INTRODUCTION:
Everyone wants more traffic on their website. If no one is visiting your site, no one is buying your products, inquiring about your services or learning about your business. So how can you increase website traffic without breaking your neck (or breaking the bank)? Here are 5 easy ways to increase website traffic that you can start using today.
1. Start blogging
The more content your website has, the more opportunities you will have to generate traffic. You can only have so many brochure like pages (services, about us, etc.), so how can you add new pages to your website while remaining relevant to your visitors? The answer: you guessed it! Blogging. Every time you post a new article to your blog, you are adding a new page to your website. A page that Google can index and serve up to visitors who are looking for information surrounding the topics you write about.
If you're new to blogging, here are some pointers for getting started:
- Use long-tail keywords. The longer and more specific your keywords are, the easier it will be to rank for them. Think, "healthy recipes with avocado" instead of just "healthy recipes." You can use the Google Keyword Planner to search for keyword suggestions. Try to target keywords with high traffic and low competition.
- Spend a lot of time on your headlines. 8 out of 10 people will read your headline and move on without reading your article. Use these tips from QuickSprout to craft a magnetic headline, or use HubSpot's Blog Topic Generator.
- Blog at least once a week (twice if you can!). Companies that increase blogging from 3-5x/month to 6-8x/month almost double their leads.
2. Submit your posts and articles to stumbleupon and reddit
Share your posts on StumbleUpon and Reddit to get exposure with new audiences. Tread lightly here, and don't post all of your articles at once. Take the advice of Wordstream:
"Firstly, a disclaimer – don’t spam Reddit and other similar sites hoping to “hit the jackpot” of referral traffic, because it’s not going to happen. Members of communities like Reddit are extraordinarily savvy to spam disguised as legitimate links, but every now and again, it doesn’t hurt to submit links that these audiences will find genuinely useful. Choose a relevant subreddit, submit your content, then watch the traffic pour in."
3. Advertise
Remember, we're talking about easy (not cheap) ways to increase website traffic. Paid search and social media advertising can be extremely effective in generating traffic to your website. Advertising doesn't have to break your budget. You can spend as much or as little as you'd like on paid advertising (although some keywords on services like Google Adwords can be quite expensive to rank for).
Here are a few resources to help you get started with paid advertising.
- A Beginner's Guide to Google Adwords
- How to Setup Twitter Advertising to Build Awareness for Your Business
- 45 Fabulous Facebook Advertising Tips & Magic Marketing Tricks (now that's a headline!)
4. use video in your content strategy
Research shows that adding the word "Video" to email subject lines boosts open rates by 19%! Furthermore, video drives engagement on your website. According to research from Shareaholic:
"[YouTube] drives the most engaged traffic. These referrals have the lowest average bounce rate (43.19%), the highest pages per visit (2.99) and the longest visit duration (227.82 seconds). Why are visitors from YouTube so engaged? …because video itself is so engaging and viewers are likely to maintain a similar level of engagement with related content."
5. send automated emails
Automated email marketing allows you to send a series of emails to subscribers based on a certain action (downloading an eBook on your website, for example). You can use these emails to send subscribers to articles, resources and offers on your website that they would be interested in. This will encourage repeat traffic to your website and will keep you top of mind when your subscribers are ready to make a purchasing decision.
CONCLUSION:
Generating website traffic isn't rocket science; it just takes a little planning and consistent effort.
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