Does your website have virtual tumble weed rolling across the page from lack of visitors?
You may have discovered that just because you have a website, it doesn’t necessarily mean that potential customers are going to visit it, especially if they can’t find you.
Despite existing in a very competitive environment, there are so many businesses that are successfully getting rivers of traffic to their websites every single day. How do they do it, and what about the rest of us? Is there some secret we should all know about driving traffic?
The answer is no, not really. The secret is that you need the right strategies and dedication to make it happen. It requires you to stay on top of what’s working now. What worked several years ago often doesn’t work today, especially if those methods were a little sneaky or lazy.
The funny thing is it’s easier and faster to do it the right way than it is to try to trick people and search engines into visiting your site. If you have the right strategy, you can easily drive thousands of visitors to your website, product, service, or business.
Not only will you be able to drive as much traffic as you’d like, but you’ll also be driving the right kinds of traffic. You’ll get highly targeted people to quickly become fans of your work and come around again and again.
Plus if you get the right kind of traffic, it will convert much better into the action that you desire, and then often affiliates will be much more likely to want to send you even more of their traffic.
As a business that specializes in helping small businesses attract thousands of visitors to their websites we are constantly researching and testing innovative, top-of-the-line traffic generation strategies that are going to have dramatic results for your business.
We love finding new and exciting ideas and putting them to the test so that we can help other local businesses. That’s why we’ve researched and found the very best strategies there are so that we can share with you what’s working right now.
This article includes some of the very best ways to drive traffic as part of this overview. This isn’t a complete list, but it does contain what you need to get started successfully driving high converting traffic.
Search Engine Optimization
You have to keep readers and searchers in mind. What do they really want and how can you give it to them? You should provide very high quality, very thorough content.
You should also have a lot of activity and freshness on your website. This means interacting with your readers and keeping your site up to date. This is one reason why blogs are a phenomenal way to drive traffic.
Focus on your readers and customers first, and Google will take notice. Spread your brand everywhere, be helpful, and be present in as many places as possible.
Building links to your site can be very helpful. Here are some ways to manually build links:
You can:
- Guest post on others’ blogs
- Comment on blogs
- Submit your site to blog directories
- Submit your site to site directories
- Write a great, different post that many people want to link to
Guest Posting
One of the most powerful ways to build backlinks, authority, and your presence on the web overall is to submit guest blog posts. Guest posting on other people’s blogs is a fantastic method of leveraging the traffic of an already established marketer. Many website owners love guest posts because it gives them a little bit of a posting break and exposes their audience to a different viewpoint, which is very valuable.
Creating Great Content
If you’re going to dominate the search engines, then you need to create fantastic content people will want to share and link to. If people are linking to it from their own blogs and websites and sharing it on social media, you can bet Google and other search engines will take notice and rank you highly for the keywords you desire.
Blogging For Traffic
If you aren’t yet blogging, it’s time to get started. It doesn’t matter what your business is or what you’re marketing, it’s beneficial to everyone. You can use something like WordPress on your hosting account, which is easy to use and free. Or, you can use a hosted Blogger.com blog. Make a plan to stay consistent with your blogging and write content people will want to share so you can become a well-branded leader in your niche.
Press Release Traffic
Press releases have long been a great strategy to get attention to a business. Online press releases can work extremely well. Unfortunately, releasing press releases online has been abused by many marketers, so you definitely want to make sure you only focus on the highest quality press release distribution websites. For example, PRNewsWire.com is an excellent press release site to pay attention to.
Using Images to Drive Traffic
Getting traffic isn’t just about written content. The Internet is very visual so images can have a big impact on who shares your content, who finds you, and how popular your brand becomes.
People can find your images via image searches. They can find your images on social media. They can find your images just about everywhere especially if you take steps to make sure your images are branded well and lead a clear path back to your website.
Using Social Media to Drive Traffic
Social media is an essential part of any traffic plan. It’s so important that even search engines like Google pay attention to social signals when determining popularity and rankings. If you’re not already using social media, you should start right away. If you’re already using social media, it’s time to make sure you’re using it in the best possible way.
It doesn’t matter which niche you’re in, people in your niche are very active on social media. They’re looking for stories, tips, how-to articles, entertainment, products, services, and friendships based on the topic they’re interested in. They join groups, follow people of authority, and digest, share, and comment on social media posts of interest. This makes social media a fantastic way to grow your audience and get more traffic to your website and business in general.
Using social media, you can share content you’ve written. You can share images and infographics. You can get to know the leaders in your industry and network in a way that will help you become one of them. There’s no shortage to the ways using social media can help you grow your business and get more traffic.
Your goal is to get people interested in what you have to say. You want them to like, retweet, and share your content. You want them to become so invested that they then join your list, buy your product, and learn from you away from the social media platform as well.
Your ideal customer or reader is someone who doesn’t just follow you on Twitter or like you on Facebook. Your ideal reader isn’t someone who just visits your blog sometimes. Your goal is to get people interested enough that they see your content on your blog, in the search engines, on all relevant social media sites, and in their email inbox. You’re going to have a much bigger impact on your audience if your content and presence is inescapable. That’s a big part of the reason why social media is so important.
Some Social Networks to Use:
- Google+
- Tumblr
Using YouTube and Other Videos to Drive Traffic
Video is a wonderful way to get traffic. Some marketers prefer using video and find themselves naturally drawn to it. Other marketers are very wary– probably because they think it will be too difficult to get started with. The great news is that you don’t have to be all that tech savvy to really do well with video. If you haven’t started using video yet, you’re really missing out.
Think of the companies out there that do a great job with video. There are so many wonderful video ads, viral videos, vlogs, Hangouts, and more. The fact is that some people in your audience will respond best to video. You’ll do well to cater to them, using the awesome (mainly free) tools that are out there.
Using Podcasting and Audio to Drive Traffic
Podcasting is an amazing way to get additional traffic. There are a lot of people out there who don’t prefer to watch videos or read articles. It’s not an all or nothing thing, though. There are plenty of people who just don’t have enough hours in the day to consume your content. What they may have are hours spent in a car or a train where the only thing they can do is listen to content, rather than read it or watch it.
Audio is easy to create and release. iTunes and other platforms, make it really easy for you to distribute you
r podcasts. You may want to start with podcasting if you’re nervous about creating video– it’s not as intimidating because you don’t have to be on camera. It’s also less intimidating than hosting your own webinars or seminars and can be a good segue to that.
You don’t need fancy equipment at all. In fact, you can use free programs (like Audacity) that you can download right to your computer. You can even just use free or paid apps on your Smartphone or tablet. There’s really no excuse for not giving it a try because there’s no barrier to entry at all.
There’s a lot to be said for written content, but there’s also a lot to be said for audio content. People can connect with you on a deeper level when they can hear your voice. Listening to someone (you) speak allows for deeper learning and engagement. That’s a great gift you can give your audience. It’s also a great gift you can give yourself since you’ll be able to get a lot more traffic as a result.
Drive Great Traffic
Driving traffic is one of the most important things you can focus on in your marketing. It isn’t hard to drive traffic, but it does require you to be consistent. It does require you to use methods that will keep you in the race for the long haul.
Focus on the people, where the people are, what they want, and how you can give it to them. That’s a formula for success. Remember, what you focus on grows.
Calling in Help When You Need it
It really doesn’t hurt to call in a bit of help when you need it, especially if you are already running a busy offline business. An experienced online marketing company such as ours can quickly kickstart or even revive existing online marketing campaigns and help boost your company’s profits. Why not give us a call today to discover what we can do for your business.
