When it comes to generating web traffic, you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. In this context, you want to gain traffic to your website from a plethora of different sources and channels, such as publications, organic search, banner ads and social media.
When developing your online marketing campaign, it’s a no-brainer that diversifying your sources of traffic will help ensure long-term success. Relying purely on search engines or platform-specific advertisements can put you in a potentially vulnerable spot.
Diversity in web traffic actually helps improve online brand awareness, and ultimately, search rankings.
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Here are three ways to bring in traffic from all over the web.
#1. Ramp Up Your Social Media Engagement
When it comes to distributing relevant content. Social media is perhaps the best route to take. About a third of the world’s population is on social media. Needless to say, it must be a prominent part of your marketing strategy.
Facebook and Twitter should be a part of your every social media plan. Based on your industry, platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram might be beneficial as well.
Engagement is the name of the game in the realm of social media. This is your opportunity to let your brand persona shine through while sharing compelling content that your followers can enjoy and gain value.
Here is an extremely powerful Facebook post from Airbnb:
The post is relevant, timely, compelling, and has a strong call-to-action. All of these factors can do wonders to boost your website visitors as well as overall interest in your brand.
At the very least, build a personality on social media and use it consistently with your brand voice. Integrating social media with branding or customer service goes beyond simply answering questions. The goal should be to connect with them on a deeper level to build trust with a strong brand persona.
JetBlue make it a point to not only respond to customers that tweet at them, but to engage users that speak about their brand in general. Social media is critical in maintaining open, two-way dialogue with users while demonstrating your customer service skills on a worldwide stage.
Additionally, you can use paid Facebook and Twitter ads to add significant traffic to your platform and increase your number of followers. Just be sure that you are targeting properly. This is by no means a simple task. Do some experimenting to figure out your best plan of attack.
Establishing a strong presence will help build social proof and in turn, create trust between your brand and consumers.
Write Awesome Blog Posts
Blogging is perhaps the best way to show the world that you are an expert in your field. In addition to strengthening your online credibility, it can also do huge numbers to boost your organic web traffic, aid your
As the internet has shaken the world of marketing and caused an abrupt transition to digital media, blogging has become an extremely popular – and essential – factor in content strategies.
To drive more traffic to your blog, it is important for you to understand how people’s expectations from blogging and blog platforms have undergone a change. Otherwise, you will be caught up in the obsolete and won’t have the big picture that can help align your business goals with your audience’s greatest needs. By crafting your content based around the views of the consumer, the skeptical thoughts tend to be discarded and the level of trust goes up.
If you haven’t got one already, consider adding a blog section to your website – even if it’s a microsite or one with a limited or niche focus. And right from the time you plan it, make sure the platform is
Use your blog very wisely by educating your readers with accurate and authoritative information, as well as using keyword-rich topics that are relevant to potential searches. If you’re having trouble finding fresh and compelling topics, look into Google Trends to see what is currently popular among users pertaining to your industry.
You also want to make sure that every post you publish is weaved around the appropriate keywords and phrases. This can sometimes pose a problem, as some terms are more competitive than others. Try and locate long-tailed keywords that are specific to your location or distinct area of expertise. General terms won’t do you much good as they can be heavily sought after. From here, check with a tool like Ahrefs Keywords Explorer to get data-driven insights on how popular your selections are (taking the example of eyeglasses):
Based on your findings, select your blog topics and write the body copy accordingly to gain exposure on the search engines. Continuing our glasses theme, here is the blog section from online eyeglass retailer Firmoo’s website:
Bill Gates’ words “Content is King” have remained true for over 20 years. Publishing high-quality content at a consistent rate is a phenomenal way to increase and diversify your web traffic.
This is made apparent by the fact that the thrill of consuming content without restrictions has pretty much disappeared. Discerning readers now demand exclusive information which they can’t access anywhere else. In a sense, blogging is becoming less about the dry side of “How to…” because if you dive into processes then there is not much in terms of leverage to differentiate yourself.
For example, “How to Tie a Sailor’s Knot” isn’t a wise choice of topic. There are likely to be at least a dozen articles rehashing the same old steps. On the other hand, try “How I Used My 15 Years of Sailing Experience to Improve the Sailor’s Knot” – now that’s something your competitors will not be able to publish because it reflects personal experience and expertise, which is invaluable and rare. The more you use your first-party data, your portfolio, your accomplishments, and your perspective to enrich your content, the better results you will have.
Take Marie Forleo. Her work is almost always intimately connected to her past and her understanding of how entrepreneurship (and life in general) unfolds.
And today, Marie is a huge influencer courted by Oprah Winfrey and Tony Robbins!
Finally, make sure what kind of posts are working for you, and use this information to plan future posts. A content analysis tool such as Buzzsumo will give you insights on what topics, content formats, and social distribution platforms are working for you.
In addition to posting on your website, there are a lot of free, high-traffic content-oriented platforms that you can consider. For example, Startup Grind, the global entrepreneur community, maintains a great presence on Medium. Just be sure you drive viewers to your website from your web properties.
Work with Influencers
Influencer marketing is an incredible way to not only diversify web traffic, but also get the word out about your brand. Influencers can play a huge role in turning a no-name company into a well-respected enterprise.
What you want to do is seek out prevalent figures within a certain community that relates to your target audience. This could be an author, artiste, popular blogger, or another business owner – anyone with a fan following on a digital channel that can be marketed to. Then, make a connection and encourage them to talk about your brand on their channel of influence. This can be done with things like posting a review of your product on their blog, having them share your content, and so on.
For example, Audible did a great job in recruiting YouTube star Jack Douglass of Jackfilms to integrate sponsored content into his station.
You’ll can’t fail to notice the link to their website and the number of views on the video: over 1 million.
In another instance, Lynda.com promoted their sponsored content on YouTube channels such as Jack’s Films (there’s Jack again), The Fine Brothers and Rooster Teeth, they reached a combined audience of over 46 million!
That said, influencer marketing is not just for big brands, it’s perfect for startups and SMBs too.
Unfortunately, the task of finding an awesome influencer is much easier said than done. It can take a long time to foster a relationship with an influencer to a point where they will spread your message. Start by connecting with them on social media. Help them out by commenting and sharing their content to let them know who you are. When you pitch to them in hopes they will talk about your brand, be sure you are presenting value. You need to find a way to make sure their actions benefit their personal brand as much as yours, if not more.
However, there are tools to help here too: Brandwatch allows you to learn who the big names are within your industry, rank them in order of priority to connect with, and determine how effective their mentions are proving for your business:
Parting Words
Diversifying your web traffic is essential for building a strong digital marketing campaign for the long haul. Organic search is great, but Google is constantly changing their algorithms and it can be tough to keep up. When this is the case, you will want strong traffic sources to keep your efforts going. You don’t need me to tell you that diverse traffic means more leads, and more leads mean more customers.
