Websites are great! But just creating one on the world wide web just might not be enough.
Think of your website as a brick and mortar office/showroom. The goals for your business should remain the same in both scenarios — reeling in more and more customers.
With that said, website traffic can help towards the overall growth of your business. It’s commonly about getting more quality website traffic who hopefully can convert.
More quality web traffic essentially means that your page, and the content, is reaching more people, getting higher rankings on search engines and ultimately boosting your overall business — but where do we start?
Quality vs quantity
Sometimes just getting traffic doesn’t accomplish your expected goals for your website (i.e. getting converting customers). Therefore, it’s essential that you bring the right type of traffic to your website.
Here are some effective ways that will boost your website’s incoming traffic.
1. Web design
An aesthetical and well-built website can do wonders to increase traffic on your website, while a dull and outdated one simply repels it.
You can either take professional help from web designers in setting up your website or do it yourself through website building sites on the internet.
Either way, it’s important that your website is attractive and appeals to your potential audience.
2. SEO
Search engine optimisation (SEO) decides how your website ranks on search engines. This is one of the most impactful things you can do to drive more traffic to your website.
Usually, the sooner you step on the SEO bandwagon, the better for your website’s organic traffic.
Tip: Make sure every bit of content, be it text or images, is carefully optimised on your website. Build your backlinks, so that Google picks up your website’s content for related searches.
3. Write relatable and informative content
Google always wants to prioritise informative, authentic and credible content that adds value to its readers.
There is nothing that can substitute well-written and researched content, as only content will make readers keep coming back to you and trust you.
Make sure your website follows these simple, yet useful steps:
- Write simple, easy-to-understand content
- Create headlines that interest the reader
- Keep updating the content from time to time
- Make content that is engaging, by adding images, visual graphics and videos, etc.
- Source references from the most trustworthy and credible websites
4. Start a blog
A blog is a wonderful space to present content on your website. You can produce generic content around your industry, discuss common FAQs in detail and even inform your audience about the different facets of your industry, work or product.
Hinting to the previous point about SEO, if you are clever with how you present your content, you can drive a lot of traffic to your website from your blog pages alone.
You can find a good example of a blog, presented by this NYC creative community, which has been doing a really good job of repurposing their podcast into a blog post.
Not only does this create an easy opportunity for new website content for them, but it also helps with the searchability of their podcast’s topic via search engines.
5. Get social
Use social media websites smartly to push traffic towards your website.
While social media is considered to be quite a no-brainer, and a free platform to boost website traffic, a well-thought strategy could spike your website traffic through social media.
- Create engaging content to convert followers into potential customers
- Actively engage with your readers
- Respond/comment on posts and blogs
- Update your followers about events/offers on your website
If you’re new to social media, you should read our social media 101 guide.
6. Invite influencers and guest loggers on board
You can always add a bit of variety on your website by inviting industry influencers, thought leaders or guest bloggers. It’s a highly effective means to add credibility, along with an expert’s voice on your website.
With that said, you want to be careful about who you allow posting on your blog. As a lot of companies abuse this and spam your website with irrelevant links, in order to boost their own websites.
7. Email marketing
This old school approach works best if you recognize your target audience accurately, and it can help you always stay in touch.
Emailing about new events, products or updates on your business can attract quite a crowd on your website.
The key is to keep content concise and not send emails so frequently that you end up in people’s spam lists. Remember, you should also consider email marketing privacy practices when it comes to sending email addresses.
8. Google Ads
If you’d like to skip the traditional methods of flyers and posters, content marketing is a great way to advertise your website digitally.
Google Ads show your website on top of the search results once a user searches for a specific keyword.
Google Ads are a great way to generate traffic and bring in qualified visitors to your website. The best part is, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
9. Online directories
You can list your business within online directories on the web.
These directories appear as online marketplaces to consumers. They efficiently layout your business in front of them with all the necessary details.
You can put your website links in these directories and they can generate direct traffic for you.
Not only do you get organic traffic, but you also receive backlinks from these directories, which can help boost your overall domain authority score.
10. Make a responsive site
These days a major portion of your website’s traffic comes from mobile devices. This means that you must make sure that your website is accessible and viewable across a range of devices.
If people have a disappointing experience browsing your website on their mobile phones, they might be considering going somewhere else for a better mobile website experience.
11. Learn and refer to Google Analytics
If you’re working towards boosting your website’s traffic, you must be well-versed with Google Analytics and refer to it regularly.
You can use this wonderful (and free) tool to track data for marketing campaigns, demographics, popular pages and more.
Pay close attention to your website’s visitor data and its behaviour; to gauge where you are getting your traffic from (so you can invest more in certain spaces), and how you can improve certain user experiences.