Every entrepreneur who sells online will eventually consider that idea.
It is possible that you have dedicated time and energy to establish your website and made adjustments for its launch. However, upon opening, you may have been perplexed as to why there is no traffic. Alternatively, there may have been a steady progression in the past six months, but there is now a standstill on both traffic and sales. Lastly, if you have adopted a successful traffic-driving approach, you may be interested in discovering other techniques to explore.
Ways to drive traffic to your website
1. Run paid social media ad campaigns
In order to boost your online store’s website traffic, it is crucial to efficiently reach out to your ideal customer base. Utilizing paid social media advertisements allows you to design personalized ad campaigns that accurately cater to the customers who are most inclined to browse and buy your products.
Consider the following platforms if you are contemplating utilizing paid social media ads:
Facebook ads
Boasting 2.6 billion monthly active users in the first quarter of 2020, Facebook is indisputably the biggest social media platform globally. Facebook presents a plethora of possibilities for connecting with potential clients and luring them to your virtual shop.
Facebook’s advertising platform is strong enough to allow you to focus on users by considering their interests, behavior, location, and other factors. In addition, Facebook may serve as a valuable tool by saving you both time and money since it can optimize ad delivery and make sure that your message reaches the target audience most likely to convert.
Through Facebook Dynamic Ads, automated advertisements displaying products that customers have previously viewed or added to their shopping carts can be served efficiently, even to those who have visited your website before. These ads are potent and can effectively entice customers to return to your website, allowing you to optimize your current traffic and capitalize on it.
Instagram ads
According to Instagram, the platform is extremely popular and has over one billion active users worldwide, with 90% of accounts following businesses.
There are various Instagram tools such as hashtag discovery or marketing content creation that could enhance your followers count. However, constructing Instagram ads would potentially lead to a boost in website traffic and transactions. Utilizing the advertising feature is crucial in fully optimizing Instagram, especially if you already possess a significant number of followers.
Ensure that you have registered for an Instagram Business account or switch your personal account to a business one. This will broaden your opportunities for reaching out to your audience via Instagram ads. You can create ads in varied content formats such as photos, videos, carousels, collections, and stories. Thus, you can start producing ads in the content format that is most convenient for you.
Pinterest ads
To target potential customers who are seeking inspiration for future activities and purchases, Pinterest is the perfect platform. Based on statistics from Pinterest, 72% of active users utilize it to discover new brands and services, and a separate study reveals that 90% of participants rely on Pinterest for product recommendations.
For businesses aiming to target specific markets such as home decorating, renovating, landscaping, and DIY crafts, Pinterest is a highly favored platform due to its immense popularity among such niche groups.
Promoted Pins, a type of paid advertising that elevates your Pins to the top of your customers’ search results, can be found on Pinterest. This gives you an edge over the competition by making you more visible. Exquisitely designed, Promoted Pins are virtually indistinguishable from other Pinterest content, making them a perfect tool for grabbing customers’ attention and driving them to your online shop.
Google Ads
Google Ads provide a distinctive chance to promote your goods and services to those who are actively searching for them, unlike social media advertising platforms. According to Emarketer, 35% of users buy a product within five days of searching for it.
Google provides the opportunity to showcase your ad to viewers on the biggest search engines globally, Google and YouTube. While utilizing the platform can potentially boost your website traffic and earnings, it may be challenging to navigate for newcomers, and you run the risk of investing a significant amount of money in the wrong audience.
There are three methods provided by Google to get your ad noticed by internet users. These include search ads, Google Display Network, and YouTube ads. Google ads work by an auction system where your position in comparison to other bidders and the relevance to search inquiry is influenced by how much you bid on your chosen keywords.
Engage in conversation on social media
Engaging in social media involves more than just posting a link to your online store on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms in hopes of boosting website traffic. True social engagement entails initiating conversations, providing thoughtful responses, and generating excitement and enthusiasm.
Social media strategy and planning templates
Are you prepared to commence your social media plan? With these flexible templates that are available for free, you will be empowered to lay out and execute a successful strategy that engages your intended audience and keeps your content schedule orderly.
2. Get friends and family to share
Seeking assistance from loved ones when starting your business can be a beneficial method for creating initial awareness, traffic, or securing your first sale (shoutout to Mom!).
It’s not common for individuals to initiate business ventures often, hence it is likely that those in your social circle will find it refreshing and unique to witness your online store’s inception. It is hoped that they will assist in the promotion of your new enterprise.
Have you heard of Upworthy? Were you aware that it was first propelled by support from loved ones? Its aim was to gain 1,000 Facebook followers on its launch day, which it successfully achieved. This played a significant role in propelling its early success.
Communicate with your friends and family in a strategic manner to avoid causing annoyance. Consider sharing information about your store on Facebook. Are there specific methods for reaching out to your distant relatives, such as email lists or reunion planning? If so, send a message notifying them of your new store.
Rather than centering your request around persuading them to purchase your products, urge your friends and family to spread the word about your store to their associates, regardless of the possibility of giving them your items for free or at a reduced price as they are your loved ones.
These are individuals with whom you share a social connection, and you will not frequently request such favors from them. Your success rate is higher compared to reaching out to unknown persons, and if a considerable number of them share, it may provide enough momentum to generate a steady flow of customers.
3. Optimize your website for search
As a beginner, prioritize identifying keywords that are related to your niche to serve as the foundation for your blog posts and store pages. It’s recommended to target one or two primary keywords per webpage. Keywords Everywhere is an SEO tool that can assist you in discovering pertinent keywords.
At the outset, target keywords with search volume of less than 10,000 searches per month. Once you have developed blog content and improved product pages for a couple of months, you can shift your attention to pursuing high volume keywords.
To get website traffic, the key is to establish a sturdy base of pertinent keywords. Utilize your online store’s blog as it can greatly contribute to generating natural traffic to your site.
4. Experiment with content freshness
To significantly increase website traffic, people use content freshness as an SEO strategy. This involves updating outdated content on webpages and including new sections to ensure the content remains up-to-date. This technique essentially refreshes old webpage content.
One easy method for maintaining content freshness on product pages is to utilize a product review application such as the Stamped.io Product Review Addon.
Enabling the option for your customers to provide reviews on your product page indicates to Google that the page is frequently active and updated with fresh content. Additionally, you can incorporate the most frequent customer feedback into your product description to keep the page constantly updated.
5. Submit your site to search engines
You can enhance your chances of appearing on results pages for relevant queries by requesting search engines to crawl and index your site, which is also beneficial for SEO.
- For Google: Submit your site via Search Console.
- For Bing and Yahoo:Â Learn how to submit URLs here.
6. Build out your backlinks
SEO includes backlinks which play a crucial role. Whenever a site outside of your domain links to your site, it sends a message to Google that your site is authentic and pertinent to the anchor text (the words that are clicked on).
Backlinks have the capacity to generate traffic directly to your store, aside from SEO. Visitors browsing those websites can be directed to check out your own website, potentially resulting in sales.
7. Spy on your competitors
To view a list of websites that were visited just before your competitor’s website, simply enter their website address and check the “Upstream sites” section.
If you observe that Google is the predominant choice, prioritize Google Ads and SEO. In case Facebook tops the list, prepare Facebook ads. Alternatively, if a particular blog drives the most traffic, concentrate on devising an outreach plan to partner with that blog.
8. Optimize for long tail keywords
In your keyword research, it is crucial to give careful consideration to long tail keyword opportunities, even though you may come across several shorter keywords. Typically, these keywords are more precise and have a lower search volume, resulting in less competition. Consequently, ranking for relevant long tail keywords and understanding the searcher’s intent becomes easier.
By designing a website experience that caters to the intent of the searcher, you increase the chances of providing them with the desired content. Consequently, this will result in a surge of organic search traffic to your site generated by a specific audience.
9. Add new products or content to your website daily
Updating your website content regularly, ideally daily, is a wise decision as it aligns with Google’s criteria for ranking, which considers the freshness of the content.
This isn’t solely advantageous for SEO purposes, as it also provides users with an incentive to revisit your website. With the knowledge that there is consistently new content to explore, they are encouraged to check out your site to discover what it entails.
10. Host exclusive content on your website
To keep your audience engaged, establish a consistent publishing routine and provide users with a reason to return by offering the option to sign up for updates. To achieve this, consider launching a blog, designing a complimentary course, producing Slideshare materials, hosting webinars, and sharing other pertinent materials on your website.
Utilizing quizzes as part of your content marketing mix is a successful means of generating leads. LeadQuizzes reported a conversion rate of 33.6% among its users in 2016. These individuals are not only potential targets for future marketing campaigns but also provide valuable information through their quiz responses.
However, let’s refocus on the primary objective, which is to increase website traffic. After completing a quiz, users receive results that can be shared on social media. As a result, their connections can follow the link and take the quiz too. Utilize this strategy to simultaneously increase traffic and expand your email subscribers.
12. Start a podcast
A significant portion of the American population, 51%, has tuned in to a podcast, while 32% have done so on a monthly basis. Given the sizable listenership, starting a podcast can not only benefit your online brand but also boost the traffic to your website.
There are numerous advantages to podcasting for your benefit.
- Brand awareness:Â Users might discover you first through your podcast, and then visit your site to learn more.Â
- Nurture customer relationships:Â Provide extra value to your customers through podcast content. You could also incorporate an interactive component to give them a more intimate brand experience.
- SEO: If you transcribe your podcasts, you can embed the audio and post the text to your site’s blog, giving you more opportunity to optimize for search.Â
13. Host contests and giveaways
Incorporating contests and giveaways as a consistent aspect of your ecommerce approach will incentivize viewers to visit and revisit your website. Additionally, integrating a social-sharing feature within the initiative can prompt word-of-mouth advertising.
By hosting contests and giveaways, you can potentially advertise to your participants in the future. Approximately 33% of those who enter contests are open to receiving brand related content.
Moreover, you will possess particular knowledge regarding their interests, enabling you to customize your approach according to their shopping predilections. Customization represents a colossal prospect for companies, given that 71% of shoppers feel frustrated when their encounter lacks individuality.
