Getting people to your website is one of the most important objectives of your online marketing initiatives. Obviously converting those visitors is equally important, but let’s say you have amazing things on your site but no one is coming—or you’d like to see a big jump in the number of people who are actually visiting your site. Here are five tactics we’ve used to help clients increase their website traffic this year.
1. DON’T NEGLECT REDDIT
If you aren’t familiar with Reddit, it’s a gritty-looking website (on a level with Craigslist) that allows you to post URLs and their associated titles for people to vote up or down. Upvoted content draws people to engaging information and conversations; if you want to gain credibility, it’s important to share quality posts that aren’t overly promotional.
I recently noticed that Reddit is one of (or the) top referral sources to many client websites. It came as a bit of a surprise; Reddit wasn’t a huge part of the initial strategy. Generally, I’d simply share a client’s recent blog post on an indexing site like Reddit—you can share no more than two URLs per day—then focus on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn.
However, given the results from such minimal effort, Reddit is something I plan to build upon going forward. This one strategy can help boost your website traffic. Write a list of all the sites to share any content you post, and make sure Reddit is on it.
2. UTILIZE TITLE GENERATOR TOOLS FOR INSPIRATION
It is increasingly difficult to get people’s attention with headlines, subject lines, and titles that motivate people to click through to your site without being “spammy.” This means you have to be a little more bold to entice people to your site. Your blog post may be incredibly, useful but if that value doesn’t come across in the title, no one will see it.
Use title generators to get your creative juices flowing, then track which ones get a response. Ivana Taylor, CEO of DIYMarketers.com and Bizapalooza, wrote about the best marketing tools for a small business in 2016, including a section on title generators. Use these tools to help you come up with your own original title—don’t just copy the one they generate for you.
3. OFFER AN INCENTIVE
People need a reason to come to your site—gasp! Yes, it”s true. Unless someone is simply looking up your URL, there isn’t much of a reason to come to a site unless you provide it.
Offer something like “5 Tips to Increase Your Website Traffic This Month” (see what I did there?!), then have people opt-in to your email list to access it. Other incentives can include running a contest or sweepstakes—hosted on your site—where you give away something your audience can’t resist.
4. SCALE BACK ON USING CANVA
Canva lets anyone create professional looking graphics, and don’t get me wrong—I love it! However, their images are so overused throughout social media that they no longer stand out. Back in December, I literally saw their “Happy Holidays” graphic dozens of times.
If you use the same graphic that everyone else is using, it won’t get people’s attention. This also goes for blog title images and Facebook graphics.
This is tricky: I think Canva is one of the best DIY graphic design tool out there. But make images your own by uploading your own pictures and editing them; you can even purchase some of their elements. You could also engage a freelancer to create images that really need to make an impact.
5. DON’T FORGET A COMMUNICATION FOLLOW-UP SEQUENCE
As you set up or refine your email program, remember to have a communication follow-up sequence after someone subscribes through a form or landing page. There are many platforms you can use to implement this sequence, likeInfusionsoft or MailChimp, where you can schedule pre-determined content to send immediately after someone signs up, a week later, a month later, or at some other interval that fits your marketing strategy. Done well, it can drive people back to your site by engaging people who have already shown interest—and all it takes is your initial setup time.
What strategies have proven to get traffic to your site recently? Tell us about it in the comments below.