10 Proven Ways to Increase Traffic On Your Website In 2021

Ask a marketer or business owner what they’d like most in the world, and they’ll probably tell you “more customers.” What often comes after customers on a business’ wish list? More traffic to their site. There are many ways you can improve SEO and increase traffic on your website, and in today’s post, we’re going to look at 10 of them, including several ways to boost site traffic for FREE.

10 Proven Ways to Increase Traffic On Your Website

1. Improve Your On-Page SEO

What can help you supercharge your results is learning the right SEO strategies and the best practices for using target keywords.

You can improve your on-page SEO rankings through keyword research and just the right optimization to your website content.

For example, you can:

Optimize the keywords in your SEO title
Put core keywords in the headlines throughout your website articles
Add keywords to your image file names so search engines know what they’re about
Make your URLs as SEO-friendly as possible by optimizing the slugs.
Make sure you include at least your main keyword in your meta description

To make it easier for yourself to optimize on-page SEO, consider installing plugins like Yoast SEO.

2. Advertise for more traffic

This one is so obvious, we’re going to look at it. Paid search, social media advertising and display advertising (try our Smart Ads Creator!) are all excellent ways of attracting visitors, building your brand and getting your site in front of people. Adjust your paid strategies to suit your goals – do you just want more traffic, or are you looking to increase conversions, too? Each paid channel has its pros and cons, so think carefully about your objectives before you reach for your credit card.

If you’re hoping that more traffic to your site will also result in more sales, you’ll need to target high commercial intent keywords as part of your paid search strategies. Yes, competition for these search terms can be fierce (and expensive), but the payoffs can be worth it.

3. Write Guest Posts to Increase Traffic On Your Website

Guest blogging is a tactic where you write for other blogs. In return, the editor/site owner will usually allow you to link back to your site.

The benefits include:

More referral traffic;
More backlinks (which correlate with rankings);
Increased brand awareness

The biggest challenge with guest blogging is finding blogs that are willing to accept your guest posts.

To circumvent this issue, most SEOs use Google search operators to find sites with “write for us” or “become a contributor” pages.

The problem? This is tedious and time-consuming. Plus, if everyone follows the same process, then everyone finds the same opportunities. As a result, editors of these sites often receive more pitches than they can handle and so ignore many of them.

How can you solve this problem? Don’t limit yourself to only sites with a “write for us” page. Most sites are willing to accept guest posts, even if they don’t advertise for it.

After all, who doesn’t want free content?!

If you can find websites that have written about a particular topic before, then chances are they’ll be interested in a guest post about a similar topic.

The easiest way to do this is with Content Explorer.

Enter any word or phrase and then toggle the “one article per domain” switch to make sure you don’t contact the same sites twice.

What is URL shortener used for?

An URL shortener is a website that reduces the length of your URL. The idea is to minimize the web page address into something that’s easier to remember and track. There are many URL shorteners on the market today, including Bit.ly, Goo.gl, and T2M URL Shortener.

4. Create Quizzes With Share Results Features

Quizzes are an effective lead generation tool to use in your content marketing mix. In 2016, LeadQuizzes users had a 33.6% conversion rate. And not only are these emails of users you can market to in the future, you also have data about them through their quiz answers.

But let’s get back to the main goal: website traffic. When users finish a quiz, they get shareable results. They then post those results on social media, and their networks can click on the link and take the quiz themselves. Use this tactic to drive more traffic and grow your email list at the same time.

Bra company True & Co. has a quiz on their site to help users choose the right size bra. They serve users product recommendations based on their answers.

5. Appear on Podcasts to Increase Traffic to Your Website

44% of the US population have listened to a podcast.

Because of that, podcasts have become one of the hottest marketing channels. Brands like Drift are flocking to the podcast game and creating versions of their own.

But creating a podcast is tedious work. You’ll need equipment, editing skills, guests, etc. And if you have limited resources, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to dive right into setting one up.

Think about it another way.

Plenty of podcasts means they need guests. Pitch to be that guest!

Tim, our Chief Marketing Officer, has appeared on numerous podcasts this year. From a relatively-newish podcast to a top 100 business podcast, he has done it all.

And that has helped us acquire hundreds of customers:

How can you find podcast opportunities?

Of course, the easiest way is to use Google. Search for “top [your niche] podcasts”, and you’ll get tons of curated lists:

You can also use Site Explorer. First, identify the name of someone in your industry who’s been a guest on many podcasts.

For example, Laura Roeder is known for growing MeetEdgar via podcast appearances.

Then, go to Site Explorer > Enter the person’s website > Backlinks > search for their name in the title of referring pages (e.g., “Laura Roeder”)

This will surface the podcasts the person has appeared on.

Find the host and pitch yourself as a guest!

6. Master YouTube Marketing

You can increase traffic from YouTube by creating YouTube ads, adding links to your description, adding annotation links to your video, or by getting other YouTubers to share your links on their videos. By creating a new video at least once a week, consistently and over the long haul, you’ll be able to drive more traffic back to your website.

If you don’t have an audience yet, you can reach out to YouTubers with sizable audiences and ask them to become affiliates or pay their fee. This could work well in the short-term but it’s always a good idea to try to build out your own channels to lower your acquisition costs.

7. Interview Industry Thought Leaders

Think interviews are only for the big leaguers? You’d be amazed how many people will be willing to talk to you if you just ask them. Send out emails requesting an interview to thought leaders in your industry, and publish the interviews on your blog. Not only will the name recognition boost your credibility and increase traffic to your website, the interviewee will probably share the content too, further expanding its reach.

8. to Increase Traffic On Your Website: Add New Content Weekly

Regular activity on your blog allows you to accelerate your growth – the more content you have, the bigger your chances for ranking on multiple search results. Plus, as you start establishing your presence, you can teach your audience to expect new content at a certain time.

Also if you can’t manage to write new articles weekly, hire a content writer.

Take some time to plan out a real content strategy. Create g reat content and Use some type of content calendar. Your content production shouldn’t be an afterthought.

9. Increase Website Traffic With Facebook

While Facebook’s organic reach continues to decrease, as Facebook prioritizes posts from users’ friends and family members, that doesn’t make this platform less of a powerhouse. You can obtain website traffic from Facebook groups, Facebook Ads, Messenger, social media posts, and of course your own business page.

For online store owners, you can promote products in buy and sell Facebook groups to help ensure you receive website traffic from people who are interested in buying your products.

Also, by combining Facebook ads with consistently posting on your Facebook page, you’ll increase the chances of getting website traffic from various areas in Facebook. Feel free to check out the Facebook Chat app, as you can share links to product pages or blog content to potential and actual customers.

10. Use Instagram To Increase Traffic

A recent survey conducted by HubSpot showed that seven out of ten hashtags on Instagram are branded.

#PutACanOnIt – RedBull branded hashtag drove more than 1,000 followers to take pictures of themselves with a RedBull can. Source: Instagram.

So, if you haven’t gotten around creating a custom hashtag for your brand, now is the right time!

After all, this is the platform where users engage with branded content the most. Statistics show that brands are getting 10x higher engagement rates on Instagram than they do on Facebook.

It goes without saying that you need to post high-quality images that are in line with your brand aesthetic.

But that alone won’t cut it – every user on Instagram is doing the exact same thing.

So, what are some additional ways you can drive website traffic through Instagram?

Add a call-to-action to your Instagram posts
Create engaging, short video content (or repurpose them) and include your website URL
Partner with influencers and try Instagram influencer marketing
Offer your Instagram audience something extra – bonuses, discount codes, and special promotions that will help you drive them to your website
Include around 5 hashtags in your posts to make sure they appear in relevant hashtag feeds
Share user-generated content

Summary

There are tons of ways to drive traffic to your online store, from social media to in-person marketing and everything in between. The most effective method depends on your brand and your customers and you’ll only learn through trial and error.