Before you go ahead and read the rest of this blog on how to increse your website traffic, it’s important to determine exactly where you stand right now. So, if you haven’t done so already, set your website up on a Google Analytics account.. ASAP. It will provide you with loads of useful data such as how many visitors you are currently getting on your website, the length of visitor sessions, where they are bouncing off etc. So before you read this blog go ahead and check your current website analytics to get an accurate picture of your websites current state so that you can filter which types of website traffic below would be the best fit for your business.
…..So you say that you have a pretty amazing website which is device responsive, interactive and down with the latest website trends. But no one is going onto your website to appreciate all of your hard work? Then have a read below for a few ways you can drive more traffic to your website in no time!
Remember… when increasing your website traffic you have to hustle for it. It won’t be handed to you on a golden platter, like most things worth having in life! So, if your website is a ghost town, go ahead and read the tips below to aid you in increasing that all important website traffic.
To start off with let us discuss the various types of traffic we have open to us. These include:
-Search Traffic
-Social Media Traffic
-Paid Traffic
-Direct Traffic
-Email Marketing Traffic
-Referral Traffic
So let us begin this blog by discussing Search Traffic
Search Traffic
For sustaining the long-term growth of your website; search traffic plays a vital role to say the very least. In other words, Search traffic is essentially organic traffic. If your website is fairly new then you will generally tend to find it harder to find decent enough traffic from search engines, the reason being is because you have to gain credibility from these search engines first. But not to worry because there are loads of things you can do in order to optimise your search traffic. Have a read below:
- Ensure that you share your posts to social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Also make sure these posts are original and not copied from other sources. It has to be engaging and interesting – & most importantly; original!
- Use google keyword planner to generate the best keywords for your blog posts. Google a keyword planner is a free tool for keywords. It’s best practice to stay away from using competitive keywords; rather it’s best to use low competitive keywords for ranking. During your keyword research, it is also a best practice to make a list of keywords that are relevant to your audience and that have been searched more than 500 times per month. Then write one blog post for every keyword. Incorporate these relevant high-intent and long-tail keywords in to your irresistible headlines. Keywords are important in order to accurately reach those who are searching for your particular product and/or service. This is why incorporating relevant keywords into your headlines and blog copy that people are most likely to search for is essential.
- No one likes slow speed, if your site is too slow and takes forever to load, then your site will unfortunately be very unlikely to rank on the first page of search results.
- Using the proper Heading tags, h1 h2 h3 h4 h5 h6 is key too. H1 heading is the most important heading tag, whereas h6 tag is the least important tag. Use h2 tag for more honest outcomes.
Social Media Traffic
We all know that social media is king in this very social era we live in. So let’s start off by stating the obvious! Point to your social media accounts from your website. It’s an easy way to broadcast to your website visitors. Add your icons above the fold so that they are hard to miss.
- Add ‘Share this” buttons to your blog post, videos etc. There are also plugins that you can install which adds share buttons to every page of your website, that way making it very hard for your visitors to miss but in turn making it even easier for visitors to share your content!
- Install a chatbot to your website. Every time a customer chats with you, they will have to opt-in to Facebook Messenger & become a subscriber. Integrating Facebook with your website is a huge win because you can follow-up and pass on any value you have (lead magnets etc.) whenever you want. Connections will flow to and from your website and Facebook which is a huge win.
- Enabling comments on your website will enable users to interact with you directly from your site. If you can motivate or spark off discussions within the comments section of your website that will prove to be in your favour for sure!
Paid traffic
This is the most common way of driving more traffic to your website. It’s important to remember to adjust your Facebook Ad objectives accordingly though, set your objectives to ‘website traffic’ because that is what we want here. Also, you need to accurately set up a Facebook Pixel on your website so that you can track data regarding how many people converted from your Ad that went on your website and took action so that you are able to retarget those who took some form of action on your website. Always remember that if you’re not tracking the traffic that’s coming to your website, you’re wasting your time. When driving traffic to your site, blog or whatever, you need to understand where it’s coming from so that you can scale your efforts accordingly!
Unlike other forms of advertising out there, paid traffic offers much faster turnarounds and results. Paid traffic also allows you to target people that you never imagined targeting. Targeting is so specific especially on Facebook that you are able to reach those most likely to benefit from your blogs and the content on your website.
Direct traffic
Let’s start off by saying that to benefit from direct traffic you need to be a well-known, trusted brand. The reason being is because Direct traffic comes from users actively searching and typing in your business name onto a search engine. So unless people know about you, this is less likely to happen. So basically it all depends on brand value and visibility. So in order to drive more traffic to your website directly we need to start off with paid traffic first (explained above) Do this to spread the word and get noticed. Also ensure that your website is attractive & fully responsive for all device types to entice visitors to keep coming back to your website. Create social backlinks which will also help SEO.
Email marketing traffic
The first step here is to collect email addresses from prospects who have expressed an interest in your service/product. Setting up email sequences which include links to your website in the CTA section (typically towards the bottom of the email) is an effective way of driving more traffic to your website. Make sure to attempt to make your emails as less ‘spammy’ as possible so that you don’t put prospects off. The whole idea here is to keep them ‘warm’ to lead up to them visiting your website and in turn purchasing your service/product.
Ensure your emails are short and precise because not everyone has time to be reading long-winded emails despite how juicy the offer may be. Including images and graphics will also be of help to keep the attention of readers.
& if you’re going to drive email subscribers to your website you will need to ensure that you have a relevant landing page on your website that conveys in detail what the offer that you emailed them about entails.
It’s important to keep a close eye on your email marketing metrics. If your click-through rates are not at par with your expectations, you should work on creating better email copy and consider changing the placement, design or copy of the call-to-action button(s).
If you want to enhance your website visibility even further, you should aim to integrate your social media marketing with email marketing campaigns. Highlight your social sharing icons in the emails and embark on a consistent marketing experience throughout the various marketing channels including your website.
Referral traffic
Increasing referral traffic is unfortunately a lot harder for beginners than it is for an authority figure. But fear not as it’s not impossible!
Referral traffic is essentially visitors that come to your blog from various other channels, both online and offline.
So what can you do? Well you can simply start by being an active member in communities within your industry. Study popular blogs/bloggers in your industry and then get in there and start commenting, i’m not just talking one liner comments! Nope i’m talking get in there, show off your knowledge or your experience, go in detail, show that you actually give a damn! Bare in mind that 80% of blog visitors at any given time are actually new, so bare that in mind when commenting, because when they see your juicy comment they will be enticed to check your website out.
Guest blogging is also up there as one of the smartest ways to increase exposure for your own blog and in return benefit from referral traffic. Guest blogging is seriously an amazing way to connect with other people in your niche. So use it to build new relationships and find new readers and subscribers for your blog.
Pinterest is another platform that you should really start making good use of!
Connect with other bloggers and influential people in your niche or industry who are already on crushing it on Pinterest. (which may not loads as not many people know to capitalise on this amazing platform! You can learn from them, and start pinning their content, videos, and infographics to your boards. Do the same for your own content too, but of course remix it up a tad bit for originality purposes.
When you promote someone else’s content, they will almost always return the favour and help to promote yours too! A win-win huh?
Also create infographics and original visual content. Maybe it’s worth repurposing your blog content into infographics, most people in this very busy day and age like to consume content in the simplest way possible and visual infographics offer that convenience.
So there you have it ladies and gents! Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Also be sure to comment your tips and tricks on how to drive more traffic to your website!
