Top 20 Effective ways to Optimize in order to get the most out of Incoming Traffic

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You know you’re a marketer when you’re sitting in traffic on the highway, it’s completely bumper to bumper, and all you can think about is “Why can’t I drive traffic to my website like this?“

If you’ve struggled with driving traffic to your website, you’re not alone. According to 2019 research done by Content Marketing Institute, 61% of content professionals are challenged with knowing what is most important to their audiences, 50% are challenged with knowing the goal of the audience at a particular stage of the customer’s journey, and 49% are challenged with knowing the steps in the customer’s journey.

Between writing a new blog post, posting on social media, and strategizing for a new email campaign, it’s hard to look back and see what’s driving traffic to your site and what isn’t.

From this article, you will learn how to optimise your website in order to take advantage of incoming traffic.

20 Effective ways to Drive Traffic to your Website
What is the most Effective SEO Tactic?
How can I Improve my SEO Traffic in 30 days?
How long does it take for a new Website to get Traffic?
How can I get free Traffic?
What is Considered good Traffic for a Website?

20 Effective ways to Drive Traffic to your Website

What often comes after customers on a business’ wish list? More traffic to their site. There are many ways you can increase traffic on your website, and in today’s post, we’re going to look at 20 of them, including several ways to boost site traffic for FREE.

1. Advertise

This one is so obvious, we’re going to look at it first. Paid search, social media advertising and display advertising are all excellent ways of attracting visitors, building your brand and getting your site in front of people.

Adjust your paid strategies to suit your goals – do you just want more traffic, or are you looking to increase conversions, too? Each paid channel has its pros and cons, so think carefully about your objectives before you reach for your credit card.

If you’re hoping that more traffic to your site will also result in more sales, you’ll need to target high commercial intent keywords as part of your paid search strategies. Yes, competition for these search terms can be fierce (and expensive), but the payoffs can be worth it.

2. Get Social

It’s not enough to produce great content and hope that people find it – you have to be proactive. One of the best ways to increase traffic to your website is to use social media channels to promote your content.

Twitter is ideal for short, snappy (and tempting) links, whereas Google+ promotion can help your site show up in personalized search results and seems especially effective in B2B niches. If you’re a B2C product company, you might find great traction with image-heavy social sites like Pinterest and Instagram.

3. Mix It Up

There is no magic formula for content marketing success, despite what some would have you believe. For this reason, vary the length and format of your content to make it as appealing as possible to different kinds of readers. Intersperse shorter, news-based blog posts with long-form content as well as video, infographics and data-driven pieces for maximum impact.

4. Write Irresistible Headlines

Headlines are one of the most important parts of your content. Without a compelling headline, even the most comprehensive blog post will go unread. Master the art of headline writing.

For example, the writers at BuzzFeed and Upworthy often write upward of twenty different headlines before finally settling on the one that will drive the most traffic, so think carefully about your headline before you hit “publish.”

5. Pay Attention to On-Page SEO

Think SEO is dead? Think again. Optimizing your content for search engines is still a valuable and worthwhile practice. Are you making the most of image alt text? Are you creating internal links to new content? What about meta descriptions? Optimizing for on-page SEO doesn’t have to take ages, and it could help boost your organic traffic.

6. Target Long-Tail Keywords

Got your high-intent keyword and popular keyword bases covered? Then it’s time to target long-tail keywords, too. Long-tail keywords account for a majority of web searches, meaning that if you’re not targeting them as part of your paid search or SEO efforts, you’re missing out.

7. Start Guest Blogging

Before you say it – no, true guest blogging isn’t dead, despite what you may have heard. Securing a guest post on a reputable site can increase blog traffic to your website and help build your brand into the bargain.

Be warned, though – standards for guest blogging have changed radically during the past eighteen months, and spammy tactics could result in stiff penalties. Proceed with caution.

8. Invite Others to Guest Blog on Your Site

Guest blogging is a two-way street. In addition to posting content to other blogs, invite people in your niche to blog on your own site. They’re likely to share and link to their guest article, which could bring new readers to your site. Just be sure that you only post high-quality, original content without spammy links, because Google is cracking way down on low-quality guest blogging.

9. Go After Referral Traffic

Rather than trying to persuade other sites to link back to you (a tedious and time-intensive process), create content that just begs to be linked to.

When Larry wrote about the kick in the proverbial teeth that eBay took from Google’s Panda update, we managed to secure a link from Ars Technica in the Editor’s Pick section alongside links to The New York Times and National Geographic. Not too shabby – and neither was the resulting spike in referral traffic

10. Post Content to LinkedIn

LinkedIn has become much more than a means of finding another job. The world’s largest professional social network is now a valuable publishing platform in its own right, which means you should be posting content to LinkedIn on a regular basis.

Doing so can boost traffic to your site, as well as increase your profile within your industry – especially if you have a moderate to large following.

11. Implement Schema Microdata

Implementing schema (or another microdata format) won’t necessarily increase traffic to your website on its own, but it will make it easier for search engine bots to find and index your pages. Another benefit of using schema for SEO is that it can result in better rich site snippets, which can improve click-through rates.

12. Link Internally

The strength of your link profile isn’t solely determined by how many sites link back to you – it can also be affected by your internal linking structure.

When creating and publishing content, be sure to keep an eye out for opportunities for internal links. This not only helps with SEO, but also results in a better, more useful experience for the user – the cornerstone of increasing traffic to your website.

13. Interview Industry Thought Leaders

Think interviews are only for the big leaguers? You’d be amazed how many people will be willing to talk to you if you just ask them. Send out emails requesting an interview to thought leaders in your industry, and publish the interviews on your blog.

Not only will the name recognition boost your credibility and increase traffic to your website, the interviewee will probably share the content too, further expanding its reach.

14. Don’t Neglect Email Marketing

So many businesses are focused on attracting new customers through content marketing that they forget about more traditional methods. Email marketing can be a powerful tool, and even a moderately successful email blast can result in a significant uptick in traffic. Just be careful not to bombard people with relentless emails about every single update in your business.

Also, don’t overlook the power of word-of-mouth marketing, especially from people who are already enjoying your products or services. A friendly email reminder about a new service or product can help you boost your traffic, too.

15. Make Sure Your Site is Responsive

The days when internet browsing was done exclusively on desktop PCs are long gone. Today, more people than ever before are using mobile devices to access the web, and if you force your visitors to pinch and scroll their way around your site, you’re basically telling them to go elsewhere.

Even if you have a basic website, you still need to ensure that it is accessible and comfortably viewable across a range of devices, including smaller smartphones.

16. Make Sure Your Site is Fast

Ever found yourself waiting thirty seconds for a webpage to load? Me neither. If your site takes forever to load, your bounce rate will be sky high. Make sure that your pages are as technically optimized as possible, including image file sizes, page structure and the functionality of third-party plugins. The faster your site loads, the better.

17. Foster a Sense of Community

People want to speak their minds and weigh in on subjects they feel passionately about, so building a community into your site is a great way to start a conversation and increase traffic to your website.

Implement a robust commenting system through third-party solutions such as Facebook comments or Disqus, or create a dedicated forum where visitors can ask questions. Don’t forget to manage your community to ensure that minimum standards of decorum are met, however.

18. Make Yourself Heard in Comment Sections

You probably visit at least a few sites that are relevant to your business on a regular basis, so why not join the conversation?

Commenting doesn’t necessarily provide an immediate boost to referral traffic right away, but making a name for yourself by providing insightful, thought-provoking comments on industry blogs and sites is a great way to get your name out there – which can subsequently result in driving more traffic to your own site.

Just remember that, as with guest posting, quality and relevance are key – you should be engaging with other people in your niche, not dropping spam links on unrelated websites.

19. Examine Your Analytics Data

Google Analytics is an invaluable source of data on just about every conceivable aspect of your site, from your most popular pages to visitor demographics.

Keep a close eye on your Analytics data, and use this information to inform your promotional and content strategies. Pay attention to what posts and pages are proving the most popular. Inspect visitor data to see how, where and when your site traffic is coming from.

20. Get Active on Social Media

It’s not enough to just share content through social channels – you need to actively participate in the community, too. Got a Twitter account? Then join in group discussions with relevant hashtags. Is your audience leaving comments on your Facebook posts?

Answer questions and engage with your readers. Nothing turns people off quicker than using social media as a broadcast channel – use social media as it was intended and actually interact with your fans.

What is the most Effective SEO Tactic?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving how specific web pages rank in a search engine’s unpaid results. But what tactics are companies using to achieve their important SEO objectives?

To find out, Ascend2 fielded the Search Engine Optimization Survey, and a total of 279 marketing professionals participated. The results of the survey are available free of charge in the Search Engine Optimization Tactics Survey Summary Report. Here are a few noteworthy findings from the survey that will help you this year.

1. Most Effective SEO Tactics

There are many tactics used to achieve important SEO objectives effectively. For a 57 percent majority of marketing professionals, on-page content development is effective. Keyword research, link building, and website structure are also effective tactics for 50 percent, 46 percent, and 43 percent of marketing influencers respectively.

2. Most Difficult SEO Tactics

Link building is considered the most difficult tactic to implement by a 52 percent majority of marketing professionals. The tactical degree of difficulty is a primary factor in determining the implementation resources to use.

3. SEO Implementation Resources Used

The implementation of some SEO tactics, such as link building, may require skills and capabilities not always available in-house. That’s why 84 percent of marketing professionals say they outsource all or part of their SEO implementation tactics to specialists.

How can I Improve my SEO Traffic in 30 days?

1. Build an Email List

Building a strong email list is not easy, but it’s essential for anyone who has a website. A good list and email marketing strategy can bring you a steady stream of traffic, as well as more clients and conversions.

One way to gather more emails in your list is to offer valuable downloadable content to your audience that requires a subscription. You want to avoid buying email lists, though, as those leads aren’t qualified and could mark your emails as spam.

From there, make sure to keep your list updated to any new developments on your website, any new content that you’ve posted, and anything else you can think of that your audience would be interested in hearing about.

2. Blog Regularly

Blogging and content marketing have become a big part of digital marketing in recent years. Now it seems like most businesses and websites have their own blog, and for good reason – blogging drives more traffic to your site, helps you build better and stronger relationships with your audience and can help you establish yourself as a thought leader in your niche.

Blogging can be time-consuming, but with a good strategy and content calendar in place, it’s very much worth it. You can also repurpose your blog content by converting it into an infographic, slide deck or ebook.

The better your content is, the more your audience will appreciate it and share it – which means more traffic to your site and more loyal fans who will visit your blog regularly.

3. Engage with Audience on Social Media

Social media can be a great source of traffic, but it requires daily attention to get you the results you need. First of all, make sure you’ve added links to your website in your different bios.

From there, in order to grow your social media presence and subsequently, your traffic, you have to engage with audiences as often as possible.

Share any new, valuable content that you publish on your website on your social media, and make sure to add social media sharing buttons on your website and blog so that your visitors can share as well.

4. Use social media ads

The best way to get quick results from social media is to create ads.

Facebook in particular is making it especially hard for businesses and brands to get their posts in front of their audiences, but with ads you can get a quick boost in traffic.

Most social networks have great targeting and different types of ads to suit most needs, and they also bring in good results.

5. Create an account on StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon can be an amazing source of traffic. Website owners often noticed huge spikes in visitor numbers from StumbleUpon even without trying to achieve that.

If you’re not familiar with StumbleUpon, it’s a content curation website where the best pieces of content – images, video, or text – can unexpectedly go viral.

The “secret” to StumbleUpon is pretty simple – relevant content that provides real value for its readers. You could be getting traffic from it without even using it, but to make sure you get more traffic, and more consistently, there are things that you can do.

Start by creating a profile, and link to your website and blog in your bio. From there, start building a following by stumbling great posts, and finding people to follow who share your interests.

Once you start stumbling, make sure to share other blogs’ posts as well, so that you’re not just posting your own stuff – that will definitely not go well with other stumblers, but it might also get your account suspended by StumbleUpon.

6. Do an SEO audit of your site

Even if you don’t have the budget to hire a SEO specialist or SEO agency, or the knowledge to completely optimize your website, there are still things – like help online SEO tools – that you can do to make sure you advance in search engines.

To boost SEO, use keywords in your headlines, post and copy, add meta descriptions to your posts and alt text to your images, use tags and add links to your posts.

You can use a tool like Found to do a quick, free SEO audit of your website so you can see what you’re doing wrong and how you can fix it. For WordPress users, you can use a tool like Yoast SEO that will help you optimize your WordPress website easily.

7. Do more guest blogging

Guest blogging is a great way to reach new audiences that could then visit your website if they liked what you had to say, as well as a way to get more links to your site.

One of the ways to find great websites to guest blog is to search for key influencers in your niche and then to start building a relationship with them. You can use a tool like Respona to find the top content shared as well as the top influencers.

Once you start a relationship with these influencers, so long as you have already published valuable content in your name, you have a good chance of getting a guest blogging opportunity – maybe even a regular one if your post does well.

Another way to increase your traffic through guest blogging is to get someone to write a post for your blog. So when you find influencers in your niche, don’t be afraid to ask them if they would be willing to write something for you.

8. Use internal links

Whenever you’re posting new content, check to see if there are any words that you can link to other pages on your website. Make sure that the link is relevant, and don’t add too many links per post, as it would definitely put off your readers.

Internal links are very helpful as they help you with search engine optimization, and they also get some of your readers to spend more time on your website.

9. Leverage the power of visual content

Images can make a huge difference to your traffic. Research shows that while people remember only 20% of what they read, they actually recall 80% of what they see.

Eye-catching, fun images, mean more shares on social media and they make reading a much more pleasant experience.

Make sure that whenever you share a post on social media you also add an image or else your update will probably not even be noticed.

10. Create infographics

Infographics are great sources of traffic. All of the infographics I’ve published on my website have not only gotten a lot of engagement but they also drove more traffic.

Infographics get a lot of shares and engagement because they’re much more eye-catching than a regular blog post, while also conveying a lot of useful information.

But what really makes infographics great is that once you’ve published, you can submit it to infographic directories and contact influencers and other bloggers and websites to see if they are interested in posting your infographic on their sites. This leads to more exposure, increased brand awareness and more traffic.

If hiring an agency or graphic designer is not in your budget, you can also try any one of the free infographic tools available online. Visme, for example, allows non-designers to create not just infographics, but also interactive slide decks, social media images and other visual content.

How long does it take for a new Website to get Traffic?

Launching a brand-new website and getting people to visit it are two very different things. Still, a common question often asked by business and website owners is how long it will take to start getting organic search traffic from Google.

There isn’t really a way to give a definitive answer to that question as there are so many variables to consider, not least being the amount of organic traffic that you would regard as being a success.

While most businesses and websites want to get as much traffic as possible, more targeted micro niche websites will assess the success of SEO very differently to larger sites aimed at much wider audiences.

In general, however, most websites will start to see some traffic from Google very shortly after they launch – usually in days, a week or two at the latest. Remember, though, that success doesn’t lie at the start of your SEO journey, but instead by continuous improvements that increase traffic numbers over time.

Factors That Impact Google Traffic Levels for New Websites

There are several factors that will impact the amount of traffic you get from Google immediately after launching a new website, as well as the rate at which you can improve those numbers. Understanding these factors at an early stage in the process can help you take actions to maximise results.

Level of Optimisation

If organic traffic is important to your website, you will need SEO whether your target audience is in Christchurch or anywhere else. Therefore, you need to optimise your website from the start.

Some of the most important elements for achieving this include:

Including relevant keywords in the content of your site’s pages
Making sure there is enough content on the pages
Properly structuring the various elements of your site’s pages including the URL, page title, and header tags
Ensuring your website is mobile responsive
Ensuring your website loads quickly

There are other things you will find on your onpage SEO checklist that will also benefit your website, but the above points will give you a solid foundation to build on.

It’s also important that you set-up your website on Google Search Console, the free Google tool that you can use to manage and monitor your website in Google search.

Competition

If you are in a niche or industry where there is a lot of competition, you will find it more difficult to rank in a high position on Google search results pages. SEO will help with this, but competition is a major factor when launching a new website.

This is because Google is highly unlikely to display your new website over others which it already knows well and understands, particularly for competitive search terms.

You will get some traffic as the Google algorithm learns more about your site, but you shouldn’t expect your site to immediately dislodge those that are already established.

Achieving this goal is a medium-to-long-term objective that requires a sustained and effective SEO strategy.

Standard Vs. Long-Tail Keywords

You will also find in the early days, weeks, and months of launching your new website that a lot of the traffic you get comes from long-tail keywords rather than standard keywords.

Don’t view this as a negative, however. It’s true that, in general, standard keywords have higher levels of monthly searches than long-tail keywords. However, people using Google type in long-tail keywords more than shorter ones.

In addition, long-tail keywords help with the learning process as Google gets a better understanding of your website, plus long-tail keywords often bring highly targeted visitors to your site, i.e. people with a very specific query that your website can help with.

Local Business Websites

The location of your target audience is also a factor in relation to how quickly you will start seeing traffic arriving at a brand-new website. This is because you can use Google My Business to provide the search engine with additional info about your business. This can lead to your website appearing in the local search section of search results pages, even if you are not in the main search results.

This can not only bring visitors to your website, but it can generate calls to your business too.

Link Building and Marketing

Your ability to build links and get your website’s brand out there in advance of the launch and in the early days and weeks will also impact the organic traffic you will get. It’s important to remember that Google doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Instead, it uses a wide variety of sources to build up a more complete picture of your site.

This includes mentions in the news, press releases, activity on social media, and more. So, the more marketing and link building activities you can do, the better your results will be.

Gradual Build

The summary of the above is that you shouldn’t expect to see massive amounts of traffic arrive at your new website overnight as it is more of a gradual process.

A more realistic objective is to see increases month on month to develop an overall upward trend. The rate of growth in that upward trend will then depend on the level of SEO activity you implement for your new Christchurch site.

How can I get free Traffic?

1. Create a Free Google My Business Listing

Did you know that an optimized Google My Business listing gets 7x more visits than an incomplete one? Don’t forget that your listing links to your website, so this is a great way to get more traffic to your website.

Keep in mind also that Google is getting smarter and smarter with results. If your listing provides all of the information a potential customer needs to make a decision, they might forego your website and contact/visit your business directly—even better than a website visit!

2. Perform On-Page SEO

There are many SEO tactics you can perform on each of your website pages to increase their rank in search engines and get more visitors. This includes producing high-quality content that your audience is searching for, and writing concise meta descriptions for your pages.

The meta description appears below your URL in search results. Knowing what a page is about and what will result in a click makes users much more likely to do so. On-page SEO tactics such as these are free, but do take some time.

3. Get Listed in Online Directories

Another way to increase traffic to your website is to get listed in free online directories and review sites. For most of these sites, your profile will have a link to your website, so actively updating these listings and getting positive reviews is likely to result in more website traffic.

In addition, many directories like Yelp have strong domain authority on Google. There’s a chance that your business’s free Yelp page could rank high for relevant searches.

4. Build Backlinks

A backlink is a link to your website from another website. Backlinks from complementary businesses or industry influencers will not only get your business in front of a larger audience, but it will also drive qualified traffic to your website.

In addition, Google picks up on backlinks and will increase its trust in your business if it sees other trusted sites pointing to yours. More trust from Google leads to higher rankings, which leads to more traffic. Get noticed on Google for free with quality backlinks.

5. Post to Social Media

Social media is one of the most popular free marketing tools around, and plays a role in driving traffic to your website. Use Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to promote blog posts and other useful pages on your website.

This way you can turn your social media audience into website visitors, and draw traffic from their networks if you post shareable content.

Creating useful content is free, and is not as hard as it may seem. You are the expert in your product/service; your job is to simplify it for your audience.

6. Include Hashtags in Your Posts

By adding hashtags to posts that promote your website pages and blog posts, you can extend your reach beyond your network and get discovered by users searching for your products and services. The more eyes on your links, the more free traffic you’re getting to your website.

7. Use Landing Pages

Landing pages are another free source of traffic to your website. These are pages specific to your offers, such as for redeeming a discount code, downloading a free guide, or starting a free trial.

They contain the details users need in order to move forward and convert, and focus on one specific call to action, making it more likely to happen. Because landing pages are so specific, you can get very targeted in your messaging, increasing the traffic coming to those pages.

8. Target Long-Tail Keywords

While short-tail keywords are often searched more frequently, it is more difficult to rank for them on search engines. Targeting long-tail keywords, on the other hand, gives you a better chance of ranking higher (even on the first page) for queries specific to your products and services—and higher ranking means more traffic.

Plus, as search engines and voice-to-text capabilities advance, people are using more specific phrases to search online. There are many free tools available to help you find keywords to target, such as Answer the Public.

9. Start Email Marketing

Sending out regular newsletters and promoting offers through email is a great way to stay in touch with your customers and can also help to get traffic to your website.

Provide useful information and links to pages on your website where they can learn more, such as through blog posts and landing pages for particular offers. Just make sure that you don`t continually bombard your readers with emails or your customers will either disengage with, delete, or unsubscribe from your emails.

Also, put careful thought into your email subject lines. These heavily influence whether or not a user opens your email. If your emails never get opened, they can’t supply traffic to your site!

10. Guest Blog

Having an industry influencer publish a blog post on your site or turning an interview with them into a blog post can help to drive traffic both through organic search but also via that influencer promoting the content to their audience (see the backlinks section above). This can also help to add more variety to your content and show your visitors that you are active in your field.

Alternatively, you could ask the influencer to mention your business in their own review or round-up post. This method is still free, but you still need the collaboration with the influencer to be an exchange with mutual benefit.

You can also be a guest blogger. Identify complementary businesses in your area whose audience is relevant to your business. See if you can contribute a post to their blog with a link back to your website. Make sure your content is relevant and useful to their audience so that it’s more of an even exchange.

What is Considered good Traffic for a Website?

Here are some ways to easily identify whether or not your website is acquiring the traffic that it deserves:

1. Your Bounce Rate Is Higher than the Industry Average

As per Google, “a bounce is a single-page session” and the “bounce rate is single-page sessions divided by all sessions, or the percentage of all sessions on your site in which users viewed only a single page and triggered only a single request to the Analytics server.”

In other words, a site visitor is said to bounce when they visit a web page but then do nothing else.

If the industry average is 60% but the bounce rate of your website is 80%, then it is a signal that your traffic quality is poor. The below graph provided by Conversion XL shows the bounce rate benchmarks by industry:

To lower your bounce rate, you will have to analyze what is going on in your Google Analytics or other web analytics tool to figure out why people are leaving your site so quickly.

2. Your Average Website Session Duration Is Less than 2-3 Minutes

According to research from Databox, around 41% of websites have an average session duration of 2-3 minutes.

Another 55% reported an average session duration of less than 3 minutes and 27% reported more than 4 minutes.

Databox further shows that the best tactic to increase average session duration is to include visuals – such as relevant videos, charts and infographics – on your page to hold your visitors’ attention.

3. Your Percentage of Returning Visitors Is Less than 30%

As per Mike Sullivan, top contributor to the Google Analytics support forum, the percentage of returning visitors to your site should be around 30%. Anything less than that is below average, while having it around 50% is considered to be good.

When you get new visitors to your website, some of them will “stick” (return), so you should always be drawing in new visitors – and Sullivan says that 50%-70% is a good range.

Most websites get more new visitors than returning visitors, but it’s the latter that have higher engagement — “they bounce less, view more pages per session, and have higher session durations. They also tend to have higher conversion rates and higher sales.”: