How to Almost Guarantee More Traffic to Your Website
A successful website needs more than great graphics and compelling content—it needs visitors. The “build-it-and-they-will-come” approach won’t work in attracting people to your website. Instead, you need to implement several strategies to get people’s attention and entice them to click.
Understand Website Metrics
Website metrics measure success in a number of ways. For example, unique visitors are individual viewers who visit your website. You’ll also be able to see what link they took to arrive at your website and how long they stayed. The “bounce rate” tells you how many visitors entered your site but then left quickly.
These metrics and more can give you insights into where your web traffic is coming from and how your visitors are using your site. You can see what web content seems to appeal the most and what might be less interesting. With this helpful information, you can make changes.
Create Viral Content
When content goes viral, the link to your website gets shared repeatedly across many media platforms, leading to potentially thousands of new visitors. There’s no way to purposely create viral content, but you can create posts with characteristics that encourage sharing.
Visual content—photos, graphics, and videos—more easily go viral than text. Emotional posts, especially humorous or heartwarming ones, are also popular. People love to watch videos that show them easy or clever ways to do something. Hashtags are also important. You can benefit from trending hashtags or, if you’re lucky, invent a viral one of your own.
Publish Guest Posts
A guest post by an expert or someone well known with your target audience will immediately boost your traffic by attracting new visitors from among the guest’s followers. It’s likely your website will gain some regular followers as well, especially if you schedule regular high-quality guest posts. Your brand recognition and reputation will grow and gain esteem.
Keep an open mind about the kinds of guests and posts your website might benefit from. Invite guests who share or complement your target market. In addition to posts, consider a video interview or invite the guest to demonstrate a product or technique.
Earn Backlinks
A backlink is created when another website links to your website or to content on your site. Backlinks bring visitors to your site and help your website get noticed by search engines, especially if those links are associated with keywords people might be searching for.
There are some things you can do to earn backlinks. Most importantly, post content that people want to link to. Content that tells people how to do or make something, or that answers questions that people might be searching for online tends to be the most popular.
Get Your Site to the Top of the Search
People almost never click to page 2 of search results. The higher your website lands in a key word search, the more traffic your site will get. To get your site to the top of a search, you’ll need to pay attention to the click-through rate. The top result on a search engine has an average CTR of 31%.
The click-through rate is a metric that evaluates how people actively engage with your website by clicking on links to view or download content, send an email, take a survey, and so on. These activities not only keep viewers on your site longer, they also raise your visibility by search engines. You can improve your CTR by implementing search engine optimization strategies such as using meta descriptions and descriptive headlines.
Engage on Social Media
Posting regularly on social media will increase your CTR and drive people to your website. Post snippets from your website and invite people to click through for more information. Focus on visual content, and use multiple hashtags on each post. Track hashtags that relate to your website, interest, or business and respond or share those posts.
Keep in mind that social media moves fast. Analyze your metrics to find out which social media accounts your target audience uses, and when they are most likely to be online so that you can time your posts to reach the maximum number of viewers.
Advertise
Advertising can be a good investment, especially when your website launches, you’ve done an update, or you want to promote special content. Paid or sponsored ads on search engines, social media, and websites with related content can promote your brand profile and raise your website to the top of search results.
Social media advertising is especially beneficial because ad placement is narrowly tailored to your niche market based on users’ profiles. This is especially useful if you’re trying to reach a specific geographic area or an uncommon special interest.
Email Newsletters
Newsletters sent by email are tried-and-true methods of promoting websites. Email has a high click-through rate and a high conversion rate (clicks leading to sales). Start by putting a link on your website and social media accounts to invite people to subscribe to your newsletter. An email service provider can help you manage your email list.
In your newsletter include snippets from your website with teasers that entice your readers to click. Provide news about your site or business, and offer exclusive content or deals that only newsletters subscribers can access. Links to surveys and other interactive content on your website will also yield links.
Become an Expert
You can increase traffic to your website by letting people know about your expertise. In your web and social media profile, highlight your qualifications, experience, and education, if relevant. In your posts, support your points with links to authoritative and well-respected sources.
Writing guest posts on other people’s blogs, websites, and podcasts also spreads the word about your expertise. Select platforms that specialize in complementary, not competitive, content. In social media posts, respond with authority to questions about your field.
Get Interactive
People want to have fun online, and they love to click and participate. Any kind of interactive content will attract people to your website and induce them to share the link with their friends and followers, especially if you promote it on social media platforms.
Interactive content can include quizzes, surveys, calculators, questionnaires, and simple games. These are easy to create with simple web tools. For more complex games and interactive graphics, you may need some assistance from a web developer.
A successful website owner doesn’t just sit back and wait for people to show up. Instead, you can combine several strategies to attract more visitors to your website. You’ll also be able to keep viewers on your site longer and encourage them to tell others about you.
Using social media wisely is an important part of gaining website traffic: check out this article on the social media platforms every business should consider using!
