77 Proven methods to get traffic to your website

So you’ve got your website up and running, but you’re not sure how to get traffic to your website?

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Don’t worry, you are not alone. With so much written about optimizing traffic, it’s hard to distinguish what works for you and what doesn’t.

This article does not list every single method to increase traffic. Instead, he lists the proven methods that work.

How to generate traffic for your website

To make it easier, we have divided the methods into the following categories:

Let’s jump right in:

Content Marketing

As long as you create good and relevant content on your site, you will (hopefully) have a steady stream of visitors coming to your site from Google.

Are you not sure what exactly good content looks like? Then check out our guide to content marketing and this great content marketing hub put together by Brian Dean of Backlinko:

Center for Content Marketing by Backlinko

Here you will find more than 30 resources on everything you need to know about content marketing such as advertising, copywriting and design.

Are you inspired now? Here are some tips on how to attract visitors to your website with content:

1. Write useful content (also known as "Create Content That Answers Questions")

It sounds obvious, but most SEO-focused content boils down to this:

Answer a question that a lot of people are asking online that isn’t being answered well.

If you have a question, what’s the first thing you’re likely to do? You Google them.

It can literally be anything. From what is a meme, to where is the best place to live, to why cornflakes were invented:

Examples of questions people search for on Google

The point is: Google and alternative search engines exist to give people answers to questions in the first place. If you can answer questions with content on your website, Google will send traffic to your site.

So how do you find these questions?

Well, that’s the hard part. It helps to understand your audience. This also applies to using keyword research tools.

(For more information on how to actually find these questions, see the keyword research section later in this guide).

But one of the easiest ways to find questions to answer is to Google them.

Enter a question your audience might be interested in and go from there. I guarantee each of these questions will come up with a lot of questions you can answer.

Once you have some questions, you can use this simple framework to approach writing useful content:

Do research on keywords to find a popular question.
Write an article that answers this question.
Follow SEO best practices for your article.
Make sure the word count is long enough to fully answer the question.
Edit your article (we all make mistakes).
Hit publish, rinse, and repeat.

Just pick a content topic that won’t be dead in a few months.

2. Evergreen content writing

Evergreen content is content that is still relevant after it is published.

It can include things like the following:

Types of evergreen content (image source: alexa.com)

Some content goes out of date quickly, while evergreens don’t like news articles do. In fact, they can bring in a steady stream of traffic, leads, and social shares over time.

It will:

Provide lasting (and compounded) value.
Helping to build new customers/clients/readers.
Help build a voice.
It can help to get links.

If you want an example of evergreen content, you should z.B look at what we have in our knowledge base at Kinsta. Just look at the content of these common technical questions:

An example of evergreen content (common technical questions) from Kinsta

These are questions that people will ask over and over again (just make sure the information is up to date).

3. Publish long-form content

There is no right or wrong content length. The ideal word count for your content is the one that best covers the topic completely.

However, it has been observed that longer content performs better:

Word count vs. Ranking position in Google (image source: backlinko.com)

There are four main reasons why you should:

Longer content generally ranks better than shorter content.
The longer the content, the more shares it will get.
Content is more relevant to the topic (a Google ranking factor)
It can help convert readers into customers (z.B. through content upgrades).

Although word count does indeed seem to equal better rankings, there are other factors to consider than just the length of the content.

If you want an example of long form content… you’re reading one right now!

Example of long-form content

4. Publish more listing articles

A list post is an article whose headline contains a numbered collection of things.

There are a lot of list posts floating around the internet. BuzzFeed publishes mostly list posts:

Examples of how list posts rank in Google

When it comes to getting traffic to your website, list posts work because numbers act as a psychological trigger.

Not only are they easy to scan when reading, but they also attract attention in general.

On the Internet, when we see a number in a headline, we’re more likely to click on it because the brain is activated by something called the click-whirring response.

There you have it, list posts work for scientific reasons.

However, one thing to keep in mind is that list posts are useful for driving traffic to a particular page, but they are not the best content format when it comes to converting visitors into users/customers. To do this, you have to use different formats (through guides, comparison sites, etc.), but that’s a topic for a future blog post.

Let’s get back to the topic of traffic generation…

5. Create a system (hint: use a content calendar).

Traffic generation on a website is like many other things in life, it’s all about consistency.

Consistency in your content strategy not only keeps you relevant to your audience, but also signals to Google that you are a reliable source of information.

Slow but steady publishing of blog posts is better than an insane and irregular publishing schedule.

And one of the best ways to accomplish this is through a content calendar. Somewhere you can store ideas and plan what to publish and in what order.

You can use an editorial calendar, a project management app of your choice like Trello or Asana, an alternative or spreadsheet, or even pen and paper (well, that would be old-school).

Example of an editorial calendar on a Trello board (image source: trello.com)

It doesn’t really matter what you decide to do. The best format for your content calendar is the one you would most like to use and would continue to use.

6. Reuse content on other channels (and in other formats)

Content repurposing is best described as finding new ways to repurpose your existing content.

It’s useful for reaching new audiences on different mediums, breathing new life into forgotten content, and making the most of your content efforts.

Ahrefs does a great job of repurposing content on its blog and YouTube channel, such as.B. At its content audit article + video:

Example of reused content from Ahrefs

Just like GaryVee, who uses a "content pyramid approach" to get more than 30 posts out of a speech:

Content Pyramid by GaryVee

It’s all about getting as much value as possible from a single piece of content by repurposing it.

Here are some content repurposing ideas you can try:

Webinars> Videos
Old blog posts>downloadable guides
Interviews> Blog posts or e-books
Images>Pinterest Boards
Quora Q&A> Blog post
Slideshow> Infographics or blog post
Statistics> Twitter threads
Blog post> Podcasts

7. Create content that is attractive to influencers

Most industries have opinion leaders: people with a large following who get a lot of likes, shares, and links to their content.

Wouldn’t it be great to use their influence for your own content?

If you want influential people to share your content, you need to create content that speaks directly to them.

Here’s a simple process for creating content that influencers want to see:

Find influencers in your industry using influencer research tools or do a quick search to find their direct email address.
Analyze what they are talking about.
Look for a common theme.
Create content on this topic.
Get your content to influencers.

8. Writing eye-catching headlines (using headline analyzers)

Headlines are one of the most important pieces of content.

Likely to be among the first things to show up in Google search results. Without a compelling headline, even the most comprehensive blog post can go unread.

To help you create eye-catching headlines, you can use a headline analyzer like Sumo Headline Generator:

Sumo headline generator

Writing good headlines is an art form. But don’t worry, it can be learned and improved with practice. If you have to start from scratch, follow these tips:

Research your customers.
Look at your competitors’ headlines.
Use words your target audience would use (+ avoid jargon).
Use numbers at the beginning if you can.
Use strong words like "secret", "unspoken", "hidden". Headlines if you can.
Measure your CTR (click-through rate) and adjust it accordingly.

9. Improve old blog posts

The solution to increasing traffic to your website is probably something simple, you already have it: old blog posts.

If you’ve been blogging for a while, you probably have a lot of posts in your archives that need a little love to bring them back to life and get them generating traffic.

Search for pages that are at the bottom of page one or at the top of page two of Google’s search results. These pages are perfect examples of improvements.

But how to improve them?

Here are some quick ways to improve old blog posts:

Update all outdated information.
Add more images, screenshots, videos, etc. Add.
Improve your introduction (so people want to keep reading).
Increase the word count (if it makes sense).
Add links and link to other people’s posts.
Improve readability by using shorter paragraphs and bullet points.
Publish it and promote it again as new.

However, sometimes it’s better to just merge old posts instead of updating them…

10. Merge similar articles (+ redirect them)

If you have an inventory of similar articles on the same topic and with the same keywords, it may be worth combining them into a single post.

By merging similar posts into one page, Google performance will likely be better and clean up your site’s architecture.

Because you do not spread the " expertise " over several articles. Instead, have one focused and strong post. Plus, you’ll have a longer post that delves deeper into a topic, which leads to more traffic.

Here’s how to merge similar articles into one:

Decide which URL to keep and which to remove and redirect.
Copy and paste all the content you want to keep from the old articles into the remaining ones.
Now format, edit and review the new article.
Set up 301 redirects to the new page
Finally, delete the old pages.

11. Use the skyscraper technique

Skyscraper technique is a marketing term coined by Brian Dean of Backlinko.

Basically, it’s a system for converting content into quality backlinks.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1 – Find existing content with lots of backlinks.

Use tools like Ahrefs Content Explorer or BuzzSumo to find URLs with many shares and links.

Find (replicate) successful content with Ahrefs Content Explorer

Step 2 – Now go create something much better.

Now you have to figure out how to improve them. Can you add more up to date information? Maybe you can improve the visuals or add more points to it.

Step 3 – Promote your Skyscraper content.

Go to the web pages that link to the original content and ask for links to your parent content.

Here’s a template you can use:

I read your post about [TOPIC] and noticed that you have a link to this page: [INSERT LINK]

I just wanted to let you know that I just published an updated, more detailed version of this page.

Here it is: [INSERT LINK TO Skyscraper)

Could be a nice addition to the site, or?

The Skyscraper technique sounds simple enough, but in practice it can be tricky. Here are some resources that can help you:

From Ahrefs from HubSpot from Single Grain

To be fair, though SkyScraper technique a pretty common approach today Among websites is that market well. This means it has a weaker impact today than it did a few years ago.

Still, it might prove helpful to get some traffic to your blog.

12. Create an expert roundup post

Expert roundup posts are blog posts that collect quotes from experts and then use them in the article.

Here’s an example from Databox about the best free SEO tools according to experts:

Example of an expert roundup post from Databox

Roundups are great for getting links and shares from the people who included them.

This type of content generates traffic because:

They are populated with subject matter experts who are likely to share your content with their audience.
It follows the structure of listicles, which we know work well.
They attract a lot of visitors and newbies because they collect quotes and tips from well-known professionals.

Email Marketing

If you’re doing something online, you need an email address. Regardless of the size of your business or website, being able to send emails to your audience is crucial.

Email statistics from Oberlo

With so many people reachable through their inbox, email is one of the best ways to get traffic to a website because:

Your email list is already interested in your website.
Traffic is almost guaranteed because you’re talking directly to your target audience.
The emails will drive targeted traffic to the pages you select.

13. Increase website traffic with email marketing

Email marketing is a fairly inexpensive, but effective way to reach your target audience.

Aside from following email marketing best practices, here are some essential steps to take to increase traffic with email marketing:

Build a subscriber list as quickly as possible.
Choose the right email marketing software.
Get your emails to the point.
Write eye-catching subject lines.
Add social share buttons to your emails.
Add a CTA (call to action).
Don’t send too many emails.
Make sure your email template works on mobile and doesn’t get flagged as spam.

14. Get more subscribers with content upgrades

Content upgrades (or lead magnets) are resources you give away in exchange for an email address. Here’s a list of some of the best WordPress lead generation plugins you should check out.

If you get the right upgrade, your audience will happily sign up for your email list to receive the free content.

However, you need to understand your audience and what they would like to see. Perfect Keto does a great job of this:

Example of how Perfect Keto updates content

Some examples of content upgrades you can use are:

Checklists.
Cheat Sheet.
Quick guides.
E-books.
Templates.
Free courses.

15. Create an email welcome series

A welcome email series is a sequence of emails that is automatically sent to your subscribers when they first sign up to your list.

Just remember: it’s your chance to make a good first impression. This can significantly increase both traffic to your website and the number of subscribers you have.

Drift does a great job with this email, which gets right to the point and makes new subscribers aware of popular content:

Welcome email example from Drift (image source: hubspot.com)

16. Add a way to capture emails on your website

To leverage the power of email for traffic, you need a way to collect email addresses through your website.

You can use a sidebar or a content-based submission form like this one:

Example of Kinsta’s email signup form

The key aspect here is to give people a compelling reason to submit.

Promotion

So you’ve written great content, now what?

It’s time to promote them.

Here are some methods to try:

17. Submit your content to aggregator sites

A content aggregator is a website that doesn’t create its own content. Instead, they collect content from other websites and "aggregate" it in one place.

Users generally like aggregators because it allows them to find a variety of content in one place. On the other hand, publishers get their content to the people who want to see it.

Here are some ideas of content aggregators you can submit:

18. Write some guest articles

A guest post is when you write a blog post for someone other than your own website. In return, you’ll get a link back to your website.

This sends traffic to your website, gets you a backlink, and helps increase your brand awareness.

One of the biggest challenges of guest blogging is finding suitable websites that are willing to accept and publish your guest posts.

Luckily, with a quick Google search (+ a few search operators), you can find tons of guest post opportunities that are relevant to your niche:

Find guest post opportunities relevant to your topic on Google

Here’s a list of operators you can try (just remember to use the KEYWORD for a term relevant to your site’s niche):

KEYWORD intitle: "Write for us."
KEYWORD intitle: "write for me"
KEYWORD intitle: "contribute"
KEYWORD intitle: "submit" + inurl:blog
KEYWORD "submit guest post
KEYWORD inurl:/guestpost/
KEYWORD "guest post"
KEYWORD "guest post by"
KEYWORD "accept guest posts"
KEYWORD "Guest Post Guidelines"
KEYWORD "guest author"
KEYWORD "guest article"
KEYWORD "Guest column
KEYWORD "Become a contributor"

19. Promote your website with blogger outreach

Blogger Outreach is the process of finding relevant blogs and sending them a personalized email featuring your website, service, product, etc. is highlighted.

Step 1 – Find blogs you can reach out to

You could reach out to bloggers:

that you have already featured on your website.
Who have written content on the same topic.
Who have already linked to similar topics.
Who have tweeted related articles.

Step 2 – Find the right contact information

Before you can make contact, you’ll need to find the email address of the blogger you want to reach out to.

There are a few ways to do this, but one of the quickest is to use an email lookup tool like Hunter.io:

Find email addresses with Hunter

Step 3 – Write your outreach email

Now you need to write the email you want to send.

If you need help crafting your pitch, check out these email exchange templates from HubSpot.

Now all you have to do is click "send".

20. Invite others to guest blog on your site

Remember: guest posts are a two-way street.

Don’t think that you can only write content for other sites. Invite other people to write for your blog as well. Provided they write a quality and original article that is naturally interesting to your target audience.

Not only will this give the site new content, but the guest blogger will likely promote the article and drive more traffic to your site.

Everyone is a winner.

21. Write on Medium (+ other sites)

Medium is a user-generated site that prioritizes and suggests articles based on the reading habits of its users.

You should consider writing on Medium because:

It can bring constant traffic to your website.
It has a tightly-knit and engaged audience.

They even have a dashboard that shows how your articles are performing:

Article statistics/performance dashboard on Medium

There are also a few sites like Medium where you can write similarly:

Make sure you read our guide Medium vs. WordPress reads.

Communities

While we’re on the topic of promotion, sharing content in online communities can be a great way to get traffic back to your site, although it’s getting harder as more and more people do it and it’s not scalable. Nevertheless, it is always worth testing.

22. Promote content in relevant online communities.

Online communities are places where your target audience hangs out on the web and can include Facebook groups, Reddit, Slack channels and forums.

Finding relevant online communities is easy if you are already part of the niche.

If that’s not you, here are some helpful resources:

24. Post useful content on Reddit

Reddit is a large and active community. There is probably already a subreddit related to your website’s niche.

Using Reddit can bring a lot of traffic to your site if you do it right and don’t get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of discussion going on at once.

In fact, you can use a tool like TrackReddit to track Reddit discussions:

Follow Reddit discussions that are relevant to your website.

However, it can be difficult to promote things on Reddit. And users don’t follow up if they don’t like what you’re doing.

Here are some best practices for posting on Reddit:

Be a member first.
Give more than you take.
Post original content and engage in a genuine way.
Don’t use a fake account.

25. Joining Facebook Groups (+ sharing your content)

You should join some Facebook groups related to your niche and share your content within those groups.

Again, you should first check out the Specific rules for promotion Note within this group.

Facebook groups cover a wide range of niches where your target audience can hang out. For us, groups based on WordPress support, like WordPress Freelancers or WordPress Speed Up, are likely members interested in our content.

You can actually search for groups to find discussions related to your content:

Digital Marketing Questions is a popular Facebook group

Search for discussions that relate to the position you are trying to promote, and then join in. Try to share it in a way that helps the group.

As with any promotion to the online community, make sure the promotion is helpful and not considered spam.

26. Answer questions on Quora

Quora can be great for getting traffic to your website.

If you don’t have an account yet, you’ll need to create one first. Once you have a Quora account, you need to find the right questions to answer.

This is easy, you just type in a keyword and Quora will suggest you related topics:

Quickly find niche relevant questions to answer on Quora

Select your topics and you can see the latest questions on that topic.

Just click "reply" to add your questions. Try to answer the questions fully, and provide a link to any relevant content on your website if appropriate.

If you want to get the most out of Quora, complete your profile, choose questions that are relevant to your audience, and add links where it makes sense. You should also check out our Quora marketing tips to increase your reach.

By the way, you can also try these other Q&A sites and follow the same principles:

27. Contribute to product search

Product Hunt is a community that curates the best new mobile apps, websites and technology products every day.

Product Hunt’s homepage can drive traffic back to your site.

Getting traffic from Product Hunt can be an art, so here are some tips:

Answer questions on the threads as soon as possible.
Twitter users to upvote with you and thank them.
Let your social media followers and email list know about the Product Hunt launch.
Make sure you have Google Analytics set up on your WordPress site to track your results.
Check your work when sharing images on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Don’t ask for upvotes, just share the URL of your PH post and let the users decide.

For a more detailed overview, check out this guide.

28. Bring traffic from forums to your website

Forums have been around since the early days of the internet. Since then, people have been using them to get traffic to their websites.

Niche forums may be ugly, but they can drive good (and relevant) traffic to your website

Even though certain forums can look dated, if they have an engaged audience, they can be a great source of relevant traffic.

Here are some tips for promoting your website in forums

Choose the right forum for your niche.
Choose your username carefully.
Put a link in your signature.
Design your profile carefully.
Do not produce spam.
Offer high quality content.
Start new topics.
Post often.

If you can’t find the right forum, you can always..

29. Create your own forum

If you can’t find a good forum for your industry, you might consider setting one up yourself. In fact, WordPress forum plugins can be used to set up a forum relatively quickly.

WordPress Forum

If you go this route, you need to make sure that your users are producing quality content, that you have moderators, and that your forum has a good UX.

If you do this right, it could bring steady traffic to your website.

All the keyword research (more on that later) and content in the world won’t save your site if you’ve ignored SEO.

SEO is one of the best ways to get constant traffic to your website. As long as you rank high on Google, you can drive organic traffic to your website.

This sounds great, but nothing in life is free or without a little work.

To benefit from SEO, you need to write about topics that people are searching for on Google (which we covered in the previous section). However, to take full advantage of it, the website must also be optimized for search engines.

Here are some things you can do right now to use SEO to drive traffic to your website:

30. Pay attention to the SEO health of your website

SEO is pretty simple. Most of the benefits of following best practices to ensure your site is healthy and providing everything Google expects.

Setting these things up can have a big impact on traffic to your website.

Here are the SEO basics you need:

An SEO-friendly CMS like WordPress.
A responsive design and good mobile usability.
A valid SSL certificate.
A fast and reliable web host.
Links from relevant pages.
Content that people actually want to read.

Of course, SEO can include other elements, such as.B. the technical health of the website (we’ll get into this later), but this should be the foundation.

31. Create backlinks to your website

Links from authorities and relevant websites are like votes of confidence for your website.

A simple overview of how backlinks help your website’s SEO (image source: backlinko.com)

The type of links to build will vary by niche. Here are some useful resources for building links:

from Ahrefs from Loganix from Mangools

32. Get content in featured snippets

Since its inception, Google has added more information to search results to improve the experience for users.

One of these features are Highlighted snippets:

Example of a snippet

Featured snippets are content fields that appear directly below the search box on Google. They are meant to give users a quick answer to their search query (without even having to click through to the actual web page to get the answer).

Snippets can be a great way to get traffic to your website, especially if you already have some existing ranking content.

The increase in CTR for ranking in the featured snippet is well worth the time

We’ve covered how to get highlighted snippets before, but if you need a quick overview, here’s a quick summary of how to optimize them:

Target keywords.
Pay attention to the type of snippet (paragraph, list, table, etc.).).
Keep paragraphs and sentences short.
Answer the question directly.
Structure your content logically with subheadings.
Use tables to show this.
Include the question in the answer.
Add a summary at the beginning or end of the content.

33. Use analytics data to find underperforming pages (&) vice versa)

If you are familiar with Google Analytics, open the dashboard.

Go to Behavior> Website Content> Landing Pages and then click on the Sessions column to rank from low to high.

You get something like this:

Find underperforming pages (for improvement) in Google Analytics

Now you can see the pages with the least traffic.

From here, you can see if you’re missing anything that your best performing pages have. Try to improve those underperforming pages so that every page on your site brings in traffic. Another tool to gather insightful data would be Google Search Console, specifically the Performance tab.

Of course, you can also do the opposite:

Filter Analytics and Search Console to show the top performing pages and see if you can make them even better.

While you’re in Google Analytics, you should…

34. Optimize the best traffic sources

Go to Capture> in Analytics Total traffic> Source/Medium.

Now you see where the traffic is coming from:

Find the most important traffic sources in Google Analytics

In case you’re unsure:

The Source is where users are before they see the content, as a search engine or other website.

The Medium Describes how users got to the content.

From here, you can ask a few questions about your traffic sources:

The highest Traffic volume feature.
the highest Traffic show the converts.
The highest active traffic Have.

From there, try to figure out why those sources are effective. Then try to replicate them.

And it’s not just traffic sources you should be thinking about…

35. Steal the traffic sources of your competitors

Sometimes the best way to get more traffic is to see what’s already working… and then do that.

One of the fastest ways to do this is to "steal" your competitors’ traffic. If you feel bad about stealing from your competitors, let’s just call it reverse engineering instead.

Now you need to use an SEO tool for this.

Here are two quick ways to spy on your competition:

Traffic method #1 of competitors – SimilarWeb

Go to SimilarWeb and paste your competitor’s URL into the search box.

Scroll down to the referral sections to see exactly where they get their traffic from:

Spying on competitors’ traffic with SimilarWeb

Competitor traffic method #2 – Ahrefs

Go to the Ahrefs backlink checker. Enter your competitor’s domain and click on Check Backlinks.

Now you can see the top 100 backlinks and the estimated traffic they are passing to your competitor:

Spying on your competitors’ traffic with Ahrefs

Armed with the knowledge of what works for the competition, you can go out and try to replicate it.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is about finding relevant phrases (keywords) that your target audience is searching for.

Once you have a list of keywords, you should include them in pages with the intention that those pages appear in search engines.

There are many ways to generate keywords, using both free and premium tools.

Let’s get started:

36. Target topics with traffic potential

SEO is one of the best ways to drive consistent traffic to your blog (more on that later in this article).

But to get Google to drive traffic to your blog, you need to find the right keywords. In other words Keywords with traffic potential target.

Finally, you want your traffic to look like this:

The kind of graph all website owners want to see: organic traffic increases

The metrics to keep in mind when doing keyword research are

Search and global volume: How many people are searching for the keyword each month
Keyword difficulty: how difficult it will be to rank well for keywords.

Ahrefs Keyword Explorer (Paid)
SEMrush (Paid)
KWFinder (fee required)
UberSuggest (Free)
Google Keyword Planner (Free)
Keyword Sheeter (Free)

Oh, and don’t forget:

37. Target long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are phrases with more than 3 words that are very specific to what you’re selling or the information you’re providing on your blog.

Here’s an example:

Long-tail keywords = more conversions (image source: semrush.com)

Note that the conversion rate increases when the keyword becomes longer and more specific.

This is one of the benefits of long-tail keywords, along with the fact that they are often easier to rank for (because they have less competition).

So how do you find long tail keywords?

Well, it’s pretty easy to do this without leaving Google.

Here are 3 quick methods to find long-tail keywords:

Method #1 – Autocomplete

First automatic Complete. Just start typing in your most important keyword or topic and let Google generate suggestions based on what other people have searched for:

Using Google autocomplete for keyword research

Method #2 – People Also Ask

If you scroll down a bit on the results page, you’ll see the next method of long tail keyword research: the "Similar Search Queries" box:

Using Google’s "people also searched for it" feature for keyword research

Method #3 – Related search query

And finally, at the bottom of the page you’ll find the relevant search suggestions:

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Using Google’s search suggestions for keyword research

Boom: These are three ways to do keyword research with great reach using only Google.

38. Research keywords based on a questionnaire

As we mentioned earlier, you really want to write about things that people are interested in.

Two great tools that find these question-based keywords are "Answer the Public" and "QuestionDB".

Just type in your keyword and you’ll get a wealth of question ideas.

Here are the results for the keyword ‘credit card’ on Answer the Public:

Use AnswerThePublic to generate lots (and lots) of question-based keywords

And here are the results for QuestionDB:

Use QuestionDB to get lots of question keywords that people are asking

As you can see, you can generate many potential questions from just one keyword, which you can work into articles (asked by people in your niche).

39. Identify keyword gaps

This is just a fancy way of saying that you should search for Keywords that you don’t rank for, get a high number of monthly search queries.

And then – you guessed it – try to rank with them.

The fastest way to find keyword gaps is with this free content gap finder or with Ahrefs.

If you decide to go with the latter, you’ll find a quick overview here:

Launch the Ahrefs Content Gap tool and enter the domains you want to compare:

Use the Ahrefs content gap tool to find keywords

Click on ‘Show keywords’ and you will see possible gaps in the keywords:

Keyword gaps in Ahrefs

If you do that for your website and some of your competitors, you can see all the keywords you’re ranking for, but you don’t see them.

Based on your competitors, you can prioritize the gaps in keywords you want to search for and rank for.

40. Optimize your content with LSI (or semantic) keywords.

LSI, which stands for "latent semantic indexing" (also sometimes called semantic keywords), are words/phrases that are related to your main keywords.

Since Google Hummingbird, the search engine has put more emphasis on fully understanding a topic. LSI keywords are a great way to help search engine crawlers.

You can use a tool like the LSI chart to find them. Just type in your main keyword and you’ll get a list of terms related to your topic:

Examples of LSI /semantic keywords with LSI graph

Try adding these to your articles and pages.

To be honest, if you write good content, you’re going to include semantic keywords anyway, but it’s worth keeping this in mind.

41. Prevent and remove keyword cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization is when two or more pages on your site compete against each other by trying to rank for the same term.

It’s actually quite common, especially on large websites with many pages. Here’s a pretty detailed article from Moz about it.

The lesson to learn here is: you want to avoid cannibalizing keywords, as they can confuse Google (it won’t know which page it should rank). Having two similar pages competing against each other is not helpful in driving traffic.

It can also:

Reduce the authority of your page.
Streamline any links you have to the page(s).
Influence your conversion rate.

Often it is better to combine these into one post. You can use this free spreadsheet to find cannibalization of keywords and a quick "site:yourdomain.Perform com ‘keyword’ query to identify potential issues.

42. Find easy-win keyword opportunities

Here’s a quick traffic gain you can make with an existing website:

Find pages that perform relatively well, then improve them to optimize them.

Let me explain:

Pages/keywords ranking at the top of page 2 or bottom of page 1 are ideal opportunities. These may just need a few tweaks to move them up in the rankings and send more traffic to your site.

There are a few ways you can improve those easy to gain keyword pages:

Keyword research to better target the main term + related terms. .
Add more content.
Refer to internal links on the page.
Building some backlinks to the site.

To find these pages, you can use the built-in keyword filtering of SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush again, use some free SEO spreadsheets for SEO tasks, or go through the performance report in Google Search Console.

Technical improvements

Another aspect of SEO that determines how much traffic your website gets is technical health.

In order for search engine bots to find, crawl and index the website, some technical elements need to be checked off.

Let’s review:

43. Follow technical SEO best practices

Technical SEO is the process of optimizing the website for Google’s crawlers.

It’s an important step in getting visitors to your website. If Google can’t find, crawl and index your site, you won’t rank. No ranking = no organic search traffic.

It’s called "technical" SEO because it’s less about the content of your website and more about the infrastructure.

Technical SEO can be a big issue. But to determine best practices, here are the things you want to do:

Specify a preferred domain (www or no www?) .
Optimize the URL structure of your web pages.
Have a logical page structure and website navigation.
Use breadcrumbs to improve UX. .
Set up canonicals.
Set up and optimize your 404 pages. . . .
Make sure your website is mobile friendly.

This list is by no means complete. But if you checked off everything above, you’re on the right track to a healthy website.

44. Register the site with search engines

You want your website to show up correctly on Google and Bing?

Then you need to submit your site to the search engines.

This process is actually very quick. Most of the work is done for you, but it’s worth doing as you have control over future indexing.

Search engines don’t technically require you to submit your site. But there are many scenarios in which it makes a lot of sense to. Think about it:

New website with little to no backlinks.
Outdated pages with new content and structure. .
Much of the updated content is now available.

Submitting your site manually to Google and other search engines should reduce the time it takes for proper re-indexing, thus gaining organic traffic that comes regularly.

45. Improving SERP click-through rates (with GSC data)

Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of searchers who click through from Google search results to your website.

And here’s the great thing:

By improving your CTR, you can effectively increase traffic.

To see your CTR, go to Search Console> Performance, now make sure Average CTR is selected and choose queries. From here, you can see your best and worst queries in terms of CTR:

CTR performance report in Google Search Console

There are a few ways you can improve your organic CTR:

Improving your page titles. . . .

46. Fix lost ‘link juice’ on 404 pages

Deleting a linked page, adding the wrong URL to a page, or changing a URL incorrectly creates a broken link. These are bad for the UX.

Nobody wants to buy Lego and be greeted with that 404 page:

An example of a 404 page on the Lego website

Okay, maybe they kind of do, because this is a good 404 page.

So how do broken links affect SEO?

If a search engine crawls your site and finds broken links, it can prevent the spiders from crawling your site. This can prevent it from being indexed.

In other words: When searchers (and/or web crawlers) browse your site and click on the link, they may be directed to a page with a 404 error.

I don’t know about you, but when this happens, I either get a little annoyed with the website in question or I just leave it.

47. Boost authority with internal links

Interlinks are links that point from one page on your website to another page on the same website.

You’ll have seen it countless times before:

An example of internal linking

Interlinks (or internal links) usually occur naturally when you reference previous content or related pages in your content.

Adding internal links can:

Help visitors (and search engines) navigate your website.
Help build an information structure.
Spread link juice or authority on your website.

48. Make sure your website is responsive.

Almost everyone has a smartphone. And almost everyone surfs websites on their cell phones.

There were 4070 million unique mobile internet users in 2019!

Statistics about mobile internet users

That’s a lot of potential mobile visitors to your website. Google has recognized this with the introduction of "mobile first" indexing.

If you don’t have a responsive website, here are the reasons why you should:

It improved website usability for visitors.
It will load faster.
Reduce the bounce rate.
It can increase shares.

49. Improve SERP appearance with schema

Also known as structured data, schema is markup that is easily read by search engines.

It makes it easier for search engine crawlers to find and index the page. Since it gives search engine bots more information about your website, your site can get rich page snippets (which can improve your CTR).

If you post reviews on your website, you can get rich snippets like the one below:

An example of displaying a scheme (review stars) in Google

50. Make sure your website is fast.

We’ve already touched on this a bit, but how fast your website loads impacts your SEO.

Page speed is a direct ranking factor and can also indirectly affect rankings through increased bounce rate.

Mobile page speed benchmarks (image source: codemeright.com)

Page speed is important to users. Think about it: When a web page loads slowly for you, what do you do? Wait for it to load, or go somewhere else?

Probably leaving them.

Faster loads are more efficient to keep people on your website. And Google knows it too. That’s why they announced back in 2010 that page speed is considered a ranking factor for SEO.

Google’s John Mueller says to make sure your web pages are relevant to users in fewer Than 2-3 seconds to load:

John Mueller’s (from Google) advice for getting pages to load quickly

When it comes to speeding up your website, there are a few things you can do to boost performance, such as z.B. Compress images, use a lightweight WordPress theme and have a good hosting setup that can perform at high levels.

If you’re looking to get up to speed on your page, we have a ton of resources to browse:

Social Media

If you want traffic, go to the places where your audience hangs out and shares content. Social media can help you build brand awareness and a community.

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And it’s not just about sharing memes and cat videos: 43% of adults in the U.S. get their news on Facebook:

Social Media Stats

Here are some ways you can use social media to drive traffic to your website:

51. Be active on social media

This sounds like an obvious step, but you actually have to set up elaborate accounts if you want them to bring traffic.

The rule of thirds (image source: Orbitmedia.com)

Here are the essentials to fill out regardless of the platform you choose:

Complete your profile (don’t forget to link to your website) and your business pages (Facebook and LinkedIn).
Promote your blog content.
Be sure to share interesting content (note the rule of thirds).
Publish when your target audience is online.
Talk to your target audience.

Which platform to be active on depends on your target audience.

The best social media platform is the platform your target audience is on.

52. Post on social media at times that make strategic sense

This will depend heavily on your audience and the platform you are on.

There are many studies on when to post on social media like this one from Hootsuite or this one from Sprout Social.

According to Post Planner, here are the Best times to post on social media:

Social network	The best day	Best time
Facebook	Thursdays	8pm
Twitter	Thursday	5pm
Linkedin	Wednesday	9am
Instagram	Friday	7pm
Pinterest	Friday	1am

53. Add social share buttons to your website

Oh, and don’t forget to make it easy for people to share your content on social media.

(Pssst, if you’re reading this on desktop, just look to your left).

An example of social share buttons we use on all blog posts at Kinsta

These improve your online presence as users find pages and posts they like and then share them on social media sites.

The easiest way to do this is to set up a WordPress social media plugin on your website.

54. Use a social media calendar

Wouldn’t it be great to get more clicks on social media?

Well, the answer might lie in using a social media calendar.

These types of calendars help with understanding:

Why your audience is sharing (or not sharing) your content.
What types of content people prefer.

In addition, it prevents you from sharing the same things too often and allows you to schedule sharing of content that is known to work.

It doesn’t take long to set up your calendar, a spreadsheet will do the trick:

An example of a content calendar you can use to promote blog posts

This simple addition to your social media strategy can help you improve shares and drive traffic back to your site.

Go to the Post Planner blog and get a free social media calendar template.

55. Research the social strategy of your competitors

A great tactic to improve traffic on social media is to spy on your competitors. Look at what they’re doing that’s working, and then try to replicate it.

Here are a few tools to analyze Competitors on social media that you can use:

Want a super quick plan for social competitive analysis?

Step 1 – Find your competitors’ social media strategy

Use a tool like Sprout Social to see what your competitors are doing:

Competitor analysis with Social Sprout

Then think about things like:

What keywords do they use?
Who they follow?
What social networks they are active on?
How big is their target audience?
How often they post?

Step 2 – Analyze their profiles and content

Take a look at each of your social profiles. What do they do well, and what do they not do well?

Search for things like:

Put up relevant and up-to-date content?
Do they have good or bad customer service?
Are there spelling errors?
What kind of images do they use?
Use unique angles to promote yourself?

Step 3 – Monitor all changes

Social media is a never-ending stream of content. So monitor what your competitors are doing (some of the tools above can help with this).

Find out how you can use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website, and how you can use Facebook and Twitter for marketing.

With this information, hopefully you can identify gaps where you can do something effective on social media to drive traffic to your website.

56. Put social media on autopilot

Social media can be a great way to promote content to your target audience.

The only problem is that it can take hours, especially if you post a lot of content.

Take for example the distribution of new blog posts. You need to add the title, an image for social sharing and a link to the new post to each of your social accounts. And for each post.

If you remember to update all your social feeds when you publish a new blog post, it can be a waste of time.

Not if you use this Zapier Zap to automatically tweet your new WordPress posts:

Use Zapier to automatically publish new blog posts

This is just scratching the surface of what you can do. Go to Zapier and check out over 100 different ways to automate social media.

57. Use Buffer to schedule and publish social posts.

On the topic of automation, you can use a tool like Buffer to schedule your posts in advance and automatically put them in on your channels:

Use Buffer to schedule and publish social posts

In addition to publishing your content, Buffer can also suggest the best time to publish it. Beautiful, isn’t it?

58. Use Quuu Promote

Quuu Promote is a paid tool that can drive traffic by automatically showing your content to the right audience.

Quuu Promote can help you generate lots of social shares

So how does Quuu Promote work for you?

You create a social media post (with a link to your content).
Quuu presents this to people in your niche who have signed up to receive suggestions from Quuu.
Some of these people may share it on their social profiles.
You get more traffic.

Twitter

Many people use Twitter, in fact logging on daily about 46% of Twitter users into the platform:

Daily social media usage stats (HubSpot.com)

If you don’t promote your blog on Twitter, how are you supposed to know about your content? Driving traffic to your blog can be almost as important as the writing itself.

If you use Twitter effectively, it can drive tons of traffic to your website. But it won’t work if you just tweet the title of the blog post every now and then with a link back to the website.

You need to do better than this.

Here are some ways to increase your website traffic with Twitter:

59. Increase traffic with these Twitter marketing tips

Before you can even start, you have to choose the right Twitter status, profile photo and header image. For Twitter to be an effective method of generating traffic, you need to be proactive.

Did you know that the average lifespan of a tweet is only 18 minutes?

Average lifespan of a tweet (image source: Moz.com)

And with over 7.000 new tweets sent every second, you need a plan to get a meaningful response from a tweet.

Here are some Twitter marketing tips to try:

Use short attention-grabbing tweets.
Add a quote from the post you’re promoting.
Add statistics.
Use #hashtags& @mentions.
Retweet any content mentioned.
Request for a retweet.
Use images.
Try to ask a question (related to the topic).

Don’t forget, you can also harness the power of Twitter advertising…

60. Drive traffic with promoted tweets

Promoted Tweets (aka Sponsored Tweets) are standard tweets, except they are paid for by advertisers trying to increase their Twitter reach and/or engagement.

They are pretty easy to spot because they have a "promotions" label underneath them:

An example of a promoted tweet

Promoted tweets increase reach and drive traffic to your website and post click landing pages, which in turn increases lead generation and sales. For more detailed tips on using Twitter to drive traffic, check out our guide.

Here Facebook you can start running Twitter ads.

Facebook

Facebook has monthly 2.41 billion active users:

Monthly active users on Facebook (Image source: HubSpot.com)

It continues to be the top dog among social media sites.

Used correctly, this power can be harnessed into a powerful marketing tool for your business or website.

Let’s dive in:

61. You can increase traffic with these Facebook marketing tips.

It’s important to drive Facebook traffic back to your website, and FB traffic is a great way to target your ideal audience.

If you haven’t already, create a Facebook page for your website and then follow these Facebook marketing tips to generate more traffic:

Use images in all posts.
Keep updates short and to the point.
Ask your fans short questions.
Use a quote from blog articles when sharing content.
Curate content from other websites in your niche.

There are also Facebook ads…

62. Use Facebook ads

You’re probably pretty familiar with Facebook ads:

Example of a Facebook ad

When used correctly, Facebook ads can be an effective (and inexpensive) way to send traffic to blog posts.

But if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can end up doing the opposite: expensive and ineffective.

You want to use targeted Facebook ads to drive traffic from Facebook back to your website, so make sure you’re targeting the right (and interested) audiences.

If you’re confused, consider using a Facebook advertising tool.

63. Retarget visitors with Facebook ads

Don’t forget that you can also use Facebook retargeting ads.

Ad retargeting is the process of targeting ads to users who were previously on your website or social media platform but did not convert.

You need to have your Facebook Pixel installed and tracking your website visitors and website events.

Instagram

Instagram is one of the fastest growing social platforms and can be a great way to generate traffic.

Instagram growth (Image source: Stargage.com)

But to make the most of it, you need to consider a few factors:

Your name& Username – these are the only factors Instagram takes into account for search queries.
Your bio description& Your profile picture – these should appeal to your audience.
Your website URL in the bio – this is the only place on Instagram where you can link to your website.
Visibility of your profile – You should make sure that your profile is set to "Public", not "Private".

64. Increase traffic with these Instagram marketing tips

It sounds obvious, but uploading good images and videos that are relevant to your target audience are key to success on Instagram.

Think about it: If your audience is B2B, is this content useful then?

A popular Instagram meme page

In addition to posting relevant content and steadily and constantly increasing your followers, here are some Instagram marketing tips:

Follow profiles related to your niche.
Find and use relevant hashtags.
If you can, try to get promoted by other people.
Share posts regularly with others.
Publish exclusive, Instagram-only content.
Be active and connect with your followers.

65. Run Instagram ads

Like Facebook ads, Instagram ads can be a great way to get in front of your target audience.

An example of an Instagram ad

Instagram ads can be set up through Facebook’s advertising platform. You can run different types of ads, including photo, video, carousel, slideshow, and story ads.

First, you need to establish a connection between your Instagram and Facebook accounts:

Instagram/Facebook Ads Dashboard

Quite simply, here’s how to get started advertising on Instagram:

Go to Facebook’s Ads Manager.
Set your goal.
Determine your target audience.
Choose your ad placements.
Set your budget and schedule.
Create Instagram ads.

YouTube

Did you know that YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google?

YouTube search works just like Google

When used properly, YouTube can be an amazing source of traffic. People watch 1 billion hours of YouTube per day, so even a small percentage of those views can be a game changer.

66. Increase traffic with these YouTube marketing tips

With so many videos uploaded to YouTube every day, your content can easily get lost.

Luckily, there are some simple steps you can take to generate organic traffic to and from your videos.

Here are some proven tips on how you can get traffic from YouTube:

A reason to visit your website, like a free PDF, eBook, course, or exclusive content.
Add a link to your website in the header of your channel.
Use cards to make it easier to navigate views.
Include a link to your website in your video descriptions.
Use a clear CTA on videos.

67. Don’t forget YouTube SEO (to rank your videos)

One of the best ways to get more video views is with YouTube SEO.

In a nutshell:

YouTube SEO is the process of optimizing your channel (including video playlists, metadata, descriptions, and actual videos) so your channel appears to the right people.

You can actually optimize your videos for search results within YouTube and Google.

68. YouTube ads

Since much of your potential audience is already on YouTube, it makes sense to target them with ads.

An example of a YouTube ad

To get the most out of YouTube ads, here’s what you need to do:

Appeal to your target audience.
Choose the right display format.
Create engaging ads.

For more information, check out this guide to YouTube promotion from HubSpot.

Did you know that each pin on Pinterest can generate 2 page visits and 6 page views?

Pinterest is a great platform for generating traffic to your blog.

Pins are not only for longevity (pins are shared over time), but Pinterest is also actively shared.

Let’s take a closer look:

69. Drive traffic with these Pinterest marketing tips

Sign up for a business account (and get access to Pinterest Analytics).
Make sure each pin description is detailed, helpful, and actionable.
Plug them in at the right time.
Create images that are appropriate for a pin (that are the right size and contain text).
Join relevant Pinterest group boards.

70. Use Pinterest Ads

Pinterest ads are useful for getting your content in front of more people when they visit and browse Pinterest.

An example of Pinterest ads

Set up a business account on Pinterest.
Install the Pinterest Tag.
Choose a target for your campaign.
Set a campaign budget.
Create an ad group.
Choose your target audience.
Choose a placement.
Add interests + keywords.
Set a budget + schedule.
Choose your promo pins.

And like all paid advertising campaigns: monitor and optimize accordingly. For even more information, check out this Pinterest Ads Guide from Hootsuite.

With over 600 million users, LinkedIn is the social network for B2B.

LinkedIn is where people turn when they want to connect with people in their industry, learn about their industry, and share related content. If you want to drive traffic to your B2B blog or website, this is your platform.

90% of social traffic is driven to B2B sites through LinkedIn (image source: Sumo.com)

71. Generate traffic with these LinkedIn marketing tips

LinkedIn can be a great traffic source if you use it right.

Here are the key requirements to start getting traffic from LinkedIn today:

Create and optimize your personal profile.
Join groups (or start your own). .
Share useful content on a regular basis.
Don’t share too much.

72. Republic article on LinkedIn

Don’t forget that you can use the LinkedIn publishing platform to reach a large audience.

Publishing articles on LinkedIn is a great way to get traffic to your website and reach a new audience.

To get started, simply click on ‘Write an Article’ on the LinkedIn homepage:

The "write an article" feature in LinkedIn

Before you publish your article, there are two things you should make sure you include:

A short bio – add this to the end of your post to direct people to your homepage or blog.
A CTA – to point people to a particular piece of information on your website that you think might help people.

73. LinkedIn Ads

Also, through LinkedIn ads, your audience can be targeted with sponsored content, – or text ads.

An example of a LinkedIn ad

LinkedIn is obviously best for targeting a professional audience. So if your website is not aimed at this target audience, you might be better off saving your money.

This guide from Hootsuite provides a good overview of LinkedIn ads.

Other marketing methods

Sometimes marketing methods don’t fit neatly into one category. Here are all the traffic-building tactics left:

74. Use paid traffic

We’ve already touched on this with social ads, but paid traffic can be an effective way to promote your content. Plus, it’s highly scalable (assuming you have the budget).

Types of paid traffic you can send to a website (image source: charlesngo.com)

Here are some of the best paid traffic sources to consider:

Display ads.
Paid search ads (via Google AdWords or Bing Ads).
Paid content ads (like Outbrain or Taboola).
Sponsored content.

Depending on the ads you run, you can pay per click (PPC), per view (PPV) or per purchase/action (PPA).

75. Appear on niche-relevant podcasts

Monthly podcast listening statistics (image source: convinceandconvert.com)

Doing podcast interviews can be a great driver of traffic.

Not only do you get a relevant recommendation on the podcast, but you’re also in front of a new audience. And if you’re on a podcast with niche relevance, you may have gained new listeners yourself.

Do you want to niche down and appear on a lot of podcasts?

Here’s how to start your podcast campaign:

Step 1 – Find podcasts in your niche

Remember to stay on topic and find podcasts.

Check out places like Stitcher and Podbean. And don’t forget to just Google:

Your Niche + Podcast

Try to reach 50 podcasts.

Step 2 – Write a Pitch

You want them to invite you, so make your suggestion relevant.

If you haven’t done this yet, listen to a few episodes to get an idea of what you can bring to the table.

Step 3 – Contact the hosts

Most podcast hosts want you to connect with them.

Find your preferred contact format and send them your pitch.

Step 4 – Do the podcast (hopefully)

Do the podcast and try to share your content and information naturally through your website.

Step 5 – Share the podcast.

The last step is to share your podcast appearance.

Promote it on your email list, social channels, blog, etc.

It’s not just other people’s podcasts, but you can use your own as an additional traffic source.

76. Start a podcast

If you’re having trouble finding podcasts to appear on, or just have a burning desire to share content, why not create your own.

Choose a theme
Think of a name, a description of the show and an artistic work.
Set up your recording device and test it out.
Schedule your episodes.
Record your episodes.
Edit publish your episodes finally.

Hey, you just started a podcast.

77. Do interviews (with bloggers in your niche)

Interviews are not just for large publications.

Many people are willing to talk to you if you just ask them, even if you have a small audience.

It’s also pretty easy to get started:

Just send a few emails asking for an interview to people in your industry. Those who check in with you, post the interviews on their blog.

Not only will recognizable names improve your credibility and traffic, but you’ll likely get a wider reach if the interviewee shares them with their audience.

If you want inspiration, sites like Starter Story, IndieHackers have started producing this type of content based on interviews. Don’t forget our own Kingpin segment either!

Summary

Whew, if you made it this far, congrats. That was a long read.

If you take some of the tactics from this article and apply them to your website, you’ll be well on your way to increasing traffic.

Try one (or more) of the tactics and see what impact it has on your traffic. If this one doesn’t work for you: try another. When it works: double the number of visitors and make more.

What tactics have you tried? How to bring traffic to your website? Let us know in the comments below.

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