Article | 7 minute read
How to increase traffic to your website
Article | 7 minute read
How to increase traffic to your website
Published: 5 January 2023
In this article:
Do you find it challenging to generate leads and drive potential customers to your website?
In this guide, we give you concrete tips on which methods you should work on in parallel to gradually increase traffic to your website.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimisation is a method that helps you to increase your visibility to the search engines and to rank higher in search results.
By creating content with relevant keywords and descriptions, you can become visible to the search engines and rank higher with users.
For example, if you sell beauty products online and know that your customers are searching for specific brands or products such as mascara, lip gloss or sunscreen, it's important that those keywords are included in your website content.
The more authority Google deems you to have, the higher you will rank on those keywords. There are different ways to build authority, link power is one of them.
For example, if you have an entire landing page with products from a particular brand, with links from both internal and external pages, you will have higher authority on that keyword than if you only mentioned the brand in a product text.
Other factors that affect how high your website ranks are how well it works technically. Loading time, mobile-friendliness, URL structure and headings will all affect the page's quality score, which in turn is important for ranking high.
Read our guide here for more information.
Google Ads
Google Ads includes display and search advertising, which means you pay to appear in search results for a relevant target audience.
This is a good complement to your search engine optimisation, which in many cases requires a lot of resources to produce results.
The advantage of this type of advertising is that you reach relevant and interested recipients, using your chosen keywords for the ad. If you are selling beauty products, you should highlight the keywords that the ad represents, for example, brand name, "mac" and product name, "lipstick".
Your results are measurable down to the smallest detail, so you can track what's working and what's not after the fact and optimise accordingly.
Another advantage of Google Ads is that you only pay for clicks, compared to a newspaper ad where you pay for placement with no guarantee that anyone will visit your website.
Read more about Google Ads here.
Microsoft Advertising
Similarly, you can advertise through Microsoft Advertising, formerly known as Bing Ads. Microsoft Advertising is a combination of Big data, Automation and Artificial intelligence.
Microsoft Advertising analyzes behavior based on app interactions and intent data. It helps advertisers reach a relevant audience with their marketing.
As with Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising is a search advertising platform. You only pay per click and the ad appears in search engine results when a user searches for the specific keyword that matches your keywords for the ad.
Learn more about Microsoft Advertising here.
Facebook Ads
You also have the opportunity to capture your target audience in their daily social media consumption. When you advertise on Facebook, you have the ability to communicate like a post in the stream.
Again, you only pay for clicks, and have the ability to tailor the targeting to your ideal audience. You can also set different goals for your ads, for example, do you want to increase brand awareness, get more clicks or motivate a purchase?
You can advantageously work on several campaigns and targets in parallel to work on your recipients. On all platforms, you decide the budget and the time period for which the ads will be active.
Read more about Facebook Ads here.
Whatever ad strategy you choose to apply, try to create as relevant ads as possible. This is done by matching keywords with the content of the ad text and your landing page.
There should be a common thread running through all elements of your communication. Then more searches will lead to clicks and more clicks will lead to more business.
Social Media
Marketing through social media has proven to be a great advantage for both start-ups and established companies, as it is an easily accessible channel that captures users in their everyday lives.
Brands post an average of four posts per week on Instagram and a large number prioritise communicating on multiple media. Social media makes it easy for you to communicate directly to your audience through your posts.
Depending on which channel you are on, there are different features you can use to communicate and engage your audience. Examples include stories (videos/images that are visible for 24 hours) on Instagram, live broadcasts on Facebook or questionnaires on LinkedIn.
You can easily link to your website through posts and in stories.
For optimal impact, encourage recipients to click through to take advantage of an offer, product or collection you highlight in the post.
If you do a good job and manage to build a relevant and engaged following, the ball is rolling. Your social media users can help you and your brand grow by liking, commenting and sharing your content with other users on the channels.
When choosing a channel(s), you should base your choice on the audience you want to attract. If you haven't developed clear personas for your brand, we recommend you start there. Read our article here for tips.
Once you know who you want to reach, you can match them based on their age range, lifestyle, media consumption and how they prefer to receive information.
Do they prefer moving pictures, images, short copy or longer?
The key is to choose the channel according to where your target audience is and create a content plan accordingly with clear CTAs (call to action) included.
Advertise on websites that are in the same industry as you
To increase your chances of being visible to a relevant target audience, advertise on websites that are in a similar industry or segment to you.
For example, if you work as an interior designer, you can reach a relevant audience by being visible on real estate agencies. If you work as a florist, you could place your ads on a website that sells wedding dresses.
The trick is to inspire recipients to visit your site by appearing on pages you can complement with your offer. In this way, the marketing is both genuine and relevant to the recipients.
Read more about how to target your digital ads to relevant websites here.
Guest blogging to increase your link power
Link-building marketing is all about helping your website increase the number of relevant links from external parties.
In short, this is a strategy that will increase your search engine rankings and therefore your visibility. You can make use of this strategy by guest blogging, for example.
Guest blogging is a relationship-building tactic that in turn brings the power of building external link power. Ask to write a guest post on another profile's blog that feels relevant to both their audience and segment.
Create content that represents you and your brand's expertise and knowledge within the segment. Weave in your products in a relevant and genuine way that sparks an interest in recipients to see more and read on.
For example, if you work in the beauty segment and will be guest blogging for a digital fashion magazine, you can highlight your top 5 products and provide tips on how to use them.
You can also review your favourite products and compare them with products from another brand.
Why should people choose your products and not those of your competitors?
If you do a good job, you can expect the majority of readers to be inspired enough to click through to your site - through a simple link.
E-mail marketing
E-mail marketing is an effective method of reaching a relevant target audience with personalised communications. Marketing automation, is a pre-programmed process that guides recipients through different stages of their individual buying journey.
If your recipients have searched for products or services on your website, but have not taken the step to complete a purchase, you can effectively send them reminders of the products they have looked at or recommend new ones in the same category.
Through informative customer data, you can base your marketing on behaviour, activity, purchase history and preferences.
In addition to personalised and accurate communication, email marketing helps you build a deeper relationship with potential and current customers and generate additional sales as they are always up to date with news, offers and promotions on your website.
Read more about e-mail marketing here.
6 ways to increase traffic
The methods we mentioned above will help you get a holistic view of your marketing strategy and increase your traffic through multiple channels working in parallel for the same goal.
The methods allow you to capture relevant users who are at different stages of the buying journey, but who share a need and interest in your products/services. We recommend that you monitor the results continuously through Google Analytics, to evaluate each activity because.
Digital marketing is a long-term work, which is both moving and changing, which means that you need to optimize your activities as you go.
In many cases, small adjustments can make a big difference, whether it's SEO or targeting for advertising. The most important thing is to get started, and if all channels are new to you, we recommend taking one step at a time and starting from the top.