[Article updated 13.5.2022] Ten years ago it was very easy to set up a new blog or a business website and drive traffic as well as rank it on search engines. Some basic techniques and tricks were used to attract traffic from different sources including social media and by creating inbound links to your website.
The landscape changed in 2013 when Google introduced Penguin and Hummingbird updates. After these updates, it became much more important to provide users with the best possible experience.
In order to drive traffic to your website, you have to consider many aspects including responsiveness of the website, on-page and off-page SEO, the presence of an SSL certificate, page loading speed, quality of content, effective social media appearance, and dozens of other factors.
Remember, Google loves your site and content if users think that your website is easy to navigate and the content is worth reading. If the users don’t like your content, Google will not be interested to give value to your website.
Of course, there are dozens of ways to drive traffic to your website but we are going to stick with the Top 7 ways in this blog post.
1. Up-To-The-Mark Website
Before considering any other ways to drive traffic to your website, you have to make sure that your website has all the necessary parts that are recommended by the search engines.
Some of the most important ingredients for a great website are:
- Responsiveness – Your website must be easily navigable on all types of devices. The easiest way to check your website’s responsiveness is to open it in a browser on your desktop, click on the right border of the browser window and drag it towards left until it stops shrinking. If all the content of your web page is re-aligned and you can navigate it easily, your website is responsive. If this doesn’t work, then it is not responsive.
- On-page SEO – It includes your website’s content, internal links, tags, description, image tags, page loading speed, site title and description, and others.
- Four most important pages – The 4 most important pages are About Us, Contact Us, Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. Also, make sure your website has a sitemap and you have submitted it to the search engines like Google and Bing.
- SSL Certificate – Google has recently announced that the websites without having an SSL certificate will be penalized. SSL is a part of website security and to drive traffic on your website, you need an ideal SSL solution that comes in your budget. Let’s say, you are driving ecommerce business then, a low priced or cheap wildcard SSL could be your best solution.
- Uptime & Loading Speed – Google has also recently announced that websites that show unreliable uptime or slow loading speeds are going to be penalized. That means it is important to work with a reliable web hosting provider.
2. Useful Content For Your Readers
As we have already mentioned above, Google gives value to your website if your website and content are loved by your readers. So, make sure you have 100% original content that is helpful for the readers and easily navigable. Experts say “Content is King”, and that is absolutely true. Remember the following points while writing a blog post or an article.
Another good practice is to update your existing content continuously because the experts say that refreshing old content of your website can double your traffic instantly.
- Write useful content. While writing the article, imagine you have to search about the same topic, and what would be helpful for you in this regards. Write the post from a user’s perspective. A good article also has outbound links, references, headings and sub-headings, table of contents (if the article is long), images, videos, and infographics, and statistics, etc.
- Avoid article spinners and write the content manually. Make sure there is no duplication in the content. Do not copy/paste posts or even a small part of a post from anywhere on the internet! It is almost impossible to trick search engines. If your website is found to publish copyrighted content, consider it dead.
3. Powerful Appearance On Social Media
Now, that your website is up-to-the-mark as per the latest standards and has done with the on-page SEO, it is the time to think out of the box. One of the most important and effective ways to drive traffic to your website is social media. You can bring tons of traffic from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Another good idea is to set up your social media pages before launching your website. Post relevant content, images, videos, and infographics. Create a fuss about your product or website before its launch. You may easily create a fair fan base even before the launch of your website.
So, when you’ll launch the website, you already have the pitch to broadcast your products and services. By this method, you can get traffic immediately after you launch your website and shout about it on your social media pages. Add hashtags to all your posts as it helps users to find your page and products.
Which types of posts are suitable for Social Media?
Everything, as for as it attracts your followers and creates engagement. You never know what clicks on users’ mind. Just do not stick to a constant strategy and publish a variety of posts and keep changing your strategy to analyze the results and implement on the basis of these results. It is the best practice to run paid advertisements occasionally to explore new markets and users.
4. Quora And Reddit
Quora is among the top 100 websites in terms of traffic and yes, it can drive unbelievable traffic to your website. Quora is a platform where millions of users gain and share knowledge by asking and answering the questions. It’s really very easy to use Quora as you have to find relevant questions to answer. For example, you are running a dog food website and need to drive real traffic to your website and generate leads.
Search the questions related to dog food and start answering them. Make sure, you answer it for the sake of the asker and the answer should be logical and fruitful. Avoid adding your website’s link to every answer or you’ll be considered a spammer by Quora and your account may be blocked.
Reddit is said to be the front page of the internet. You can drive some good traffic from Reddit easily by the following steps.
Choose a relevant subReddit (topic). For example, you have a Gadgets related blog, you may consider subscribing the “Gadgets” subReddit.
- Follow the subReddit rules. Every subreddit have their own rules. Remember, no one likes spamming and posting your blog’s link everywhere on Reddit is also considered as spamming. Try to post your links as an advice where needed. Posting them for the advertisement purpose may lead you to a ban from using the website.
- While in Rome, do as the Romans do. Yes, you get it right. Just check what the audience is already talking about, and participate in the discussion following their topic. Other users have the power to upvote or downvote your posts and answers.
- While discussing the relevant topics, add a link to the blog post on your website but in a logical and real way.
5. Guest Blogging
Writing a guest blog post on high authority websites can do lots of wonder for you. It drives totally different and new traffic to your website. Remember, one quality guest post on a high authority website is way better than the hundred guest posts on a hundred useless websites.
The difficult part of guest blogging is finding a relevant blog and approaching the website owner for a blog post. Once you contact them and get a green signal for a blog post, write your heart out on that post following their rules. Add informative content and links to your website. Believe me, it will help you boost your website’s traffic as well as search engine rankings.
[Note from Editor: If you would like us to publish your guest post, please see https://socialmediarevolver.com/guest-posts/]
6. Paid Advertisement
Try to keep a small budget for paid advertisement too. Effective advertising campaigns not only help you get some good traffic but you can also get quick leads. You can now run the paid advertisements on several platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Google AdWords. Facebook gives you the option to get clicks on your business page as well as the website, so, you have the ability to choose any one of them as per your strategy.
7. Target Influencers
Believe me, if you get this method in the right way, you can drive massive traffic to your website. Create content that attracts the influencers. The best practice is to design a powerful infographic. To do that, first, find the influencers who share posts relevant to your niche. Then write a powerful content and create an infographic based on this content. Once your infographic is ready, share it with the influencer and rest is his job. Make sure you have contacted the influencer in a friendly way so he shares your infographic without any question.
Final Words
It is not difficult to drive quality traffic to your website. If you implement white-hat SEO techniques on your website and avoid black-hat practices, you’ll get long-lasting results. A little keyword research on your niche will help you a lot and it will be easy for you to decide which type of content will work for you.
Along with these 7 ways, there are dozens of other ways to attract visitors to your new website but these ways are the easiest to implement and your budget won’t be affected too much.
[Recommended reading: How Guest Blogging Improves Organic Traffic For Your Website]
[Images – Main Photo by Cleyton Ewerton from Pexels; Blogger girl by Godisable Jacob from Pexels]
Pauline Jacobs is a freelance researcher and a content writer. Her interests revolve around contemporary sociology, cutting-edge technology, and journals on the algorithmic rise of computing. She is a current contributor to Your Last Host blogs and contents.