Almost every business would benefit from more traffic to their website. For example, selling more, increasing revenue, and growing the business is one of the best ways to increase website traffic.
Interested in knowing how to increase traffic to your website? Read on for 10 free and easy methods.
Make your website mobile-friendly
To get free website traffic, make sure that your site is mobile-compatible. You should take this action as soon as possible.
As of April 21, 2015, Google’s search algorithm was updated to place emphasis on mobile-friendly websites, landing pages, and blogs.1 This development was jokingly referred to as “Mobilegeddon.”.
In today’s world, nearly half of the population is using smartphones. Instead of booting up a laptop or desktop computer, users are searching, shopping, and managing daily tasks using more easily accessible devices such as smartphones and tablets. In 2019, 58% of organic search engine visits were conducted using mobile devices.
As a result, if your website is not mobile-friendly (meaning that it cannot be accessed efficiently from a mobile phone, tablet, or any other device), Google may not rank you on the first page of search results.
A website builder such as WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace can assist you in optimizing your website.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Optimizing your website for search engines is the second most important thing you can do to increase website traffic.
SEO, or search engine optimization, refers to this process. Google crawls your web pages and understands their content to properly index them and improve search engine results page (SERP) rankings based on thousands of new web pages launched daily. This process is known as Google Spider.
You should follow these steps for each page to improve search engine rankings:
- Be sure to use short and long-tail keywords throughout your content, especially in titles
- Title tags should contain primary and secondary keywords (up to 70 characters).
- Include your keywords in a short and concise meta description (up to 160 characters).
- Link to other relevant content on your website through internal links
Performing organic searches for your website is not a 100% scientific-accurate option, nor is it a quick process. Although it may take as long as a year to see results, it is important to keep SEO optimization a top priority for your website.
Improve your Website’s Loading Speeds
It is important to make sure that your website loads quickly to improve your online discoverability. Studies have shown that 57% of users will leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load.
If you wish to determine how quickly your website loads, run it through a website auditing service such as Google Pagespeed Test, which will produce a report informing you of everything you can do to improve your site.
The following tips will help you improve the speed of your website:
- Reduce the size of your website’s images
- Ensure that there are fewer redirects
- Videos and downloads should be hosted on external platforms
Newsletters
Emails and SMS are other methods of driving traffic to your website.
If you have collected email addresses for your business, it is always a good idea to start sending emails about the following topics to your subscribers:
- Events and sales are coming up
- Resources for educational purposes
- A new product or service is available
A simple method of obtaining email addresses is to include a bar or pop-up on your website where visitors may sign up for your newsletter or download PDFs. To entice them to provide you with their email address, you can offer discounts on products, access to exclusive events, or other special rewards.
In order to design and deliver visually appealing messages that result in conversions, you may need to use a platform such as Constant Contact or Mailchimp. It is possible for both online email programs to integrate with all-in-one point-of-sale systems, such as Clover, so that email addresses can be collected during checkout.
Check out Google Maps
With Google Maps, you can drive physical traffic to your website for free.
If your business is not listed on Google Maps, you may miss out on many phone calls and foot traffic.
For most businesses, Google Maps offers a $200 free usage credit per month. The pricing plan can be customized to meet your needs. All you need to do is go to Google.com/Business and follow the instructions.
If you have a retail store, restaurant, or even a home studio, you can utilize Google Maps.
List Your Business On Yelp And Other Online Directories
Getting listed on Yelp is another way to increase website traffic.
You can search Yelp for businesses in a specific location, category, or niche. For example, if you would like to find the “best Chinese restaurants” in your city, Yelp can assist you.
Sign up for your free business listing at Biz.Yelp.com, and include your name, address, phone number, website URL, and company description. Posting pictures and videos will give visitors a sense of what to expect. your business. And, be sure to respond to reviews (both positive and negative) to engage with your customers.
Currently, Google is working on providing more directory listings similar to this in search engine results pages. Additionally, having a hyperlink back to your website from your profile also benefits your search engine ranking.
Here are a few other business directories to consider:
- Google My Business
- LinkedIn Company Directory
Join The Social Media Revolution
On average, 45% of the global population spends more than two hours daily on various social networks.
There are many ways to reach a large audience, but social media is one of the easiest ways. The key to success on social media is to set up a plan, stay consistent, and put in the effort to build your social following.
When determining which platforms are appropriate for your business, you must understand your target audience. For instance, a professional law firm could benefit from posting on LinkedIn or Twitter rather than Instagram or Snapchat. The demographics of each channel may vary. You can streamline your social media planning using free management tools, such as Hootsuite or Buffer, which allow you to manage all your social media channels on one platform. This makes it easier to schedule posts, track links, and respond to feedback.
Contribute A Guest Post To Another Site Or Start A Blog
Blogs are a great way to increase your online visibility. Simply put, you can create articles targeting the keywords your users are searching for, increasing your exposure.
A good tip is to embed social sharing buttons on your blog posts. Blog posts live perpetually “in the cloud,” so you can always search your content, especially if your content is evergreen. In this way, readers can share your content on their feeds, increasing the number of potential customers and visitors to your website.
Creating thought leadership content is also possible to market yourself as a thought leader in your field. Instead of using sales tactics and a corporate tone, blog posts should be personable, informative, and inspirational. Consider blogging for other websites in your market if you do not have the means to host a blog on your own website. Be sure to include links back to your website’s home page or relevant pages.
Provide Quality Content (And Updates)
The goal of inbound marketing is to serve the right content to the right audience at the right time. To increase your website traffic, you must continually create new content as well as update or update older content.
There are many forms in which content can be presented, including:
- Infographics
- Videos
- SlideShare Presentations
Promote Everywhere
Lastly, although this tip is not specific to digital, placing your URL everywhere you can reach your potential customers is something that can lead to increased traffic to your website. Lastly, although this tip is not specific to digital, placing your URL everywhere you can reach your potential customers is something that can lead to increased traffic to your website.
Add your website URL to
- An email signature
- Accounts on social media
- Printed business cards
- Clothing such as uniforms and t-shirts
- Vehicles owned by the company
- Signage
- Giving away promotional items (pens, sticky notes, etc.)
- Advertising, receipts, bags, etc.
It’s not Free, but it’s the Ultimate Way to Bring Traffic
If you’re still wondering about additional ways or how you can do them by yourself – worry not. Each one of Synapse’s experts is here to bring you the traffic without any hassle from your side.
We have the best resources, tools, and knowledge to propel your business forward, and we can prove it to you. Leave your details below, and one of our experts will schedule a free consultation call with you.