Growing and sustaining website traffic is one of the major concerns for business owners and marketers today. Most are looking for practical ways to drive relevant traffic to their site without breaking the budget or poorly allocating their funds.
Here’s a checklist of 21 actionable strategies you can take to help draw fresh traffic to your website or blog. Some will help right away, others will take a little time to show results, but start employing strategies right away to make the greatest impact over time. As you employ them, keep your focus on providing high-quality experiences and content for your visitors.
- Update/Complete Company Profiles Online
Make sure your online profiles are complete, current and have accurate contact information – including a working link to your website.
- Make Social Media Part of your Promotion/Distribution Strategy
Social profiles on major channels are a key piece of blog and other content distribution. Brand your profiles and share your content in a mix of useful and interesting content you curate from other sources.
- Create a LinkedIn Group
Start an industry-specific group where members can ask questions, share ideas and get support. Periodically share resources that link back to your site.
- Promote Your Blogs via Email
When sending email to customer and prospect groups, include links to some blog posts on your site. They can increase traffic, leads, and sales.
- Employ Long-Tail Keywords
Single keywords are no longer useful for content-targeted SEO. Users don’t search in lists, they search in thoughts. And sheer search volume makes longer, specific search phrases of higher value. Make sure your pages and blog posts include the long-tail search phrases you are targeting for placement.
- Optimize Posts Already on Your Blog
Review old posts to make sure they have unique and relevant title tags, URLS and meta descriptions. You may have great content that’s not being properly utilized!
- Submit Your Blog Posts to These Sites:
StumbleUpon | Tumblr | Reddit Yes, these still work!
- Link to Relevant Posts on Your Blog
When you write a new blog article, mention (and link to) other posts your readers may find helpful on the same or similar topics. This is good for SEO and improving time-on-site and referral traffic.
- Post More Often
This takes time to get right. But statistics show that more regular posting increases traffic dramatically. If you’re blogging “sometimes” commit to a regular schedule and stick with it!
- Post Longer, Better Quality Content
Sometimes in an effort to get it “done” – posts can become low-value volume churned out instead of high-quality pieces. Many blogs can – and should be brief, but try planning time to write longer articles occasionally that don’t just have a higher word count (1000-1500 words), but dive deeper into high-value topics.
- Go ‘Tube-You-lar’ with Video
YouTube drives the most engaged traffic of all social media sites. Use it.
- Be the Expert with the Answers
Visit sites like Quora and answer questions relevant to your niche as the expert.
- Improve Your Headlines
Headlines are what will get people to click. Take enough time to create headlines that are clear, interesting and reflect the benefit of clicking through to your content.
- Networking – You Must Be Present to Win
Developing relationships with others in your industry can result in natural links and referral traffic. Make an effort to follow and connect with others in your niche. You must be present (and participating) to win.
- Give Influencers Credit
When you cite or quote a person in a blog post, be sure to link to their twitter profile and @ mention them in your tweet when you promote your post.
- Avoid “Bright-Shiny-Object Syndrome”
Don’t just do it because it’s new, or cool, or to keep up with the Jones’. Only invest your time and energy into online strategies that actually produce results for your business.
Related: Selecting social media accounts for your business.
- Check Out These Communities for Sharing Posts.
ProBlogger | CopyBlogger | Alltop | Triberr
- Create a Top 10 RESOURCES Post
Select the top 10 resources for your industry/niche and write an article about them for your blog. Take it a step further and reach out to them, sharing their winning and featured status, it may yield return links and social sharing.
- Guest Blog on a Site Relevant to Your Field
You want quality links back and a quality audience, so contribute to high-quality sites where your best audience is reading. You can also seek guest contributors for your blog from these sources as well.
- Be Categorically Better
Blog categories are great for SEO, but they also help readers. Take time to look at your blog categories. Are they easy to understand and navigate? Do they offer the top content choices? Set up categories with your reader in mind.
- Interview an Expert
You will gain credit and lift from association, but the expert is likely to promote the interview to their audience as well – extending your reach.
There you have it! 20 actionable steps you can take to bolster your website’s traffic. Select a few and start applying them today!
