What’s the most important part of any website? Is it the overall design, or the theme you use in WordPress? Is it perhaps the quality of your video content and images? Maybe you think it’s the content on your blog or the quality of your SEO strategy.
While I do agree that these components are foundational to a successful website, I would argue that the most important factor of any website is the quality and quantity of the traffic it hosts.
After all, without qualified leads or traffic of any kind, your website is essentially useless.
Though forms of social media marketing shouldn’t be excluded from your overall digital marketing campaign, realize that you can use your website as a landing zone by which traffic from other sources can further engage with your business. So, let’s take a closer look at the top ways you can drive traffic to your website.
Good Ol’ Classic Organic Rankings
In decades past before the explosion of social media marketing, many website owners and digital marketers were primary concerned with organic search engine rankings, which were facilitated by SEO endeavors. Basically, the main goal was to send signals to the search engine that would place them near the top (preferably in the first slot) of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
I would argue that this tactic isn’t as crucial or viable as it once was. Nevertheless, you cannot ignore this practice, and you should strive to make it a core component of your long-term strategy. If you can rank for your desired keywords, not only do you get loads of steady and free traffic, but you also get higher quality leads who are searching for the products, services, and information contained on your website.
The Top Four Free Social Media Outlets and Business Listings
When a burgeoning business starts from square one and takes its first step towards digital marketing and driving traffic to its website, there are four main ways to list a business and generate leads that must be taken advantage of from day one.
First and foremost, though it’s no great secret, you need to create a Google My Business listing. Of course, it does help users find the location of your business via Google Maps. However, it is also a source of traffic should a user follow the link in your business listing. I can’t count the number of times I’ve visited a local business’s website because of Google My Business, such as a restaurant to see their menu or hours of operation.
Secondly, you need to create a free Facebook Business page. After you’ve done so, you may want to then proceed with setting up Instagram and Twitter accounts. I will warn you, marketing on Twitter and Instagram – even for a small business – is a full-time job. Nevertheless, at the very least, you need to have a baseline presence on social media or no one is ever going to find you.
If you do choose to market on social media outlets, you can frequently post links and updates regarding fresh content. For instance, you can use Twitter to drive traffic to your site by posting a link to your latest blog post. Likewise, you can leverage Instagram and Facebook to increase engagement with your posts to generate other streams of traffic to your site.
Backlinks and Guest Posts
If you can get a link to your website posted on another high-traffic website, you can siphon off a stream of users who click on the backlink. Also, note that backlinks from quality sites boost your organic rankings. In addition, be aware that there are two main ways to go about generating backlinks to your site.
First of all, you can create guest posts on other blogs. However, realize that the owner of the blog on which you’re guest posting usually wants something in return. Second of all, you can aim to create the best stinkin’ content in niche, industry, or subject. If other people value your high-quality content, it’s inevitable it will generate organic backlinks.
The Better Business Bureau
You can even use the Better Business Bureau (BBB) as a source of traffic for your website. But there is one catch: to have a link to your website, you must opt for the paid listing. You can get a listing for free – and if you don’t already have a free listing, you should put that task on your to-do list – but the free listing doesn’t provide a link to your site. Note that small businesses with under 10 employees can expect to pay around 50 dollars per month for a paid listing.
Individual Product and Service Review Sites
Some sites exist for the sole purpose of reviewing and recommending products. Many times these sites engage in affiliate marketing, meaning that they get a financial kickback every time a visitor to their site purchase a product from their link. Other times, review sites – especially video reviewers on YouTube – seek to make money from vies and advertisements.
But, if you can get a review site or review channel to make an honest assessment of your product or service, you can get a backlink to your site to generate more traffic. If you approach a YouTube star, make sure that they put the link to your site in the description of their video.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is still a viable way to drive traffic to your site. But there is one golden rule of email marketing you should never violate: never spam your list. Email spam is still as annoying as it was when the Internet was embryonic, perhaps even more irritating. As you build your list, make sure you provide something of value to your audience, such as a training course or useful information to make your audience feel like you aren’t spamming the crud out of their inbox.
Conclusion
There are a million-and-one ways to drive traffic to your website. However, the aforementioned strategies are the most common and effective sources of traffic. If you aren’t implementing these techniques, then there are holes in your lead generation strategy, and I highly recommend you reach out for the help of a professional today.