If you have a website, or if you are running an online store, or in case if you a digital marketer, you know how precious traffic is. Traffic is the bloodline of business in the Internet era. Without traffic, your website is like a shopping mall which does not have any visitors. It would be a terrible waste of resources – the time you spent building it, the domain cost, the hosting fees and so on.
You can’t just open a website and expect people to flood in. If you really want to convert more business you have to create a steady stream of traffic.
So, what can one do to increase traffic to your website?
That is the theme of our blog today. We are delving into the depths of the Internet to pick up proven ways you can deploy to turn your website into a traffic magnet.
All set? Let’s get started.
Use long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are literally longer search terms which users specifically to find information that they are looking for. Since they are longer and contain specific search terms, it is no surprise that websites containing long-tail keywords convert better. If a customer is using a longer keyword, it means that they are looking for a specific information. So, a blog post optimized for long-tail keywords or a website landing page carrying such long-tail keywords can fetch more traffic.
Be Social
Social media is the favorite hangouts for most of the Internet-connected world. According to Statista, at least 81% of Americans are considered to have a social media profile. The best way to grab the attention of these Internet users is by getting into their newsfeed.
You can reach their newsfeed by sharing images, videos, blog posts and status updates embedded with appropriate hashtags. Hashtags will help new users find and come to your social media handles and subsequently reach your website. Using social media to drive traffic to your website is cost-effective, is ethical and most importantly does not offend anyone.
Blog Frequently
According to Impactbnd, “69% of businesses attribute their lead generation success to blogging.” Blogging has remained a top priority for inbound marketers for the past 5 years. They have the power to draw traffic from all around the Internet easily.
The primary reason why blogs succeed in bringing traffic is that they give away free information and knowledge. In fact, blogs can even help a business establish itself as a thought leader in its domain. So start blogging and see that traffic needle in your website analytics climbs a steady incline.
Become a guest blogger
As good as blogging is to website traffic, guest blogging is also equally important to bring in traffic from external sources. Think of guest blogging as giving a public speech on a public platform. If your speech is good and thought-provoking, people might want to know more about you.
Similarly, if your blog about a topic is well-researched, well-written and striking to the target audience, it can act as a starting point for your blog’s traffic. Also, guest blogging helps build backlinks, which in turn works as an SEO benefit for your website.
Be active on LinkedIn
LinkedIn – the social network for professionals is a highly underrated platform to boost a website’s traffic. Think of the possibilities that LinkedIn throws open. The members of the platform have joined exclusively to gain knowledge and insights about their respective industries.
Sharing thought leadership blog links or publishing blogs using LinkedIn’s built-in Pulse platform can help bring in troves of traffic to your website. LinkedIn’s inbuilt analytics will enable you to understand your reader behavior and how your content should improve to gain more traffic.
Make security a priority
As much as we love the Internet, there are enough reasons to be scared of it too. Cybersecurity attacks have reached alarming proportions forcing enterprises, both big and small to take precautionary measures.
One proven measure is secure your website with SSL certificate that helps in bringing in more traffic. An SSL certificate is an encryption-based security mechanism that helps in preventing data during transmission between the website and the user in order to fix security breaches.
If SSL certificate installed on your website successfully, then website address starts with https:// instead of http:// in the browser. Green padlock icon along with “Secure” label will also be displayed in browser address bar. So, we can say that SSL certificate used to enable https in the address bar in order to increase trust level and security of your website. Such security trust signals are important to draw more traffic towards the website.
According to Google announcement, Securing website’s connection using an HTTPS/SSL certificate helps in getting rankings on Google search engines. World’s most leading Comodo SSL certificate Authority offers Essential SSL Certificate for a single domain in order to authenticate and secure online transactions quick and cost-effective way.
Publish on Web 2.0 websites
Web 2.0 websites refer to websites that allow user-generated content. Medium, Behance, Dribbble are some such websites that can help you gain that traction. Such websites receive a lot of traffic on a daily basis since they allow any user to create their own channel and publish relevant content. It creates an equal field for all to showcase their blogs and articles.
Additionally, they also offer a platform for publishers to create their own exclusive branded pages where they can share or repurpose content already published as blogs. In other words, think of it as free advertising for your blog or websites. Behind the scene stories of products, press releases, product reviews, etc. can help generate traffic from these websites.
Be Mobile responsive
We are living in an age where there are mobile devices than all the human population put together. More than 80% o the Internet traffic originates from mobile devices. So, your website needs t be mobile optimized t gain maximum visits from users who use mobile devices as their primary device.
Apart from increased traffic, mobile-responsiveness also helps in improving SEO friendliness. Google has already started indexing mobile pages at par with desktop versions for higher search engine ranking. The speed of your mobile website is also a ranking signal. All said it is a must that you make your website mobile responsive to increase traffic to your website.
Conclusion
Bringing in traffic to a website, be it one that is just launched, or a website that has been around for a long time is not an easy task. There are several nuances involved in it. There is no switch you can flick on or off to turn your website into a traffic magnet. You have to put in a sincere effort and perform some proven methods like the ones we have outlined above. They should help you bring in traffic to your website.