If you’re reading this blog post right now, I’m going to take a guess: your website traffic looks very similar to this Imperial Walker, and you’re looking to change that!

Well, I can tell you one thing–you’ve come to the right place! Increasing traffic to your website has numerous benefits, but the most obvious one (and probably the one you care most about) is revenue. It’s simply easier to monetize a larger audience, whether that is through sales, referrals, advertising, or data. With that goal in mind, let’s dig into the specific areas where you can increase your traffic.

The five tips and tricks for increasing your website traffic include: on-page SEO, the creation of shareable, linkable content, technical SEO, social media, and advertising. These tips can be categorized into three traffic types: organic traffic referral traffic, and paid traffic. Each source type is unique and can be increased using various strategies.

Organic Traffic

So, let’s start with organic traffic – or traffic that comes from a search engine where a user will “organically” discover your site in the results of a search results page. Organic traffic is most directly affected by SEO.

So, what is SEO? SEO, search engine optimization, is one of those fancy acronyms that some marketers throw around to make themselves sound super smart. Essentially, SEO is simply improving your rankings for various search terms on search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.

1) On-Page SEO

The first element of SEO is On-Page SEO or simply optimizing your page or blog for visibility in search. A few tactics that can be implemented in order to achieve on-page SEO include optimizing content, URLs, and internal links.

When you decide to optimize your content for the benefit of on-page SEO, the number one rule of thumb is include your main keyword in the first 100 or 150 words of your content, as search engines, specifically Google, have a short attention span and will really hone in on the words that show up first. In addition to your keyword’s early appearance, it also needs to be repeated to ensure your chosen search engine knows exactly what your content topic is.

Similarly, you’re going to want to include your keyword within your URL. This combined with a concise URL is going to enhance your on-page SEO. When it comes to internal linkings, you need to establish what your most important content is, the content you think brings the most value. This content will need to be linked repeatedly so your customers can easily navigate to said content.

2) Off-Page SEO

Off-Page SEO is the second area where you can make a big difference in your organic traffic. Generally speaking, Off-Page SEO is mostly comprised of gaining links to pages on your website from other sites on the internet. In contrast to On-Page SEO, this type of SEO gives you very little control, as it’s not a change you can make directly to your website. You can ask your buddy to link your latest blog post to their website, for example.

Enhancing your off-page SEO is going to move your web page up in the search engine rankings. The primary factor incorporated into successful off-page SEO is backlinks.

Backlinks are the foundation of off-page SEO. Unlike internal links that link to another piece of content within your website, backlinks link from one website to another. To increase backlinks to your website, write guest blogs for other businesses, format your content into a popular backlink format: infographics, list posts, quizzes, and create compelling content that others will want to link back to. One way to do this is search for a popular industry topic and read the first one that pops up in your search engine results. Now, take this topic and write content that is 10 times better.

Backlinks also operate as great sources of referral traffic, which will be discussed later.

3) Technical SEO

Simply, Technical SEO is everything that doesn’t fall under the umbrella of on-page or off-page SEO. The primary goal of technical SEO, similarly to off-page and on-page, is ensuring you have a highly ranked website and heavily trafficked content.

To improve your technical SEO, you’re going to want to really focus on your website, both the structure and ease of navigation. When you build your website, you’re going to want to be sure you are following a “flat structure.” This means that all of your website pages are a few links away. Search engines analyze your website structure in this way: the more clicks, the less importance. You want your content to be organized and easily accessible by both your customers and search engines.

Referral Traffic

Traffic can come to your site directly from other sites, whether that’s a mention in a news article or a tag in a social media post. Referral traffic is valuable because you can assume a level of trust has been built by the site that referred a potential customer to you. In many cases, referral traffic has the beneficial side of effect of increasing your SEO, in the form of a backlink, as mentioned previously.

4) Social Media and Other Referral Sources

According to Statista, social media now accounts for about 3.6 billion users worldwide. Despite the warnings that documentaries, such as Netflix’s The Social Dilemma, exude in regards to the dangers of social media, people are going to continue to use the platforms and use them religiously.

No matter who your target audience is, they are likely going to engage on one social platform or another.

Provide value teasers on your company’s social media platforms. An example of a value teaser would be an Instagram story with copy surrounding a new product your business is planning to release. Within the story, you can include a link to a blog post and THAT is where you will reveal what the actual product is.

Social media has the ability to move your audience from the platform they spend hours on each day to your website in one click, generating website traffic quickly, 89% of marketers see social media generating more exposure for their company.

Other referral sources include overall backlinks, guest posts, press releases, and influencer marketing to name a few.

Paid Traffic

Paid traffic speaks for itself, as it’s traffic you have garnered from advertising promotions your business has paid for. The most notable form of paid traffic is advertising.

5) Advertising

Although advertising costs money and has the potential to eat into the revenue you are generating from website traffic, you can control the amount of traffic to a large degree. Plus, you don’t have to wait for other organic factors. So, there’s definitely a weighted pro-con relationship going on here.

A few great advertising tools include Google Search Ads, targeted ads on social media, and banner ads. When you search for a certain term within Google, the first few results are bound to be ads. Your business can pay to show up in this format; while it’s costly, it does get you to the top of that results page.

Targeted ads on social media are those that appear after you talk to your friend about Cheetos and a Cheetos ad pops up on your Instagram page. Ok, not exactly. Your phone isn’t actually listening, but it is watching what you search and purchase. If you decide to leave Cheetos in your cart, a targeted ad is likely to pop up within your feed.

Banner ads are also referred to as display advertising, as this type of advertising is image-based. These are ads you can pay for to be displayed within a web page, usually a web page that your ideal customer base visits frequently. These ads can easily be linked back to your website.

And there you have it! A few tips and tricks that are sure to help your business generate more website traffic and move to the renowned first page on Google. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or need some help along the way, feel free to reach out and book a consultation.