Have you ever tried to ask a marketer or business owner what they would like most in the world, and they’ll probably tell you “more customers.” What often comes after customers on a business’ wish list? More traffic to their site. There are a lot of ways you can increase traffic on your website/blog, and in today’s Article, we are going to look at 26 of them, including several ways to boost site traffic for FREE. The secret many successful Entrepreneur don’t want you to know. Here I am going to offer it for free to you.
All you need is to stay focused to assimilate every bit of this method. Not putting you on suspense, let’s start walking them out.
1. Advertise
This one is so obvious, we’re going to look at it first, because people need to know that something of such exist. Paid search, social media advertising and display advertising are all excellent ways of attracting visitors, building your brand and getting your site in front of people. Adjust your paid strategies to suit your goals – do you just want more traffic, or are you looking to increase conversions, too? Each paid channel has its pros and cons, so think carefully about your objectives before you reach for your Bank card.
If you’re hoping that more traffic to your site will also result in more sales, you’ll need to target high commercial intent keywords as part of your paid search strategies. Yes, competition for these search terms can be fierce (and expensive), but the payoffs can be worth it.
2. Get Social
It’s not enough to produce great content and hope that people find it – you have to be proactive. One of the best ways to increase traffic to your website/blog is to use social media channels to promote your content. Such as Facebook, linkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest etc.
Twitter is ideal for short, snappy (and tempting) links, whereas Google+ promotion can help your site show up in personalized search results. You might find great traction with image-heavy social sites like Pinterest and Instagram.
3. Mix It Up
There is no magic formula for content marketing success, despite what some would have you believe. For this reason, vary the length and format of your content to make it as appealing as possible to different kinds of readers. Intersperse shorter, news-based blog posts with long-form content as well as video, infographics and data-driven pieces for maximum impact.
4. Write Irresistible Headlines
Headlines are one of the most important parts of your content. Without a compelling headline, even the most comprehensive blog post will go unread. Master the art of headline writing. For example, the writers at BuzzFeed and Naij.com often write upward of more than twenty different headlines before finally settling on the one that will drive the most traffic, so think carefully about your headline before you hit “publish.”
5. Pay Attention to On-Page SEO
Think SEO is dead? Then have a rethink. Optimizing your content for search engines is still a valuable and worthwhile practice. Are you making the most of image alt text? Are you creating internal links to new content? What about meta descriptions? Optimizing for on-page SEO doesn’t have to take ages, and it could help boost your organic traffic.
Even-though google crawler goes through your content critically looking at your heading (page heading) to get a better description of your content; the crawler has been advanced in recent years to go beyond Meta description because as of recent every description of a page is gotten from the heading and body of content by the crawler. But just do all the needful by including a Meta description in your pages to increase your probability.
6. Target Long-Tail Keywords
Got your high commercial intent keyword bases covered? Then it’s time to target long-tail keywords, too. Long-tail keywords account for a majority of web searches, meaning that if you’re not targeting them as part of your paid search or SEO efforts, you’re missing out.
7. Start Guest Blogging
Before you say it – no, true guest blogging isn’t dead, despite what you may have heard. Securing a guest post on a reputable site can increase blog traffic to your website and help build your brand into the bargain. Be warned, though – standards for guest blogging have changed radically during the past Two and half years, and spam tactics could result in stiff penalties. Employ caution.
8. Invite Others to Guest Blog on Your Site
Guest blogging is a two-way street. In addition to posting content to other blogs, invite people in your niche to blog on your own site. They’re likely to share and link to their guest article, which could bring new readers to your site. Just be sure that you only post high-quality, original content without spam links, because Google is cracking down on low-quality guest blogging.
9. Go After Referral Traffic
Rather than trying to persuade other sites to link back to you (a tedious and time-intensive process), create content that just begs to be linked to.
10. Post Content to LinkedIn
LinkedIn has become much more than a means of finding another job. The world’s largest professional social network is now a valuable publishing platform in its own right, which means you should be posting content to LinkedIn on a regular basis. Doing so can boost traffic to your site, as well as increase your profile within your industry – especially if you have a moderate to large following.
11. Implement Schema Microdata
Implementing schema (or another microdata format) won’t necessarily increase traffic to your website on its own, but it will make it easier for search engine bots to find and index your pages. Another benefit of using schema for SEO is that it can result in better rich site snippets, which can improve click-through rates.
12. Link Internally
The strength of your link profile isn’t solely determined by how many sites link back to you – it can also be affected by your internal linking structure. When creating and publishing content, be sure to keep an eye out for opportunities for internal links. This not only helps with SEO, but also results in a better, more useful experience for the user – the beacon of increasing traffic to your website.
13. Interview Industry Thought Leaders
Think interviews are only for the big guys? You would be amazed how many people will be willing to talk to you if you just ask them. Send out emails requesting an interview to thought leaders in your industry, and publish the interviews on your blog. Not only will the name recognition boost your credibility and increase traffic to your website, the interviewee will probably share the content too, further expanding its reach.
14. Don’t Neglect Email Marketing
So many businesses are focused on attracting new customers through content marketing that they forget about more traditional methods. Email marketing can be a powerful tool, and even a moderately successful email blast can result in a significant uptick in traffic. Just be careful not to bombard people with relentless emails about every single update in your business. Also, don’t overlook the power of word-of-mouth marketing (that is directly communicating with your customer), especially from people who are already enjoying your products or services. A friendly email reminder about a new service or product can help you boost your traffic, too.
15. Make Sure Your Site is Responsive
The days when internet browsing was done exclusively on desktop PCs are long gone. Today, more people than ever before are using mobile devices to access the web, and if you force your visitors to pinch and scroll their way around your site, you’re basically telling them to go elsewhere. Ensure that your website is accessible and comfortably viewable across a range of devices, including smaller smartphones.
16. Make Sure Your Site is Fast
Ever found yourself waiting thirty seconds or even a minute for a webpage to load?. If your site takes forever to load, your bounce rate will be sky high. Make sure that your pages are as technically optimized as possible (that is avoid using heavy graphics or heavy coloured backgrounds on your site/blog), including image file sizes, page structure and the functionality of third-party plugins. The faster your site loads, the better.
If your site/blog loads slower, your potential visitors will turn to close your site/blog to load another. What a loss! Ensure you keep white or transparent background, avoid the too much beauty approach concentration when developing your pages rather focus on the literal content.
17. Create a Sense of Community
People want to speak their minds and weigh in on subjects they feel passionately about, so building a community into your site is a great way to start a conversation and increase traffic to your website. Implement a robust commenting system through third-party solutions such as Facebook comments or Disqus, or create a dedicated forum where visitors can ask questions. Don’t forget to manage your community to ensure that minimum standards of decorum are met, however.
18. Make Yourself Heard in Comment Sections
You probably visit at least a few sites that are relevant to your business on a regular basis, so why not join the conversation? Commenting doesn’t necessarily provide an immediate boost to referral traffic right away, but making a name for yourself by providing insightful, thought-provoking comments on industry blogs and sites is a great way to get your name out there; which can subsequently result in driving more traffic to your own site. Just remember that, as with guest posting, quality and relevance are key – you should be engaging with other people in your niche, not dropping spam links on unrelated websites.
19. Examine Your Analytics Data
Google Analytics is an invaluable source of data on just about every conceivable aspect of your site, from your most popular pages to visitor demographics. Keep a close eye on your Analytics data, and use this information to inform your promotional and content strategies. Pay attention to what posts and pages are proving the most popular. Inspect visitor data to see how, where and when your site traffic is coming from.
20. Get Active on Social Media
It’s not enough to just share content through social channels, you need to actively participate in the community, too. Got a Twitter account, a Facebook? Then join in group discussions with relevant hashtags. Is your audience leaving comments on your Facebook posts? Answer questions and engage with your readers. Nothing turns people off quicker than using social media as a broadcast channel – use social media as it was intended and actually interact with your fans.
21. Submit Your Content to Aggregator Sites
Firstly, a disclaimer – don’t spam Reddit and other similar sites hoping to “hit the jackpot” of referral traffic, because it’s not going to happen. Members of communities like Reddit are extraordinarily savvy to spam disguised as legitimate links, but every now and again, it doesn’t hurt to submit links that these audiences will find genuinely useful. Choose a relevant sub-reddit, submit your content, then watch the traffic pour in.
22. Incorporate Video into Your Content Strategy
Text-based content is all well and good, but video can be a valuable asset in both attracting new visitors and making your site more engaging. Data shows that information retention is significantly higher for visual material than it is for text, meaning that video marketing is an excellent way to grab – and hold – your audience’s attention, and boost traffic to your website at the same time.
23. Research the Competition
If you haven’t used software like BuzzSumo to check out what your competitors are up to, you’re at a huge disadvantage. These services aggregate the social performance of specific sites and content to provide you with an at-a-glance view of what topics are resonating with readers and, most importantly, making the rounds on social media. Find out what people are reading (and talking about), and emulate that kind of content to bring traffic to your website.
24. Host Webinars
People love to learn, and webinars are an excellent way to impart your wisdom to your eagerly waiting audience. Combined with an effective social promotion campaign, webinars are a great way to increase traffic to your website. Send out an email a week or so ahead of time, as well as a “last chance to register” reminder the day before the webinar. Make sure to archive the presentation for later viewing, and promote your webinars widely through social media. If you're wondering how to do a webinar, click the link for some tips.
25. Attend Conferences
Whatever industry you’re in, chances are there are at least one or two major conventions and conferences that are relevant to your business. Attending these events is a good idea – speaking at them is even better. Even a halfway decent speaking engagement is an excellent way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and gain significant exposure for your site.
Create a Face-book Page
Have you ever liked a page on Facebook? Oh yea! There you are. Facebook pages are a great way of reaching out to more audience. Simply create one, filling in the necessary information about your business and clicking on create, that is all. But it doesn’t stop there, for it to go viral you need to boost it with your credit card may be a day or a week or month. I promise you, you won’t regret putting in your resource there. Gbam! In two days 1k page likes and guess what, a huge streaming traffic. Always make sure you always have good and original content.
Well, that just about it for today’s article. If you’ve got your own tips for increasing traffic to your website, I’d love to hear from you. Just leave comment here.
You can also share it to your friends, be the first to do it! See you later, off for soccer match.