6 New Ways to Increase Your Website Traffic for Free

Looking to boost website traffic? Haven't had much luck with traditional tactics? Give these six new ways a try.

BY DAKOTA SHANE, CO-FOUNDER, COPY BUFFS@DAKOTASHANE_NUN

No matter who you are or what your business does, increasing traffic to your website is something we can never get enough of as entrepreneurs. Whether you would like to increase the number of readers for a certain blog post, the number of subscribers to your email newsletter, or something else entirely, you'll need traffic to those pages to jump-start the process.

If you have exhausted your list of website traffic tactics or are simply looking for new strategies to try out, give these six tips a try.

1. Get Active on Medium

Looking for a way to bolster thought leadership while also increasing the number of website visitors? Medium could be the answer. Think of Medium as the "YouTube for Writers", where users publish blog posts on any and all topics. 

To begin, start submitting finished articles to your favorite publications for review. Within the article itself, be sure to include a call-to-action at the bottom of the article with a link to a squeeze page promoting a relevant "lead magnet" or email grabber.

2. Post Articles on Steemit

If Medium and Reddit had a baby, it would look a lot like Steemit. For those unfamiliar with the platform, it's a community that allows members to upvote the content, from articles to videos, that they love the most. Based on the number of upvotes in addition to other factors, content creators are compensated. 

If you're looking to get a head-start on a new and emerging platform that could bolster your thought leadership in your area of expertise (which, in turn, leads to more web traffic), then begin publishing blog posts on Steemit.

3. Leverage IGTV

As if Instagram wasn't dominating the social media landscape enough, they recently rolled out long form video content with IGTV. Because the feature is still new, publishing on it won't only be advantageous due to low competition, it will also mean your content is much more likely to be prioritized by the Instagram algorithm given that's the trend we always see after the initial roll-out of new features (Facebook Live, Facebook Video, Instagram Live, etc.). 

For inspiration and potential ideas for IGTV videos, try discussing the topic of a blog post you recently created and encourage viewers to visit your website to access the content. By establishing yourself on IGTV early and consistently pointing your audience in the direction of your website, your traffic will benefit as a result.

4. Use Links in Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories have grown like absolute wildfire since their launch in 2017. To date, there are approximately 400 million daily active users on Instagram Stories, and with new interactive features like polls and questions being unveiled regularly, it's unlikely their momentum will stop any time soon. 

Next time you publish a blog post or a video, try announcing it on Instagram Stories. Within the Story, tell your audience a little bit more about what the post or video is about, include a link to it and encourage your audience to visit the link as well as share it across social media.

5. Create a Better User Experience on Your Website

Okay, this may not exactly be new, but it certainly is more important for your company's SEO than ever before. Google has made it clear they are now taking user experience on websites into stronger consideration in terms of how your website ranks on their search engine. Because of this, measurements like average length of website visit, bounce rate, whether or not your site is mobile-friendly, click-through rates on your content and more will be more critical to SEO success than ever before. 

To start making your overall user experience on your website better, use a heatmapping tool like Crazy Egg or Mouseflow to see where your visitors are getting stuck and spending the majority of their time. You should also make sure your images are properly compressed.

6. LinkedIn Video

Back in August of 2017, LinkedIn unveiled native video on their platform. Despite it being around for almost a year, there is still a lot of room for growth due to the low level of competition and creative concepts that have yet to be explored with the feature. Additionally, the LinkedIn algorithm currently prioritizes video, so take advantage of it while you can. Within the video, encourage your viewers to visit your website to learn more about your services.

There are a lot of ways to increase website traffic. Because traffic is so significant to your success as a business owner, it's important to always be exploring and experimenting with new ways to boost your web traffic. Throughout the remainder of 2018 and beyond, give the tactics discussed in this article a try. It could very well be the thing that makes all the difference. Best of luck.

https://bit.ly/315uN5y