Let me guess - you're working on your 2023 marketing plan, and your number one goal is to increase your website traffic? 

How did I know? Because everyone I have ever worked with has told me this goal. However, when we dig deeper, we often realize two things:

1. They have yet to learn what level of increase is realistic.

2. They think it's all about SEO and forget about all the other tactics in the toolkit.

So, let's help you avoid that situation. Let's look at six ways to increase your website traffic and wrap it up by understanding why not all traffic is good traffic. 

Use on-page SEO tactics

Search engine optimization (SEO) is often the number one recommended strategy for increasing traffic to your website. On-page SEO (the work you do on your actual website) is the best place to start if you're new to using SEO tactics. 

On-page SEO includes strategies like using keywords in your headlines and ensuring your content is structured with only one primary headline (H1) and in hierarchical order down the page (H2, H3, normal body text). On-page SEO also includes your work behind the scenes on your website, such as adding meta titles and descriptions for every page, naming your images, using Alt image text, and prioritizing user experience in your website design. 

If you need help figuring out where to start with identifying keywords, popular tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz, etc., can all be used to determine the keywords your competitors use and how often users search for them. For example, SEMrush shows you the competitiveness of each keyword in each country and gives you a hand to gather much more valuable information to create your keyword strategy. 

Or, if your budget allows, you can hire an SEO agency. Agencies can offer you valuable insights and perform audits to identify issues that keep your site from appearing at the top of the search engine rankings.

Create personalized ads and dedicated landing pages 

Depending on the nature of your product or service, you likely have more than one audience. For example, I serve small businesses and nonprofits at One Nine Design. Each of these audiences has unique interests and needs from my services, so I need to personalize their experiences when advertising. 

Studies show that around 66% of consumers expect a personalized experience from most websites, anyway. 

If you have more than one audience, consider how you can develop two sets of creative for your ads - a primary message for each group. Then, direct that ad traffic to a personalized landing page with the same look and feel as the ad. This strategy enhances the user experience, reinforces your message, and helps you simultaneously attract the right-fit clients.  

You can even use a platform to help you if needed. For instance, Creatopy's creative optimization feature allows you to create personalized ads on the highest level possible. With it, you can make much quicker decisions on what type of ads you need and tweak them to real-time features for enhanced performance. 

Deliver high-quality, unique content 

If there's one factor that makes any website convert at high levels, it's quality and unique content. Not only does it increase your SERP rankings, but it's one of the main reasons why your site ranks well. You can optimize your content all day, but your SEO can only save the day if you deliver quality content. 

If finding time to create new content is difficult, there's always the option to balance new content with layering on new ideas to past content. Layering is reviewing older content and adding new information based on recent research, insights, or experience. This layering strategy works particularly well if the original content ranks on the first page. However, that's not required. 

For example, I took this older post about how to ask companies to sponsor you and added an FAQ section. Google recognizes this as an update, but it only took about 30 minutes to make the quick update.

Use email marketing to lead readers to more information

A fantastic way of generating more website traffic is through email marketing. While many may think email marketing is a dying strategy, the research says otherwise. 

According to HubSpot's recent research around email marketing, 77% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months.

Whether you're sending promotional emails to highlight events and sales or regular email newsletters (I recommend both), there are opportunities to drive traffic from the email to your website. 

• Use email to highlight a new product or service, but limit the details to a few bullet points and then add a link to read more on the website.

• Give a quick summary of upcoming promotions and then link to your website with text like "get your promo code on our website."

• Writing articles frequently? Send an update twice a month with your most read articles and include just an excerpt of each with a link to read more on the website.

Selling B2B? Use LinkedIn to grow your audience

Thanks to ever-changing algorithms and rules, social media alone is never a reliable source to increase website traffic. However, for those in the B2B space, using Linkedin consistently to attract new clients or customers is an excellent strategy to use in conjunction with SEO or personalized ads.

With LinkedIn, the key is to limit your offers and sales-y posts and focus on providing valuable content. It's the platform where you want to authentically engage with others' content, adding insights based on your experience or research without dropping links to your site every time. (No one wants that!)

You can also use LinkedIn's built-in platform for sending newsletters (essentially, links to content you've already published on the platform) to increase engagement and build your audience. Once you've established a relatively large audience, you can begin to push those users to your website for more information and content. If you need help in finding targets, you can outsource B2B lead generation to meet your goals. Research is always the key to finding the best provider that suits your needs.

Explore guest posting and backlink exchanges

One of Google's many factors in establishing your search engine ranking is the number of relevant backlinks to your site. (A backlink is when another website includes a link to your website on their website.)

Guest posting is an excellent way of generating new backlinks and creating an online network of like-minded professionals who may be wiling to promote your work. 

Before you decide to offer a guest post, it's critical to do your research and find a relevant, trustworthy website for this type of outreach. I can't even explain how many pitches I receive every day from people who want to write a post on my website who are irrelevant to my audience or content.

Other steps to take before you reach out about guesting posting include:

• Read a few of their blog posts to ensure the content is high-quality and unique - and not written by AI.

• Copy and paste several paragraphs of a few posts into Grammarly and check for plagiarism. You'll want to steer clear if the site is publishing content stolen from other sites.

• Use a tool to check the authority of any domain - the higher the number, the more established and trustworthy the site is.

• Explore the site to find their guest posting policies and ensure you're willing to comply with their rules.

Once you've taken these steps, reach out to start a friendly conversation about the process. 

What are the benefits of backlinks?

There are several benefits to having backlinks in your business. 

• Backlinks help increase your search engine visibility IF they are on relevant, high-authority websites

• Backlinks establish trust among customers

• Backlinks give your users a better, more rounded experience when exploring a topic

What's the most important part of website traffic? 

It's all about the quality of the site traffic. If you bring 10,000 visitors daily to your website, but they are not your ideal customer and never take action, that traffic isn't helping your business grow.

However, if you attract 2,500 qualified visitors every day and convert 1% of them to buy your product, book your service, or join your email list – that's the sweet spot you should be aiming to hit. 

And remember, increasing website traffic should be just one goal in your marketing toolkit. You don't want to spend all your time building your numbers and forgetting about the experience those visitors have when they arrive. Prioritize creating a user-friendly website, delivering valuable content that makes them want to return and share the site with friends, and have a plan to overdeliver once they buy.

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