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What are the most effective ways to increase your website traffic?

Smaller businesses don’t need huge budgets or big marketing teams to boost website traffic.

Follow these tips to find out how to grow your website traffic.

Remarket with Facebook.

Whether you’re in the B2B or B2C industry, Facebook is a great way to promote your brand. Take it a step further by using Facebook to remarket to audiences. Install a Facebook tracking pixel on your site to continue marketing to visitors after they leave your site. With an audience as small as 100 people, you can use Facebook retargeting to grow your website traffic significantly.

Target custom audiences with Facebook.

Use your contact list for more than just email blasts. Upload your email list to Facebook to capture the social accounts of any users that have shared their email addresses. Besides contacting your audience on their computers, uploading your contact list to Facebook will also open up marketing channels on users’ mobile devices.

Become a guest blogger.

There are many blogs that accept guest posts. As a guest blogger you get access to an entirely new audience. You can network with the readers as you respond to comments to your posts. Most of the time your byline will include a link back to your own website.

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Remarket with Twitter.

Remarketing with Twitter is very similar to remarketing with Facebook. Both platforms rely on tracking pixels to target site visitors. However, you will need a minimum audience of 500 followers before you can use this service.

Target custom audiences with Twitter.

Just like Facebook, Twitter allows you to target audiences on mobile devices using your email contact list. However, as noted above, you will need at least 500 users on your email list before you can use this service.

Invite affiliates.

If you are selling a product, create an affiliate program.

Interview experts.

Once you interview experts in your field the credibility of your website grows. Often, the experts you interview will share the interview with their own network.

Create a LinkedIn group.

If you have a B2B target market, create your own LinkedIn group.

Participate in forums.

Forums like Quora are a great place to answer relevant questions. Within your answers, you can link back to your website with a more detailed response. For example, someone might ask a question on how to start a business. You could give a short answer, then provide a link to a longer, more detailed article or articles on the topic.

Twitter Cards.

Twitter Cards are large-volume tweets that have images and an optional button function. Use Twitter Cards for calls to action, images directly inserted into the stream, or even downloadable media directly attached to tweets. Tweets with images get 18% more clicks than regular tweets. That’s a great way to grow your website traffic!

Have an attention-grabbing headline.

Give your headlines the attention they deserve. If your headline isn’t eye-catching, most people won’t bother reading the rest of your ad. Headlines are the first impression you make on your audience. Spend plenty of time perfecting your headline, and your website traffic will be sure to grow.

Consider the following to spice up your headlines:

  • Start with a number. 5 Ways… 3 Tips… 25 Super…
  • Include words like Secrets, Ideas, Reasons, Tips, Tricks, Strategies, Facts.
  • Use strong adjectives like Kill, Fear, War.
  • Start with How to…
  • Remember the 3 E’s – Embellish, Exaggerate, Entice.
  • Consider what’s important to your audience.
  • Use second person “You”.
  • Go against convention. “3 Reasons Losing Weight is Bad for Your Health”.
  • Ask questions.

Create an email list.

Email lists are a great way to grow your website traffic. Give your audience a chance to sign up directly on your website. Mailchimp has a free option to get you started. It is an easy-to-use tool to get you started building your list. You have to give people something of value to get them to sign up. It might be a download, an ebook, or access to content they wouldn’t get unless they are on your list.

Create a blog and keep it current.

Blogs are a great way to increase web traffic…as long as you keep them updated. Maintaining an aggressive blogging routine can increase traffic exponentially—well over two or threefold, by some measures.

Do you want to start making money as a blogger? Click here for my step-by-step guide on how to start a blog.

Create videos.

Video is the most popular content online. Create videos and post them your YouTube channel. YouTube videos show among search engine results. YouTube is also one of the most visited sites in the world. Optimize your videos for your target keywords. Refer to your website within your videos.

Use Facebook to promote your blog.

Now that Facebook has cut back on organic outreach, your social media posts will receive less and less attention. Counteract this by investing a little more into your Facebook activity. Keep a constant campaign running that features your blog posts. Target this campaign towards your custom audience and remarketing audience.

Make sure your site is optimized for SEO.

Instead of trying to manipulate search-engine rankings, concentrate on optimizing your site for search engine bots. Conduct an SEO audit to see what you should fix. SEMrush is a great piece of software to get you started on this.

Your onsite SEO should include the following:

  • Each page should have a unique page title.
  • Optimize each image for the target keyword of the page. If you have a blog post with a target keyword “how to start a business” optimize your image with the appropriate ALT tag.
  • Use the appropriate meta description.
  • Your page content should include your target keyword.
  • Your target keyword should be included in your H1 tag.
  • Include your target keyword in the first paragraph of your content.

Trade articles with other sites.

Another great way to grow your website traffic is to associate your blog with other sites. Search for blogs in a related industry, with similar circumstances and audiences. Reach out to site administrators and offer to swap articles. Take turns featuring each other’s blogs and link back to your respective sites. This is a great way to gain customers, but make sure to avoid duplicating content.

Automate email advertising.

Did you know that marketing automation has only been adopted by 3-5 percent of all businesses? Automation is a great way to get ahead in the marketing game. For companies on a budget, low-cost platforms like Mailchimp, Autopilot and Hatchbuck are great options. Pricier options such as Hubspot are within reach, too. Partner with a certified digital marketing company, like Webene, to get help with onboarding. Some companies may even waive kickoff fees. Once your software is set up, make sure your email campaigns cover everything possible. Whether people are filling out forms, downloading content, or signing up for your newsletter, automated email advertising will be sure to drive relevant traffic to your site.

Contribute to other websites.

Becoming a contributor for multiple websites gives you and your company a breadth of exposure. While this may not bring in immediate customers, the referral traffic from those sites will help you in the long run. Start small and ramp up gradually. Quality and quantity are the keys to unlocking the benefits of being a contributor.

Use quizzes drive traffic to your site.

Quizzes are a fun way to attract more attention to your site. Plus, they are easy to promote on social media. Create free quizzes on sites like Quizzr and post them on your blog to drive traffic to your site.

Host webinars.

Anybody can host a webinar. It’s only a matter of choosing a topic you’re familiar with and creating an engaging way to present it. The great thing about webinars is that you can record them and keep using them over-and-over.

Record podcasts.

An alternative to live webinars is pre-recorded podcasts. If you are consistent and promote them effectively, they are a great way to share your expertise and widen your audience. Every episode you release is an opportunity to gain more listeners. Invite people with large social followings to guest star on your podcasts. This gives your podcasts wider exposure and broadens your fan base. List your podcast in iTunes, Stitcher, and other podcast directories.

Partner with other companies.

Working relationships with complementary companies benefit both you and your partners. Strategic partnerships will drive more traffic and grow your sales. Each company has a stake in promoting the other, which leads to increased website traffic for everybody involved.

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