Free Tactics
1. Create a Google My Business Listing
Google My Business listings that are optimized receive 7x more visits than an incomplete one. Your listing provides users with a link to your website, which is a great way to drive traffic. Additionally, if your listing provides a user with all of the information a potential customer needs to make a decision, they may contact or visit your business directly.
2. Perform On-Page SEO
Increase your rank in search engines and get more visitors when you perform on-page SEO tactics. When you produce high-quality content that your audience is searching for, and write meta descriptions for your pages, you increase your chance of a site visit. It is important to know what a page is about and what will result in a clickthru. These specific on-page SEO tactics are free but do require a time commitment.
3. Get Listed in Online Directories
For most online directories and review sites, your profile will have a link to your website. It is important to update your listing and respond to reviews. Your reviews will likely result in more website traffic. Additionally, directories such as Yelp have strong domain authority on Google. There is a chance that your business page on Yelp will rank high for relevant searches.
4. Build Backlinks
Get noticed on Google when you have quality backlinks. A backlink is a link to your website from another existing website. If you have a complementary business or industry influence that has a larger audience, you will increase your website traffic with quality visitors. Additionally, Google picks up on backlinks and will trust your business if it notices other trusted sites directing to your site.
5. Post to Social Media
Social media plays a pivotal role in driving traffic to your website. It is the most popular free marketing tool in existence and can be used to promote blog posts, as well as other useful pages on your website. This enables you to turn your social media audience into website visitors, while also drawing traffic from the social media networks when you post shareable content. Create useful and engaging content. It is free and not nearly as hard as it may seem. Tell your audience about your product or service. After all, you are the expert.
6. Include Relevant Hashtags in Social Media Posts
When you use relevant hashtags in your social media posts, you can extend your reach beyond your network and be discovered by users searching for your products and services. The more eyes on your service or product promotional social post, the more website traffic you will receive.
7. Use Landing Pages
Landing pages contain details that offer users an incentive to move forward and convert. They are specific to products, services, and offers. It is important to have a call to action because it encourages a transaction. Additionally, you can get very targeted in your messaging, ultimately increasing your website traffic.
8. Target Long-Tail Keywords
When you target long-tail keywords, you have a better chance of ranking higher for queries specific to your products or services. Ultimately, higher rankings mean more website traffic. Additionally, as search engines continue to advance and voice-to-text capabilities increase, people are utilizing more specific phrases when searching online. Take advantage of free tools such as Answer the Public, and find long-tail keywords that will help drive traffic to your website.
9. Utilize Email Marketing
Email marketing allows you to stay in touch with your customers while also generating traffic to your website. Promote an offer or send a regular newsletter that provides useful information and links to a page on your website. This is a great way to engage your customers and drive traffic to your website. Be careful, don’t bombard your customers with emails or they will either disengage, delete or unsubscribe from your emails. Consider your email subject line, these heavily influence whether or not a customer will open your email. Without the email being opened, you will not drive traffic to your website.
10. Engage Online
Remain active on groups and websites that are relevant to your business and industry. When you comment on blogs and social media posts with questions or feedback, it helps to obtain more traffic. The more you engage, the more exposure and profile visits you receive. Additionally, if your website link is in your social media profile, you have turned your engagement into another channel for website traffic. Just be sure to engage moderately and sincerely, you want to avoid including links to your website in your comments. Increased traffic should not be the goal of your engagement, but rather a secondary result.
Paid Tactics
11. Google Search Advertising
Google Ads allows your website to show up at the top of search results for particular keywords. When someone is searching for specific keywords, Google looks at all accounts bidding on those keywords and will display and rank the paid results according to the quality of the advertisement. Your paid advertisement will show up first, at the top of the results page. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad. This type of exposure is a great way to generate more traffic to your website.
12. Google Maps Advertising
Select preferences in your Google Ads platform and enable your business to show up at the top of the Google Maps search results. Similarly to regular paid search ads, there will be an indicator next to your listing that states it is a paid result, but the exposure you get from appearing at the top is invaluable.
13. Social Media Advertising
With social media advertising, you are paying to show up in relevant feeds. You have the ability to specify the type of audience which you’d like to appear, but with more psychographic data because social media offers superb targeting.
14. Display Advertising
When you partake in display advertising, you are displaying branded banner ads that get placed on a relevant website. For example, if you are a jewelry business, your ad will appear on a website about jewelry. This will likely drive relevant traffic to your website.
15. Retargeting
Retargeting ads are placed in front of people who have already visited your website, and appear on a website or social media feed. This encourages those website visitors to return to your website.
