UPDATED January, 2019
Marketing trends may come and go each year, but the desire to boost web traffic will always be there. Whether you are a new site needing to spread the word about your business, or an established brand that is looking to scale your business, an increased amount of web traffic can help you accomplish your goals. Targeted traffic in particular can ensure your web visitors turn into paying customers. Here are 5 of the best ways to boost web traffic in 2019.
You already know the importance of social media, but you might not realize just how important it can be, especially for new websites or brands. A large portion of time that people spend online is dedicated to social media. For this reason alone, it is crucial that you develop a presence where you know your audience is going to be. Once users find you via social media, they can easily click over to your website to learn more about your brand or to make a purchase.
More specifically, a major trend for this year is social video. Last summer saw the launch of IGTV, which allowed for brands to post longer videos to their Instagram account. This is perfect for brands wanting to show off their products. Use for product releases, tutorials, and more. By seeing more of your product (and seeing it in action), your users are more likely to feel confident in heading to your website to purchase.
If you aren’t in ecommerce, you can still benefit from IGTV. Use this platform to post engaging video content that aligns with your brand. This could be more informal behind the scenes type videos, or created content that users really love like recipe videos (as seen above), DIY ideas, and more.
Finally, you should absolutely consider implementing web push notifications in order to boost your web traffic. Not only are these notifications easy to set up and send, they also give you numerous segmentation and automation opportunities. Because they deliver to both desktop and mobile devices, even if a user is not at your website, or even using a browser at all, they are a perfect tool for increasing your website traffic.
Focus on sending targeted, personalized notifications that will inspire your subscribers to click back to your website. Segment your audience based on their behavior at your website and craft campaigns that will interest them. When possible, also include personal details such as a subscriber’s first name. The more relevant the notification is, the higher the chance they will click back to your website.
By now you know that having a blog can help boost your web traffic. Not only does this give you additional content to post to social media, it also gives you the chance to rank on search engines for certain keywords (more on that next). A blog is a great way to present your audience with relevant content that will, hopefully, inspire existing users to purchase from your brand and help draw in new users to your website.
Be sure to incorporate quality visuals in order to boost the “shareability” of your content. When possible, create either infographics or videos, which are some of the most highly viewed and shared pieces of content on social media. The more shares your content gets, the higher your web traffic will go.
In terms of specific content to focus on this year, dedicate some time to creating quality evergreen content. When done correctly, evergreen content can result in a steady flow of website traffic to your site for a long period of time.
Evergreen content is content that will stay relevant to your audience for a long time without having to be updated. As you can see in the infographic above, the content should not be anything like current events or trends that will likely not be important in a few months (or even a few weeks) time.
Quality evergreen content is something that your audience will always find useful. From a technical perspective, it is also something that should contain a lot of internal links to other areas of your website (and other places at your site should also link back to it). This type of content performs well on search engines over time, which is exactly what you need in order to increase your website traffic.
When you think of boosting web traffic, keyword research and keyword advertising probably comes to mind- and with good reason. Quality content will fall flat if not properly optimized. This year, focus on optimizing your keywords, as well as your content, in order to see a solid boost in traffic to your website.
Long-tail keywords are important to include in your keyword mix because they are easier to rank for, and also result in higher conversion rates. These keywords are several words in length, making them far more specific than a broad single word search (for example, searching for “comfortable shoes for trail running” vs. searching for “sneakers”).
Searching for “sneakers” will result in far more search results, but searching for “comfortable shoes for trail running” will result in much more relevant search results. Long-tail keywords are much easier to rank for, as there is less competition, but results in more qualified users who are more likely to visit your website and actually make a purchase. And, better yet, the majority of searches that people perform involve long tail keywords, as you can see in the Search Demand Curve chart above. Keep in mind this is true for desktop as well as mobile users, which is important as selling on mobile continues to increase in popularity.
Long-tail keywords are only going to continue to be popular as the rise of voice search continues. Instead of searching for ‘wireless chargers’ people are instead asking Siri, Alexa, or Google ‘what is the best wireless charger compatible with iPhone’ (for example). By targeting these types of keywords and phrases you will see an increase in both search results rankings and website traffic.
How do you answer the question: “Why should I shop with you instead of someone else?” Whether or not your customers are directly asking you this question, they are certainly asking it in their head and weighing the pros and cons of your brand vs. others. A way to both answer this question and boost your web traffic is by offering your customers incentives.
Simply put, free stuff has excited people for years. It isn’t a new trend for 2019, but it is certainly still an effective one. By hosting various contests or giveaways you can accomplish several things: Increase web traffic, boost customer engagement and satisfaction, and ultimately, drive sales.
Take the above example. The contest gives users a chance to win a $250 shopping spree, certainly a great prize. In order to enter, however, the user has to go to the website (boosting traffic), create an account (which then allows the brand to target the users again via email, social media, etc.), and fill up their shopping cart (forcing them to check out all available products and pick their favorites). For a user, it is a fun chance to select some items they may get for free. For the brand, they are getting increased traffic, user accounts, and crucial information about what items users like.
No matter what type of contest you create, make sure it involves accomplishing your own sales goals. In this case for boosting web traffic, make sure part of the contest involves heading to your website! Check out this complete guide to hosting contests to make sure you are creating something that is beneficial to both you and your audience.
There you have it! When you start developing your own strategy to boost your traffic, keep in mind that you should be in search of relevant traffic that will actually result in conversions. By getting active on social media, producing quality content (and properly optimizing it), hosting some giveaways, and reaching out via web push, you’ll be well on your way to more site traffic and more conversions.
What other ways are you planning to boost your web traffic in 2019? Did we forget to mention anything? Let us know by sending us a message!
Looking to get started with web push notifications? Get started for free with Aimtell, or learn more about web push by reading our Beginner’s Guide.