So you have an amazing website. You’ve thought of a killer domain name, crafted beautiful layouts and written a great deal of content. But despite all of that effort, your analytics still show a flat line. Disheartening, isn’t it? Well, it’s time to change that. In this article, we’ll show you 15 easy steps to drive traffic to your website.

Different Traffic Types

First thing first, you need to know the different types in order to visualize the steps you need to take.

There are two main types that you need to know – organic and paid traffic.

The term “organic traffic” refers to site visitors that come from search engines like Google or Bing.

On the other hand, visitors considered as paid traffic are the ones who land on your site through advertisements (such as Google Adwords and Facebook Ads), promoted links, and other paid methods.

Statistics have proven that 51 percent of all website traffic is organic. This number has many site owners racing to optimize their website’s SEO to the fullest. After all, who doesn’t love a free and profitable method?

But, organic traffic is a long term investment. Getting your site to rank on the first page of search engine results, is a tough competition. You might not see significant results for months, especially if your site’s niche is a crowded industry.

If you want to see immediate results, aim for paid traffic. You can set it up within minutes and receive traffic on the same day.

Tons of advertisement services also offer various targeting options. You can choose who sees your ads based on location, age, sex, and other criteria.

As nice as it sounds to have instant results, be prepared to spend a lot of money on paid ads. Advertising costs can make a hole in your pocket, particularly in certain markets where there is a lot of competition.

Best Way to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Your website doesn’t have to suffer from lack of traffic. Sit tight, explore the guidelines below and learn how to drive traffic to your website.

1. SEO Optimization

Optimizing your website for SEO means making your site better suited for search engines and visitors alike.

Well utilized SEO will help your website rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPs) and drive traffic to your website.

A simple start on optimizing your website is by doing keyword research for your content. You’ll know whether there are a lot of people who search for a specific keyword and how high the competition is.

From there, you can determine which keywords you want to use that can rank well on search engines.

There are a lot of tools for this purpose, the most popular one being Google Keyword Planner. You can find keyword ideas or see the historical metrics (average monthly searches, competition, etc).

Historical Metrics in Google Keyword PlannerOnce you know what keywords you want to use, it’s time to optimize your website. The optimization process can be divided into two categories:

  • Off-site SEO refers to anything you can do to promote your website — such as link building, social media marketing, social bookmarking, and many more.

  • On-site SEO is the act of optimizing different parts of your website, including the content.

When creating content for your website, make sure to focus on on-page SEO first. After all, your website has to be great before you want to market it to others, right? Here are some things that you can do to improve your on-page SEO:

  • Title tags. Create a catchy title with your keywords in it. It should be about 70 characters or less.

  • Meta descriptions. are the short description of web pages shown on SERPs. Like the title tags, it should contain the main keywords so search engines and humans can understand what your page is about.

  • Header tags. Break your content into an easy-read piece by using header tags (H1 to H6).

  • Alt text for images. is used to describe images on the web. It helps search engine crawlers to understand the images. Screen-reading tools also use this text to describe the image to the blind.

2. Email Marketing Campaigns

Although SEO is a great way to show off your site’s potential to customers, you need to make sure that they don’t just visit once. Engage with visitors by sending regular newsletters and promotions through email.

Keeping in touch with existing visitors keeps you on top of mind and encourage them to visit again. Like a regular customer to a coffee shop, eventually, they will have a sense of loyalty to your site. It’s a fantastic way to drive traffic to your website.

To start an email marketing campaign, you need to use email marketing services like MailChimpand Constant Contact. You can try their free versions to start with and then upgrade to the premium plans as your site grows.

But remember not to bombard your subscribers with too many emails. Keep it minimal by sending out weekly or bi-weekly emails that contain a roundup of your site’s updates.

Read our article on email marketing services to learn more.

3. Social Media

Social media sites are a powerful tool to drive traffic to your website. If you use them wisely and effectively, it won’t be long before visitors come flooding your site.

First, always make sure that your content is easy to share. People love to share interesting posts they found on the internet with friends and families. Don’t miss out on this opportunity and embed social sharing tool on your blog posts.

However, don’t sit and wait around for people to share your content. You are the one who needs to be active and reach out to the new audience. Every time you upload new content, share it on social networks. It costs you nothing and can significantly increase traffic to your website.

Here are some tips when promoting your content on social media sites:

  • Add visual elements. People will more likely click on visually-appealing posts.

  • Use hashtags. Hashtags make your posts more discoverable for people who search for that keyword.

  • Pick the right site. Different social networks have different target audience. Adults mostly use Facebook, while teens and people in their 20s tend to use Instagram and Twitter. Try some sites and see which one works the best for your website.

4. Write Great Content

Content is the heart of every site. Engaging content will keep your visitors coming back over and over again. What’s more, they’ll share your content for you. Isn’t that the dream?

Check out some tips below on how to write great content that can drive traffic to your website:

  • Research keywords. Your content should be built around the main keywords. Think of it as the topic. Hence, pick keywords that are currently relevant and have quite high traffic. You can use Google Keyword Planner — as mentioned before — or use Semrush for more in-depth keyword analysis.

  • Create strong headlines. It’s what people read on SERPs, so the catchier the better.

  • Don’t use long sentences and big words. Most people skim over your content to find the information. Simplicity and clarity are key.

  • Write informative content. Your content should provide answers. Avoid filler sentences for the sake of word count.

  • Adds images and videos. Wall of text will drive readers away, so give your readers some breaks with visual elements here and there.

When it comes to writing great content, practice is the key. Over time, you’ll learn how to write effectively and drive traffic to your website.

5. Make Your Site Mobile Friendly

The fact that mobile phones account for 52% of all web traffic should be enough to answer why your website has to be mobile friendly. If visitors have a bad mobile experience on your site, they might never come back. You’ll lose a huge portion of potential traffic.

You may be wondering what kind of website that’s considered mobile friendly? Well, it should be responsive – i.e. it should automatically adjust the display based on the size of the device screen.

That way, visitors can browse through your website comfortably without having to pinch their screen around. Try Google’s mobile-friendly test to see whether your website is already mobile-friendly or not.

To build a responsive website, you’ll either need to hire a professional or use responsive website themes and templates. The latter is, of course, a cheaper option. We always recommend WordPress because all of its themes are mobile device friendly.

A mobile-friendly website also tends to rank higher on mobile searches. So, even if you produce high-quality content, your website traffic would still be hurting if it’s not mobile-friendly.

6. Audit Outdated Content

Sure, you should always write new content to attract new visitors. However, editing your old content is also a great way to drive traffic to your website.

Search engines constantly crawl through websites to search for new content. Every time you make an update to your existing content, it’s basically like putting up a big sign that says “crawl me again!” Search engines will take notice, rescore and rearrange your page’s ranking based on the updates.

To get faster results, update old content that generates significant traffic for your website. It’s highly likely that they already ranked well in SERP, so an update will keep them relevant and increase the chance to rank higher.

Use Google Analytics to find your popular content and choose the most potential ones from there.

But of course, do not make unnecessary updates just for the sake of it. Aim for quality, not quantity. Below are some updates you can make to your articles:

  • Look out for typos.

  • Fix broken links. And even better, link to newer sources.

  • Add new images, infographics or videos.

  • Improve your content’s accuracy by updating outdated info.

7. Implementing an Affiliate Program

An affiliate program is a partnership in which site owners pay the affiliates (publishers) for sending them traffic or sales. The affiliates usually write an article about your product, convince the readers to buy, and put the referral link.

Many businesses choose this strategy today because it’s a cost-effective way to drive traffic to your website and increase conversion rates.

Before choosing an affiliate, knows who your target audience is. The publishers must be appealing to your consumers. Let’s say if your audience is teenagers, publishers with informal and fun tone of voice may work best for you. Choose wisely and you’ll get maximum results.

8. Link Internally

For some unknown reason, a lot of website masters tend to focus on backlinks and forget to do internal linking. It’s such a shame because both of them are equally important to drive traffic to your website.

Google uses links (internal and external) to determine the value of a page. If there are many links to a page, Google deems that page as important and it’ll rank well.

So it’s clear now how much internal linking matters, right? That’s why every time you create content, always put internal links to relevant articles. Let’s say if your post is about how to start a business, you can insert links to articles on business ideas and business plans.

Another benefit of internal linking is keeping visitors to stay on your website. By providing internal links to relevant pages, visitors won’t search the needed information from your competitors.

9. Use CDN to Improve Site Speed

Google wants to give its users the best browsing experience, so site speed matters in search rankings. As such, improving site speed is a must if you want to drive traffic to your website.

A great way to boost site speed is by using the Content Delivery Network (CDN). It’s a group of servers spread across the globe.

When someone requests to visit your site, the nearest server will respond by sending the static content. As a result, the loading time is faster because of the short distance between the visitors and the servers.

Most of CDN providers are paid, but you can get one for free with CloudFlare. All you need to do is to add your domain name to Cloudflare and update the name servers. You can check out the easy step-by-step guide to help you set everything up.

10. Facebook Ads

Using Facebook advertising is proven to be an effective way to drive traffic to your site. 30% of marketers think Facebook is the social media platform that delivers the highest digital ad ROI(return of investment).

Based on average costs, Facebook Ads is a cheaper alternative to search engine ads. The average cost per click (CPC) across all industries is $1.72, and you decide how much you’re willing to spend per day and how long the ads run.

The key to using Facebook Ads is making sure that every dollar counts. Hence, you need to define your goals when creating a campaign — whether it’s AwarenessConsideration, or Conversion.Facebook Ads Objectives

  • Awareness: to reach new people and generate interest.

  • Consideration: to get people hooked on your website and look for more information.

  • Conversion: to encourage visitors to buy your products.

Next, your job is to create a campaign that catches the attention of your audience. There are some things you have to do:

  • Write an excellent description. It should be short, interesting, or relatable.

  • Provide appealing visual elements — ones that would stop Facebook users when they’re scrolling and compel them to look at your ads. It could be pictures, infographics, or videos.

  • Update your ads once the campaign ends. Change the picture and edit the descriptions a little. If you use the same ads for months, it’ll lose effectiveness.

  • Create an informative landing page. You only have a few seconds to keep visitors from bouncing off of your site, so make sure the landing page is informative and valuable.

11. Creating a Youtube Channel

You must’ve stumbled upon one or two videos on Google search. Chances are, you saw Youtubevideos as research shows that 88% of videos that rank on the first page of Google SERP are from Youtube. Hence, this video platform can be a goldmine to drive traffic to your website.

A way to drive traffic is by telling your viewers to visit your website and explain the benefits they’ll get. You can do it by saying short sentences like “Check out writingbeatifully.com to get the full course on how to write faster” — or put a call to action text on the video.

Example of Call to Action Text on Video

Another easy method that people often overlook is to use the description box. Write a call to action sentence along with your link in the description box.

Example of a Good Youtube Description

12. Advertising on Instagram

Instagram is another social media that is very popular for advertising. It’s best suited for those who target young audience as 71% of its users are under the age of 35.

As this social platform is owned by Facebook, the way it works is pretty much the same to Facebook Ads. You’ll get to choose the objectives from three categories and use a great deal of targeting options (such as age, gender, language, country, and many more).

Combine those options by choosing the ones that work best for your brand’s goals. Otherwise, your money will be wasted on people who are simply not interested.

We suggest you experiment a lot on the content of your ad. Because Instagram is a visual platform, it’s highly important to have visually-appealing campaigns.

You can use quotes, short informative videos, funny pictures, infographics, etc. Explore the options and create an ad that truly represents your website.

Instagram is a great way to drive traffic to your website!

13. Influencer Marketing

Social media platforms have changed the way people look for what they need. Now, they look up to influencers or those who are experts in their field. Hence, if used properly, influencer marketing can drive traffic to your website.

Implementing influencer marketing is a relatively easy process. Choose the influencers you want to work with, then contact them and ask them to promote your products or services in exchange for a commission.

The great thing about this method is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money. Many influencers are happy to receive freebies in exchange for their services.

14. Sponsoring Youtube Channels

Sponsoring Youtube channels is a specific form of influencer marketing. You pay creators to make a video in one of the following styles:

  • A dedicated sponsored video. The entire video is about your products (such as unboxing videos or vlogs in which your products are the main focus).

  • A sponsored mention is where the channel owner calls out your brand or product at some point in the video. The product won’t be the main focus of the video, but the Youtubers will explain why it’s such a useful thing to have.

The price for sponsoring a video varies. The bigger the channel, the higher the price. Some channels also set a flat fee (pay per video) while others charge per view.

A few things to look out for when choosing a channel are the size of the channel and the view rate.

15. Get Involved with LinkedIn

Linkedin homepage

LinkedIn is a very unique social media site because it has a specific user group — skilled workers and professionals all around the world. Therefore, this platform is a perfect place to drive traffic to your website dedicated to a business.

First thing first, your LinkedIn profile must be complete. Ensure that you got the basics covered (such as summary, profile photo, website’s link, and so on). Personalize your profile but keep it professional.

Posting business-related content on your Linkedin will drive visitors to your website. What’s great is that you can target specific audiences, that are interested in your industry.

Conclusion

Website owners certainly want to drive traffic to your website. A lot of people think they have to spend a lot of money, but there are free tricks that work just fine.

We’ve shared some of the best free and paid methods to drive traffic to your website. To make it easier for you, let’s take a look at some of the best ones:

Free methods:

  • Optimize your website’s SEO — it’ll help search engines to crawl your website easily.

  • Share every piece of content on social media platforms. Your content can reach a wider audience and attract more traffic.

  • Update old content. It’s very easy to do and will improve your traffic.

Paid methods:

  • Hire affiliate marketers. It’s very cost-effective since you only pay if you get results.

  • Work with influencers. They are able to engage the audience and sway their followers to visit your website and make a purchase.

  • Use Facebook Ads. It’s the biggest social media platform and you have a higher chance to reach all kinds of people.

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