8 Brilliant Ways to Increase Online Traffic to Your Website in 2018

There are over 1.9 BILLION live websites on the Internet right now. That number increases every day.

With so much content out there, it’s hard to cut through all the noise to reach your desired target audience. While you don’t have to fight content that’s completely irrelevant to your website’s topic, you will have to fight with relevant competitors.

Too many website owners make the mistake of building their website and thinking that the online traffic will instantly come. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

You have to apply many best practices across your website to increase your overall online traffic. Below are eight things you can do to help draw more users to your site.

1. Master On-Page SEO

One of the best things you can do to increase your online traffic is to get a handle on your search engine optimization (SEO).

There are many factors that go into SEO including:

• Optimized metadata
• Website speed
• Website responsiveness
• Linking structure

The metadata on your web pages is something you can easily change today to help get your content in front of relevant users.

To do this, select a keyword that you want each page to rank for. Use that keyword in the page’s title/page tag, meta description, URL, and H2 tags. Optimizing your pages this way helps search engines understand what’s on the page.

When you select keywords, opt for long-tail keywords which can help you capture better-qualified audience members. An example of a long-tail keyword would be using “used Toyota Camry 2014” versus “Toyota Camry”. Long-tail keywords also tend to be less competitive because there’s less search traffic volume.

2. Adopt Email Marketing

Despite all the changes in how products are marketed to consumers, email is still the most popular and most effective channel by far.

Customers increasingly expect email communications from businesses they interact with. They also have a higher expectation for being able to manage their email preferences and communication frequency with those businesses.

Email marketing and automation can help you immediately welcome new users to your site, direct them back to your site, and create better user experiences. It also allows you to better segment your users based on their actions on your site and their self-identified preferences.

3. Master the Social Media Hashtag

Another easy (and free) way to drive customers to your website is through social media marketing.

Start getting in the habit of whenever you launch a new product or post something new to your blog of posting about it on social media. Those links should go directly to the corresponding content on your website.

You can also attract new leads and high-quality users by identifying popular hashtags related to your product or service and using them in your social media posts. This won’t work for every channel or every industry but could be useful if your business is related to consumer or lifestyle products.

4. Start Guest Blogging or Podcasting

Guest blogging simply involves pitching and writing content for blogs that focus on your industry. The idea is that you share knowledge with others in your industry and that readers are inclined to check out your website through the link in your guest blog bio.

Because it’s standard for guest blog bios to have a link to your website, that can also increase your SEO score. That’s because each link that refers traffic to your site tells the search engines that your website is reputable and has useful information.

Guest blogging isn’t right for everyone but it can help increase your online traffic.

The same idea is behind guest podcasting. If you give an interview for an industry podcast, your bio will have a referral link to your website which interested listeners can click on to learn more about you and your company.

5. Optimize for Local

If you run a business that’s focused on a particular city or town, then optimizing your website for local search can help draw more traffic to your site.

In short, this means incorporating your target market area into your keyword strategy. You want this location to be on your homepage as well as many of your key product or services pages.

6. Host Webinars on Your Site

In almost every industry, people look to find high-quality (and in many cases, free) resources to help them build their skills or learn something new about their industry. Webinars are a particularly popular form of ad hoc e-learning.

If you have the capacity and a lot of knowledge to offer others in your market, try offering a couple of webinars each month. Promote them on your website, through paid advertising, and on social media. As your viewer base grows, the word will get out that you offer great resources and more users will land on your website looking for those resources.

7. Write Enticing Headlines

We’re not talking about clickbait here, just headlines that will pique the interest of the reader and convey the content immediately.

There is a key principle to keep in mind when you write headlines. You want it to be useful, relevant, and timely for the user. You also want it to be more specific rather than less.

When you write listicles or long guides, using phrases like “Top 10” or “Definitive Guide” in your headlines can help you get more engagement.

At the end of the day, even if you’ve written a stellar piece of content, it won’t be seen unless it has a catchy title to accompany it.

8. Paid Advertising

Paid advertising is not the right solution for every business, but it can be useful if you have the budget for it.

Depending on your business model, advertising in print or digital trade publications can help you reach B2B customers. For B2C customers, try looking to social media for paid advertising.

The good news about paid advertising, especially on social media, is that you can get ultra-specific on who or where you advertise to. You can narrow your target audience down to a particular age group or town to make sure your dollars are being spent wisely.

Increase Your Online Traffic Today

By implementing some, if not all, of these tips, you can increase your online traffic in just a couple of months. None of these solutions should be treated as band-aids, but rather as foundations to good web content and website management.

If you would like a consultation on how to increase your online traffic, please get in touch with us.