Boost Your Traffic to Website Volume

How to Drive More Traffic to Your Website

So, you want new customers to visit your website and in particular the good and services in your online store. Of course you do, website traffic is golden right - not to mention profitable. That is why we have put the following ecommerce guide together on creating more traffic to your site. Our top tips will show you how to generate organic traffic and paid visits too. We will show you how to get more online customers and keep those existing buyers coming back for more.

We all want all eyes on our brand. So, the more traffic your site gets the more eyes on your business - simple! This article aims to show you the ways in which to generate that famous organic growth everyone longs for. In turn it will help you to understand your audience and potential buyers better.

We will also highlight the other digital marketing options available such as paid social media, PPC/Google Ads and SEO. In addition to advice we will also share info on the different free tools and paid techniques available to make your online presence shine, especially when compared to other sites.

Your Top 14 Tips For More Website Traffic

1.Understanding Your Site’s Audience

Before marketing your site to your desired ecommerce audience it is crucial that you understand who they are.

Ask yourself the following:

What are their habits?

What are their desires?

Are they predominantly young females or middle-aged males?

When are they most likely to be working and when would they have downtime?

When you answer questions such as these it will allow you to create bespoke content that tempts a greater amount of shoppers. Not only that you will be attracting the right specific type of customer who are more likely to make a purchase. So, not only will you be boosting traffic, you will generate traffic which is quality traffic.

Here are some further basic ways to identify who your target audience really is:

• Customer Surveys – ask your customers what they like about your products and your website. Get them to tell you which online aspects they might improve.
• Market research – study your social data when exploring your content marketing. Focus groups are a great way to explore vital stats. Checking out what your competitors are doing is an easy way to see how to tap into market trends and ultimately your target audience.

• Use Google Analytics – identify which particular site pages are getting website traffic. Once you have found them, make replicas. They're working right so the more the merrier. Google Analytics will show you whether these are ecommerce pages or blog posts? In addition, it is important to see where visitors come from: are they from Google or social channels? 
• Context-specific surveys and polls – you can gather invaluable real-time info about what your website customers needs are by placing contextually relevant surveys/polls on different pages of your site. That way you will get to see their pain points and identify areas of improvement. Likewise you can push the aspects they do like best. They can't get too much of a good thing where your website is concerned..

2. Optimise those Search Engines

SEO is one of the most effective ways to increase your search volume and ultimately organic traffic to your website. In fact Google’s Economic Impact Report says that SEO ROI is actually five times more beneficial than paid methods. So, we think that you will agree, it is time to use those search engines to your advantage.

With the right keyword research, blog post, articles, images, target keywords and long tail keywords etc content really is king. When coupled with other marketing channels such as PPC, Web Development, Paid Social and Email Marketing, SEO takes digital marketing to the next level and then some.

Once your website content is created remember to promote blog posts and articles. Get your content marketing team on it and share, share, share. This is time for your social media marketing to step up. Don't forget external and internal links matter. Create content which is relevant and adds value for the reader. Each consumer guide, informative blog post, infographic, guest post and image executed properly and consistently will attract that sought-after Google love. With the Google love comes organic traffic to your website - happy days!

3. Identify Your Customer Journey

To generate traffic to your website you must have a clear understanding of your customers’ journey. Focus must be on the decision funnel. It is essential to identify everything from when site visitors first become aware of an opportunity or a problem to when they ultimately decide to purchase or drop off.

Creating the right content which actually moves buyers through the conversion funnel is key to driving relevant traffic in the right direction. Think about using videos, guides and articles to provide a more in-depth understanding of the products they are about to buy. Remember, Google loves the fact that you are adding relevant information in a varied way.

You are adding value for visitors. Having said that though, do to overdo things as balancing content out with a little white space has its advantages too. Educate don't saturate. Add information but don't bombard.

4.Consider Bounce Rate

Obviously the lower the bounce rate the better it is when not only driving traffic to your website but when keeping them there too. Remember that despite aiming for a lower bounce rate the ideal bounce rate varies depending on various factors.

These factors include: industry, search intent, traffic source, website type, page type and of course the actual device being used to view your site on. With that in mind it is a sensible idea to compare your bounce rate to other relevant websites in your industry - using their bounce percentage as a benchmark is a sensible idea.

Once you have dug a little more deeply into your search traffic you can identify the ideal bounce rate that you are aiming for. Now you need the techniques for achieving your goal.

• Mobile Responsiveness
• Did you know that in March 2021 Google switched to, 'mobile first' indexing. If your site doesn't measure up on mobile your bounce rate and rankings will actually suffer. It is essential that you ensure ever single page on your website is fully visible on a mobile, from the home page right through to the contact us page and everything in between.
• Website Functionality
• Site navigation is key, especially on ecommerce websites. It is critical that once you have driven traffic to your website that visitors can find what they need, quickly and easily.
• A&B Testing
• Begin with the pages which have a higher bounce rate then consider A&B testing the following aspects: calls to action, layout, navigation, opt-ins and landing pages.
• Make Content Clear

Most website traffic comes via mobile phones. Unfortunately that can mean smaller text is often sadly lost. This can be easily solved by: increasing font size, turning lists into bullet points, avoid chucks of text (break it up with more paragraphs), add headers to make copy easier to skim through, use colour blocks to highlight important information and remember images/infographics.

• Meta Description Matters
• Search results for your pages include title tags and meta descriptions. It is important to make these on-page seo descriptions inviting. When optimized and accurate such descriptions will result in searches and potential buyers wanting to click-through to your site. Well written meta descriptions really are rich site snippets, enticing visitors in - an easy way to drive traffic to your website.
• Remember, if page content is different than what is described in your title and meta description, visitors will feel like you are not genuine. So, that traffic to your website will soon end up increasing the dreaded bounce rate. Honestly is the best policy here.

• Improve Load Time
• Slow loading time is enough to try anyone's patience. If your website loads quickly you are going some way to lowering your bounce rate.
• There are tools available which will help speed the loading time of your website. Why not take a look at one of the options available, Google PageSpeed Insights?
• Test Call-to-Actions
• The trick with CTAs (calls to action) is to place them extremely carefully i.e. so that they are both legible and available when required but not too prominent. If CTAs are too dominant they can disrupt a visitor's online experience. Try testing different CTA placement and types (and wording e.g. More Info, Learn More, Sign Up, Contact Us) and see how your visitors respond.
• Internal Linking Structure
• By adding internal links to other relevant pages on your site you are keeping your visitors onsite for longer. What is more, by adding external links (to sites which are relevant to your industry of course) too you are providing information-rich content - keeping both visitors and search engine bots happy.
• Generate Traffic with Visual Content

• Visuals are a great way to grab attention and capture visitors’ interest. To be clear, on their own these elements won’t necessarily reduce bounce rate since they are designed to keep visitors on a page longer rather than get them to visit other pages on your site.
• However, visual content is more engaging. And that could decrease bounce rate if users take actions that trigger events — such as watching a video or downloading a template. Remember, humans can tent to be lazy, so if you can communicate through pictures that's less work for your visitors.
• Compelling CTAs are also an excellent way to help drive the customer journey. Play with the way CTA buttons or QR codes look on the page. Additionally, content like infographics and videos are highly shareable, which can increase the amount of social media traffic to your website.
• When using visuals, it is important to properly optimize them for especially for websites. When not optimized it can greatly affect your page weight and load time making for a very frustrating experience for visitors. A quick chat with an experienced web developer is definitely worth it.

Get Interactive

Driving more traffic to your website through interactive content is a simple way to keep your visitors onsite. From quizzes and calculators to surveys, games, webinars and personality assessments, there are many ways in which you can keep potential customers engaged. So, c'mon get your creative hat on.

5.Keywords Are Key!

Did you know that SEO ROI is actually x5 more effective than paid advertising? That means it is well worth it to create content with search engine optimization firmly mind. Depending on where customers are in the search funnel they will use different search terms to reflect where they are in their path-to-purchase journey.

Think of it this way, someone who is merely thinking about buying a sports bag won't be looking at specific brands or even particular styles i.e. backpack, leather sports bag or golf bag etc won't come into it at this stage. Moving along the funnel however and not only will specifics and brands enter into their searches some extra terms such as 'free shipping, discounted or sale' may too.

Target keyword research and search volume insights are paramount for search engine optimization. Driving traffic to your website and creating content search engines will love takes time but it is well worth it. After all, organic traffic and organic search traffic may need careful planning but that all-important on-page seo pays off.

6. On-Page SEO

Increasing website traffic can be significantly increased with on-page seo. In simple terms this is the way in which pages are organised to include the aspects Google loves. We have listed a checklist of things to include:

• Internal & enternal links.
• Focus each page on a main keyword (the incorporate long tail keywords) Do your keyword research.
• Use H1, H2 & H3 tags and remember to add keywords in titles.
• Also use related kewords, long tail keyword and complex keywords.
• Meta descriptions must be inviting and descriptive - use them to tempt people onto the page.
• Appropriate tags and titles are a must-have when it comes to images.
• URLs must be simple, keyword-rich and simple.
• Linking blogs, articles and dominant pages to each other is beneficial.

7. Off-Page SEO

Quality backlinks your website has much more relevancy. The more relevancy the more authoritativeness it will tend to have also. This will in turn help your pages to rank more highly and increase traffic to your website.

We can't stress enough that backlinks must, must, must be relevant, for example, it is no use having links to a bakery if your site is based on marshal arts.

Blogging and guest blogging are another pivotal part of your content marketing plan. Writing guest posts on reputable websites is a great place to start. A cheeky interview with a blogger can work wonders too. It is also beneficial to partner with influential bloggers or influencers. Do not be afraid to ask for backlinks from other sites that would naturally mention your brand.

By adding value to the website community i.e. guest blogging and writing guest posts for relevant site means that you're adding value to their sites and in turn they will add value to yours. Get out there, write a guest post, link to other people's content and start building those SEO relationships.

8.Content is King

There are so many advantages of content marketing that far outweigh just creating more traffic. So, it is difficult to argue against investing in this tactic - especially when it comes to bringing more traffic to your website.

Be Consistent...

Content marketing (in particular the addition of regular content) adds to the process of creating and distributing highly valuable, relevant content to a wider audience. How much traffic it produces is not an exact science but what we do know is that regular blog content, videos, social media posts (linked back to key web pages) and guest articles on reputable/relevant sites are recognised ways to drive traffic to your site. In fact it won't only drive traffic it will drive consistent traffic.

Let's look at some different forms of content

The Google search console recognises all of the following when driving organic traffic. From a blog post/guest post and podcasts through to videos, ebooks, infographics, articles, blogs (brand blog or guest blog) and more. It is important to select formats which make sense for your specific demographic. Your audience must be able to get the answers they are searching for or product/service information they need.

Don't be afraid to let the creativity flow...

Breathtaking photography, high-res videos, long-form copy and narrative-rich content are all beneficial when driving traffic to your website. This is your time to shine. Think outside the box. Get creative. In fact, get really creative - the more creative the better!

9. Video Marketing

The popularity of video marketing is increasing rapidly. With nothing more than a mere smartphone producing and editing videos is now easier than ever. What is more search engine optimisation video really does help you achieve greater visibility on YouTube and the main Google search engines. That is for your own web pages as the videos become strategically embedded.

You may be aware that videos tend to perform exceptionally well on social media platforms. Did you also know that they get significantly more engagement than a regular social media post? Social media followers love, love, love video content.

When it comes to driving traffic to your website video marketing enables you to showcase your brand, products and services in a way that other methods don't. In addition, your website visitors can soak up relevant information with relatively little effort. Whether shown on desktops or mobile devices videos are a sure way to increase website traffic.

Did you know that HubSpot has successfully used video as part of their marketing growth strategy? In actual fact, they have produced in excess of 1,000 videos on YouTube. Many of these videos are not directly related to their product but they simply try to help their web visitors have a better understand marketing.

10.The Wonderful World of Webinars

When it comes to growing a brand, boosting your website traffic, improving audience outreach and building engagement webinars are certainly worth a closer look. When a deeper-dive education is required webinars are an ideal solution.

Providing an in-depth look at particular products, services or subjects webinars can provide the answers to questions and are an effective way to educate your site visitors. So, in addition to attracting visitors to your site they can actually keep them there - decreasing that dreaded bounce rate.

11.Social Media Matters - Big Time!

Social media is an easy way to increase website traffic to your website. Consider this, your existing and potential customers make up a huge percentage of the billions of people on social media every single day.

Before getting social ask yourself, which platforms will your clients be on? Younger audiences thrive on TikTok whilst B2B audiences may be better on LinkedIn.

Once you've identified the right platform it's time to post. Remember though it is vital that you provide value to your followers. Another thing, regular engagement is an absolute must too. Building that relationship with your audience takes time, dedication and consistency.

A deep understanding of why they are visiting your social posts or site will mean that you are able to provide the information they are really looking for. Do this at the social stage and you will naturally drive traffic to your website.

12.Speed Up

People are impatient beings, so if your site loads slowly then chances are potential visitors will lose interest and go elsewhere. That means your search traffic will search for and click on sites which are more easily accessible. Driving traffic to your site not a competitors is what is important. Talk to your web dev team for hints and tips on what might be slowing your website down and ways in which it can be improved. Chances are that a few small changes can make a big difference.

14. Don't Be Afraid To Ask For Help

Time constraints, resources, experience and manpower aren't always on your side. Thankfully there are plenty of web design agencies on hand to help. Whether you need a a fully managed service or simply some advice there are often many options available to suit most needs and budgets. Remember, there may also be some tips on free tools that you can pick up along the way too.

Choosing A Web Design Agency

From your initial website build, on-site and off-site seo and social media marketing through to blog posts and more, there are many reasons to turn to a reputable design agency with a multifaceted skillset. Let's look at some of the services you may like to focus on when speaking to your chosen agency when driving more traffic to your website is your goal.

Paid Advertising

PPC (Pay Per Click)

The right design agency will help you to identify which PPC channels are the best-fit for your business. Remember that different channels have very different functionalities. There are more and more options on offer for hungry advertisers.

Above all, Google Advertising remains the most-popular choice, but there are other channels available to boost your brand’s presence as you hunt for potential customers - and, importantly, as potential customers look for you (your products & services). Make sure that you take time to work closely with your web provider as they help to pick the right PPC channels for your business.

Google Advertising

How many times have you heard people say ‘Google it’. As the most visited website in the world, Google receives 42 billion impressions every single month - that's phenomenal right! So, it’s a no-brainer that you want to play your part on that worldwide digital stage.

Google Ads is spilt into three main products – Shopping, Search and Google Display Network. An expert agency will work with you to ensure your brand is showing up in the most suitable places for your brand.

YouTube

Don't forget that there are a variety of targeting and ad format options available with YouTube being amongst the choices available. Advertising puts your brand in-front of an engaged audience. Did you know that YouTube is owned by Google? YouTube falls into the ‘display’ advertising category.

Like other sites within Google’s ecosystem, YouTube has become extremely popular with advertisers. Users can actually be targeted based on age and gender, interests and purchase intent, as well as the type of content they are viewing.

Bing Ads

It's best to choose a full-service PPC management agency as they will not be solely focused on Google alone. Having the skills and expertise to take control of your Bing activity means that your brand and site are in safe (& knowledgeable hands).

Although it is less popular than Google, Bing’s advertising offers some unique opportunities when you want to drive traffic to your site. It is possible to capitalise on a lower cost per click than other platforms, allowing for enhanced ROI (return on investment).

Paid Social Plays It's Part

Investing in paid social is an effective way to drive traffic to your site. It's true that you will need to set aside a budget for your paid social advertising. Having said that, it is considerably cheaper than traditional advertising channels such as television. That means it is highly accessible for brands of all sizes.

What’s more, pinpoint audience targeting makes it hyper-relevant too. It’s important to remember that paid social advertising amplifies the position your business is in. If you have a poor product and a website that simply isn't converting then pushing people to your site via social media campaigns just won’t work. Don't worry though, your web design agency has remedies up its sleeve for this - 'an audit'.

A full audit of your current social media marketing, wider digital marketing strategy, and website will help to identify areas for improvement.

But what exactly is Paid Social?

It is widely recognised that social media advertising is one of the most important digital marketing channels for any brand. This is especially true for those in a B2C industry. By combining eye-catching ad design and intelligent data, paid social is an incredibly powerful tool and helps massively to capture user attention at all stages of the buying journey.

Your customers spend their time on social media, so putting your products in front of their eyes can lead to big results - ultimately driving traffic to your website. Of course we all want to increase web traffic so allocating some budget to paid social is definitely worth considering.

From Instagram to TikTok, putting your paid social campaigns on the best social networks to fit your brand is a vital move. Planning, implementing and optimising social media advertising can be incredibly effective, helping you boost reach, ROAS (return on ad spend) and ultimately your revenue.

Social media adverting is growing year after year. It is not surprising when you consider how far it goes towards raising a brand's profile and boosting website traffic. Proven methods will help your business grow and scale.

By continuously optimising your campaigns, your ad spend will work harder, hitting and exceeding ROAS goals. It is important to only scale up when you are certain that it is possible to maintain and grow your returns. This nurturing approach helps you grow your paid social revenue in a secure, cost-effective manner.

Free Tools to Get Traffic Flowing

Have you ever considered creating online tools when enticing traffic to your website? Don't worry, these don't have to be overcomplicated tools and they don't have to be expensive to provide.

So let's have a look one of the tools you may want to consider:

HubSpot

Hubspot has created a variety of free tools. These include a website grader, persona builder, and email signature generator.

Let's look at the results:

The website grader alone generates tens of thousands in estimated monthly traffic. But that's not all, the tool has resulted in more than 1.5 million dofollow backlinks.

Make Competitor Traffic Your Traffic

First thing is first it's best to choose an analysis tool like Ahrefs or SEM Rush to take a sneaky peep at which keywords your competitors are ranking for. Remember to look for keywords where they achieve a ranking in the top 10 - even on pages with relatively small amounts of content. What we mean by that is pages which don't have a huge amount of content, so example pages which feature short articles or blog posts.

What's the next step?

Ok, so you've found the content-light pages. Now it's up to you to create a hugely better resource.

How?

Cover the subject more much more deeply, add better design, give extra information - give more, more, more. In-depth, longform and useful useful content is hugely favoured by Google's algorithm. Following this technique will mean that you will stand a greater chance of ranking ahead of your competitors - driving traffic to your website, not theirs.

There's More

Another strategy to try is to use investigative SEO tools which examine a competitors’ backlink profile.

Look out for...

Watch out for any pages containing links that return a 404. Recreate even more valuable pages and then reach out to the sites who linked to your competitor to tell them about your new content.

Note that not every site will respond however you should still be able to generate valuable new links.

In Conclusion

It's safe to say that there are numerous methods available when it comes to boosting your website traffic.

Remember that however you choose to generate more website traffic there are solutions to suit all budgets. The one thing you may not be able to afford though is time and that is where turning to a web design agency can be the way to go. Not only will you find that a specialist agency has the time to dedicate to your site they'll have the latest in expertise too.

If you would like to see how Digital Media Team can help boost your traffic to website, get in touch today!