So you’ve just launched a brand new website. How do you get people to visit your site? More specifically, how to increase organic traffic?
Driving an audience with an intent to purchase to your new site can be tricky if you don’t know which traffic channels to look towards.
There are several strategies you can implement to drive traffic to your site, including search engine marketing, content strategies, and social media. But which one makes sense for your website and goals?
When used effectively, these tactics can get the traffic you need to your new website.
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a strategy that can help you generate traffic in both the short and long term.
By implementing SEM strategies such as targeting long tail keywords, running paid search campaigns, and executing search engine optimization, you can drive a significant amount of high-intent traffic to your site.
Long Tail Keywords
Long tail keywords are longer, more specific keywords that customers use when looking for very specific information or are very close to the point of purchase.
These long tail keywords have lower competition, which increases your chances of ranking at the top of search engines.
If you wondered how to improve organic search by utilizing long tail keywords, you can specifically answer the audience’s questions that are asked during their deep intent searches.
This is a good opportunity to scratch your visitor’s itch by answering their specific questions, which will place your site and brand as a resource and ultimately an authority in the subject.
By answering specific questions, you are targeting visitors with high intent, which means these users are further down the funnel.
Paid Search
Paid search is a search engine marketing channel that allows you to appear at the top of the search engines for your most valuable keywords.
This traffic channel can drive high-intent traffic to your site quickly and is very effective for determining which keywords lead to sales, form inquiries, or any other desired action.
When using paid search, you need to implement eye-catching headlines and persuasive ad descriptions to capture people’s attention. Overall, paid search is a great strategy to drive lots of traffic to your site.
Search Engine Optimization
When researching how to increase organic traffic, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a long-term approach to driving high-intent traffic to your new website.
SEO tends to be more effective than paid search (if you’re ranking for the right keywords) because it is a long-term strategy that brings in traffic with a higher quality of intent to your site.
Depending on the keyword your page is ranking for, SEO can provide a higher quality user compared to paid search at times.
Although there are several variables that can influence this such as your industry or even the buyer’s persona.
In order to see conversions from organic search traffic, you want to ensure your website is well designed to convert visitors.
To optimize the user experience of your website, use A/B testing to find out what works well and leads to more conversions.
Another way to increase your organic search traffic is through link-building efforts. This involves getting your website link on a variety of websites with a high domain authority.
Google’s algorithm loves websites that are linked by higher authority websites, so be sure to spend some time on a link-building campaign to set yourself above your competition.
Link-building is never an easy task. Getting linked by high authority websites is a challenging task and requires time, effort, and a never-give-up attitude, but this is how you increase organic traffic.
One of the best ways to get backlinks is through blog/guest posting, in which you can write an article on someone else’s website and get a link pointing back to your website in return.
It’s a win-win for both sides because that person gets free content and you get a free link back to your site.
There are plenty of other strategies that involve more in-depth processes and heaps of outreach, so make sure you do your research and figure out a method that works for you.
Before you begin optimizing your website, be sure to check out this list of SEO mistakes to avoid, check out our post on the most common SEO mistakes.
SEO mistakes are easy to make and can be costly, so you’re going to want to be well versed here.
Recap
In summary, search engine marketing is a great strategy to drive traffic to your new website. Start by finding niche keywords to target for search engine results.
You can then incorporate paid search campaigns to get a boost of visitors.
Through testing, you can optimize your website to capture high intent traffic and get them to convert.
Each of these SEM tactics can help generate traffic to your website, but when used together they can be even more powerful tools in growing your new webpage.
Make sure to check out this video on how to increase organic traffic by Ahrefs:
Build Your Audience
When deciding how to increase organic traffic, producing fresh, new content on a regular basis is the best way to keep your audience engaged.
Putting out new content can help retain your website users and keep them coming back for more.
Users don’t come back to your website just because it’s designed well. There must be something of value that you are delivering to your end-user.
Website visitors also aren’t going to know when you post new content unless you tell them.
Email lists can help you with notifying your users who have subscribed to your newsletter when new content has been published.
Content is King
A fantastic way to build your audience is through content. Whether that content is written or visual, great content is always going to bring in new faces to your website.
When looking at how to improve organic search, one of the best ways is to produce new content regularly is by creating a blog on your website. If you’re not blogging already, you should be.
Share your blogs on your social media channels and give your audience the chance to share your content as well.
The sharing of your blogs will help to generate new traffic to your website.
The content of your blogs needs to be engaging and informative in order to grab your audience’s attention and get them to return to your website for your future blog content.
Make sure your content differentiates itself from your competition. Find a niche within your industry and discuss that content in a way that is unique to your company.
Email List
Once you generate an audience through new content, keep them by building an email list. In order to get people to sign up for your email list, give them an incentive for signing up, such as a free guide or a special deal.
In your emails, share blog content and deals to further incentivize your audience to engage with your content and convert.
Your audience will have no idea when you post new content to your website. Email lists are your best bet when it comes to getting your audience informed of the content you’re putting out.
Email marketing is huge nowadays and is still one of, if not the best way to promote your content.
Recap
In order to keep your audience engaged, keep producing content. Post content that is new and engaging to make people come back to your site.
Use your existing visitors to build an email list, which you can easily use to share your content and obtain targeted website traffic.
Social Media
Paid search and SEO are extremely useful in garnering valuable traffic, but social media is another great traffic generation strategy.
Firstly, social media allows you to put your brand on display, giving you the opportunity to interact with your audience.
Having your brand on various social media platforms allows you to establish trust and authority to your website, especially when you can generate a following.
Social media is one of the first things people see when they look at your company online. You should use social media to build a brand voice and share content that will help to engage visitors to your pages.
Why use social media? It’s a free way to drive traffic to your website! Maintaining your social media pages is a great way to gain new webpage traffic.
Always provide links back to your website for each piece of content you post. If your business is active on Instagram, make sure to place a website link in your profile’s bio for easy access.
When it comes to social media companies like Snapchat and Instagram stories are leading the pack with new and intuitive user functions such as “stories”.
Learn more about how Snapchat and Instagram stories can help your business grow.
Hashtags
Hashtags are a great method for exposing your social media content to a wider audience. Hashtags can get your brand’s page in front of a fresh audience.
You can also follow hashtags on your company’s page and interact with other accounts to drive even more traffic to your website.
Do some research on the specific hashtags your business encompasses and dominate those areas with content.
Create Videos
Videos can take your content to the next level. Share your videos on all your social media pages, including LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Also, embed videos within the content on your website.
Videos lead to more interactions on your page and also cause people to stay on your page longer.
For this reason, sharing videos on social media and embedding them on your webpage is a great strategy to drive traffic to your website and engage them.
Reach Out
One of the best ways to get your content in front of a large audience is to reach out to other accounts.
Find social media accounts that relate to your business, and see if they will be willing to share your content on their pages.
People often forget that there are human beings on the other side of the page you’re looking at. Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask to share your content.
The worst that can happen is them saying no.
Recap
Overall, social media is a great way to drive traffic at a low cost. Use your social media pages to share website content and videos, in order to lead traffic to visit your webpage.
In addition, don’t be afraid to reach out to large accounts to get your work in front of thousands of people.
The Takeaway
While the process can be time-consuming, learning how to increase organic traffic to a new website can be done, and it’s well worth it.
If you’re looking for a short-term solution that can increase overall traffic to your site very quickly, consider paid search. Just make sure you’re keeping an eye on your paid search KPIs.
A paid search campaign that is not optimized can drain your ad budget without offering a good return.
Once you’ve read up on your key performance indicators and how to improve them, high intent traffic should start to flow in.
If advertising is outside of your budget and you’re willing to put in the time and energy commitment to rank your website organically, SEO is definitely for you.
There are many different moving pieces when it comes to SEO, so be sure to implement on-site (technical SEO) and off-site (backlinking) strategies to see the best results.
While implementing SEO will work, it is not a one-and-done project. SEO takes constant refinements and updates, especially as you release new content.
Whether you want to implement SEO, a paid search campaign, or both, just know that both strategies can reel in the high intent traffic you want.
Develop a social media strategy and promote your content on various social media platforms. Social media is a space that provides your brand with trust and authority.
Make sure you have real content. Whether this comes in the form of blog creation, video creation, or other means of content, owning and distributing your content across multiple promotional channels is one of the best ways of getting that targeted website traffic you’ve been craving.
Sometimes getting high intent traffic to your website involves a combination of everything listed here, whereas other times you may find that your success is only coming from a few of these strategies.
Make sure you dabble in all of these strategies and see what has been working for your new website and plan a more in-depth strategy around that specific traffic source, if this is too much work and you'd rather focus your time on other important matters, make sure to consult a marketing agency to help you out with this!