It is obvious that you want to increase traffic to your website. In today’s digital world reduced traffic may mean dark days for your business.
The most prevalent way to increase website traffic is to use SEO tactics. But, getting traffic from Google is pretty time-consuming. Moreover, with changes in search engine algorithms, site rankings fall and business revenue decreases.
There must be a way out of this fix. Yes, there is.
There are other ways than search engine rankings to increase traffic and conversion on your site.
But, before we start discussing about techniques, let us delve into the types of traffic that a website gets.
Traffic has 2 Faces
An important thing that we almost always tend to ignore is the type of traffic that our sites receive.
I am talking about targeted and untargeted traffic. 100 targeted traffics are more effective than 1000 untargeted traffics.
Most visitors who visit your site from Google or any other search engine ranking pages are looking for products or solutions to their problems. These are targeted visitors.
Therefore, when looking for alternative ways to increase traffic, we need to make sure that the techniques leverage targeted traffic.
In this blog, I am going to introduce you to some alternate ways of increasing traffic and conversion.
1] Guest Blogging / Blog Guest Post
Be a guest blogger, if you want to increase traffic to your site.
But, you have to search for websites that accept guest posts and belong to your industry.
How do you choose the perfect topic for your post?
Buzzsumo can help you come across several popular topics on the field, on which you want to focus the guest post.
Now, you should search the site on Buzzsumo, on which you want to post your blog. If you are wondering why you should do this, let me tell you the reason.
You can take a look at the most common topic on the site.
Now, that you have selected a topic of your choice you can search other posts on that topic on Buzzsumo. In this way, you can identify which is the best post on a particular topic.
Create a persuasive piece of writing, if you want readers to stop by your site.
Now, it’s time to post your writing. Before you post your writing, carefully go through the guidelines on the site. Now, in the event that your post gets rejected by the site you can send another piece of writing to the site.
Also, remember to visit that site and answer queries on the comment section. This approach increases the credibility of the website and your integrity as a writer.
2] E-mail Lists
E-mail lists are a great way to reach out to a vast client base while you are taking a nap. How?
Building a responsive e-mail list is the first step to gain high traffic and increased sales. Keep a short e-mail list with 100 subscribers. Remember, the discussion we had about targeted and untargeted traffic?
All you have to do is link your blog to a newsletter and send it to the people on your e-mail list.
Don’t forget to add the link of your blog just below the name of your brand. Readers love it when you make things easy for them because most readers don’t have the time to search for your site.
Steve Krug’s book ‘Don’t Make me Think’ explains how you can successfully drive away traffic by asking them to do something on their own. Whoa!
3] Online Advertising
Getting target traffic through online ads is a very effective way to increase the sales profits of your business.
It may interest you to know that the digital advertising is clearly the fastest-growing medium in the world. GroupM estimates the digital advertising expenditure (AdEx) to grow by 47.5 percent in 2016 to Rs 7,300 crore from the earlier Rs 4,950 crore. It is estimated to take a 12.7 percent share of the total AdEx this year.
Online advertisements can generate high return on investment, if you know how to reach out to your target audience. No points for guessing that only targeted traffic can boost sales and enhance your profits.
With advertisement platforms increasing in number and innovativeness, targeting an advertisement has become pretty easy.
How to Target Facebook Adverts can show you how you can leverage on age, location and interests of your audience etc by using facebook power editor.
Make sure that the ads are appealing to the viewers and it comes with a solution to their problems.
In regard to creating an appealing ad, you can try to fathom the x-factor in the ads posted by your competitors. Look at the design of the ads. Study the image and the copy used.
If possible, maintain a tab of ads that have compelled you to buy a product or avail a service. Observe the factors that persuaded you to take action and follow their footsteps.
Are you wondering how much you should invest in an ad? Your investment depends on the industry, in which you are doing business. Therefore, the ROI should be proportionate to your spending.
I insist that you follow a specific approach. Instead of spending a huge amount of money at the very beginning, you should opt for a test run. Spend around $5-$10 per day for a week to assess how the ad platform operates.
In the event that you have a B2C business, you can run ad campaigns on Facebook & Instagram. If you are into B2B then you must try LinkedIn Ads because you can reach out decision makers easily.
4] External Linking
Linking out is a useful way to reach out to a large crowd. Scared? Wondering if it actually helps? Yes, it does.
Link out to posts that you deem useful and make sure that they are relevant to your site.
The writers of those posts will link back to you, provided they really like what you have written.
Some of them can even write about your post on social media sites.
If you link to a site, the people tracking the website are bound to locate it. If they need your services, they can visit your site.
This type of traffic is targeted and can fetch you conversion.
Interestingly, even Google supports the process of linking out. Outbound links are a major ranking factor on search engine raking pages.
5] Social Media
Increase traffic and conversion through the right use of social media.
At first, you need to create goodwill for your brand among your potential followers.
This, you can do with the help of effective content marketing. A good content with an attractive headline can pull readers(Noticed how did you get here?). If readers find the content useful, they might as well visit your site. Remember, your content should be able to offer value to your audience.
In course of time, your audience may follow your social media profile. This action can enhance traffic when you post contents later.
Did you know that 54% B2B marketers have leveraged the power of social media to generate leads?
Just because a piece of content is old, it does not mean that it has become redundant.
By re-sharing an old post at fixed intervals you can ensure that the post gets noticed by someone who missed it a month back.
This results in the post being liked and the reader may also end up visiting your site. This practice can convert your traffic into sales. With the tool Buffer, you can select the social media platform, on which you want to share a post.
Now, you may worry that I am insisting on you to act like a spammer. But, that is far from the truth.
In order that you don’t get marked as a spammer, make sure that your repeat post adds value for your audience.
Here I need to inform you about the different ways, in which you can present a post, so that you are not marked a spammer.
The first post is obviously a new one; you can post it again after some hours by changing the description into a question. The next day, you may state a fact from the blog as a description.
A month later, you can create interest in the minds of the readers? Extract an interesting sentence or a point from the blog to attract your audience.
This is how Buffer explains it.
The new post
Then, the post gets repeated
Different styles suit the interest level of different types of audiences.
By adding value for your audience on a constant basis, you can make sure that your site has high targeted traffic.
Using attractive images and videos can get you the desired traffic on your site. You can get more likes and shares. Some of the audiences may be interested in your products or services and visit your site.
6] Blog Commenting
Blog comments can increase the number of visitors to your site.
At the very beginning, you should search for sites that post contents related to your business.
Use Buzzsumo and Similar Sites to come across sites in your niche.
I suggest you to post comments on blogs that are related to your industry. Comments on such blogs can fetch you targeted traffic.
They are any day more effective and can get you noticed more easily than comments on blogs out of your niche.
A blog comment solely with a customary ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ cannot get you the desired traffic. You have to make sure that the comments add value for readers.
In the event that you answer the queries made by readers, your credibility as an expert increases and you can generate traffic to your site.
However, you should never use the name of your brand as the ‘commenting name.’ Using your actual name is a better strategy to show your readers that they are speaking to a human being and not a life-less entity. It also shows that you understand the problems of the readers and are eager to help them.
Interested viewers can click on your name and visit your site.
Adding a face to your name can also prove to your readers that you are a flesh and blood human being.
7] Interviews
Interviews are useful for both the interviewer and the interviewed. I am going to tell you the benefits of being both an interviewer and interviewed.
Interviewer
When you interview an expert in your niche, you are obviously going to post the conversation on your blog. The person you interview shares the blog and links you to it.
Interviewing an influential person in your niche makes you quite a popular figure. People start regarding you a prominent figure in your industry.
Not everyone can interview a famous personality.
Interviewed
After the interviewer posts the interview or/and video you can share it in as many possible platforms as you deem fit. When people see the interview, they consider you to be an important person in your field.
Why is someone going to interview you, if you are not an eminent person? The next time your site has visitors, they go through it in details.
In fact, the interview generates confidence about you in the minds of your audience. They start taking your words at face value and most of the traffic you get increases your sales.
8] Case Study
Offering a review or a case study of the product or service of a company in your field can make you quite an expert in the eyes of your audience.
Your name and the name of your company gains higher value in their eyes.
The traffic you receive through this approach has high chances of increasing your sales revenue and sales profits.
Let us consider that you used a product or service in your industry and had a positive user-experience. You can send an e-mail to the company stating the details what product or service you purchased and how you found it useful. Make sure that you elaborately mention the benefits you received by using the product or the service.
In a nutshell
By now, you must have realized that search engines are not the only way to get target traffic and conversion. Other tactics like, guest blogging, e-mail lists, online advertising, external linking and more can also fetch you high number of targeted traffic.
Try out one of the tactics or all of them to see how your business enjoys chunks of profit. Tell me about your experience after that.
Also, let me know which are the other ways you generated targeted traffic to your website without SEO?
