Increasing traffic to your website is essential for the success of your online business. There are many different ways to increase traffic to your website, including search engine optimization, social media marketing, content optimization, and advertising.
In this article, we will explore some of the most effective ways to increase traffic to your website and provide tips and strategies for implementing these tactics. Whether you’re just starting out with your online business or you’re looking to grow your existing website, these strategies can help you attract more visitors to your site and achieve your business goals.
1. Create high-quality content
One of the most effective ways to get more visitors to your website is to create high-quality, engaging, and informative content that is relevant to your target audience. By regularly publishing useful, interesting, and unique content on your website, you can attract more visitors and build a loyal audience.
High-quality content will increase backlinks to your website as well. Having a large number of high-quality backlinks will improve your website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages.
A great example is Kinsta. This hosting provider has a blog and regularly publishes large articles of high quality. These articles are about hosting, but also about WordPress, SEO, webshops, business, or any other website-related topics.
These type of blogs attracts users interested in web design and development. When they read Kinsta’s blog, they might discover Kinsta’s hosting services as well. This helps Kinsta to convert readers into customers.
Whether you’re an artist, photographer, coach, or cook; by publishing high-quality content you can attract new users. Eventually, they might become your new clients.
2. Use attractive titles and headlines
One way to increase traffic to your website is to use good headlines with keywords that are relevant to your content and that your target audience is likely to be searching for. This can help improve your website’s search engine rankings, making it more visible in search engine results and increasing the chances that people will click on your site.
Another way to use good headlines to increase traffic to your website is to make sure that your headlines are attention-grabbing and compelling. This can help entice people to click on your site and read your content.
Additionally, using numbers and lists in your headlines can be effective in increasing traffic to your website. This is because people are often drawn to headlines that promise to provide them with specific, actionable information that they can easily digest.
For example, a headline like “10 Ways to Build and Preserve Better Boundaries” is likely to be more effective at attracting clicks than a more general headline like “How to Build and Preserve Better Boundaries.”
3. Use the right keywords
Conduct keyword research to identify the terms and phrases that your target audience is searching for. This can help you optimize your website’s content and make it more visible in search engine results.
By conducting keyword research, you can identify the keywords that are most relevant to your business and your website’s content. You can see which keywords could enable you to rank high in Google.
Additionally, keyword research can help you understand the search intent of your target audience. This can support you in creating content that addresses the specific needs and interests of your audience, making it more likely that they will engage with your content.
This all helps you to create content that is more likely to rank well in search engine results and attract more visitors to your site. Great tools to conduct keyword research are KWFinder and Semrush.
4. Implement Schema markup
Using schema markup can help increase traffic to your website by making your content more visible and easy to understand for search engines. By providing structured additional information about your content, you can help search engines understand and display your content in a better way.
For example, if you have a recipe website, you can use schema markup to provide information about the ingredients, cooking time, and other details of each recipe. This helps search engines understand the content on your website and display it in a more user-friendly way in search engine results, making it more likely that people will click on your website when searching for a specific recipe. You can see an example below.
There are multiple ways to implement Schema markup. In WordPress, you can use the popular Yoast SEO plugin to implement Schema markups. Yoast has an interesting read about this as well.
5. Optimize your website’s load speed
Optimizing your website’s load speed will increase traffic to your website by improving the user experience. When a website loads quickly, visitors are able to access the content they are looking for more easily and are more likely to stay on the site and engage with the content. On the other hand, if a website takes too long to load, visitors may become frustrated and leave the site, decreasing the amount of time they spend on the website.
Optimizing your website’s load speed will also improve its search engine rankings. Search engines typically give preferential treatment to websites that load quickly, so optimizing your website’s load speed will help improve its visibility in search engine results and attract more visitors to your site.
You can check your website’s speed performance using Google PageSpeed Insights. Several WordPress plugins, such as WP Fastest Cache, are useful to further optimize the load speed of your website.
6. Promote your website on social media
Social media is a powerful tool for driving traffic to your website. By regularly sharing your content on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can reach a wider audience and attract more visitors to your site. You can also use social media to engage with your audience, build relationships, and generate buzz.
For example, The Blonde Abroad, a travel blogger, uses Instagram to actively engage with her audience.
7. Use internal linking
Internal linking helps attract more traffic to your website. It can make search engines better understand the structure and content of your website. This will improve your search engine rankings as well.
It can also help direct people to other pages on your website, which might keep them on your site longer and potentially increase the number of pages they view. Moreover, internal linking improves the user experience on your website by making it easier for people to find the information they are looking for.
See in the example below how Problogger, a website about blogging, uses lots of links to other internal articles.
8. Ensure a good user experience
A good user experience helps to attract more traffic to your website in a few different ways.
First, if people have a positive experience when they visit your site, they are more likely to share it with others, which increases your site’s visibility and brings more people to your site.
Second, a good user experience can improves your search engine rankings, as search engines often take into account factors like user engagement and satisfaction when determining how to rank websites.
Finally, a good user experience can also increase the amount of time that people spend on your site, which can increase the number of pages they view and potentially lead to more conversions or other desired actions.
One example in which user experience directly plays a role in traffic is the mobile-friendliness of your website. If your website is slow or difficult to use on a mobile device, it will automatically rank lower in Google’s search results. You can test the performance of your mobile website with Google’s Mobile-Friendly test.
We have written a UX Design Ultimate Guide to help you realize a better user experience.
9. Use email marketing
Email marketing is a powerful tool for attracting more visitors to your website. By collecting the email addresses of your visitors and sending them regular newsletters, updates, and special offers, you can keep them engaged with your website and encourage them to visit it more frequently. You can use opt-in forms, pop-ups, and other tools to collect email addresses from your visitors and build your email list.
Once you have a large email list, you can use it to promote your website and attract more visitors. For example, you can send emails to your subscribers that include links to your latest blog posts and promotions. By providing valuable and engaging content in your emails, you can entice your subscribers to visit your website and share your content with their friends and followers.
Another way that email marketing can help you get more visitors to your website is by providing personalized value to your subscribers based on previous visits. By sending them useful, interesting, and unique content that is relevant to their interests, you can establish your website as a resource and build trust and loyalty with your audience.
10. Use landing pages
Using landing pages can help increase traffic to your website by providing potential customers with a targeted, focused experience when they visit your site. A landing page is a standalone web page that is designed to capture a visitor’s attention and encourage them to take a specific action, such as filling out a form or making a purchase.
When you create a landing page for your website, you can optimize it for a specific keyword or phrase, making it more likely to rank well in search engine results for that keyword. This can increase the visibility of your website and attract more visitors to your site.
Additionally, you can use landing pages to target specific segments of your audience, providing them with content and offers that are tailored to their interests and needs. This helps to increase the relevance and value of your website for those visitors, increasing the chances that they will engage with your content and visit your site again in the future.
Overall, using landing pages can be an effective way to increase traffic to your website by improving its visibility in search engine results and providing a targeted, focused experience for your visitors.
A great example is Lyft’s landing page aimed at drivers. This page below, which is not the default homepage, is a great landing page for drivers looking for a job.
11. Participate in online communities
Online communities, such as forums, groups, and message boards, can be a great way to promote your website and attract more visitors. By participating in online communities and sharing your expertise, insights, and experiences, you can build relationships, establish your credibility, and generate traffic to your website.
A great example is indiehackers.com, a website aimed at people who start and build new businesses. By participating in these types of communities, you can connect with like-minded people and share your learnings. Other great communities are Reddit, Quora, Discord, and Facebook Groups.
12. Create and share videos
Videos are a powerful way to engage with your audience and attract more visitors. By creating and sharing videos on your website and on video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, you can provide value to your audience, showcase your products or services, and generate traffic.
Neil Patel is a blogger with a popular website about marketing. He actively uses his YouTube channel to talk about different topics and promote his own articles and products. This helps him to drive traffic to his website.
13. Run contests and giveaways
Contests and giveaways can be a great way to attract more visitors to your website and build your audience. They are an effective way to generate buzz and interest. By offering valuable prizes and incentives, you can encourage people to visit your website, share your content, and engage with your brand.
In the example below on Backpackers.com, a giveaway is organized. Visitors can sign up and win products from different brands. This helps to generate buzz and interest. At the same time, visitors’ email addresses can be collected and used to build Backpackers.com’s email list.
14. Host events or webinars
Hosting events or webinars on your website can increase traffic to your website in several ways. First, hosting events or webinars can attract new visitors to your site who are interested in the event or webinar topic. This can introduce your business to potential customers and increase awareness of your brand.
Second, hosting events or webinars can support establishing you and your business as thought leaders in your industry. This helps to build trust and credibility with potential customers, making them more likely to visit your website and do business with you.
Third, hosting events or webinars can provide an opportunity for you to collect email addresses from attendees. With this, you can build an email list that you can use to promote your website and drive traffic to it in the future.
A great example is HiMama. The core business of this company is to build an app for daycare centers. But next to that, it regularly hosts events or webinars as well. This helps to increase awareness and attract new customers. The $50 gift card contest is used to encourage visitors to sign up for webinars as well.
15. Provide valuable resources
Providing valuable resources, such as ebooks, guides, templates, courses, and tools, on your website can be a great way to attract more visitors and build your audience. By offering valuable resources that are relevant to your audience, you can provide value to your visitors. It helps to establish your website as a resource and generate extra traffic as well. You can provide these resources for free or for a fee, depending on your goals and preferences.
For example, Lifehack.org brings additional value to its visitors by providing free book summaries. And when a visitor shares an email address, this can be used to build a mailing list as well.
16. Collaborate with other bloggers and influencers
Collaborating with other bloggers and influencers in your niche can be a powerful way to promote your website and attract more visitors. By guest blogging on other websites, sharing each other’s content, and promoting each other’s work, you can reach a wider audience.
Reach out to bloggers and influencers you admire. This can be through a contact form or on social media. It is useful if you already have a clear proposal.
In the example below, Joshua Becker of the Becoming Minimalist blog was able to interview Jeff Goins, a popular author. This resulted in more traffic to Joshua’s website, and Jeff promoted the article as well.
This also works the other way around. By getting interviewed on someone else’s website, you can drive traffic to your website. This article by SmartBlogger has some great tips to increase your chances of getting interviewed by others.
17. Create a referral program
If you have a product or service to offer, referral programs might be interesting for you. Referral programs can help increase traffic to your website by providing incentives for customers to refer others to your site. For example, you could offer a discount or other reward to customers who refer friends or family members to your website. This helps to spread the word about your business and encourages more people to visit your site.
Referral programs can also increase trust in your business and improve customer satisfaction. When customers refer others to your site, they are essentially giving their stamp of approval and recommending your business to others. This can result in more trust and credibility among potential customers, increasing the chances that they will visit your website and make a purchase or request a quote.
Additionally, referral programs are a way to attract new customers who are similar to your existing customer base. When customers refer others to your site, those referrals are likely to be similar to the customers who made the referral in terms of interests, demographics, and other factors. This helps you target your marketing efforts more effectively and attract the right type of customers to your website.
Braxley Bands, a small company that produces affordable Apple Watch bands, has created a Refer-A-Friend program. This program gives you a 20% discount and the chance for a gift card in return.
18. Use paid advertising
Paid advertising, such as Google AdWords and Facebook Ads, can be an effective way to attract more visitors to your website. By creating and running paid advertising campaigns, you can target specific keywords, demographics, and interests, and drive targeted traffic to your website. Paid advertising can be a fast and scalable way to get more visitors to your website, but it can also be expensive. It is, therefore, important to carefully plan and manage your campaigns to ensure that they are (cost-)effective.
19. Refresh your content regularly
Refreshing the content on a website increases traffic in a number of ways. Regularly updating the content on a website can help to improve its search engine rankings. Search engines tend to favor websites that regularly provide fresh, relevant content, so updating the content on a website improves its visibility in search results. This attracts more organic traffic to the site.
Refreshing content also improves the user experience by providing visitors with new and interesting information. This can make the website more engaging and encourages visitors to spend more time on your site and explore more pages. And of course, refreshing the content on a website helps to keep everything relevant and timely, which attracts and retains a loyal audience.
In the example below, you can see an article on ‘The Planet D’ travel blog. Although this article was originally published in 2019, you can see it is still updated after three years.
20. Localize your website
Localizing your website means adapting it to the language, culture, and preferences of your target audience in different locations. By localizing your website, you can make it more relevant and appealing to users in different regions, which can help you attract more visitors from these regions. You can localize your website by translating it into different languages, using local currency, and providing local content and services.
Allegheny Bradford Corporation, a manufacturing company, translated her English website into Korean and Chinese to attract a wider audience.
WordPress has plugins, such as TranslatePress, that enable you to translate your website into multiple languages.
21. Create infographics and shareable images
Infographics and images make your website’s content more engaging and visually appealing. This attracts and retains visitors to your site, increasing the amount of time they spend on your website.
These infographics and images can be shared on social media and other platforms as well, increasing the visibility of your website and driving traffic to it. When people share your infographics and images on social media, their followers will see the content and may be interested in visiting your website to learn more.
The example below comes from a blog post about men’s clothing. The article explains how men’s wardrobes can be effectively arranged. With just 16 pieces of clothing, you can create 256 outfits. The image clearly explains how this works, much better than just text. It is easy for visitors to share this picture with friends, who then might decide to visit your website too.
22. Create a Google Business Profile
If you are running a local business or offering person-to-person services, it is useful to sign up for a Google Business Profile. A Google business profile is a listing on Google that includes information about your business, such as your business name, address, and phone number.
When people search for your business on Google, your business profile will appear in the search results. This provides potential customers with information about your business and makes it more visible to them.
To use your Google business profile to drive more traffic to your website, you can include a link to your website in your business profile. This will allow potential customers to easily access your website from your business profile, increasing the chances that they will visit your site.
A few things you should NOT do
We have now seen 22 effective tips for more traffic to your website. These are all effective ways to attract a bigger audience.
In your journey to attract more people, it is also important to be aware of how NOT to increase traffic. At the end of this article, we would like to conclude with a few things that you should not do if you want to increase traffic to your website.
- Buying traffic: Buying traffic may seem like an easy way to increase the number of visitors to your site, but it can actually be detrimental to your website’s reputation and search engine rankings.
- Using unethical or illegal methods: Using unethical or illegal methods to increase traffic to your website, such as buying links or participating in link schemes, can result in penalties from search engines and damage to your website’s reputation.
- Not providing valuable content: Visitors will only come to your website if they find it useful or interesting. If your website doesn’t have valuable content, people are unlikely to visit or return in the future.
- Not promoting your website: If people don’t know about your website, they can’t visit it. You need to promote your website in order to attract visitors.
- Not making your website mobile-friendly: Many people now use their smartphones to browse the web. If your website is not mobile-friendly, you could be missing out on a significant portion of potential visitors.
Do you have any more do’s (or don’ts)? Please let us know in the comment section below.