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Your website is your online address. The best part is that it contains almost everything about your business — from contact numbers to store locations. When people view your website, you’ve already captured their attention. This could lead to impressions or, even better, conversions.
Knowing what draws people to visit your website is essential for today’s business owners. To help you out, we present ten proven strategies to capture this golden traffic. Here they are:
10 Strategies to Boost Website Traffic
1. SEO
Search engine optimization, or SEO, tops the list because search engines dominate the market in website traffic. More than half, or 52.9 percent, of global website traffic comes from organic search. Once you optimize your website for search, you capture a significant portion of that immense traffic. Of course, not all of it, given that you have competitors who are doing the same.
But how do you manage your SEO? First are keywords. These are what potential visitors use to visit your site. Knowing these keywords is crucial, but placing them throughout your website and content is essential. This requires skill because you can’t just scatter them everywhere. You need to provide value and answers while mentioning these keywords strategically.
Technical SEO is another chapter where you deal with cookies, HTML, crawling, and more. Here, you need a more technical understanding of your pages and their ability to be crawled by search engines.
2. Content Creation
Before diving deep into content, have a catchy business name that resonates with your target audience. Using a business name generator is perfect for faster brainstorming of unique and memorable business names, making your branding efforts more effective.
Once you have that in place, content creation largely depends on SEO. This is where you create content containing the keywords you’ve identified. Content creation isn’t just blogging. You need a dedicated page to publish blog posts, news, or articles regularly. Using keywords and questions your target audience poses, you’ll create content that answers questions and provides value.
Most long-form content performs better than shorter blogs. This is because they contain more keywords and answers, attracting more readers. Whether short or long, as long as the content addresses a particular concern of a searcher, it’s worth publishing.
Content creation comprises four main steps: research, writing, publishing, and promotion. Each has its challenges. Research is where you generate ideas. During the writing stage, you draft and structure your content. Publishing involves adding meta descriptions, hashtags, links, and other editing tasks. Promotion is where you market your content through social media, email, and other platforms.
3. Link Building
To understand link-building, we first need to grasp what links are. Links are essentially pathways to specific pages across the web. They are valuable because they act as endorsements. For instance, if you include a link in your blog post, you’re signifying that the link provides valuable information that readers might seek.
That’s why link building is a valuable strategy for increasing website traffic. First, focus on building your internal links. Mention other pages on your website to guide visitors to additional helpful content. Then there are external links, which involve both giving and earning links. To establish authority, you should include high-quality external links in your content. The more challenging part is earning links. With top-tier content and a solid reputation, other sites will reference yours organically. However, some might opt for paid link-building strategies, though it’s crucial to prioritize quality over quantity.
4. Social Media
Social media is a vast platform. While not all social media drives website traffic, it’s worth discussing its potential. Depending on your platform of choice, social media is your go-to tool to promote and market your ideas and content quickly.
If you already have a substantial following, social media is a great way to announce new blog posts, product lines, or updated contact information. While Google search accounts for more than half of global website traffic, social media platforms still represent a sizable chunk of potential visitors.
If your social media following is growing, advertising is a valuable option. Even with a modest budget, you can target specific groups, increasing your chances of gaining new visitors.
5. Email Marketing
Email marketing is another potent strategy for driving website traffic. Since email is the communication method of choice in the business world, it’s wise to have a presence there.
Email marketing involves two primary stages. First, you must gather recipients for your emails. Then, create and send content tailored to this audience. Every email should be well-researched, clear, and aligned with your audience’s interests. Bear in mind there’s a risk in sending poorly constructed emails. If recipients perceive them as spam, it can tarnish your business’s reputation.
Yet, when executed correctly, email marketing offers a compelling return on investment. And while social media platforms come and go, email remains a constant. It’s an ideal channel for regularly engaging your audience with high-quality content.
6. Online Advertising
Attracting an organic audience requires consistently producing stellar content over time. But what if you’re just starting? Online advertising reaches customers and non-customers alike with a few single clicks.
With a modest budget, you can target audiences based on demographics, location, and behavior, showcasing your content directly to them. Crafting compelling advertisements is paramount, whether SEO ads or social media campaigns. The imagery and copywriting must be on point: clear, original, and engaging.
Many advertising platforms, such as Facebook, are user-friendly, allowing even those without extensive experience to launch effective campaigns.
7. Networking Events
Attending or organizing networking events can be a powerful strategy to promote your website and engage more website traffic. Websites like Meetup, LinkedIn Events, and Eventbrite allow you to find relevant events in your niche or set up your own.
Before heading to any event, plan a brief outline of what you want to communicate about your website. If you’re thinking of hosting, spread the word with online platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and consider sending out invites through email.
Following the event, it’s wise to touch base with those you connected with and gently remind them to check out your site. Partnering with another business for an event can also be a great way to maximize reach.
8. Lend Your Expertise to Reporters
Reporters often need expert insights for their articles. Websites like HARO and SourceBottle help reporters find these experts. When you join these sites, you can answer questions from reporters that match what you know. They might mention your name and website in their article if they use your answer.
Always add your website link when you reply to a reporter’s question. This makes it easy for them to check your site and learn more about you. Being mentioned in articles can bring many new visitors to your site. Replying quickly to reporter questions is a good idea, as they might get many answers. If you’re one of the first to reply and your answer is good, you have a better chance of being chosen.
9. Monitor and Adjust Accordingly
Understanding how your website is doing is super important. Tools like Google Analytics and WordPress Jetpack are magnifying glasses for your website.
They show you not just who’s visiting but also how they interact with your content. For instance, you can see how many people visit your site daily, which pages they spend the most time on, and even the path they take through your website.
Another useful thing? They can show you where your visitors come from. If a lot is coming from a post you shared on Facebook, that’s a sign you might want to post there more often. Or if they found you by searching on Google, you’ll know that your keywords are working.
But what if some pages aren’t getting much attention? That’s a cue to check those out. Maybe the content needs a refresh, or perhaps the page loads slowly. The tools also hint at this, like if people leave quickly (a high bounce rate), it might mean they didn’t find what they were looking for.
10. Mobile-friendly Site
Today, so many people use their smartphones to look up stuff online. Your website must look and work great on these smaller screens. If it doesn’t, visitors might get annoyed and just leave. Plus, Google gives bonus points to sites that are mobile-friendly. This means that if your site is suitable for phones, it could show up higher when someone searches on Google.
How do you know if your site is suitable for phones? There are tools like Google Mobile-Friendly Test and BrowserStack that let you check. They’ll show you how your site looks on different phones and tablets. If things aren’t quite right, you’ll know what to fix.
Maybe the text is too small, or the buttons are hard to click. Or perhaps the whole layout just feels cramped. Whatever the issue, it’s worth taking the time to get it right. A slight change can make all the difference. But if there are more significant problems, it might be time to consider giving your site a makeover to ensure it’s ready for mobile visitors. After all, a good mobile site means more happy visitors. And happy visitors are more likely to come back.
Conclusion
Having a website is key in today’s world. To get more visitors, use SEO, make good content, be active on social media, and check your site works well on phones. Tools like Google Analytics help you see what’s working.
Always remember, it’s about getting the right visitors, not just more of them. Keep things clear and user-friendly; more people will come to your site and stick around.
