The vastness of the internet means it's a competitive place to work, especially when you're trying to win over new visitors. Battles to increase website traffic are often hard-won, and the work of attracting a larger audience is never-ending — but that doesn't mean you have to set your sights months down the road to see results. There are some steps you can take to increase website traffic right away. Even if you're already drawing a respectable audience, consider how these strategies might elevate your website's performance and increase your sales opportunities.
Optimize Your Keyword Strategy
Take a hard look at your keyword strategy and consider whether any adjustments might improve your performance. For most companies, keyword focus is all about finding a sweet spot among the competition: You want to target high-volume key phrases, but you also need to be able to compete — otherwise, you'll drown in the page rankings when going up against larger operations.
Dig deep for key phrases that enjoy a strong online volume and a high relevance to your business. Try coming up with a long-tail key phrase that speaks to your audience but is somewhat distinct from keywords your competitors are using. Then make sure the content on your website includes those phrases.
Build a Strong Email Strategy
Email lists are a great way to drive traffic, even if it's from repeat visitors. Companies should maintain these lists for sharing content and driving engagement. You can link back to your website through your updates, grow your list among interested parties and generate a steady stream of traffic every time you send out a blast.
Be creative with how you build email lists — if you're planning a new site, you can start signing up users before your site is even launched, and utilize a number of channels (like social, for example) to drive opt-ins.
Bring In Guest Content Creators
As Forbes points out, guest creators don't just bring new content and fresh takes, they provide their own distribution networks. These can include social media promotion, links and referrals from their site and even their website's distribution networks. Pushing your content out to a dedicated audience this way can boost your traffic and give you a chance to win over new regular consumers.
Spend for Paid Search Ads
If you need a lot of site traffic fast, paid search advertising can help you out in a pinch. Just keep in mind that paid search is just one piece of your strategy — spend sparingly while continuing to build organic methods of driving traffic.
After you see an initial spike in your website traffic from these strategies, make sure to keep these new visitors coming back for more with regularly published quality content that will make them want to visit your site again and again.