How to Increase Website Traffic: Beginner’s Guide
Understanding Website Traffic
- Organic Search: Visitors look through search engines and find your site.
- Direct Traffic: Visitors directly type the URL into a search engine.
- Referral Traffic: Visitors access the site through third-party websites (forums, blogs, etc.)
- Email Marketing: The site owner uses third-party emailing apps that automatically send content updates to visitors’ emails. They also check the click rate, unique links, or delivery rate.
- Social Networks: Visitors find your site through social media ads and posts.
- Paid Media: Traffic generated by pay-per-click ads on social media.
- Paid Search: Traffic generated by pay-per-click ads on platforms like Google Ads.
- Sales Conversion: More traffic can lead to more sales. If more people view your website, buy from it, or share it online, it increases conversion rates and boosts sales and brand relevance.
- Customer Loyalty: Driving traffic to your website with quality content, backlinks, and optimization grows loyal visitors. The more loyal visitors you have, the better your site may perform versus other websites.
- Increased Audience: The wider your website’s online reach, the more often it will appear on search engines. You could gain new potential customers daily, even without posting as often.
Comprehensive Strategies to Boost Website Traffic
Emphasizing Evergreen Topics
Crafting Engaging Headlines
Keyword Research and Targeting
- List Relevant Keywords: Create a list of 5-10 general keywords related to your target content. If your site focuses on marketing, a top keyword could be “marketing analytics.”
- Find Deeper Keyword Topics: Using the main general keyword, search for other related keywords that delve deeper into the topic. Following the above example, some other related keywords could include “What is marketing analytics?” or “How to use marketing analytics.”
- Understand User Intent: Research the main keyword to see the top links. Check for the user intent or the purpose of the search. Then, create content that aligns with that search intent.
- Research Related Terms: Find related keywords to add further information. Examples are “marketing analytics tools” or “marketing analytics trends.”
- Use Keyword Search Tools: Utilize informative search tools that outline a keyword’s authority, relevancy, and popularity. Some examples include Ahrefs, SEMrush, and KWFinder.
Optimizing Website for SERP
- Optimize Meta Descriptions and Titles: Meta descriptions and meta titles are the first things both Google and users see on a SERP. Include the keyword in the title and limit it to 50-60 characters. Meta descriptions should only be 155-160 characters long.
- Optimize Images and Media: Many visitors are visual learners and want to see pictures and other media in an article. Use these steps to optimize your images:
- Include the keyword in the image file name
- Limit image sizes to 600px wide
- Compress large images
- Add alt text for more accessibility
- Create an image caption
- Update the Content Regularly: If some of the information within the published article needs updating, remember to update it to retain relevancy.
Building Quality Backlinks
Content Promotion via Social Media
- Use relevant hashtags to boost visibility.
- Connect trending topics to your site’s purpose or products.
- Post on a regular schedule.
- Use eye-catching graphic designs and videos to show your branding.
- Use humor and relatable captions and topics in your posts.
- Interact regularly with your followers and promote your site.
Influencer Engagement Strategies
- Find relevant influencers within your industry (ex., a beauty influencer for makeup products)
- Evaluate the influencer’s popularity and impact.
- Check if the influencer’s values and beliefs align with your brand.
- Review the influencer’s tone and communication methods to see if they fit your brand.
- Check the influencer’s past content to see if its quality meets your brand’s standards.
- Analyze the influencer’s level of engagement with their followers.
Effective Use of Hashtags and Share Buttons
Understanding Digital Ads
Leveraging Social Media Advertising
Active Participation in Online Forums
Networking at Industry Conferences
Creating Engaging Email Newsletters
Strategies for Email Outreach
- Compile a list of emails from interested visitors to target
- Personalize the content for each person, making it relatable and interesting
- Be specific about your goal in the content (to promote, collaborate, etc.)
- Use an email outreach tool to send emails faster (ex. PitchBox, BuzzStream)
- Add social media links to your email signature
Essential Tools for Website Owners
- Detailed metrics on visitor behavior
- Audience analysis (demographics, bounce rates, session duration, page views)
- Traffic sources, or where users find your site (organic search, social media, etc.)
- Conversion rate tracking
- User engagement analysis
- E-commerce analytics
- Real-time active visitor monitoring
- Mobile analytics
- Google Search Console: For ranking tracking and optimization
- Google Ads: For keyword targeting and buying space on SERPs
- SEMRush: For keyword comparisons, website search traffic, and competitor analysis
- Ahrefs: For backlink checking and validity
- SEO: How fast search engines discover, crawl, and index the site
- Quality Assurance: How your content ranks in terms of accuracy, quality, and credibility
- Website Accessibility: How accessible your site is on different platforms
Tackling Issues of Low Website Traffic
- Website content is not regularly updated to fit current trends and topics
- Slow-loading website
- Unoptimized website layout (cluttered, outdated designs)
- Poor SEO optimization led it to not appear on the first SERP page
- Check the website’s speed and responsiveness through server logs.
- Analyze user data to check which demographics have lessened.
- Analyze website analytics such as bounce rate, session duration, and exit pages.
- Act like a user and navigate the site to check which areas need improvement.
- Monitor competitor performances and content to see how you can improve.
- Seek feedback from users to gain personalized comments and suggestions.
- Work with IT experts to optimize the site’s technical performance.
Mobile Optimization for Enhanced User Experience
- A responsive layout that adjusts to various screen sizes.
- Simplified navigation menu with icons, collapsible menus, and call-to-action buttons.
- Shorter sentences, more headings, and bullet points for readability.
- Autofill options for forms.
- Thumb-friendly layouts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Other ways include creating newsletters, email outreach campaigns, and evergreen posts to retain relevancy.
SEO can help increase your website’s traffic by causing Google to view your site as an authority and making it rank higher. Pages that rank higher will enjoy greater visibility and may be clicked on more often.
Remember to use top keywords in your content, use backlinks to build authority on other sites, and improve the content formatting for users and the search engine.
The tips above will help new website owners optimize for better ranking.
Hashtags and share buttons encourage users to share your content and build a community.