Every website owner probably wants more traffic to their website. I don’t have to repeat the cliché that “traffic is the lifeblood of any blog”… I’m sure you already know that.
This is because without more traffic, you won’t get more customers. Only when you are able to bring people to your website, do you have a chance of converting them into customers.
in other words…
- More traffic = more customers = more money
Does this make sense?
With that being said, if increasing website traffic has been an issue for you, I want you to sit a little closer to your seat because I’m about to reveal to you some great ideas that you can use to drive more traffic to your website.
I hope you understand that there are many ways to drive traffic to your website, but today, we’re going to discuss five ways you can increase traffic through content marketing.
1. Content Creation
Inbound marketing focuses on attracting the right people to your company. One of the best ways to achieve this is by creating content through blogging.
To brainstorm content that will attract the right visitors to your website, you must first understand your target buyers. Once you understand your audience, you can create content that will naturally draw them to your website.
But how do you write a great blog post that attracts the right audience? Follow these five steps:
- Identify your buyer personas: Learn more about your target market. Understand everything from job titles to pain points.
- Conduct keyword research : Understand what your audience is searching for on search engines so you can provide the best content.
- Ideate topics: Identify topics that appeal to your audience’s pain points and have high search volume. Use tools like Blog Idea Generator to help you brainstorm.
- Write a draft: Start by writing a post that answers your readers’ questions. Use an interesting angle to make your post stand out.
- Publish: Publish your article on your blog site. Use SEO tools to optimize your content.
- Promote: Promote your blog posts on social media and in email newsletters to generate traffic. The more traffic your post generates, the higher it will rank in search engines.
2. Subject matter expertise
Ranking higher in Google will increase organic traffic to your site. At SidelinePlay, we do this by using the Pillar/Topic Cluster model. Google favors sites that are known as subject matter experts on the topic they write about.
To be seen as an expert, you can create a pillar page, which is essentially a longer blog post that extensively covers various aspects of a topic.
You can then write “cluster content,” or supporting blog posts, that target long-tail keywords to show that you cover a topic exhaustively. Focusing on long-term traffic will help you rank higher on search engines.
The Pillar Cluster Model organizes the content on your site around a single topic and search term through internal linking. This organization helps search engines easily crawl and categorize all the content about a specific topic, making it easier for you to rank for that search term.
If the model is implemented correctly, it can also help visitors navigate your site and browse to related pages, thereby increasing traffic to all pages in the topic cluster.
3. Organic social media
Organic social media isn’t a new strategy, but it’s still something marketers should focus on. In addition to posting content on social media platforms, you can also use Instagram Stories, live videos on Instagram or TikTok, or Facebook Messenger.
It’s important to have a diverse social media strategy and use the right social media platforms – not just Facebook, Instagram, and X. Platforms like YouTube and even Pinterest can drive a ton of traffic to your website.
As we saw with Twitter’s transition to X, users are likely to switch platforms when there are significant changes to a platform — so don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Henry Franco offers two suggestions for organic social media.
"First, don't spam your audience — it costs users nothing to view your posts, and they will do so if you don't provide them with any value. Understand your audience and create content that speaks directly to them," Franco said.
"Secondly, be active in community management. People love when brands like and reply to them — it humanizes your business and keeps people coming back for more content."
For example, HubSpot uses a fun carousel of images on Instagram to showcase your office personality, which is a lighthearted way to engage our audience (I’m a badass from the East and West coasts, just because I often get time zones mixed up.)
4. Website Analysis
Let’s reverse engineer our thought process a little. Before you drive traffic to your website, it’s important to understand your audience.
To do this, analyze your site to see where you are losing visitors and where you are gaining them. There are many third-party tools for this, such as Crazy Egg .
With this information, you can create the right content to drive the right traffic to your website.
5. Influencers
We know that customers are more likely to buy from an organization with a good reputation, but how do you create great word-of-mouth marketing?
First, delight your customers. Second, collaborate with influencers.
Influencer marketing isn’t a fad. In fact, it’s an affordable option for driving traffic to your website. When an influencer posts a discount code, link, review, or giveaway, you’re leveraging their audience to drive traffic to your site.
6. Email List Building
Leveraging your current readers and customers is a great way to increase traffic to your website. When you publish a new blog or content offer, you can promote it to your followers/subscribers to quickly increase traffic. For content-rich websites, repeat readers can help achieve traffic goals, conversions, and lead generation.
First, build an email list or grow an existing one. Here are some strategies you can use:
- Content Offers: Publish content that requires visitors to share their email address to access it. Add a CTA for content offers on your website.
- Easily accessible newsletter signup: Add a signup form on your website, from your homepage to your About page. If visitors have a pleasant experience on your website, they are more likely to sign up for your newsletter.
- Social Media: Promoting your email newsletter on social media (whether through a post or a contest/giveaway) is a great way to convert your current followers into subscribers.
Pro Tip: Learn how to build an email list from scratch .
7. Community Engagement
The more brand awareness you have, the more traffic you will get to your website. One way to gain brand awareness is to actively participate in marketing activities.
You can implement an engagement strategy by participating in Facebook groups for your industry, answering questions on public forum websites, and interacting with your followers on social media.
One of my favorite social media brands is Taco Bell. Taco Bell delights its customers on social media almost every day. Here are a few examples from the company’s X account.
In the example above, Taco Bell used a simple tweet from a customer to engage with them and build community organically. The brand also likes to have fun:
Remember to be helpful and humane. No one likes spammy links or self-serving comments when asking questions online.
8. On-Page SEO
On-page SEO helps your website rank higher in search engines and drive more traffic. Some on-page SEO elements include page titles, headers, meta descriptions, image alt text, and URLs (and more). Appearing in search engines will drive more traffic to your website.
Pro Tip: First, check out our ultimate guide to on-page SEO .
9. High-quality backlinks
In order to increase website traffic, you need to rank high in search engines. In order to rank high in search engines, you need to become an authority in your industry.
In addition to the topic/cluster model above, there is another way to achieve this, and that is to get high-quality backlinks. If high-authority sites link to your site, then your credibility will be higher.
“High-quality backlinks can bring more traffic to your site in two main ways: improving rankings and increasing referral traffic,” said Irina Nica, senior product marketing manager.
She continued: “Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors for every major search engine. By consistently earning high-quality backlinks from relevant websites, you will improve your ranking in the SERPs and therefore see your organic traffic rise.”
Nica adds, “Backlinks can also drive a lot of referral traffic. If you’re mentioned on a popular news site, this is to be expected. If you’re mentioned (and linked to) in an article that already ranks highly for a high-search volume keyword and has consistently growing traffic, you can also see referral traffic.”
Pro Tip: Want to learn how to get backlinks? We have 50+ creative methods .
10. Video Marketing
If video marketing isn’t already part of your content strategy, you’re missing out on a huge potential audience. Statista reports that Google Sites, which owns YouTube, has 258 million viewers in the United States.
Digital video ad spending is forecast to grow from $59 million in 2024 to nearly $90 million by 2028. And those numbers are just for mobile devices.
You can create videos for Instagram Stories or Reels, make live videos, create a YouTube channel, and more.
11. Repurposing content
Need content to drive traffic to your website but struggling to come up with ideas? I get it. A great way to overcome this obstacle is to repurpose old content. Find a blog post that’s performing well and remake it into a video.
Or, if your podcast performs really well, write a blog post on that topic. Using content that performs well will continue to drive traffic to your website.
You can also repurpose written content to capitalize on industry trends. For example, if you have some old content about artificial intelligence, you can update it with recent statistics and quotes, package it together as a blog post, and promote it as the ultimate topic guide.
12. LinkedIn Creator
LinkedIn is more popular among millennials than any other social network. Now that millennials are in their 30s or 40s, they are likely to be a significant part of your target market.
Unlike LinkedIn Influencers, anyone can become a LinkedIn Creator. You can repurpose blog posts (or write new ones!), host live audio events, or even start a newsletter on the platform.
LinkedIn offers a wealth of resources for anyone looking to expand their influence, such as its Content Best Practices , which recommends you post at least four times a week and think of each post as a conversation starter.
13. SEO Tools
In order to increase website traffic, it is important to learn SEO. Learning how to use SEO tools like Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and SEMrush will help you develop strategies to increase website traffic.
These tools will help you understand and analyze what’s working and what’s not on your website. Plus, they can help you come up with content ideas that are likely to generate high traffic. Check out our roundup of the best SEO tools to monitor your website.
14. History Optimization
Historical optimization is the process HubSpot uses to update old blog content and generate more traffic and leads. If you’re like us, the vast majority of your monthly blog views and leads come from old posts.
“Historical optimization is a strategy that works best for blogs that have been around for several years because you need to 1) generate a lot of organic search traffic, 2) have a large number of blog subscribers and social media followers, and 3) have a large library of old posts,” says Pamela Vaughan.
Vaughan adds: “Historical optimization should be a part of your overall blogging strategy, not the entire strategy.”
15. Voice Search Optimization
Remember how Ariel in The Little Mermaid wanted to go where the people were? The same principle applies to digital marketing. In order to drive traffic to your website, it’s important to appear where people are searching.
Voice search is an increasingly important ranking area, especially with the advances in artificial intelligence we’ve seen in the last year or two. According to eMarketer , the number of US users of voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant will grow from 145.1 million in 2023 to 170.3 million in 2028.
Here are some tips to get started:
- **Research long-tail keywords ** : When people use voice search, they speak in full sentences, not phrases. To optimize for voice search, start researching long-tail keywords.
- Write answer-focused content: The content you write should answer your audience’s questions.
- Optimize your snippet: Smart speakers like Alexa and Google Home look for short, concise answers. Writing short snippets in your posts makes it easier for search engines and smart speakers to find the answers they’re looking for.
16. Local SEO
If your business is a brick-and-mortar store, local SEO is an important factor to consider. Former HubSpotter Kelsey Smith writes in her comprehensive guide to local SEO that search engines gather information on local searches by “[relying on] signals like local content, social profile pages, links, and citations to deliver the most relevant local results.”
For example, when someone types "best soul food restaurants" into Google, search results will be generated based on the user's location. Tools such as Google My Business and Moz Local help businesses manage their directory listings and citations so that they appear in local searches.
Here’s one restaurant that showed up when searching in Chicago:
Local search ranking:
- Make sure your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across Google My Business and your social media pages.
- Use directory management tools to monitor directories like Yelp, Foursquare, Best of the Web, and more.
- Research and use location-based search terms on sites like Google Trends, which analyzes popular search terms in various regions.
17. QR Code
Marketers love a good QR code. Now that smartphones can scan QR codes, consumers love them too.
QR codes can drive trackable traffic to your website, but you have to give users a reason to scan them.
Think of it as creating a real-life CTA button. If you make it attractive and accessible enough, people will scan it, and you can gauge the success of that QR code placement in real time.
When you use a dynamic QR code generator, even if your URL changes later, your QR code will remain the same and still accessible.
18. A/B Testing
You know you’re a marketer when your motto is “test, test, test again.”
A/B testing is a type of split testing that helps you determine which version of your campaign performs best. These tests can give you key insights into your audience so that you can create customized content and offers to drive traffic to your site. There are many tools you can use to get started.
19. Internal Links
When visitors come to your blog, your goal is to keep them there.
That’s why internal links (links pointing to other pages on your website) are so important. When visitors go on to visit other pages on your site, they’re more likely to convert and become brand lovers.
For example, you can create an internal linking structure using the pillar/cluster model described above. Pillar and cluster pages link back and forth, which can improve your site’s credibility on search engines while also increasing the likelihood of conversions.
20. Technical SEO
Technical SEO focuses on the backend of your website to understand how your pages are technically set up and organized.
These factors include elements like page speed, crawling, indexing, and more.
21. European Dietetic Association
Google has long prioritized content that it believes is most helpful to users. Over the years, this has been summarized as EAT, which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust.
In 2022, it added an “E,” which stands for “Experience,” meaning that content should be produced by people with first-hand, real-world experience with the subject.
“EEAT is undoubtedly one of the most underrated content SEO practices,” said Amanda Sellers , blog strategy manager at SEO .
If you have a mature blog or large content library, take the time to review these EEAT best practices:
- This is very helpful content.
- Experts created it.
- Trustworthy.
- It is updated regularly.
Simply by adding personal opinions and expert quotes to your existing content, you can significantly improve your content’s ranking in the SERPs.
22. Community Building
Building a community of brand enthusiasts is a great way to consistently drive traffic to your website. You can set up a Facebook Group, Instagram Live event, LinkedIn Group, or Quora Space specifically for your followers and others in your industry where you can create value while also linking back to your website.
You can even do this from your own website - think of Apple's Support Communities , which I've used many times to diagnose certain issues on my iPhone or laptop. LEGO's online community allows users of all ages to participate in activities and challenges, and even submit their ideas to LEGO designers.
23. Content Offers
Sometimes called a “lead magnet,” a content offer is a way to use content to attract traffic to your website and generate leads. Content offers vary depending on where your customer is in their buying journey, but can include webinars, guides, reports, trials, demos, checklists, and more.
24. Media Coverage and Public Relations
Earned media coverage is a great way to increase your company's brand awareness and traffic to your website. If your marketing and PR teams work together, you can drive traffic to your website and create great word of mouth.
Ellie Flanagan said: “While most media outlets today try to avoid adding backlinks to their stories (it’s often against their editorial guidelines), that doesn’t mean good reporting won’t draw people back to your site.
Media coverage provides great third-party validation for your company. Stories about new products or services, company culture, or even industry thought leadership can be a powerful driver for engaging readers who may not have heard of your company before but want to learn more.”
25. Social Sharing Buttons
Social share buttons are links that make it easy for your readers to share your content on social media. When your readers become promoters of your content, your traffic increases. Here’s a quick cheat sheet on creating social share buttons.
Once you’ve created your social sharing buttons, how do you get people to share your content? Here are some tips to get started:
- Ask people to share it on social media.
- Create powerful content.
- Contains quotable content.
- Add multimedia like images, videos, infographics, and more.
26. Click-through rate optimization
Once your content is published and starts ranking on search engines, make sure people click through to read your post.
Click-through rate (CTR) measures the number of people who clicked on and read your post versus the total number of people who viewed the link to your post (e.g., a landing page, email, or ad).
A great tool to measure your organic CTR is Google Search Console . To get more people to click and drive traffic to your website, it’s important to write compelling and appropriate meta descriptions and titles.
To write quality meta tags that are worth clicking on, make sure your title is short and catchy, and your description makes your visitors want to learn more. This ties into the on-page SEO described above.
27. Academy and Knowledge Base Posts
Educational content is one form of content that can increase traffic to your website. If you create courses, certifications, or educational posts that are helpful to your audience, you’ll likely see an increase in traffic.
For example, use HubSpot Academy to generate content that is useful to your audience. We offer videos, certification courses, and knowledge base articles to answer questions. See the example of a knowledge base article below.
28. Social News Sites
Reddit is no longer a playground for trolls — it’s an invaluable resource for knowledge and information. I often use it when researching HubSpot articles to see what the trending topics are or what questions users have about a certain topic.
Reddit and similar sites like Quora are social news sites that can be great traffic drivers. In essence, these platforms are similar to social media in that they facilitate asynchronous connections between users.
The difference is that these types of sites bring attention to an issue or topic and can share outside content to help explain the user’s perspective.
Another way external sites can benefit from increased traffic from social news sites is by sharing them on popular channels. If you are just starting out, you can share your site’s content on these sites yourself, but proceed with caution.
Just like traditional social networking sites, Reddit and Quora communities discourage excessive self-promotion. You perform best when you share content in the context of the topic and it is the best information that answers the user's question.
1. Paid Advertising
You can use paid advertising to quickly drive traffic to your website. With search engines, you can run pay-per-click ads or retargeting ads. With social media, you can run display ads or sponsored posts.
Your strategy will most likely include a mix of different types of advertising, such as social media, display ads, and search ads.
Deloitte’s 2024 Chief Marketing Officer Survey shows that marketers expect social media spending to grow 12.1% in 2025.
2. Contests and Giveaways
An easy way to increase traffic to your website is through contests and giveaways. This can quickly boost your website traffic while rewarding your fans at the same time. You can host giveaways on social media, through your email list, or both.
Maybe start with something smaller than the drinks company Liquid Death, which is giving away a free jet in the summer of 2024. A real jet. (Minus the pilot.)
Implementing a strategy like this is simple. Just follow these six steps:
- Decide on which platform to host your giveaway. (You can use more than one platform.)
- Choose a prize. (Free tickets, discounts, etc…)
- Select criteria. (Website reviews, email signups, etc…)
- Write advertising copy.
- Create a graph.
- Post and promote a contest or giveaway.
3. Guest Posting
Likewise, writing guest posts can increase traffic to your website. Guest posts show that you are active in the community while also generating links to your website (more on generating backlinks below).
To implement a guest posting strategy, you’ll need to find a website that’s right for your company, draft a blog post, and then write the promotional copy.
Caroline Forsey says: “I’m particularly interested in guest postings if I feel like the author has done their research beforehand.”
“For example, if the copywriter tells me how the piece will engage readers, I’ll pay more attention to it. Also, I admire it if the writer can recognize gaps in our content and know how their work will fill those gaps rather than compete with existing content.”
4. Guest Podcast
Similar to guest posting, being a guest on a popular podcast can increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website.
You may already have some podcasts that are a good fit for you; you can also use “matchmaking” companies that specialize in podcast guests, like Interview Connections and PodMatch .
Always do your own research. Listen to a few episodes to get a feel for the tone and themes, research the host, read reviews, and see if the podcast publishes numbers like subscribers or downloads.
5. Thought Leadership
According to research from Edelman and LinkedIn , more than half of decision makers and executives spend an hour or more per week reading thought leadership content.
If this is your audience, it’s time to shift your editorial schedule to focus more on thought leadership. (Even if your target audience isn’t yet in the C-suite, sharing thought leadership content can increase your brand’s credibility and visibility — and help you create truly useful content.)
When choosing thought leaders, don’t limit yourself to your own industry. Influential thought leaders often have transferable knowledge that can help your readers regardless of their industry and experience.
While the term “leader” implies someone who is well established in their career, there are still many young professionals who are disrupting industries, trying new strategies, and catching the attention of their peers. Most importantly, look for a good storyteller—someone you ’d be happy to sit down and talk with.
Conclusion: Repeat the above steps
You don’t want to sleep on these strategies after applying them. While you can get a ton of traffic if done well, you should always be working on it.
You’ll want to keep doing this until you get tired of the traffic from your blog (which I doubt you ever will). The best way to grow any business, online or offline, is to keep doing what works for you.
The better content you write and the more popular the blogs you write, the more exposure you get, the more traffic you’ll be able to drive to your site, the more friends you’ll make, and the more money you’ll make.
So, once you are able to publish your article on one popular website by following the above steps, repeat the process to get more traffic and customers.
There are many ways to drive more traffic to your website, and the best way is to try to do what has worked for other people and see if it gets you any results.
The strategies I share here have worked for many people, and I’m confident they’ll work for you, too.
Just make sure that when you apply these techniques, you pay careful attention to executing the process correctly. If you do this, you will find that everything starts to go more smoothly.
When you start getting more traffic, you can convert those visitors into customers. That’s when the real magic of blogging comes into play.
For more information, please see:
What are some things you do to increase traffic to your blog? How do you attract more customers? Hear your thoughts in the comments below!
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