“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Likewise, if a website launches and no one is aware, will it get traffic?
The answer to both is yes, but in the case of the latter, it is unlikely the website will get enough traffic to make it successful if you simply launch it and walk away. There are lots of ways to get the word out and attract traffic to your site, and we’ll share the best, most reliable methods right now. Ready? Let’s get traffic!
Great Traffic Starts With Great Content
By now, you’ve probably heard it said many times. Create great content. That’s excellent advice, and we strongly recommend following it. But let’s step back a bit and preface that advice with this.
Great Content Starts With Great Writers
Of course, you don’t have to hire Stephen King, James Patterson, or Margaret Atwood to write your content unless you want to publish a best-selling novel. Those authors are all subject matter experts in the world of fiction. Your content needs people who are subject matter experts in your industry or topic to write your content or at least to collaborate with great writers. Follow this guide to learn more about hiring writers.
Your Content Needs A Plan (or two)
Just as you wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint, you shouldn’t create content without a plan. It’s important to know which pages your site will need, and if you intend to blog (hint: you probably should), then you’ll want to create a content calendar for that as well. How you structure your site’s pages will affect how easily your visitors will find what they need. Knowing what blog content you’ll need to produce over an extended period of time will help you stay on track and deliver the content visitors need.
Create Awesome Content
Once you know what content you need to produce, it’s time to produce it. And as you may have guessed from the big heading of this section which reads, “Great Traffic Starts With Great Content,” this step is hugely important.
Anyone can get lots of traffic to their site ONCE. Heck, you can pay for traffic. But can you keep that level of traffic coming day after day, month after month, year after year, without great content? Unless you have a magic traffic wand, or an endless supply of money to buy traffic, the answer to that is definitely NO.
Okay, some of you may be thinking, “I do have endless money to buy traffic, so I’ll just do that!” First of all, lucky you. Second, though, acquiring traffic is one thing. Converting them is another. And again, without great content, getting your visitors to convert (i.e., do something like sign up for a newsletter, buy your product, book an appointment, etc.) is highly unlikely.
Now that we’ve convinced you that great content is vital to your site’s success, let’s discuss what great content actually means.
- Passes spell-check and grammar tests. That one’s obvious, but it’s also important, so we’ve included it here. Of course, you don’t want content that is riddled with typos and grammatical errors, so run your content through a tool like Grammarly or Hemingway to flesh out those problems.
- Fills a need. Does anyone want to read about this? Is anyone searching on Google for this information? Do your keyword research to determine if the content you’re writing is what your ideal audience actually wants to read.
- Provides the best information about the subject. Great content isn’t cookie-cutter text that visitors can find on a million other places on the web. Great content is unique. It is comprehensive. It fully answers whatever question the content promises to answer.
- Helps the user and aligns with your goals. If the content helps users achieve their goals, that’s a win. If it also helps users take an action that helps your business achieve its goals, that’s a win-win.
Refresh Outdated Content
Many site owners looking to increase their traffic already have a site that’s full of content. Adding more may be called for, but what about all the content that’s already there? Is it still relevant? Can you add new information or link to new articles since this one was published? Does it qualify as “great content” in the way we just defined it? Could some (or all) of your site’s content use a makeover to make it more relevant and more useful? Yes? Then you know what to do. Update that content, pronto.
Focus on the Right Kinds of Content
We don’t want to suggest you should limit yourself to only writing a few specific types of content. Experimentation might lead to some amazing results. But time has proven that certain content structures do better than others, so we suggest you put most of your focus on those types. We’ve even compiled templates for 9 popular post types because we like to make your lives easier. Let’s look at a quick rundown of what works well in most situations:
Evergreen content – Evergreen content is the kind of content that is always relevant. No matter how the world changes, some things are always true. If your article falls into that category, you have an article that will never go out of style and can always attract more traffic.
Long-form content – Number of words isn’t important, but comprehensiveness often is. History shows that long-form content usually provides readers with everything they need to know about a topic, and this encourages them to share that content on social media or link to it from their own websites. Don’t just throw in more words just to meet some arbitrary word-count requirement, but do provide all the words needed to make the article comprehensive and useful.
Potentially viral content – This is hit-or-miss. In other words, you never know what will go viral. The key here is to pay attention when something you create does go viral. Analyze why you think it did and see if you can replicate that success again – and again. Don’t spend too much time trying to force viral content, however. You’ll likely end up disappointed. You may find that some content is more popular with social media influencers, and they may make it go viral. Again, pay attention to the kinds of articles you write that influencers love, and give them what they crave more often.
Other post types that usually drive traffic include:
- How-to
- List posts
- What is…
- Expert roundups
- Interviews with experts and industry thought leaders
Again, check out the 9 Blog Post Templates article for all the details.
Include the Right Elements Within Your Content
There’s more to great content than just words on a page. By adding additional elements to your articles, you’ll contribute to making content people will love. Let’s look at some examples.
Before we go any further, let’s look at a few interesting stats.
- 73% of consumers make a purchase after watching a branded video – Source: Tubular Insights
- Visuals increase the viewer’s desire to engage by 80% – Source: Website Planet
- Blog posts containing images experience 650% higher engagements than posts that only contain text – Source: Website Planet
- Visual content is more than 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content – Source: Lean Labs
Honestly, maybe we don’t even need to say anything more. Basically, if you add images, videos, or infographics to your content, your users will engage more, buy more, and share it more. All of those things will inevitably lead to increased traffic and even increased profit.
Yes, visual content is a bit more difficult to create than text, but the stats tell the story. It’s worth the effort.
Wrap the Content Up in a Nice Bow With a Great Headline
Once you’ve written the article, there’s still more to do. A very important step is getting your article’s headline right. According to Copyblogger:
On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest.
The better your headline is, the more likely you can increase that second set of numbers. By the time you’ve finished writing your stellar article, you might be tempted to hastily throw together a headline. Don’t do that. Treat the headline as the star of the article.
Make a list of several headlines – we recommend up to 10 – and run them through a headline analyzer such as the MonsterInsights Headline Analyzer or the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer. Iterate on your ideas until you decide on one that will most likely resonate (without being overly cheesy). Yes, sometimes these kinds of online tools err somewhat on the cheesy side, so try to strike a good balance there.
Finally, Test Before Publishing
Okay, you’ve got the article written, the headline honed, and you’re itching to press that Publish button. Wait! Hold up. Do two more things before you smash that button.
- Preview the article on different devices – desktop, mobile, and tablet. The latest stats tell us that more than 60% of all site traffic now comes from mobile devices. Each site and its audience will vary somewhat, of course, but on average, mobile is where it’s at these days. So please test your content on different devices to ensure your users see what you want them to see.
- Make sure you have some CTAs (Calls to Action) and Social Sharing buttons on your article’s page.
- First, what do you want visitors to do once they read the article? Read another? Purchase something? Sign up for a newsletter? Something else? Whatever it is, ask them to do it! Place some text, a link, and maybe an image to encourage them to take that action.
- And second, make sure they can easily share this article with their friends and social networks by placing some common social sharing icons and links in a prominent place. Most users expect to see sharing icons at the top or bottom of an article. Don’t disappoint them. As an added bonus, consider using a “Click to Tweet” plugin to make it even easier for users to share to Twitter. These plugins allow you to highlight a short piece of the content that would make for a great Tweet. If users choose to click the Click to Tweet link for that text, everything they need to tweet that out will be neatly supplied to them in a form. One more click, and they’ve shared the preferred text, shortened link, and your Twitter username with their followers. Beautiful!
Did those two things? Great. Smash that Publish button now and congratulate yourself on a job well done.
Share The Content
We’ve just seen that we shouldn’t publish an article until we’ve given the users an easy way to share it with others by adding sharing icons. Now that it’s published, it’s time to make sure the world knows about it. Great content doesn’t magically announce itself to the world. We must give it a push, or two, or three.
Share on Your Own Social Accounts
We’re starting with the obvious, of course. But it’s essential, so we don’t want to leave it off the list. The quickest way to gain traffic to your content is to share it with people, and if you’ve built up a nice social media presence, this is the place to begin.
Maybe you focus on only one social network, or perhaps you engage on multiple platforms. You know your audience better than we do, so we won’t presume to tell you which social platforms – or how many – to participate in. As long as you are active in them and your audience is engaged with you there, then that’s the place to be. So wherever that is, share your content there.
At the very least, add your article’s title, link, and short description to your feed. That’s the basic info, and it’s better than not sharing anything at all.
But if you want to get the most engagement on social, spice it up a bit. Instead of just sharing the basic information, personalize the message you send. Give a short intro by asking a question that you can then answer by linking to the content. Or relate the article to a current event or holiday. Pay attention to brands that do this well and emulate that – in your own voice, not theirs. Sharing is essential and works. Sharing with an interesting mix of personalized messages is better and increases the traffic you might see.
Share on Groups and Forums and Answer Sites
Similar to what we traditionally think of as social media networks are the various communities and groups such as:
These platforms usually involve a deeper level of conversation and may involve more time to integrate into the community. Unlike a platform like Twitter, where you can share links freely, there may be more rules and norms to consider within these communities. You probably don’t want to join a Facebook group in your industry and immediately start sharing links to your content. That’s a quick way to get yourself ostracized or banned from the community. You’ll need to participate more fully in the conversations there before sharing your content.
The benefit of spending the extra time and effort in these communities is that you’re more likely to form some bonds, garner some respect from industry leaders, and perhaps connect with some influencers. These kinds of deeper connections can lead to much bigger traffic as some of these people share your content with their own audiences.
Host or Participate in Webinars and Podcasts
Text-based social platforms aren’t the only game in town. You can share your message with broader audiences by hosting or participating in visual or auditory platforms. Webinars and podcasts reach different people, and those people are hyper-engaged. They aren’t just skimming text. They are actively listening and/or watching, absorbing more information. These audiences might be smaller in some cases, but they are highly interested. That puts them deeper in the sales funnel than social feed skimmers would be.
Of course, it takes considerably more effort to engage in this type of sharing, so you won’t be doing this nearly as often as you’ll Tweet or Insta, but when you do take the time to be a part of a podcast or webinar, you’ll be connecting more intimately than on those other channels.
Connect With Influencers
It’s possible that you’ll connect with influencers when you participate in webinars and podcasts, but there are other ways to partner with influencers as well. Hootsuite’s Influencer Marketing Guide is a great place to learn how to do this right.
Of course, this kind of partnership is almost always a paid partnership, but if you can manage to become buddies with an influencer or two – even micro-influencers with relatively small followings, you can still garner some impressive traffic gains with this method.
Newsletters Are Still Relevant
Newsletters? Isn’t that old-school? It is, yes, but also, it’s not.
Newsletters have been around seemingly forever, but they’ve been going through a resurgence of popularity in recent years. Remember when we talked about highly-interested audiences that watch or listen to webinars and podcasts? Sure you do. It was only three paragraphs ago.
Well, newsletter subscribers bring along similar advantages:
- These readers have actively signed up to receive your newsletter.
- They’ve literally told you they love you. Maybe not in those exact words, but they have indicated that they are willing to hand over their precious email address and their valuable time to receive and read something from you, like, you know, links to your content! That’s not a connection you should waste.
So get your newsletter game on. We’ve previously shared some really great tips, like awesome email examples and 150+ ideas for what to include in your newsletter all year long, and we have a free course that covers all the ins and outs: Newsletters 101.
Syndicate It!
No, we’re not talking about a mafia syndicate. That would be the illegal way of getting people to do what you want. We’re referring to the idea of content syndication, where you republish your content on other sites such as LinkedIn or Medium. We know what you’re thinking.
That’s MY content. Why would I let some other companies benefit from publishing my content on their sites? And wouldn’t that just send traffic to them instead of me?
That’s understandable but allow us to offer the counterpart to that argument.
The places that generally accept syndicated content usually have huge audiences. Huge. Much bigger than yours, most likely. That means you can quickly reach a lot more people than you might have before. Sure, they are reading your content on someone else’s site, but presumably, the article links back to your site in some way. It might even promote your product or service.
So you’re still getting your information in front of a lot of eyeballs, and that’s never a bad thing. Unless your information is really bad, then maybe syndicating it would be a bad thing. But you don’t have to worry about that, because we’ve already discussed how to provide great content, right? Right.
Hubspot has some solid info on content syndication, so head over there if you want to get a good handle on using this promotional technique.
Repurpose Content
Content doesn’t have to only exist in one format. Once you’ve put in all the time in crafting really great content, consider ways that you can repurpose that content and use it in different ways. Some examples include:
- You can record a video from all or part of your article.
- You can present the main points and discuss them in a podcast or webinar.
- You can use parts of it as the basis for an infographic.
Creating each of these new pieces of content will take far less time than starting them from scratch. Plus, you have new content you can share on social networks and on each of the platforms we mentioned above.
Generate Traffic Organically with SEO
All right. You’ve created killer content. You’ve shared it with all the relevant people. But we all know by now where we really want more traffic to come from, don’t we? Yes, yes, yes. Google. Believe it or not, other search engines actually exist, but no one cares. Google is still king. (Tik Tok begs to differ, but let’s stay on track here).
If you can get your content to rank well in Google, your traffic will increase. That’s a given. And SEO is obviously the way to make that happen. Now, we aren’t going to give a crash course in SEO here. That would take way too long, and we value your time – and ours. Lucky you, though! We actually have a free SEO course you can take. Check it out sometime.
In the meantime, we’ll just whet your appetite by reminding you that the basics will get you pretty far. Those basics include:
- Do your keyword research
- Identify keyword gaps – those phrases your competitors might have overlooked – and write content that covers those topics.
- Target keywords that people search the most for (these might be super competitive, though)
- Also target long-tail keywords that you can actually rank for pretty quickly until you can build up your ability to compete for those bigger keywords
- Make sure your on-page SEO is solid – WordPress.com has you covered with basic SEO elements, but you can go even further if you use a dedicated SEO plugin like Yoast or Rank Math. We also recommend reading this guide to learn the essentials.
- Quality backlinks – SEO is still a popularity contest. The more people “vote” for you by linking to your site, the better Google likes you. And yes, quality trumps quantity here. Google values a link from a well-respected, popular website more highly than 100 links from nefarious, spammy sites. Oh, and Google hates – nay, despises – paid backlinks, so don’t do that. Really. Don’t.
You Can Pay to Play
Wait, didn’t we just say don’t pay? Yeah, pretty sure we did, but we didn’t mean don’t pay for anything! Just backlinks. Don’t pay for those. But there are lots of things you could pay for that would really ratchet up your traffic, and those are good things to pay for. We’ll fill you in now on those “good pay to play” methods of increasing your traffic.
- Do pay for these things if you have a budget
- Paid advertising, such as Google Adwords
- Contests and giveaways – people love winning something
- Social media advertising and promoted posts on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tumblr, and others.
Note: Paying for traffic is easy, but of course, there is one really big downside. Unlike SEO, where highly optimized content can reap the benefits of that effort for years to come, once you stop paying for traffic, the traffic immediately stops. Nevertheless, if the ROI (Return on Investment) for your paid campaigns is positive, then it’s a no-brainer to keep paying.
The key to not burning all your cash immediately? Start slow. Invest minimal amounts at first to see what works and what doesn’t. Iterate and up your spending levels as you discover what resonates. Monitor closely and adjust your ad copy and spending accordingly.
Bask in All Your New Traffic
By now, you should be seeing lots of glorious, new traffic. Speaking of “by now”, just how long does it take to see significant traffic increases? We will, unfortunately, have to give that always-unsatisfying answer, “it depends”.
You can certainly see improvement immediately with some methods such as social sharing and paid advertising, but other methods might take significantly longer, such as SEO. (But SEO could also increase your traffic for a much longer period of time, so don’t discount that important advantage).
Persistence and patience are two qualities that will be your best companions as you launch your mission to increase your website traffic. We hope we’ve given you enough tools and information to bring it all together and move you forward on the path to success.
BONUS TIPS: Learn How to Own and Earn Your Traffic
There are three types of ways to increase website traffic: owned, earned, and paid. All drive viewers to your site, but since an investment in time rather than money is often best for any small-business owner’s budget, owned and earned traffic should form the cornerstones of your online presence. When you increase website traffic from owned media — your website, blog, social media accounts, mailing list, or any other sites where you’re in charge — you’ll be the one sharing your content. So when you join a department store’s mailing list, receive emails about upcoming sales and events, and use those emails to revisit the store’s site, you’re seeing owned traffic in action.
Earned traffic, by contrast, happens when other people share content leading to your website. When a supporter shares your social media post about your newest menu item with their audience or a food blogger raves about your restaurant, that’s earned traffic for your business. Such traffic pushes you outside your current community and builds trust through positive word-of-mouth marketing in the digital realm.
Both techniques require consistency and commitment, but they are long-term strategies that will eventually reap huge rewards.
Own the connection
Your website, blog, social media accounts, and any other platforms you manage are opportunities for more owned traffic — if you leverage them. Think of your website as more of a long-term commitment — it’s not just an online brochure that passively draws in traffic.
Use the following tips to help sow the seeds of connection with consistency and commitment:
● Commit to contribution: As marketer Seth Godin suggests, you must add value to your fans’ lives. When you prepare a blog or social media post, ask yourself how you can best contribute to your community. Organize a weekend sale at your boutique and donate a portion of the proceeds to a local charity — then let your supporters know so they can also support the cause. From sharing your business’ positive impact to inspiring your community, your commitment to contribution will shine — and your website traffic will see a boost.
● Build a solid plan: Consider creating marketing and editorial calendars. A marketing calendar is a timetable of what content you plan to use for marketing your business, and an editorial calendar plans out how you’ll market that content (where you’ll share it, how you’ll share it, and so on). Map these out in advance, and be purposeful with your content, including special events, holiday sales, and inspiring information. Then choose a variety of places to share, ideally sites where your supporters spend time. Plan out your summer sales, from the Fourth of July to Labor Day, and keep to your schedule. This is a systematic way to gain both owned and earned traffic, and when you’re a busy business owner, advanced planning saves valuable time.
● Get blogging: A consistent blog focused on what you contribute builds awareness and trust that supports your place in the community. Your fans will come to recognize you as a worthwhile source of information and inspiration with a steady stream of content. Keep that content fresh (and your audience up-to-date) by focusing on what you’re up to — events, industry trends, positive community stories, and more. To start blogging, brainstorm a list of topics to support your fans. If you own a yarn shop, for example, think about what inspires your fans and write content that informs them about what you provide. And remember to write to your audience just like you would talk to them — using language that speaks to them. The more you blog, the easier it becomes. And yup, we have a free course for this too!
● Share on social: People around the globe navigate social media daily — and that includes your supporters. Choose platforms where your shoppers hang out: are they mostly on Facebook, or do they prefer Instagram, Pinterest, or the Twitter-verse? You can engage your community by asking questions, and providing comment-worthy content and shareable posts. When you commit to posting regularly and providing real value, you’ll find potential supporters are drawn to you. A nutritionist sharing healthy recipes, for example, is going to attract people who care about healthy eating — ideal clients for his or her business.
Earn the shares
Ever had a family member or friend tell you about a service, product, or website they adore? Of course you have! People love giving the goods on what they love. Your owned traffic can expand into earned traffic through online sharing and positive word-of-mouth marketing. Keep the following in mind to optimize these earned shares:
● Be engaging: Content that leverages inspiring stories and works to keep readers informed helps you connect with your community. People who want to know more about your business — and end up linking to, sharing, and commenting on your content — are a truly engaged audience. Again, consistency matters. Blog, post on social media, and deepen your knowledge of your fans’ wants and needs. Then, provide compelling content. An engaged audience is a hot commodity.
● Host a contest: Amplify engagement with a fun contest, and require your supporters to share your content on their social media channels or blogs. A photographer, for example, might host a contest for a free photo session, requiring all entrants to like and share the post about the contest on Facebook. A contest can multiply your audience by allowing you to reach your fans’ friends, families, colleagues, and communities — score!
● Connect with key figures: People who have extensive reach and are trusted in your field can have a hugely beneficial effect on your online presence. A fashion blogger delightfully dishing on an independent boutique will lead earned traffic to that store’s site. Word-of-mouth marketing drives traffic in the digital realm, and with experts you get to learn more about your field while also reaching more people. Build relationships by reaching out or engaging others online, cross-promote when you can (share their content when they share yours), and watch your website traffic grow!
Website traffic doesn’t have to be paid for — it can be earned. And you might just build some lasting relationships along the way!
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