A website is a must-have for just about every business today—but just having a site doesn’t do you much good if nobody sees it. In today’s competitive and crowded online landscape, attracting customer attention can be a challenge. The good news is, there are some simple strategies that anyone can employ to get more visitors to their site. Here are five effective ways to increase website traffic.
1. Get more backlinks.
A backlink is a link from another website to yours, and they can boost website traffic in more ways than one. There’s the obvious benefit that people may follow the link from these other sites and end up on your page, but that’s honestly not their biggest benefit.
The main way backlinks increase website traffic is because they can help your site rank higher in search results. When other websites link to yours, this indicates to Google (and similar search engines) that your website has authority and relevance for users. The more other places link to your site, the more authoritative your website appears to search engines. Having more backlinks can also simply make it easier for search engines to discover your content, increasing the odds it will end up high in search results.
There are a few strategies you can try to get more backlinks. If you create high-quality, sharable content, then some backlinks will likely come naturally. Another strategy is to reply to relevant queries from reporters through services like HARO, Featured, or Qwoted. You won’t be guaranteed a backlink every time you send a reply, but you’ll nearly always get one if your response is used. Writing guest posts for other sites, or being an interview guest for a podcast, blog, newspaper article, or YouTube video, can also result in more pages linking to your site.
The bottom line is that the more places both people and search engine algorithms can find links to your website, the more people are likely to visit it.
2. Use the right keywords in your content.
A 2024 analysis of Google clicks shows that less than 1% of searchers click on links beyond the top 10 results. Meanwhile, the first non-paid search result receives roughly a third of the organic traffic. The takeaway here is clear: the higher your website ranks in user searches, the more visitors it will get.
While backlinks are one way to increase your search rankings, they won’t do the job alone. You also need to use the right keywords to show search engines that your website is relevant for those queries. The closer your page matches the search terms people type, the more likely it will be to show up in their results.
The big question for many business owners is: how do I know which keywords to use? The answer is to find the terms that relate to your site’s content and are popular search terms for users. There are lots of free tools you can use to get this information, like Google Keyword planner, Ryan Robinson’s Free Keyword Tool, or Moz Keyword Explorer.
Once you know what keywords you want to target, sprinkle them into the content of your website. You can also write blog posts targeting specific high-volume keywords and include these terms in product descriptions on an online store. Try to integrate them in a way that sounds natural and organic, and don’t over-do it—too many keywords can sound spammy to both human readers and search engines, so it’s definitely a balancing act to get the most out of this approach.
3. Create dedicated landing pages.
A landing page is a page on your website devoted to a specific product or service. Often, this page isn’t linked to from elsewhere on your site. Instead, it’s designed to capture organic traffic from elsewhere on the web and either funnel them into your website or encourage them to take an action, like signing up for your newsletter or making a purchase.
The value of a landing page is that it provides a focused, targeted experience. These pages have a clear and singular purpose, and all the content on the page supports that goal. This allows you to go into depth about that specific topic with things like testimonials, case studies, and detailed descriptions of the offer. In the process, you get the chance to work in a high volume of those relevant keywords talked about in the last point, helping the page to capture customers’ attention.
The content of a landing page is essentially a sales pitch. Granted, you don’t necessarily want it to sound like a sales pitch, which can turn some people off, but it should use persuasive language and focus on outlining the benefits and value of whatever it’s promoting. It can also help to use media like videos, charts, photos, and graphics to add visual interest and encourage visitors to engage with the page. Offering free content like an eBook or webinar is another way to attract more traffic and engagement.
4. Integrate multimedia content.
Landing pages aren’t the only place that videos and images are useful in driving more traffic. Integrating this kind of content across your site can be another way to help get more visitors and customers online.
Videos can be an especially valuable tool for increasing web traffic. Embedded videos encourage visitors to stay on your site longer while they watch it. This also allows your site to rank in video search results, while hosting these videos on a platform like YouTube gives you another channel to potentially capture viewer attention and interest.
Like with everything on your site, videos you post should be high quality and offer value to the viewer. Think about the type of content that people want to watch and share. A straight sales pitch for your business isn’t going to be helpful for most people. Instead, you want to create content that either educates, entertains, or both. Things like how-to videos, tutorials, and walk-throughs are popular, and can help to establish your authority at the same time that they attract more visitors.
5. Take advantage of social media.
It follows logically that the more places customers can discover and engage with your brand online, the more people are likely to find and visit your website. Posting content regularly on social media expands your online footprint, letting you reach new audiences that may not find your website otherwise.
The first step to making smart use of social media is choosing the right platforms to reach your target audience. This is where it helps to have a profile of your typical customer, including their age range, their interests, and their online habits. If you’re not sure, all-purpose sites like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X/Twitter are a safe bet. For B2B businesses and professional services, LinkedIn can be a valuable resource, while those in craft and design spaces may want to make use of Pinterest.
A lot of the tips for website content above apply to social media posts, as well. You’ll get more attention from potential site visitors—and potential customers—if you post content that’s engaging, integrates the right keywords, and includes multimedia content like images and videos.
How you interact with your audience on social media makes a difference here, too. People are more likely to engage with a brand that’s active on the site and replies to comments, mentions, and direct messages. Liking, commenting on, or sharing other people’s posts can help you reach new audiences and earn online goodwill that can potentially lead to backlinks, follows, or shares of your content.
