. Collecting this high-quality content format together, you can create a library of multimedia content that attracts visitors who will repeatedly return to your website.
Create a Free Tool
Giving away a useful piece of content is a great way to get more traffic to your site. Create different tools and content that would benefit others in your industry, and then offer them for free. Posting a gated piece of content or tools allow you to earn leads and generate revenue. Promoting them on LinkedIn and Facebook groups or forums where people in your industry interact will also boost your SEO efforts.
Optimize for Voice Search
Voice search is becoming increasingly important because it allows users to ask questions using natural language instead of typing relevant keywords. It also provides the user with information about what they’re looking for before they even start looking. Therefore, if you optimize your site for voice search, you’ll be able to increase your ranking and attract more visitors.
Add Some QR Codes
QR codes are an easy way to generate traffic to websites. They are basically like buttons that link directly to a webpage. You put them anywhere you want, and when someone scans them, they go straight to your site. But if you aren’t careful, they could also lead to your site crashing. So you need to ensure that your QR codes are properly formatted and that your server isn’t overloaded. Also, you should ensure that you have a strong call-to-action (CTA) on your site. Otherwise, users may not even realize what they’ve scanned.
Run a Contest
To get a lot of attention quickly, you should start a contest or giveaway as part of your social media strategy. You can send emails about the contest or giveaway if you have an email list. You can also post about the contest or giveaway on Facebook or Twitter. There are many other platforms to choose from. Examples are Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Tumblr, YouTube, Vine, Snapchat, and WhatsApp.
Decide which platform you will use. Then select a prize. For example, you could offer free tickets to a concert, a free t-shirt, or a free ebook. Next, create the criteria. For example, you may ask for comments, likes, shares, subscriptions, or any other activity related to your product or service. Finally, implement the strategy. Make sure you announce the contest or giveaway on all relevant channels. Write the ads. Make the graphics. Promote the contest or giveaway.
Display Ads
Display ads are advertisements that appear on the web page of a website. The advertiser pays the publisher for each time an ad is displayed. Display ads are usually sponsored links to other sites but can also contain text and images. They provide revenue for publishers like blogs and news websites.
Incentivize
If you’re trying to increase engagement, consider adding a reward system to incentivize users to spend more time in your app. An example of this could be offering special discounts to those who log in or post frequently. Another approach might be to add points to users’ accounts instead of money. These points can then be exchanged for rewards like gift cards or merchandise. As long as the reward doesn’t feel like a bribe, it will likely encourage users to become more engaged.
To End
There are many ways you can drive traffic to your website. You need to combine these tactics to check which among them is your secret sauce. Do you need help with your digital marketing campaign? ITD Web Design has a professional team that can help you with that. Contact us so we can sort out your issues and provide you with the appropriate courses of action.
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