Ten Ways to Increase Website Traffic in 2019

A website is like a valuable employee who doesn't take time off and doesn't call in sick. It stays up day and night attracting leads, generating sales, and building relationships with your clients 24 hours a day seven days a week.

However, only a well-optimized website will be able to draw in traffic and perform at the level you expect. Here are ten strategies you can use to drive more traffic and attract more leads to your business website right now.

1. Start with Onsite SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization, which is a series of processes used to ensure a website has the best chance at appearing in the search engine results pages (SERPs). SEO is all about publishing high-quality content, creating informative meta descriptions for each page, and using relevant keywords on your pages. Without SEO, your website will be dead in the water, so get this in order first.

2. Target Longtail and LSI Keywords in Your Posts

Google's algorithm is sophisticated and can understand words which are related to your main keywords. Longtail keywords are longer phrases that are not searched as often as the shorter more popular phrases, but they are much easier to rank in the search results. Be sure to include a few long tail phrases based on your targeted keywords to catch those few searchers who will use them.

LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing and is a term which describes how an algorithm analyzes words associated with a particular topic. By using, LSI, an algorithm is in a better position to understand what a user is expecting to see in the search results. When you research and use LSI words naturally in your article, you are increasing the context, which will increase the chance that it will rank for your targeted keyword phrases.

3. Increase Your Social Media Presence

Building up your profiles on social media platforms is an excellent way to drive traffic through to your site. Every time you post a new article on your website, tell your followers about it on social media. The best way to create a fan following on social media is to understand your target audience and then make sure you have an active presence where they hang out the most. Hashtags are an excellent resource to help your content get found on social media so make sure you use them on every post, and ensure they are directly related to your keywords.

4. Repurpose Content

If you have a piece of content on your site which performed well in the past, but the numbers have since died off, repurposing the material into a different format may breathe some new life back into it. Take a once popular post and turn it into a video. Post the video on YouTube and link it back to your website. Not every post is suitable for a video transformation, but you could also try sharing the information as a PowerPoint presentation, or an audio file as a podcast (see the next tip).

5. Podcasts

The audience for podcasts has been exploding of late; perhaps due to the convenience the format provides. Your audience can absorb new information while they drive to work or commute on buses, trains, and planes. Podcasts are even listened to while doing the housework, making them a valuable resource for engaging with your clients, and driving more traffic to your website. You could always start a podcast of your own, but it will be a while before it develops a sizeable audience. Instead, get yourself invited to other podcasts as an expert contributor. This provides an excellent opportunity for you to tap into a podcaster's established audience and get them clicking through to your site.

6. Connect with Other Bloggers

If bloggers crave one thing, it's getting new information out to their readers, whether that be from their own posts, or sharing stuff from other bloggers in their industry, or in one that is closely related. You can reach out to bloggers you respect and politely ask them if they would be interested in sharing your posts with their readers. The perfect candidates for reaching out to are bloggers who have already retweeted one of your tweets, or who have engaged with your posts on Facebook, etc.

7. Build an Email List

Email is still the medium that rules all concerning ROI and the best time to get started is as soon as your website launches. Studies have revealed that email traffic beats out many other forms of advertising when it comes to getting eyeballs on a site and converting, including radio, display advertising, and event marketing. Email marketing beats out all other forms of online marketing, except for SEO organic search, which has reigned supreme for many years now. A blast to even a small list can also help a post get some ranking juice as your email subscribers spend some time on your site. A lot of your audience won't just visit the links contained in the email, but may also browse to other sections of your site.

8. Optimize For Mobile Devices

With Google firmly sat upon the Mobile First bandwagon, it's crucial that your site is set up so it is responsive on mobile devices. Just about all the web development platforms such as WordPress, Wix, and Joomla have implemented simple ways to ensure your pages look good both on desktop and mobile. And if they don't, Google will politely inform you about the pages which need fixing. A mobile responsive site has become even more critical due to the number of searches being conducted on mobile recently outstripping searches on desktops. Everyone with a smartphone in their pocket is a potential client.

9. Syndicated Content

Syndicated content is a way of creating more exposure by republishing your original content on other sites, preferably ones in a related industry. Syndicating your content will not get you the duplicate content penalty many bloggers will tell you about, but it is a low-cost strategy for reaching a wider audience you wouldn't be able to reach otherwise. Plus, you don't have to write yet another blog post and face blogger's burnout.

10. Paid Promotion

Don't forget the power of paid promotions, especially if your website is new and hasn't yet developed any love with the search engine algorithms. Google's Adwords platform is an obvious choice, but you should also consider the social media platforms, which all have robust advertising platforms of their own and can be substantially cheaper than Google's offering. Getting traffic to your website doesn't have to be a waiting game. By using a few, or all of the above strategies, you will soon be enjoying floods of traffic and building your email list. Soon, your only problem will be having to upgrade to a dedicated server to handle the hordes of visitors.