Take a look at the goals of any business owner or marketer, and you’re just about guaranteed to see “get more customers” at the top of the list. In fact, if you’re a business owner or marketer yourself, you probably already know that an increase in customers is key to achieving most (if not all) of your other business goals.
From a digital marketing standpoint, there’s a simple, fairly straightforward way to achieve that goal: by boosting your website traffic. By bringing more visitors to a well-designed and effective website, you can easily increase your odds of converting those visitors to paying customers – and thus, strengthen your customer base.
Thanks to our years of industry experience and passion for what we do, the V Digital Services team has an array of go-to strategies for increasing website traffic. And now, we’re here to share our top 25 tips to help you learn how to drive traffic to your website and put your top business goals within easier reach as a result.
Table of Contents
- Why is Increasing Website Traffic Important?
- Free traffic vs. Quality Traffic
- Effective Channels for Driving Quality Traffic to Your Website
- 25 Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Website
- Why You Should Avoid Instant Website Traffic Generators
- How to Get Traffic to Your Website in One Simple Step
Why is Increasing Website Traffic Important?
Your website traffic is more than just an indicator of your business growth; it’s also a valuable catalyst for said growth. Traffic serves several different purposes, each of which is equally important:
- A useful benchmark for assessing how well your current marketing strategies are working
- A source of insights about your audience, which can be used to make a wide range of decisions
- A resource for improving SEO and search engine credibility
- A clear path to generating more leads, boosting conversions, and getting more customers
However, all website traffic is not created equally. In order to make the most of the potential benefits listed above, you need to aim for driving quality traffic to your site using the right methods. We’re going to break down the best ways to increase website traffic, focusing on quality, not quantity.
Free Traffic vs. Quality Traffic
Website traffic has a direct impact on improving your rank, which then generates more traffic – when the right connection points are there, it’s a healthy, consistent cycle. But it’s important that an increase in website traffic comes with an increase in engagement as well. If you’re seeing more traffic, but are still waiting for conversion rates to take an upward turn, then your website simply isn’t bringing in the right kind of traffic.
While you can try a myriad of methods for optimizing your website for conversion (calls to action in strategic locations, intuitive navigation, etc.), you should ideally focus on honing in on the right traffic to begin with. Ultimately, if you aim to drive more qualified visitors to your website – not just general traffic – then your odds for converting those visitors into leads and customers are far higher.
Effective Channels for Driving Quality Traffic to Your Website
While it would definitely be nice to have just a single tool that could do it all, you’ll need to mix and match various channels to land on your best-fit strategy when it comes to driving website visitors. Some of these channels require an investment of time, effort, or money (or all three), while others are free.
Some of the most effective channels for increasing website traffic are:
- Listings in online directories
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
- Social media
- Online ads
- Blogging
There’s not necessarily one “right” formula for increased website traffic because the ideal combination of channels and strategies is going to vary from business to business. However, with a well-rounded selection of strategies to work with, you can get started on assembling a multi-faceted plan for driving website traffic that works for you and your business.
Now that you have a clear picture of why traffic is so important – and which kind of traffic you want – it’s time to get down to business. Odds are, you came here looking for smart strategies for increasing website traffic that you can put into practice now. So, here are our top 25 picks for the best ways to drive website traffic that’s high-quality, consistent, and effective long-term.
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Create your (free!) Google Business Profile listing
Setting up your Google Business Profile listing should be one of the first things you do for your business online, so if you haven’t yet tackled it, now’s the time. A recent study showed that the average business receives nearly 60 actions every month from their listing, showing up in more than 1,000 searches each month. More than 850 of those searches are discovery searches, and just under 160 are direct searches.
Ultimately what the data means is this: thanks to Google Business Profile, hundreds of online users are conducting searches for categories, products, or services relevant to your business every month and ending up your website. Plus, there are plenty of users that may opt to contact you directly from the listing page, without even needing to see your full site. In terms of a traffic-boosting strategy, this free one is worth its weight in gold.
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Conduct on-page search engine optimization (SEO) for your site
There are a wide variety of SEO strategies that can boost rankings for your website pages, which will help draw more visitors. Many SEO tactics are free, requiring just your time and effort.
For example, you can focus on generating high-quality, relevant content that will engage your target audience’s interest. You can also improve webpage meta descriptions, focusing on concise but informative descriptions that will prompt users to click your link in the search results.
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Get your business listed in online directories and/or review sites
Sites such as Yelp can be an excellent source of traffic for your website, getting your business name and information in front of interested online users. Many of these directories and sites are free; you’ll just need to spend a bit of time building your profile or page.
However, it’s important to remember that this isn’t a “set it and forget it” strategy: for best results, it’s vital that you actively update each listing with current information and make sure that you’re earning consistently positive reviews.
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Build some high-quality backlinks
When another website links to your website, that is known as a backlink. Backlinks that are published by industry influencers, complementary businesses, community sites, and other relevant pages serve a purpose that’s two-fold. First, they help build brand awareness about your business. Second, these backlinks can funnel traffic directly to your website.
And in addition, quality backlinks can be an outstanding tactic for building up trust with Google, thus boosting your rankings.
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Be active on social media
It’s probably no surprise to hear that social media has become one of marketers’ go-to tools, especially because it offers a range of free options for driving traffic. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other platforms can be used to promote business blog posts, highlight special deals or events, and draw attention to specific pages on your site.
Businesses that really nail their social media approach even manage to turn their audiences into free marketers, ones that share content to their own networks.
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Put hashtags to good use
Adding effective hashtags to social media posts is akin to opening your doors to a stream of traffic that might not have found you otherwise. The right hashtag can get your content in front of the right user at the right time – what do you have to lose?
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Utilize landing pages
Specific to a particular offer or service (such as a discount code, free guide, or free trial), landing pages dial in on a single call to action to make the conversion more likely to happen. Landing pages are intentionally highly specific, allowing you to create messaging that is extremely targeted – and often effective.
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Focus on targeting long-tail keywords
Short-tail keywords might be searched on a more frequent basis, but ranking for them is a pretty serious challenge. However, long-tail keywords make it possible for you to rank higher with users that are submitting queries relevant to your products or services. Higher ranking equals more traffic, and more specific targeting equals improved chances of conversion.
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Try email marketing
Email marketing can keep you connected with existing and potential customers alike, leading to increased traffic if done successfully. Rather than bombarding subscribers with constant emails, try to stick to useful information and quality content. Promotional offers, relevant blog posts, and other attention-grabbing content will lead readers to appreciate, rather than be annoyed by, your emails.
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Be a guest blogger
If you’re able to take advantage of the opportunity to be a guest blogger on a relevant website, it’s well worth it. Whether it’s an industry site, a community-related page, or something similar, appearing as a guest blogger can generate traffic and help strengthen your brand authority.
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Set up an influencer partnership
Modern marketing has completely transformed the way we advertise, and influencers have become a popular tactic for new and established brands alike. Try to connect with an influencer that caters to an audience well-suited for your products or service, and inquire about setting up a partnership of some sort. For example, the influencer may agree to review your product in a public post in return for payment or another benefit.
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Engage regularly online
It’s completely free to be active in online groups, websites, and other digital spaces that connect to your community and business, and it can be a good way to drive website traffic. Engaging can take many forms, including commenting on social media posts and blogs, answering questions in forums or other platforms, and joining in on conversations within the industry.
Remember that the goal of this engagement is not to oversell your brand but simply to immerse yourself in the online community and receive traffic as a secondary result.
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Use analytics to your advantage
Analytics (such as those through Google Analytics) can offer impressive insight into what’s working and what’s not, but only if you actually use them. Make use of tracked links, check-in with website analytics regularly, and take the data into consideration when planning or adapting your efforts.
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Google Search Advertising
Google Ads do involve a financial investment, but they also enable you to secure a top spot in search results. Using Google Ads, you pay to have your webpage ranked at the top when certain keyword queries are submitted, giving you considerable exposure for potential traffic that’s qualified to convert.
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Advertising with Google Maps
Google Ads also allows you to set your advertising preferences so that your webpage is specifically displayed for Google Maps search results, targeting local users in particular.
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Display advertising
Just about every online user is familiar with display advertising, which takes the form of banner ads placed on various websites. Typically, the goal is to have your ad displayed on a site relevant to your brand to bring in traffic that’s already potentially interested in what you have to offer.
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Retargeting
It’s expected that many users will visit your website and then navigate away from it without actually converting. However, retargeting ads are specifically designed to reach those users, reminding them about your brand to inspire a return visit. Capable of appearing on social media feeds and websites, a retargeting ad places your brand in front of users that have already seen your site – and are therefore increasingly likely to make a return visit.
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Social Media Advertisements
Similar to search advertising, social media advertising involves purchasing the opportunity to get your content in front of interested users. You’ll be able to appear in relevant social media feeds, thus engaging with a specific audience for a stronger likelihood of successful traffic generation.
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Varied content
Quality content reigns supreme in the world of digital marketing, but that doesn’t mean that there’s just one “how-to” that dictates the perfect content formula. Instead of feeling trapped by the misleading idea that content can only be done one “right” way, mix up your approach to appeal to as broad a range of users as possible.
Varying the format and length of your content can help your site reach a variety of readers, which is always a plus in terms of traffic. Try switching up long-form content with shorter blog posts, sprinkling in infographics and video for good measure.
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Invite others to be guest bloggers on your website
We’ve covered how being a guest blogger can benefit your website traffic, but what about having others guest blog for you? Guest blogging is a mutually beneficial tactic that can support the goals of everyone involved, particularly if you’re both striving for increased traffic.
When you invite someone to guest blog on your site, you can be pretty confident that they’ll be sharing the post and linking it generously – and that brings readers directly to your page.
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Hone in on referral traffic
There’s no doubt that backlinks are hugely valuable for site traffic, but they can also take time and effort to establish. While you’re working on building out backlinks, you can simultaneously go after referral traffic. Referral links are a specific type of backlink used when your content is referenced by another site, such as a news aggregator, a post that shares a list of resources or products, or a third-party review.
The simplest way to score referral links is by creating first-class content. In order to effectively push referral traffic to your page, a referral link should be compelling to the reader. Additionally, the linking page should be a solid source of ongoing traffic, which will help maintain an ongoing flow of visitors.
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Strengthen your website’s internal linking structure
Your website’s overall link profile is supported by backlinks and the quality of your internal linking structure. As you create content, be on the lookout for opportunities to place internal links. Your SEO will get a useful boost, but visitors to your page will also enjoy a more useful browsing experience – and that’s one of the keys to generating more traffic.
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Evaluate your website for responsiveness
If you have yet to make your website mobile-friendly, make that one of your top priorities after you finish reading this post. In an age when a huge amount of website traffic comes from people using their smartphones or other mobile devices, failing to make your site mobile-friendly is a big mistake. Nobody wants to deal with the frustrating experience of trying to navigate an inaccessible website on their mobile device – would you?
Ensure that your website is designed to be mobile-friendly and easily accessible across a wide variety of devices, from small smartphones all the way up to oversized tablets.
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Strive for a technically optimized website
Today’s online users expect websites to load quickly and effectively, which is why slow-loading sites are likely to have sky-high bounce rates. To optimize your website, take a closer look at elements such as page structure, image file sizes, and third-party plugins. These are three of the most common culprits for slow loading, but their issues can be resolved with optimization.
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Check out the competition
If you can pinpoint your top competitors and learn more about the ones that are excelling in your niche, you can put that knowledge to good use in improving your own website’s potential for driving traffic. There are various tools and software solutions out there that make it easy to evaluate competitor sites, giving you a snapshot of different performance markers.
You’ll be able to get a big-picture perspective on what types of topics have fueled the most traffic for your competitors, giving you the advantage of understanding the content that resonates most with your target audience. With that in mind, you can adapt your approach to content creation and have a clearer direction in mind.
Why You Should Avoid Instant Website Traffic Generators
If you’ve spent any amount of time trying to drive traffic to your website, you’ve probably been tempted by the promises of instant website traffic generators. But while these generators can sound like a shortcut to traffic, you’re better off avoiding them and relying on good, old-fashioned time and effort instead.
Here’s why:
- Automatic website traffic generators can have a negative impact on your rankings. Google gets smarter every day, so it should come as no surprise that it has the capability to sniff out even the sneakiest traffic generator. The search engine platform can detect spam behavior and suspicious spikes in the activity, which will lead it to monitoring user interaction on your website. Since traffic generators are likely to bring the wrong kind of traffic to your site (read: users that aren’t actually prepared to engage with your business), Google is going to quickly discover that the traffic isn’t authentic. As a result, your reputation with Google can be damaged, and your ranking can take a major hit.
- Your website won’t be benefiting from targeted traffic. When you’re working to grow website traffic, your ultimate purpose is to increase the number of people engaging with your business, ideally increasing conversion. However, traffic generators generally don’t attract targeted traffic, so visitors are unlikely to be well-suited for your business. Engagement won’t be where you want it, and conversation and lead rates are likely to begin declining.
- Your website could be blocked and banned. Websites that attract bot traffic run the risk of being blocked from online advertising platforms and traffic generators are one of the prime sources of said bot traffic. Even worse, bot traffic could get your website removed from Google entirely.
When you consider the potential risks to your website and business, it’s clear that instant website traffic generators (whether they’re paid or free) aren’t worth it. Instead, opt for methods that will help you build high-quality, sustainable traffic that will benefit your business in the long run.
The Best Free Website Traffic Generator: Google Business Profile
Now that you know that instant traffic generators are a no go, we want to reiterate that there is one way to get free website traffic that beats every other option out there: Google Business Profile. Free, easy to use, and effective, a Google Business Profile listing delivers a multitude of benefits:
- It places your business in the results for searches relevant to your location and products/services.
- It increases visibility specifically with online search users that have the intent to buy.
- It drives high-quality, qualified traffic to both your website and brick-and-mortar location.
- It allows customers to post reviews, which can expand your online presence and reputation.
- It provides your business with a viable place in mobile search, which has now significantly surpassed desktop search.
- It gives users the experience of visiting your business in-person through its use of visuals, which can be an excellent method for encouraging an actual visit.
- It empowers customers to interact with your business from the listing itself, which helps support engagement and an increase in actual customers.
If you’re only able to implement one strategy for increasing website traffic, make it this one. A Google Business Profile listing offers so many advantages, with absolutely zero financial investment required – you can’t afford not to have yours set up.
How to Get Traffic to Your Website in One Simple Step
There’s no doubt that all of the 25 strategies we covered are highly practical methods of boosting website traffic. And with 25 different options to choose from, you definitely have no shortage of new strategies to try.
However, you can take a single action that will lead you to surefire success: partner with an experienced digital marketing team with a proven track record. Digital marketing is a complex science, which is why there are entire teams dedicated to mastering it. At V Digital Services, we’ve assembled a full staff of people that have jumped into the world of digital marketing with both feet and discovered exactly how to conquer it on behalf of our clients. In short, if you want to know how to increase website traffic, V Digital Services has the strategies and action steps you need.
Learn more about how our team can boost your website traffic and fast-track your business growth by contacting V Digital Services today.
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