10 Proven Ways to Drive More Website Traffic

Getting your intended audience to your website may sound like a difficult task with all the competition the internet has to offer, yet you see it done all the time. 

How do these heavily trafficked websites do it? 

They use tried and true SEO strategies that garner relationships with their audience and help them get to the top of Google’s SERPs (search engine results pages). 

Today we’ll go over 10 proven ways to get more website traffic, so you get more sales, more leads, more followers, more shares, book more appointments, get more of all the good stuff your business deserves. 

On-page SEO and off-page SEO are the glue that holds your digital marketing revenue together, so let’s talk about how your SEO campaign will get you some proper website traffic that makes you money.

 

The 3 SEOs that will improve your organic website traffic

There are three specific SEO strategies we want to go over with you today, all of which will help drive more traffic to your site.

 

On-page SEO: This is action taken on your webpages to enhance your SEO. It includes optimizing your content (inclusive of all images and videos), your URLs, all internal links (links on your webpage that take you to other pages of your website), and more. You have complete control over making on-page SEO changes and updates.

 

Off-page SEO: This is action taken off your website that enhances your SEO. It includes link building (getting links to your website from other reputable websites), setting up your  Google My Business (GMB), getting your name, address, and phone numbers (NAP) in all relevant directories, getting reviews, and more. You have less control over your off-page SEO campaign, as often you have to rely on others.  

 

Technical SEO: Don’t get alarmed; we don’t like the word “technical” much either, but it’s not as bad as you think. This involves how your website is structured, organized, and navigated and will enhance the UX (user experience) tenfold. The better your technical SEO, the better for your user and the search engines to understand your pages. 

 

Smart SEO moves that will generate more website traffic

Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of your SEO campaign so you can snag some great organic traffic. And, by “great,” we mean getting users who take the actions you want them to take. 

This list is in no particular order; all items are essential to your success.

 

1. Page speed

Don’t underestimate the importance of a person’s time. If your site takes too long to load, your user will flee, and Google will be alerted and minimize your rank making it more difficult for you to get organic site traffic. 

 

Optimize for page speed by:

• Ensuring your images are compressed (under 100KB)
• Removing unused scripts
• Implementing browser caching so those who previously visited your page gets a quick load time
• Assessing and auditing your data to ensure your page speed is up to par,  Google’s PageSpeed Insights is a great tool for this
• Reducing HTML, JavaScript, and CSS files (under 150KB)
• Ensuring your site has adequate load time on mobile devices 

 

2. User intent

Knowing what your users are searching for will help you better provide their desired content. When users type in their query, your page needs to provide solutions or information that is honest and relevant to their needs. If you fail to do this, they’ll not only leave your page quickly (contributing to a high bounce rate), but Google will see that the page isn’t helping and knock it down its ladder. 

 

Understand the three main kinds of queries you have to work with and create your page accordingly:

• Informational query: a query seeking answers to the user’s questions, concerns, or comments, the user is looking to be informed
• Navigational query: the user is asking the search engine to take them to a specific webpage 
• Transactional query: the user wants to complete a transaction (make a sale, sign up for something, etc.) and could be generic or specific with their search words (generic: “safe family cars,” specific: “buy blue, 4-door Subaru Outback”)

 

Knowing your audience’s desires will help you write relevant and engaging new content and update the old for better results, which provides an excellent UX and will give you credibility with search engines.

 

3. Optimize for mobile devices 

Your on-the-go user must have access to you at all times, even when away from their computer. This means you must be optimized for mobile. 

We said earlier that this list isn’t in any order, but if there’s one thing you have to do TODAY to get better website traffic, please make it this. 

Optimize for mobile. 

This is another way to enhance the UX (enhancing your rank on the SERPs and keeping people on your site, and taking your intended action). 

Be sure your site is easy to read and navigate on mobile, and if you need to tweak the format from the original computer format, go for it. 

Most hosting platforms have tools to make this task super fast and easy.  

Steer clear of pop-ups on mobile; they tend to take over and make sure your website will adjust adequately to a plethora of screen sizes. 

Coding should be done on HTML 5, and don’t forget to ensure your images are optimized, so they don’t slow down your page load times. 

Be sure you use headers, lists, bullet points, etc., to maximize readability and help the user and the search engine understand the content better (this should be done for your computer optimization, too). 

 

4. Voice search 

AI (artificial intelligence) is coming in strong, so optimizing for voice search is not an option. All those smartphones and smart speakers need to understand what your user is asking. 

Voice searches tend to lean toward long-tail keywords (a string of four+ words) since people generally speak differently than they write when inputting a search. 

For instance, a user may write: “kid friendly recipe vegetarian easy,” but would probably say something more like: “What are easy, vegetarian recipes that my kids will eat?”

Adding a FAQ page or a FAQ section on several pages allows you to write questions exactly how your users ask them, which is a smart way to grab hold of the SERPs. 

You should also create content that is natural and conversational in tone and delivery, using the words that your audience uses. 

Because voice search is relatively new, jump on this bandwagon now before your competition does, and your traffic will come pouring in. 

 

5. Rich snippets and structured data 

Two peas in a pod, rich snippets and structured data give Google and your users a little something extra when they come up in the SERPs. 

Snippets (sans rich) are the results that pop up after you type a query into the all-knowing search bar. Usually, it has three things: title, brief description, and URL.

Let’s get rich now. Rich snippets provide more intel than the three basics. Making it a prime candidate for Google’s liking. 

How? 

By adding your structured data. Structured data is code written on the backend of your site that provides valuable info to the search engines so they, in turn, can provide a better or richer, snippet. 

When the search engines understand you better, they’re more inclined to place you higher in their ranking, which means your audience finds you faster and easier and gets you more organic traffic.

 

6. Link building 

Link building is crucial to your online rep and will give your traffic a complete overhaul if done well. Without backlinks, your organic traffic takes a nosedive. 

When credible, relative websites link to your pages, you garner loads of quality attention from Google and your audience as you create a larger audience. 

That’s a big win all around. 

Both internal and external linking help get more eyes on more pages more often. And, with more visibility comes higher sales and leads and interactions, all of which play into Google’s user-minded hands. 

When your link-building campaign is managed properly, it’s a surefire game changer, if done poorly; however, it can harm your cause. 

Be sure your links take your users where they say they will, and the info is relevant, correct, and current. If the page is no longer available, remove the link. 

Whenever possible, link to yourself (without looking spammy or unnatural). If your users follow the links found on your pages, they stay on your site longer and gives the search engine a reason to move you up on the SERPs.

Final suggestion: Don’t purchase any sketchy link-building stuff. Feel free to ask credible, relevant sites to link to you, but never pay for them. 

You may be able to do a link exchange, but if it’s done too much, it may look unnatural to Google, and you could be penalized for it. 

 

7. Blog

Blogging is so important to your SEO strategy. You’ve heard this before, and it’s just plain facts, friends. 

A blog gives you ample opportunity to use your keywords, to provide info and personality, to get shared and liked, and to get more visitors to your website (and much more). 

Content is critical to your online success, and blogging is thee way to get more content out there. 

You can do it for little or no money, and it sets you up for stellar engagement opportunities. Keep your posts informative, honest, and entertaining, and your audience will find you and keep coming back for more. 

A blog can help you corner your market and ensure you have a reputable standing online. No time for it, no worries. 

Blogging is a job for many people, and you will have no problem finding one of them to help your cause. Nothing drives traffic like content. 

Pro tip: update and repurpose old blog posts for easy content wins.

Pro pro tip: try your hand at guest blogging; this is excellent for link building and getting in front of more faces. 

 

8. Create videos and visuals

Professional, quality, informational, educational, entertaining videos? Yep. They want ‘em, so you gotta give ‘em. People like to watch a video, it’s easier and faster, and studies show the content is received better. 

Videos are a smart way to break up content and keep your users on your webpage. They also offer engagement prospects that writing alone will never achieve. 

If your site is known to offer visuals, you’ll get more traffic. Make them easy to share, and you’ve opened new doors to new visitors. More visitors equate to more revenue opportunities. 

This goes for all kinds of images. Use a variety of visuals, it will not only make your page look better and serve to improve the readability of the text areas of your pages, but it will enhance the UX overall. 

Using pictures, gifs, and infographics with videos (and copy, you can’t replace copy!!!) boosts interaction and connection, and it keeps your audience from leaving your page as it encourages them to look at other pagers.  

Make sure you optimize for all visuals, so they don’t slow down your page speed and fit nicely into mobile. 

Pro tip: creating a YouTube channel will get you way more website traffic than keeping your videos on your site alone. 

 

9. Social media

Love it or hate it, it’s the world we live in, and your audience is there, and that means your competition is likely also there. 

Create short videos or images about your products, services, giveaways, and ask your user to hit the link that goes to your website to get VIP treatment, a coupon code, a printable asset, more information on your product, etc. 

Social media makes it easy for users to find your site, and it tells them more about your brand. It also gives your brand a sense of authenticity since all the big companies are on it. 

You can generate shares, likes, followers, comments, testimonials- all tremendous for visibility and Google’s love. 

 

10. Understand your data

Understanding how you’re currently performing is necessary for improvement. If you want more traffic, find out what’s working and what’s not. This is the fastest way to get accurate stats on your performance. 

Metrics can tell you how well you’ve optimized, where your traffic is coming from, how long your users stay on your pages, what your visitors do on your pages, who’s converting, and so much more. 

Knowing these crucial elements takes out loads of guesswork on your part. As a result, you can maximize your time and make only relevant updates that offer more quality traffic.

If you’re not using Google Analytics, you’re missing out. This tool is a must in your digital marketing tool arsenal; it’s free and gives you data that can revitalize your business in the fastest amount of time. 

 

The takeaway

There are several meaningful ways to encourage traffic to your website, some easier to implement than others. Content plays a significant role and should be considered a priority when it comes to your SEO campaign. 

If this is a bit much to take in, we’d love to help you get more website traffic. Contact Propel today to learn how we can get you the website visitors that matter.