Increasing traffic to your ecommerce website is a top priority, and it all starts with SEO and content. According to a study, 70% of online experiences begin with a search engine, making SEO a crucial factor in driving traffic to your site.
To optimize your website for search engines, focus on using relevant keywords in your product titles and descriptions. This will help search engines understand what your products are about and rank them accordingly.
A well-structured and easy-to-navigate website is also essential for a good user experience. This can be achieved by organizing your products into clear categories and using high-quality product images.
By implementing these SEO and content strategies, you can significantly increase traffic to your ecommerce website and boost your online sales.
Traffic Generation Strategies
To generate a lot of traffic to your ecommerce website, you need to optimize your strategies based on the insights you've gained. This involves adjusting your content distribution methods, creating better content, and enhancing your website.
Adjust your content distribution methods to reach a wider audience. This can include social media, email marketing, and influencer partnerships.
Creating better content is crucial to attracting and retaining visitors. This means creating high-quality, engaging, and relevant content that resonates with your target audience.
To enhance your website, focus on user experience and search engine optimization. This includes optimizing your website's speed, mobile responsiveness, and meta tags.
By implementing these changes, you can expect to see an increase in traffic to your website. And, as your goals get more significant, you'll need to continue optimizing and refining your strategies to achieve even more traffic.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial for driving traffic to your ecommerce website. You can't just throw up a website and expect people to find it, you need to optimize it for search engines.
First, you need to focus on keywords and SEO, making sure your website is structured in a way that makes it easy for search engines to understand. This includes using popular search terms in your content and checking out what's working for your competitors.
Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console are essential for SEO, helping you view and dissect which terms your previous website visitors have used to find your website in the past, and measure your own website's search traffic and performance.
You should also target long-tail keywords, which are more specific phrases that people use to search online. These keywords are less competitive and give you a better chance of ranking higher on search engines.
Here are some types of keywords to consider:
- Short-tail keywords (3 words or fewer)
- Long-tail keywords (more than 3 words)
- Short-term keywords (relevant for a short time)
- Long-term evergreen keywords (relevant at all times)
- Geo-targeting keywords (including your location)
To improve your website's technical SEO, make sure it loads quickly, is secure, and is responsive on all devices.
On-page SEO tactics, such as producing high-quality content and writing concise meta descriptions, can also increase your website's rank in search engines and get more visitors.
Finally, improving your click-through rate (CTR) and reducing your bounce rate can also drive more traffic to your website.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a powerful way to drive traffic to your ecommerce website. Long-form content gets an average of 77.2% more links than short articles, making it a great option to consider.
You can create long-form content by publishing comprehensive guides, like a list of SEO techniques that's over 4,000 words. This type of content can be shared over 14,000 times, sending over 50,000 visitors to your website.
To take it to the next level, consider adding share triggers to your content, like social currency. This can make your content more shareable, as seen with the Shrinking Dollar infographic that was shared by influencers and even included in Google News.
Here are some ways to add share triggers to your content:
- Social currency: Share things that make people look good, like confirming their rants with meaty data.
- Other share triggers include curiosity, emotions, and helpfulness.
By incorporating these share triggers, you can increase engagement and drive more traffic to your ecommerce website.
Publish Viral Content
Publishing viral content can be a game-changer for your website's traffic. Long-form content gets an average of 77.2% more links than short articles.
To increase the odds that your content will spread like wildfire, there are three things you can do. First, make sure your content is high-quality and valuable to your audience. Second, use social sharing tools to make it easy for people to share your content. Third, be proactive and reach out to potential customers to share your content.
One effective way to create viral content is to use social currency. Social currency is the idea that we share things that make us look good. For example, an infographic that confirms what influencers are already saying can be very shareable.
Here are some key statistics to keep in mind:
You can also create viral content by using list posts. List posts get an average of 218% more shares than "how to" posts. For example, a mega list of Google's ranking factors can be a very popular piece of content.
Remember, the key to creating viral content is to make it valuable and shareable. Use social sharing tools, be proactive, and use social currency to your advantage.
Conduct Webinars
Conducting webinars is a fantastic way to increase website traffic and boost brand awareness. You can host webinars on a specific topic, streaming live to a virtual audience, and promote them through multiple channels.
A high-quality webinar can establish trust with your audience and boost brand authority and credibility. People are more likely to visit and engage with your site if it offers valuable information and features industry experts.
To host a successful webinar, you need a reliable and fast website that can handle real-time streaming and sudden visitor spikes. This is crucial for a smooth experience.
You can host a webinar featuring a live Q&A session, where the audience can submit questions and actively participate in the discussion. This interactive nature of webinars allows you to establish trust directly with your audience.
Here are the key factors to consider when preparing a webinar:
- Topic: Choose topics that would be useful and relevant to your audience’s interests and needs.
- Format: Popular formats include Q&A sessions, speaker presentations, panel discussions, product demos, and interviews.
- Speakers: Select panelists like industry experts, influencers, or experts from your team.
- Tools and materials: Make sure you have the right tools like a camera, microphone, stable internet, and reliable video conferencing platform.
- Promotion: Prepare webinar materials to promote the event, including automated reminder emails, social media posts, and website pop-ups.
After the webinar ends, you can use the session recording to generate free website traffic. Share the videos on your site or repurpose them into different types of content to market your site.
Paid Advertising
Paid advertising can be a game-changer for driving traffic to your ecommerce website. You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars immediately, as you can set a budget and start small. Paid ads allow you to choose increasing website traffic as a goal and customize your audience.
You can create ads on various platforms, including social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, as well as Google Ads. Google Ads is a great way to drive people to your website who are seeking out the services you provide. With Google Ads, you pay to have your website show up at the top of search results for particular keywords.
There are also other paid methods of generating website traffic, such as social media, display, and retargeting ads. Social media advertising allows you to specify the type of audience in front of which you'd like to appear, and with more psychographic data, social media offers superb targeting.
To advertise on Instagram, you can use the Facebook Ads Manager or boost existing posts. Creating visually appealing campaigns is essential on Instagram, as it is a visual platform. Here are some Instagram Ads best practices to drive traffic to your website:
- Optimize ads for mobile devices.
- Prepare ads for consumption with no sound.
- Keep ads short and straightforward.
Facebook Ads can be a cheaper alternative to search engine ads, with an average cost per click (CPC) of $1.72. To run a successful Facebook Ads campaign, define your Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion goals when creating a campaign. Here's a summary of the key goals:
- Awareness: Reach new people and generate interest in your brand.
- Consideration: Capture visitors' attention and encourage them to explore your website further.
- Conversion: Encourage site visitors to buy your products or services.
By following these tips and using paid advertising methods, you can drive more traffic to your ecommerce website and increase sales.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a powerful way to drive traffic to your ecommerce website. You can send your content to your email list, linking your content and web pages in the email, which will increase traffic. This will also help you see the results of your email marketing strategy, allowing you to optimize your future emails.
To get started with email marketing, you can use email marketing services like MailChimp, Omnisend, or other alternatives. However, be mindful of not bombarding subscribers with too many emails. Instead, send weekly or bi-weekly emails containing marketing campaigns, special offers, useful information, or a roundup of site updates subscribers need to know.
Make sure the emails are mobile-friendly, as around 46% of emails are opened on mobile devices. This will ensure a consistent user experience across all screen sizes. Including the subscriber's name in the email will also make it more personalized and friendly.
To entice people to read more, use copywriting to emphasize appealing information in the email's subject line and body. Provide clickable Read More links or buttons within the emails, leading people to your site. Use attractive visual elements, such as aesthetically pleasing themes and eye-catching color palettes, to invite people to read the content.
Consider using a business email address for your campaign instead of a personal one to appear more professional and official. This will help you build trust with customers and has higher deliverability rates than free email services.
Here are some email marketing best practices to increase website traffic:
- Make sure the emails are mobile-friendly.
- Create personalized emails by including the subscriber's name.
- Entice people to read more by using copywriting and providing clickable links.
- Use attractive visual elements, such as themes and color palettes.
- Take advantage of email analytics to track performance and segment subscribers.
Analytics and Optimization
You can use Google Analytics to identify how users engage with your website and where they come from by setting up your Google Analytics for your eCommerce brand.
Google Analytics reports will show you specific traffic sources alongside other statistics like Users, Sessions, Engaged Sessions, and more.
Learn from Analytics
Learning from analytics is crucial to drive traffic to your website. Google Analytics is free to use, and its insights can help you make informed decisions.
You can track your website's performance by visiting Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition in Google Analytics. This will give you a clear picture of where your users come from and how they engage with your website.
Regularly checking your website analytics will help you identify which marketing strategies and content types work best. This will save you time and resources by eliminating ineffective tactics.
Google Analytics reports provide valuable statistics such as Users, Sessions, Engaged Sessions, and more. These metrics will help you understand your audience's behavior and preferences.
Speed Up Your Site
Speeding up your site is crucial for a great user experience. A slow site can lead to a 32% increase in bounce rate, as users abandon the site if it takes over three seconds to load.
Google's PageSpeed Insights is a free tool that analyzes your site's performance and provides suggestions for improvement. Test your site's speed before making any changes to identify areas for improvement.
Minifying files can significantly reduce page load time. Plugins like Autoptimize can remove unnecessary text from HTML, JavaScript, and CSS files, reducing their sizes and bandwidth usage.
Optimizing images is another key factor in speeding up your site. Compressing image file sizes by reducing resolution can make a big difference. Plugins like Smush can help you create high-quality images with small file sizes.
Enabling browser caching can also improve page load times. Caching plugins like W3 Total Cache allow users' browsers to load pages quicker on subsequent visits by retrieving saved files instead of requesting them from the server.
Here are some common causes of slow site speeds and how to fix them:
Using a content delivery network (CDN) can also improve site speed by letting visitors access your site from a global server network, not just one primary hosting server.
Expert Tip
Google Analytics is a free tool that can help you drive more traffic to your website. It provides valuable insights into your website's performance, allowing you to identify what's working and what needs improvement.
Use tracked links for your marketing campaigns to see which strategies are driving traffic. This will help you optimize your efforts and get the most out of your marketing budget.
To increase traffic to your blog post, consider marketing it via ads on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Each social platform has its unique characteristics, so it's essential to understand how to create effective ad campaigns for each one.
Here are some tips to promote blog posts on social media sites:
- Add visual elements to make your content more engaging and increase click-through rates.
- Use relevant hashtags to make your posts easier to discover and attract people interested in your niche.
- Pick the right platform to target your audience, as different social media sites have different user demographics.
- Tag influencers in your industry to grab their attention and potentially increase your reach.
- Interact with your followers by replying to comments and including links to your website to drive more traffic.
By implementing these strategies and tracking your analytics, you'll be able to optimize your marketing efforts and drive more traffic to your website.
Social Media and Community Building
Social media and online communities are a great way to increase traffic to your ecommerce website. You can join online communities within your industry to boost organic traffic to your site. Those you meet are already interested in your niche and will likely visit your site.
To participate effectively, join discussions, ask for advice, and answer people's questions. Help solve other members' problems and establish a strong relationship and trust with fellow community members. This will make the community more receptive to your business and open to visiting your website.
You can find online communities on popular platforms like LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, Reddit, and Quora. Research the community to ensure it's the right place to promote your site. Track and measure the volume of traffic to your site using Google Analytics, and identify communities that provide the most value and engagement to your website.
Here are some types of online communities you can join:
- LinkedIn groups
- Facebook groups
- Quora
- Niche websites and forums
By engaging online and participating in online communities, you can turn your engagement into another channel for website traffic. Just be sure to engage moderately and in a sincere way, and avoid including links to your website in your comments.
Include Hashtags
Including hashtags in your social media posts can be a game-changer for getting discovered by users searching for your products and services. By adding hashtags, you can extend your reach beyond your network and get more eyes on your links, resulting in free traffic to your website.
Adding relevant hashtags can significantly increase your online visibility, especially if you're promoting your website pages and blog posts. The more hashtags you use, the more likely you are to get discovered by users searching for your products and services.
To avoid appearing spammy, make sure to use hashtags moderately and in a sincere way. This will help you build trust with your online community and increase your exposure and profile visits.
Try Out Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a powerful way to get your brand in front of a larger audience. It leverages social media personalities to boost brand exposure, and can drive qualified traffic to your website. This approach focuses on credibility and reach, rather than performance-based rewards.
To establish your influencer marketing network, start by selecting influencers based on their platform. If your target audience mainly engages on Instagram, collaborating with an Instagram influencer is more beneficial than a YouTuber. Research to find influencers who are popular on the platforms your audience uses.
Choose respected influencers in your niche who are industry experts and have well-received content on the platform. Look for someone with a positive public image to promote your products or services. This will help you build trust with your target audience.
Be open-minded and provide influencers with creative freedom to promote your brand. After all, they know best how to effectively communicate with their followers. This will also help you avoid appearing spammy and hurt your online reputation.
Here are some tips to help you find the right influencers for your brand:
By following these tips, you can effectively utilize influencer marketing to drive traffic to your website and build your brand's credibility.
Content Creation and Promotion
To increase traffic to your ecommerce website, you need to focus on content creation and promotion. You can choose the best content to promote, such as an eBook or a video, based on the buyer's journey, the platforms you're using, and your goals.
To create engaging content, add enticing content to your social media posts, like a bulleted list of features, and integrate multimedia that can be shared on social, such as photos and videos. This will increase your CTR and drive more traffic to your website.
Here's a list of content types you can distribute to drive traffic to your website:
- eBooks
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Blogs
- Case studies
- Webinars
- Presentations
- Emails
By creating and promoting high-quality content, you can attract more backlinks, web traffic, and qualified leads to your ecommerce website.
Build Backlinks
Building backlinks is a crucial step in promoting your content and driving traffic to your website. A backlink is a link to your website from another website, which can increase your business's trust with Google and lead to higher rankings. This is especially true for backlinks from complementary businesses or industry influencers.
To get noticed on Google for free with quality backlinks, you can create a high-quality, comprehensive resource on an important topic in your industry, as I did with my article "Google's 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List", which got over 35K backlinks.
A single tweet from an influential blogger can also bring a nice spike in traffic to your website, as it did for me when a blogger shared my content with their followers.
To build backlinks, you can try the following strategies:
- Create a monster resource like I did, researching, compiling, and explaining potential ranking factors.
- Send personalized emails to bloggers who have shared content on your topic, and follow up with a link to your content.
- Use online directory listings, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, email, social media, and online ads to drive traffic to your website.
- Add visual elements, use hashtags, and pick the right platform when promoting your content on social media.
Here are some specific platforms to consider when promoting your content on social media:
Remember, building backlinks requires effort and time, but it can pay off in the long run by increasing your website's traffic and credibility.
YouTube Channel
A YouTube channel can be a powerful tool for driving traffic to your website. With approximately 2.7 billion monthly active users, YouTube is an excellent avenue for reaching a large audience.
To create a successful YouTube channel, start by posting videos on various topics relevant to your industry. This will help you attract viewers and redirect them to your website for more information.
Optimize your videos for search engines by using tools like the Ahrefs YouTube Keyword Tool to perform keyword research. Create videos focused on popular long-tail keywords and work the words into video titles and descriptions.
Use videos as teasers for your site content, avoiding giving away all of your site content in YouTube videos. Instead, use them as teasers to showcase a condensed version of your long-form content and encourage viewers to visit your site for more details.
Here are some YouTube best practices to help drive traffic to your website:
- Optimize videos for search engines.
- Use videos as teasers for site content.
- Write informative video descriptions.
- Include a signature call-to-action.
- Feature cards on the end screen.
- Interact with commenters.
By following these best practices, you can increase the visibility of your YouTube channel and drive more traffic to your website.
Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly
Making your site mobile-friendly is crucial, as mobile phones account for 56% of all web traffic. This means that if visitors have a bad mobile experience on your site, they might never return.
You should aim for a responsive website that automatically adjusts the design based on the device's screen size. This way, visitors can browse through your website comfortably without having to scroll around.
Google's mobile-friendly test is a great tool to see whether your website meets the standards. If it doesn't, you may need to hire a professional or use website-building platforms with responsive themes and templates.
WordPress is a great option for building a responsive website, as many of its themes are mobile-friendly. Having a responsive website is also crucial for great SEO, as Google predominantly uses the mobile version of websites for ranking and indexing.
Prioritize Pinning
Pinning is a powerful way to drive traffic to your website, especially since Pinterest users are actively looking for ideas, products, and inspiration. Pinterest traffic has insane longevity, unlike tweets or Facebook posts that disappear in hours.
The most popular categories on Pinterest change often, but currently, the top 10 are art, entertainment, home decor, design, DIY and crafts, women's fashion, beauty, education, event planning, and quotes. If your niche doesn't fit neatly into one of these categories, don't worry, you'll find everything from finance to architecture on the platform.
To harness Pinterest's power, create eye-catching, vertical Pins that stand out in users' feeds. A free design tool like Canva can help you with this. Use keyword-rich descriptions to make your Pins discoverable.
Here are some key tips to drive serious web traffic on Pinterest:
- Create eye-catching, vertical Pins that stand out in users' feeds.
- Use keyword-rich descriptions to make your Pins discoverable.
- Link your Pins directly to relevant landing pages or your blog.
- Create pins consistently to keep your content fresh and visible.
Pro tip: Create rich Pins to drive more website traffic. These enhanced Pins automatically sync extra information from your website, like real-time pricing, recipe ingredients, or article headlines.
Add Share Triggers to Your Content
Adding share triggers to your content is a game-changer. It can significantly increase the likelihood of people sharing and linking to your content. According to Dr. Jonah Berger, Dr. Katherine Milkman, and Jure Leskovec, behavioral scientists who discovered many of these principles, share triggers are a crucial factor in content success.
A powerful share trigger is social currency, which is the idea that we share things that make us look good. In my experience, confirming what influencers are already saying with meaty data can be a huge social currency booster. For example, my infographic on inflation did well because it backed up the rants of influencers with data.
Here are some examples of share triggers in action:
- A bulleted list of features in a tweet can dramatically increase engagement.
- Including a link to your website in a YouTube video description can help drive traffic to your site.
- Adding a signature call-to-action to the end of every video can remind viewers to subscribe to your channel and visit your website.
- Featuring cards on the end screen of a YouTube video can showcase links and playlists and make it easier for viewers to click through.
- Interacting with commenters on YouTube can build a strong community and nurture loyalty.
By incorporating these share triggers into your content, you can increase the chances of people sharing and linking to it, and ultimately drive more traffic to your website.
Retargeting and Remarketing
Retargeting and remarketing are powerful tools to bring back visitors to your ecommerce website. Facebook ads can be expensive, but targeting visitors who have been to your site recently can significantly reduce your cost per click (CPC).
You can create a Facebook ad that sends people to a specific blog post, and then target people who have visited your site in the last month or two. This can be a cost-effective way to reach people who are already interested in your brand.
Retargeting ads can appear on websites or social media feeds, placing your ads in front of people who have already visited your site once and are more likely to return.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I make my ecommerce website stand out?
To make your ecommerce website stand out, focus on creating a mobile-friendly, visually appealing, and user-centric design that showcases your top products and encourages sign-ups. By following these best practices, you can increase engagement and drive sales.
Sources
- https://backlinko.com/increase-website-traffic
- https://debutify.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-increase-website-traffic
- https://localiq.com/blog/drive-more-traffic-to-your-website/
- https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/drive-traffic-to-your-website
- https://www.squarespace.com/blog/how-to-drive-traffic-to-your-website
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