To attract more potential customers or clients, it’s crucial for small business websites to increase visibility and engagement. This can be achieved by learning effective ways to drive traffic to your website.
In this article, we’ll talk about the 15 top tips for increasing website traffic and how small business owners can apply them to maximize visibility and engagement.
Organic Traffic and Why It Matters
Organic traffic includes the visitors who discover your website through natural and unpaid search engine results. It also encompasses any visits that don’t involve paid advertising or referrals. To attract more visitors and leads, it’s important to learn how to boost this type of traffic to your website.
Why is it better than inorganic traffic? Although inorganic traffic can be obtained faster, it often does not result in sustainable benefits.
In contrast, organic traffic requires more time and effort but yields higher-quality website visitors who are more inclined to stay longer on the site and engage with it. Paid search engine ads, pay-per-click campaigns, display ads, and social media advertising are all examples of inorganic traffic. All of these options come at a cost, which could be better spent on enhancing the products and upgrading the business.
Small Business Owners Need to Step Up Online
To compete with larger competitors, small business owners should implement a thorough search engine optimization strategy and optimize their websites for search engines. A solid SEO plan will assist in ranking for appropriate keywords, attracting more visitors, and ultimately improving conversion rates.
For instance, you may have the most delicious doughnuts in town, but if you’re not visible online, customers won’t be able to find you and will keep buying from your larger next-door neighbor that has a huge ad spend. Digital marketing levels the playing field and helps small businesses compete with the big guys.
This is why you should take your online presence seriously.
15 Tips to Increase Traffic To Your Website
Many resources out there will list hundreds of so-called tips to increase your website traffic, but not all of them will be applicable to you and your business model. We’ve put together a list of 15 tried and tested tips that are tailored specifically for small businesses trying to drive organic traffic:
1. Optimize for SEO
You must optimize your content with relevant keywords and meta tags to ensure that your potential customers or clients can find your website on search engines. Even if your website looks great and is user-friendly, it won’t appear higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) without this optimization. Using long-tail keywords can be especially effective for small businesses because they target specific searches and have less competition.
2. Utilize Content Marketing
One effective method of attracting potential visitors to your website is through content strategy. This involves crafting informative and useful content like blog posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts. After creating these pieces, share them on social media and other digital platforms to boost your website’s visibility and attract qualified leads.
3. Optimize Page Titles and Meta Descriptions
Page titles and meta descriptions are a major part of SEO, as they help search engine crawlers identify what your page is about. Make sure that all of your titles and descriptions are optimized with relevant keywords. You need to use words and phrases that your target audience is actually searching for online, and you’ll know which these are through keyword research.
4. Write Attention-Grabbing Headlines
Make sure your headlines are eye-catching with strong keywords or emotional phrases that will make readers want to learn more. However, it’s important to deliver what your headline promises in your content, or else you could lose credibility. Avoid being labeled clickbait by ensuring that your content aligns with your headline and meets readers’ expectations.
5. Create Landing Pages
To clarify your marketing efforts, design landing pages that cater to each specific campaign or promotion. This will help visitors understand what they will receive upon clicking on one of your Google ads or an organic search result. Effective landing pages include a distinct call to action, brief but impactful wording, and engaging images.
6. Update Old Content
If your website has been up for some time, you may have some outdated content that could benefit from an update. Consider revising old posts by adding new images and information to keep your visitors engaged and interested. It’s recommended to update your content every 3 to 6 months. Be sure to publish evergreen content that is easily updated along with topical high-quality content.
7. Improve Site Speed
To prevent visitors from leaving before viewing your content, ensure that your website loads quickly. You can achieve this by optimizing images and minimizing the number of plugins on each page.
Ideally, your website should load in under two seconds, but an average loading time of around four seconds is acceptable. Reading more about Core Web Vitals will help you understand the elements that make a good site experience.
8. Leverage Social Media
Since millions of people use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest daily, you can leverage this opportunity by creating a social media strategy and frequently posting updates related to your business.
Social media is such a powerful tool and can help you reach a wide variety of people as well as create an engaged community around your business. Include links to relevant pages like blog posts or product pages to help your social media followers easily find more information about what interests them.
9. Utilize Guest Blogging
One way to expand your reach is by guest posting for websites that cover the same topic as your platform. Writing original content for other websites can help you attract new audiences who may not have come across your platform otherwise. In addition, these websites often provide backlinks which can increase your organic traffic.
To begin your guest post strategy, you can identify relevant websites in your industry and contact their editors. Using these smart link building tactics can go a long way in increasing website traffic and driving more qualified leads to your site.
10. Participate in Forums & Communities
Engage in online forums and communities that are relevant to your business. Share useful advice on topics related to your business and include links to your website for further information. Engagement is key for small businesses looking to increase website traffic and build a stronger online presence. Be more present online to get the website traffic you desire.
11. Engage in Email Outreach
To establish relationships beyond email marketing, consider reaching out personally via email. You can leave comments on influencer blog posts or directly contact them if they accept inquiries. This personal approach displays the importance of potential customers/clients and may boost overall visibility & engagement over time if executed properly. Regular email outreach is possible, and you can offer incentives such as discounts or freebies to customers who subscribe to your email list.
12. Analyze Competitor Strategies
You can gain valuable insights by studying the strategies of successful competitors in your industry. Analyze their website structure and marketing techniques to see what tactics are effective for them. You may be able to apply some of their successful strategies to your own business, such as using the same target keywords or building links to drive more traffic to your website.
13. Leverage Influencer Marketing
To increase visibility for your products/services, focus on influencers in your niche. Share their content and mention them if you believe your offerings could benefit from their audience. Additionally, offer incentives or discounts to those who share your content and refer customers. This strategy will have a positive long-term effect on your visibility.
14. Get Featured On Aggregator Sites
Consider seeking feature placement on prominent aggregation sites in your industry or related fields. By doing so, you can boost overall website traffic and engagement. Additionally, many of these sites have significant social media followings, which can generate even more traction in the long run without running paid search ads.
15. Utilize Digital PR
Digital PR aims to acquire external backlinks, create brand awareness, and mentions online through digital channels. It distinguishes itself from conventional PR by using digital means, and it’s beneficial for increasing website traffic and search engine rankings.
Digital PR also involves concentrating on specific niches through the distribution of press releases and relevant content, developing rapport with journalists and influencers, and collaborating with content marketing managers and link creators to promote your business.
What Tools Should I Use to Drive and Monitor Traffic?
There are a variety of tools and techniques that you can use to help drive website traffic and monitor your progress.
1. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that allows you to track website traffic by monitoring visitors’ interactions with your website. It helps you understand where your visitors are coming from, how long they stay on your site, and what pages they’re viewing. It also provides insights into the effectiveness of your SEO and other marketing efforts.
2. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is another analytics tool that allows you to monitor what content performs best on social media platforms and identify the influencers who are sharing it. It provides critical data such as reach estimates, engagement metrics, and shares per social media post so you can see which topics resonate with your target audience the most and use that information to craft better content for increased visibility and traffic.
3. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an SEO platform equipped with powerful tools for analyzing keyword data such as search volume and difficulty, optimizing content for search engines, conducting technical audits of websites, and more. It also helps you keep an eye on competitors’ progress so you can stay ahead of the curve when it comes to increasing website traffic through organic search engine optimization (SEO).
4. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is a comprehensive website crawler that helps businesses identify issues related to crawlability, such as broken links, redirects, duplicate content, server errors, etc., allowing them to fix these problems quickly before they negatively impact their online presence or affect their organic rankings or traffic levels.
5. Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor the performance of your website in search engine results. It provides insights into which keywords are driving the most traffic to your website, as well as data on click-through rates, impressions, and other metrics. While GSC focuses on search results and not your traffic, it’s an invaluable tool for understanding which pages and keywords are performing well and which could use a boost.
There are more tools and strategies you can use to drive traffic to your website. But if you’re just starting out, implementing the ones mentioned above will go a long way in helping boost your visibility and reach.
The Most Important Tip of All: Work With the Experts
As mentioned, hundreds of articles out there will promise you the well-laid path of 100 tips to increase website traffic. But the one thing that trumps all of them: having the experts by your side.
If you’re a small business owner, partnering with a skilled digital marketing team like Markitors can help you enhance your website and generate more traffic to boost customer engagement and increase sales. Your priority should be to establish a better connection with your customers to improve conversions, and Markitors can provide the necessary expertise to ensure quick and effective results.
Because when the tips above are done right, the leads will definitely start pouring in.
Markitors has a team of skilled professionals who can assist you in creating an effective digital marketing plan to increase your website’s traffic and conversions. By utilizing our services, you can join the thousands of small businesses we have helped in boosting their organic traffic and sales.
From white hat SEO to content marketing to social media and influencer campaigns, we can help you develop an effective digital strategy tailored to your small business.
Ready to get more traffic and conversions? Contact us today for a free consultation! We are excited to discuss how Markitors can help you achieve your digital marketing goals and scale your venture.
Our team has the expertise to make a difference for your business. Get in touch with us today to experience the benefits of working with an expert. Take control of your future by increasing traffic to your website now.
