Whether you own a traditional retail store or an online store, boosting your webpage traffic is crucial to your business. Websites function as your business’s digital storefront, where customers can get to know more about your products, cultivate trust in your brand, and ultimately become clients and referees.

Nonetheless, designing a user-friendly website isn’t going to generate traffic if customers can’t locate your website. In this post, we’ll go over some ways you can get online exposure and generate traffic.

Why Do Online Businesses Require More Traffic?

Some business owners usually disregard owning a website, let alone generating traffic. A website is a must-have in the digital age, even for conventional physical retailers.

At the very least, prospective customers can familiarize themselves with your business. Ideally, you should design your website in such a way that potential customers can access your business and eventually buy your products.

Website traffic is generally used as a yardstick for business growth. Traffic can help you to:

• Determine if your marketing strategies are working.
• Gain insights on your customer base to guide your decision-making.
• Boost your search engine optimization methods.
• Boost conversions and generate more referrals.

Achieving these goals requires you to know how to drive traffic to your website the correct way.

What You Should Know About Increasing Website Traffic

From an advertising standpoint, the method you use to get your first client is the same one you use to get your hundredth one.

However, for traffic to lead to conversions, you must meet a few conditions to ascertain that the cost is sustainable and traffic leads to conversion. Here are some factors to consider:

• The product quality: A quality product is good enough for your customers and checks their cost-benefits assessment.
• Target audience: To drive traffic to your website, you have to consider who your audience is and if they’re currently consuming your product.
• Product story: A compelling product story will go a long way in generating traffic to your website. The story has to resonate with the audience so that they can buy the product. You should tell your audience why your product is better than the competitors’.
• Marketing strategy: You have to find an inexpensive way of reaching your audience. You should aim to use multiple low-cost methods.

20 Free & Paid Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Website

1. Make Viral Content

Viral posts are generally short and topical and evoke strong emotions. There’s no way to know which post can have such an effect on people. But, if successful, viral content can result in a huge traffic surge.

To come up with creative ideas for viral content, you should have:

• an idea of what’s trending in the news;
• an unusual stance on a particular subject;
• access to exclusive information;
• uncommon hacks or tips to share.

Before posting, ensure you have a captivating headline, and you format your work in a manner that simplifies reading. Making viral content can take one to three weeks and requires moderate effort.

2. Create Evergreen Posts

While creating time-sensitive posts can bring in significant traffic in the short term, timeless content can generate passive traffic for years or months after publishing.

Evergreen posts refer to content that stays relevant irrespective of when they were posted. An example of an evergreen post is an article about the importance of having an emergency fund. In contrast, an excellent example of time-sensitive content is a post about the ten leading stocks to buy right now.

As you can see, the emergency fund post has perpetual relevance. There’s always the likelihood of people stumbling upon the article at any time.

Depending on the length and quality of your post, it would take around one to three weeks to create timeless pieces.

3. Make the Most out of Search Engines, Particularly Google

According to research, web rankings on Google’s first search page results get the most user clicks. This simply means that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is vital to increasing your website’s visibility to generate what’s referred to as organic traffic.

A lot goes into SEO. However, here are some main points to keep in mind for more SEO-oriented writing:

• Make a list of keywords that relate to your business.
• Conduct research to establish the type of content ranks for the keywords you’ve identified. Simply put: find out what your competitors are doing to drive traffic to their sites.
• Give your post a clear and accurate title.
• Write compelling and descriptive meta descriptions that draw in your readers.
• Use proper alt tags for photos in your post.

To optimize your website for SEO and conversions, you’ll have to come up with creative content that will interest your audience.

Google’s algorithm changes regularly; SEO isn’t a one-time project. It requires continuous effort. Although SEO may be tiring, it is what lies between high and zero visibility for your webpage. However, most businesses neither have the time nor the expertise needed to manage all of this. As a result, they usually outsource professional SEO services.

4. Have Captivating Titles

Using captivating titles simply means writing enticing and provocative headlines that are likely to pique your reader’s interest. If your website has many high-quality posts but still has low traffic, try modifying the titles to be more enticing. This will help it rank better on Google and make it more shareable and clickable.

Here are a few pointers that can help you make your titles more captivating:

• Use strong verbs or descriptors. For example, use ‘outstanding’ rather than ‘good.’
• Be accurate and precise.
• Limit your title to 70 characters or less
• Include a number if relevant, for example, ’18 ways to….’
• Avoid cliché phrases and words.

A captivating title can be a game-changer in generating new traffic to your website. Rewriting your headlines requires little effort, but it can make a big difference.

5. Use Long-Tail Keywords

A long-tail keyword is a set of definite keyword clauses with a low search volume. Even though they aren’t searched for as often, their degree of specificity is in most instances indicative of a prospective customers’ likelihood of making a purchase.

Using long-tail keywords means you’ll have less competition than if you’re using regular high-volume keywords. Long-tail keywords increase your chances of a good Google ranking and attract visitors who will likely buy your products or services.

Just like SEO optimization, using long-tail keywords requires ongoing effort.

6. Syndicate Posts

Syndicating your content on high-authority sites can broaden your content exposure to people who otherwise might have never come across it. For instance, you can syndicate your content on leading sites like Fast Company and Business Insider to generate traffic.

Building a relationship with editors from different sites will take a lot of time, especially if you’re dealing with editors who work in well-established companies. However, you can start small by syndicating your work on sites such as LinkedIn and Medium.

7. Use Digital Platforms

Currently, there are over three billion social media users globally, making it one of the best methods to generate traffic. If you want to engage users:

• Post your products on Pinterest, Facebook, and other leading platforms. Be sure to add some personality that will shape your brand’s voice as well as attract new clients.
• Don’t be too formal with your posts. When it comes to creating content for social platforms, you have limited space. Therefore, don’t write LinkedIn posts or tweets the same way you’d write a blog post.
• Engage your followers. You can either ask for their opinion or reply to comments. Direct interaction cultivates engagement.
• Share links to your website on all the social media platforms. A post that social media users relate to might take off, resulting in shares and, as a result, more traffic.
• Put social media sharing icons on your websites. These buttons will facilitate customer engagement and encourage them to post the content on their own social media pages.
• Think of a catchy hashtag to use when marketing your products or posts. A catchy hashtag creates a lasting impression and creates interest. For all you know, it might go viral.

Even though this strategy takes a lot of time and effort, creating a social media presence for your website can generate high traffic, leading to huge conversion rates.

8. Write Guest Posts and Invite Guest Contributors

Writing guest posts can help get your work and name out there. Guest posting involves writing content on a publication, website, or blog that isn’t yours. It requires a lot of effort as other websites will require high-quality content.

When guest posting, always go with sites in your niche, which will direct relevant traffic to your website. For example, if you have a pet care blog, writing on a website that deals with advancements in AI wouldn’t be logical.

Alternatively, you can also invite other writers to publish something on your website. This can increase traffic to your website since guest contributors usually market their work to their followers. Be careful, though; not every writer produces quality content. Therefore, you have to be careful when choosing what to publish.

While guest posting can sometimes feel like a long shot, don’t get discouraged. It will pay off eventually.

9. Link Internally

Your visitors will be trapped and restricted to any page they land on if your blog posts and landing pages don’t link internally. Therefore, you should add more internal links to help readers better navigate your site.

Additionally, internal links build your website’s structure to help search engines such as Google make out the pages that comprise your site’s most important contents. A good website hierarchy enables web crawlers to easily find and index web pages.

10. Use Email Marketing

You can also use email marketing to increase traffic to your webpage. Email marketing refers to conducting an email outreach to your target audience.

How to drive traffic to your website using email marketing:

• Notify clients of updates and new products.
• Offer educational materials.
• Welcome new members.
• Announce offers.

Email marketing can attract visitors to check out your website and explore it further, provided your email copy is captivating. Even though you’ll draft the emails on your own, services such as Constant Contact and MailChimp simplify the design and formatting process.

11. Respond to Quora Questions

Make a profile and respond to Quora queries that relate to your site. While doing that, ensure that you don’t overly promote your site. Include links to your website only in relevant places. This could be in a response where you have a relevant blog post or web page to link to or in your profile information.

Make your byline catchy and provide responses relevant to your site’s topic to capture the reader’s attention. You need to apply a good strategy; look for questions not saturated with answers and give quality responses.

The effort it takes to answer Quora questions ranges from moderate to high, depending on the depth you aim for in your responses.

12. Repurpose Contents

You can repurpose a successful blog post for steady traffic. A weblog is just a single content medium that you can repackage in other forms to draw more users.

There’s no standard way of repackaging content, but there are different ways of doing this. You can repurpose your content by creating:

• Podcasts
• Webinars
• Video contents
• Infographics
• SlideShares or slide decks

A repurposed content presents the opportunity to take an outdated but successful piece further.

Repurposing content requires high effort, so ensure you’re up for the task.

13. Host Contests and Giveaways

In the process of generating traffic, you can ramp up client engagement by hosting contests and giveaways. The ultimate prize should be valuable to the users and redeemable in terms of charges.

Research to get inspiration from sites that host such events. Blogilates is one of the popular websites that regularly host contests and giveaways.

First, choose a prize, then promote the contest on your website and social media platforms. You can also demand that contestants share the post or tag friends to be eligible for the prize. This will increase traffic and raise the stakes.

14. Refresh Outdated Blog Posts

It’s normal for blog posts to become outdated. You can refresh posts that have flopped and can do better if optimized or posts that have previously delivered exceptional performance. Following this, you should update and republish your old blog posts for another shot at traffic.

Refreshing old posts can boost exposure and save you from creating new content from scratch.

You can make the following changes to update old content:

• Upgrade the content formatting.
• Restore old stats with fresh ones.
• Optimize the posts to increase conversion.
• Correct typos and fix broken links.
• Include new internal links to the upgraded content.

Since Google’s algorithm is dynamic, keywords rankings change regularly. Therefore, your content shouldn’t be stagnant; update your posts constantly so that they remain relevant.

15. Give Samples to Influencers and Bloggers

If you sell products on your website, consider partnering with bloggers and influencers. These influencers will increase your site’s exposure and give you social credibility. They’ll publicly endorse your product and convince skeptical prospects to purchase your products.

If you can’t afford to pay A-list bloggers, you can opt for “micro-influencers” who endorse products at an affordable price. Even though micro-influencers have a smaller fanbase than the A-list ones, they realize more user engagement from the audiences.

16. Start a Referral Program

Most consumers usually make purchases after getting recommendations from other people. Referral marketing strategy attracts high traffic and conversion rates. Customers usually reach out to their contacts who are likely to purchase the products.

Several e-commerce stores implement referral programs to boost their sales. A good example is Dropbox which has a two-sided program that rewards old and new users with extra storage space. This program increased the users’ number by 3,900% in a period of 15 months.

Your reward or incentive has to be enticing enough for your referral program to be successful. The prize should motivate clients to share your website actively. Examples of awards include store credit, free samples, an upgrade, or a discount.

17. Get Your Website Listed on Review Sites and Directories

Round-up articles exist all over the global web, with many visitors consulting them every day for recommendations and guidance.

Websites like ivetriedthat generate listicles and product reviews regularly. Get in touch with their web admin to include your website for more exposure.

Keep in mind that you need to be persistent when contacting these sites. Some web admins charge a fee or link back on your website in exchange for mentioning yours in theirs.

18. Pay for Advertising

You can pay for digital advertising like pay-per-click (PPC) to get instant traffic if you have an adequate marketing budget. Pay-per-click is a search engine marketing form where advertisers bid and finance advert placement in search engines’ page results. The advertisers pay every time a visitor clicks on their advertisements.

Although conventional ad campaigns show quick outcomes, they are ultimately expensive and less sustainable. On the contrary, content marketing may take several months or years to deliver results, but generating SEO-friendly content establishes trust between sites and the target audiences.

19. Post on Reddit

Since its launch in 2005, Reddit has risen in internet popularity to become a top-ranking website for networking, entertainment, and news. Redditors — Reddit users — vote “down” or “up” on submitted posts, thus influencing their rankings and visibility to other users.

Reddit gives you the chance to generate traffic as long as you advertise skillfully. When advertising on Reddit, ensure you’re not exceedingly promotional. Find the relevant subreddits to post in and strive to know its users. Submitted links with misleading titles are considered spam. As a result, Reddit may ban you from the platform.

20. Invest in Sponsored Content

Investing in sponsored content on other websites gives you the chance to share your brand with other sites’ audiences.

Sponsored posts copy a site’s editorial content and style but are actually a type of advertising. These contents are less advertorial compared to conventional ads and can easily blend in, except if the label precisely states the relationship.

A case in point is Qualcomm’s sponsored post on The Atlantic. You can only know that the content is sponsored because the page’s header explicitly states that Qualcomm paid for it.

The touchpoints post series is substantially informational. Even though it markets Qualcomm’s brand, it’s not openly salesy. Sponsored content drives traffic from other sites by subtle means.

Reasons to Avoid Automatic Site Traffic Generators

When thinking about how to drive traffic to your website, you may be tempted to use an instant free or paid site traffic generator for your business. Below are some reasons to avoid using them:

1. Your Visitors Won’t Be Targeted

The main aim of attracting more traffic to your site and getting higher rankings on Google is to multiply the number of prospects who interact with your business and can hopefully become clients.

If a large part of your traffic isn’t your target audience, the high chances are that they won’t engage with your site. Consequently, your conversion rates and lead may decline.

2. Google May Ban Your Website

Cheap site traffic will hurt you! Using instant traffic bots may expose you to the danger of getting banned from Google and online advertising platforms. Take your time and generate sustainable and high-quality traffic to your website.

Getting more traffic to your site is worthless if the visitors can’t engage with your web pages, convert into leads, or become customers. You can’t increase your site traffic overnight; you must put in effort and time to generate high-quality traffic.

Ensure you use secure channels like Google My Business and the others listed in this article to increase your traffic the right way. This will help you attract the right guests who will likely convert into clients.

3. They Can Harm Your Rankings

Google monitors how people interact with your site. It can get suspicious of spikes in your website’s activity and discover spammy behavior. Automatic traffic generators or bots can attract Google’s attention and damage your reputation, thus hurting your rankings.

Website Mistakes that Lower Your Traffic

1. Monotonous Content

You should create meaningful content that speaks to your audience. Some of the common mistakes you can make when trying to increase traffic include:

• Bland about segment
• Boring product descriptions
• Keyword-heavy text
• Outdated service sections
• Over-extensive descriptions

Ensure you understand your target audience and create relevant content that will engage them.

2. Poor User Experience

Poor user experience means your prospects spend little time on your website. The following mistakes can cause a bad user experience and lead to high bounce rates:

• Contact details that are difficult to find.
• Slow page loading speed.
• No calls to action.
• Non-mobile-friendly websites.
• Poorly organized content and confusing navigation.
• An outdated website.
• Broken links.
• Poor product shots and unappealing visuals.

3. Non-Mobile Responsive Site

Since most people use their smartphones and tablets to access websites, you have to create mobile responsive sites to attract high traffic.

Search engines have developed algorithms to locate mobile-friendly websites. Consequently, if your website is not mobile-friendly, your chances of generating high traffic will be lower, and vice versa.

Wrap Up

Even though high traffic is essential, it doesn’t mean everything. You have to account for your traffic’s quality and ensure that most of your guests are your target audience. Your traffic strategy should attract visitors interested in your business to achieve high returns.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can I increase direct traffic?

To boost direct traffic, you have to increase brand awareness. When choosing a domain or business name, go for a name that is easy to spell and recall. Once people are aware of your brand, they’ll head directly to your site, and the traffic will increase.

2. Which types of web pages generate more traffic?

SEO-friendly websites get the most traffic as they have effective navigation, proper URL structure, fast page loading time, and a clean codebase.

3. How do I check how much traffic a website generates?

Use Google Analytics to determine the amount of traffic generated by your website. Other traffic websites for competitive analysis include SimilarWeb, Alexa, and Ahrefs.

4. How can I boost website traffic without SEO?

Even though SEO is a key to getting long-lasting traffic, you can use other methods such as online communities, guest blogging, email campaigns, social networks, and ad campaigns.

5. How long does it take for a new site to generate traffic?

It depends on the kind of traffic. Organic and direct traffic typically take longer to generate. When using SEO, significant traffic bumps are usually seen 3-6 months after the campaign is launched.

6. Why is my site not attracting traffic?

Your site may not be getting traffic due to its user experience. If the site isn’t user-friendly, nobody will want to visit. Even if you publish quality content that visitors want to read, they might not even get into your site to read it.