Having a good website for your business is almost like having an extra employee. It works round the clock and can be the face of your brand, answering queries and making sales. But what good is it if you aren’t getting the expected number of visitors through it?
Many businesses don’t find it difficult to setup a blog or website. What they find challenging however is driving targeted traffic towards it.
Online marketing tends to overwhelm a lot of new business owners, but all you need is a little dedication and a few effective marketing strategies, and you’ll observe a consistent increase in website traffic.
So, let us discuss seven proven ways to help you drive traffic to your website without emptying your pockets.
1- Decrease your website load time
Is your website taking forever to load? It might be one of the biggest reasons why it’s not getting as many visitors as you expected.
According to a study, you can lose more than half of your visitors if your website takes longer than 3 seconds to load. A faster website equals happy visitors. This is why you should optimize your website’s page load time to see a stark difference in customer experience, conversion rates and increased revenues.
You’ll be surprised to know that according to this survey up to 79% of customers who came across a slow website, decided not to buy from the same site again. In short, even a few milliseconds count when it comes to a website’s page load time. Moreover, search engines increase the rankings of websites that load faster.
Another great way to increase your SEO rankings is by link building. A link building service can increase your website’s search engine visibility, making sure more and more people visit your website. So, work on minimizing your website load time to maximize your website traffic.
2- Blogging and content marketing
You must have read this phrase over a thousand times now, but let me repeat again to reinforce its importance. Content is king. Yes! People are always on the hunt for valuable content that can increase their knowledge through relevant information and examples.
Combine valuable content with good SEO for a win win combination. Most businesses are skeptical about inbound marketing strategies and often wonder whether content marketing will actually yield substantial results. But the truth is, inbound marketing strategies, especially content marketing, generates 54% more potential leads than traditional marketing methods.
By writing about your product or service, you’ll create brand awareness and educate potential clients. Moreover, content that positions you as an industry leader automatically builds trust and credibility in the hearts of the customer. It also allows you to develop a relationship with your readers who will eventually convert into customers.
According to Exact Target, 80% of business decision makers prefer to search for information in articles rather than advertisements. So, content marketing is a worthwhile journey to take as it opens the doors for potential customers and makes conversions easier.
3- Choose the right social media channel
Many online marketers find it difficult to cut through the online noise and capture the prized attention and fan following of their customers. One of the best social media source to drive traffic to your website is LinkedIn.
You might be surprised. But yes, LinkedIn is a goldmine of business decision makers and potential clients. Don’t overlook it and use the platform wisely to increase traffic towards your website.
A good way to begin is by joining relevant groups on LinkedIn. Did you know that there are over 1.5 million groups on LinkedIn and almost 81% of LinkedIn users have joined at least one of them. Once you find your way in, develop niche networks and share your blogposts with them.
On the other hand, Old Spice sent personalized video messages to celebrities and their social media fans.
This successful social media campaign by Old Spice increased their sales by 55%, making them reach a whooping high of 107% in the final month of the social media campaign; No wonder, it is considered the number one body wash for men.
This is why you should have a well-designed social media strategy which focuses on certain social media channels that can drive the highest ROI for your business.
The selection of social media channels can be done based on the nature of your business and demographics of your target audience. Read this article on Forbes, to learn which social media platform will be right for your business.
So, use social media to interact with your fan following. It is not enough to share content on your social media channels.
You need to be active and responsive in group discussions and should be able to reach out to your target audience at a personal level.
4- Create suitable meta tags
Meta tags optimization is a simple on-site process which is often overlooked. But, if meta tag optimization is done with care and thorough keyword research, it will bring proven results especially by increasing organic search engine visibility.
There are mixed opinions about whether or not Google uses the description meta tag for indexing purposes. But one thing is guaranteed, if you optimize your meta tags, your webpage will rank better on search engines, and therefore increase traffic.
Focus on a couple of meta tags on each web page on your website. For example, the page title and meta description. Take inspiration from Roel, an award-winning blogger and digital marketing consultant who managed to increase organic search engine visits by 69% and a drastic 412.50% increase in conversions. And all of this just through proper meta tag optimization.
5- Don’t neglect email marketing
Many small businesses are so caught up in using unique strategies to attract new customers towards their website, that they neglect poor old email marketing techniques.
Email marketing is a very powerful tool and a successful email blast can bring a significant rise in traffic. In fact, statistics have proved email marketing to be a highly fruitful medium for pushing the word out.
Just make sure that you don’t bombard people in your email list unnecessarily and send personalized and gentle reminders about a newly launched service or product.
6- Focus on mobile optimization
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Today more than a billion people access the web from their mobile devices and almost 80% of internet users own a smartphone. In other words, you’re most likely to get majority of traffic through mobile devices.
This is why, you cannot ignore the importance of having a mobile-optimized website. It improves user experience, provides better SEO performance and offers you an edge over your competitors. When it comes to Local SEO mobile optimization should be your top-priority. Nowadays, Google is giving more preference to the mobile version of the website compared with the desktop version. For example, if you are an Orlando SEO Agency and people searching the relevant keywords on Google you need to make sure that your mobile website has the relevant content and CTAs for instant conversion.
In fact, Walmart Canada witnessed an increase of 98% mobile orders and a 20% boost in conversions when it launched its mobile ecommerce website. Now that’s what you call a fantastic response to a conversion problem.
7- Get traffic through advertising
This may seem like a very traditional approach, but never ignore paid advertising methods when you are looking to increase traffic. It might seem a little heavy on the pocket, but if you target the correct audience on social media advertising, you can really spread out the word effectively.
Each paid channel has its advantages and downsides, so think about your primary objectives before you reach out for your credit card.
8- Research your competition
If you aren’t aware of what your competitors are up to, then unfortunately you are in for a huge disadvantage. Use software like BuzzSumo to observe the performance of your competitor website and analyze their content.
This will give you a better idea of certain topics that resonate well with the readers. You can use this information to create shareable content for your website.
Conclusion
These are some proven ways which you can use to drive traffic to your website. But remember, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to increase traffic on your website. We’ve eliminated the hard part for you by listing all the tricks. You already know what to do in the first place. So, experiment with a mix of these strategies and you will definitely see an increase in your website traffic.
Do you have any other internet marketing tips and tricks that help you increase your website traffic? If yes, share your expertise with us in the comments below: