Ways to drive traffic to your website
Driving traffic to your website is an essential part of owning a website. There are a few ways you can diversify your website traffic. With more than 500,000 websites created a day, it is important to know all your options to drive traffic to your website. In this post, we’re going dive into how you can increase blog and website traffic.
The three main categories we will be covering are: optimising your SEO, the use of social media, and content marketing. All these areas can help build up your brand and business and will drive traffic to your website.
Optimise your SEO
SEO is the main aspect that affects your online visibility. SEO or “Search Engine Optimisation”, SEO is used to tell search engines (like Google and Bing) what your website is about and make it easier for users to find your content.
There are three main factors that affect website SEO, On-page SEO, Off-page SEO, and Technical SEO. I’ve linked the specific articles that go into more depth about each aspect, but for now, we will be going over the more important parts of general SEO.
Making sure things that your website is fast and your pages are responsive is important. Keyword researching is very important, this will give you an understand what your target audience is looking. Title, slug, meta descriptions, image alt text, and appropriate use of keywords are the most important parts of on-page SEO.
Some important off-page things to look for is the proper use of your sitemap.xml (sometimes sitemap_index.xml) and checking for broken links and/or orphaned pages. Going over these brief SEO practices will drive more traffic to your website. Search engine rankings will go up over time but it could take up to 6 months to reach the first-page results.
Use Social Media
Social media can be a powerful tool to help boost traffic to your website.
Using Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter will have an effect on your traffic. Every social media platform has its unique way of digesting content, so I strongly suggest you research for each individual platform.
Connect with your audience by commenting and reaching out. The COPE method is a good method to use, this method is taking a piece of your content (a blog or page) and transforming that content into smaller bites for social media platforms. It is important to only focus on platforms you are willing to put the time and effort to build your presence. Over time it will benefit your website and your brand.
A Facebook business page is a must for any business as it links with your Google My Business account.
Utilise Content Marketing
Content marketing focuses on a targeted audience on creating, publishing, and distributing content. Some examples of content marketing could be in form of a newsletter, blog articles or personalised emails sent to subscribers.
No matter what type of business you operate, an email list is the most important element of a successful marketing strategy. With that list, you can share your story, promote your business, and showcase your products, all while turning subscribers into paying customers.
To be successful at content marketing you need to provide your users with content they want, so make sure you are writing or sending relevant topics that lead back to your website.
A popular use of content marketing is creating a subscriber list. Pop-up forms provide visitors with a quick, convenient way to share contact information and subscribe to your list while they’re browsing your site, making them a powerful tool for audience growth. They’re easy to add to your site, and they’re proven to work.
Content marketing requires you to research your audience, taking into consideration not to use spam tactics as it will deter potential customers. If you are using blogs, then be sure to stay consistent. A good blog will keep users coming back to check on new blogs, keep the users interested and explore what topics are more important to your audience.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are at least three channels you can use to bring in more traffic to your website. The use of social media, content marketing and basic SEO can drive traffic to your website if they are used correctly. Making the most of these aspects can be a cost-effective way to test and implement your SEO strategy. Once you are satisfied with your SEO strategy, you can start investing in your online marketing.
