How to Drive More Traffic to Your Site

Getting more people to your website is one of the greatest challenges for any blogger. It’s the most asked question in every blogging community.

Today I have some free ways to get traffic to your website from social media.

So if you are looking to up your game with increased blog traffic, you’ll love this post. You’ll learn about the various traffic sources and also how you can create content that accommodates them.

Let’s get started.

Where Does Blog Traffic Come From?

Blog traffic comes from a number of sources:

Search engine results
Pinterest
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
LinkedIn
Google Plus

I’m sure I left a few out. But it’s obvious that there are many ways to bring traffic to your website.

What’s important to understand are the dynamics of these traffic sources and how you can create content using a common denominator to accommodate them.

Use SEO for Long-Term Sustainable Traffic to your Site

Let’s talk about search engine optimization (SEO) and why it’s important and first on the list.

Many blogger ignore SEO because:

Don’t really understand it.
Got bogus information about it.
Didn’t see results right away.
It’s too hard.

That’s a huge mistake. SEO should always be on your checklist when creating content.

Here’s one powerful reason why:

Getting found in Google search engine results can bring you sustainable traffic for years to come.

I still get traffic to blog posts I wrote in 2009 and make money from them too! Plus I don’t do any further maintenance or social media for those posts. ALL the traffic comes from Google.

Isn’t that amazing? I think so too.

It took me about an hour or two to research and write the posts with SEO in mind. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Seriously, if you want traffic for the long-term, SEO is your best friend.

Here’s one thing you need to know about getting traffic from search engines:

It won’t happen overnight. It’s a long term website traffic strategy.

BUT, over 41% of all website traffic comes from organic search results.

As a blogger who wants to earn income, you need to think long-term.

That brings us to getting website traffic from social media networks.

Increase Website Traffic Fast with Social Media

Social media is one of the best ways to bring traffic to your website now. When you post in social media, people will click the link to your site NOW.

You can see the big difference between organic search traffic and social media traffic. SEO is more long-term strategy and social media is a more immediate short-term strategy.

According to Search Engine Watch, Social media sites accounted for 2.8% of website visits in Q2 2016.

That may seem like a small percentage but you have to look at the billions of users across all social networks.

You can potentially get hundreds or thousands of websites visitors to your blog every day.

Getting traffic from social media is a very different strategy. You can expect to spend more time each day or week posting in social media, sharing and building relationships with other people.

It’s actually a lot more work than SEO but the traffic from social media is NOW.

Best Tips to Get More Traffic from Social Media

Now that you know the differences between organic search results and social media traffic, let’s focus on some key strategies that can apply to both.

Although social media networks are different from each, these basic tips will help you get more engagements, shares and traffic to your site.

I do recommend that you check out my SEO basics post to learn more about creating content with search engine optimization in mind.

1. Make Your Content Shareable

If you want your content shared, then provide the tools to make it easily shareable. There are many plugins available for WordPress so your readers can just click and share.

The more difficult you make it for people to share, the better chance they won’t share it.

Here’s two of my favorite social sharing tools.

Social Warfare Sharing Buttons

These mobile-ready share buttons include the most popular social networks. They are super cool looking too!

The good news?

They won’t slow your site down! Social Warfar social sharing buttons are fast loading. They offer more features that are designed to get you even more shares on your posts.

You can check out Social Warfare for the complete list of features.

Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress

Although these share buttons are stunning, they also include other features that you will love! How about subscribe forms, over 50 social sharing networks and attention grabbing animation?

That’s just a few of what you’ll find in this feature rich social sharing plugin.

You can check out Easy Social Share for the full list of awesome features.

2. Create Interesting and Unique Images

Do you include images in your blog posts? You should!

When you share to social media, you’ll want a compelling image to display. One that makes a person pause their newsfeed instead of keep scrolling.

You’ll get way more traffic to your site when you use unique and attractive images.

Did you know?

Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks than tweets without images. Source: WordStream.

Sites like Pinterest and Instagram are image driven. The more appealing your image, the more people will like, share and visit your blog.

I have noticed that many bloggers have images that all look alike. Nothing appealing about that!

You’ll drown in a sea of mediocrity. Think about what YOU can do different to stand out.

You can easily create amazing images using my two favorite image editing sites:

Be sure to check them out and up your image creation game!

That’s not all.

When you include optimized images in your blog post, that will help your SEO so you can get found in Google search.

Be sure to check out my 10 minute mini-course on SEO for Images.

3. Create Content that is Worthy of Sharing

Here’s the most important tip to get more blog traffic. Ready?

Create content that is share worthy.

That’s right. Most of the content on the Internet is mediocre junk that rehashed from other content. Just ask Google.

Make sure your content:

Stands out.
Is high-quality.
Shares a unique point of view.
Covers a topic in depth instead of skimming the surface/
Is something your audience is actually interested in (most people think if they just write what they are passionate about, visitors will magically appear on their blog. Not true.)

If you want the traffic then put the time in.

4. Post Often in Social Media

I did an experiment in which I focused on social media to get traffic to a site. Whew!

It was hard work.

To get consistent traffic from social media networks, you must posts on a regular daily schedule. There are a number of tools to help but it must be done.

The tools that I recommend for social schedules on various platforms are:

And this is why I emphasize the need to use SEO (search engine optimization) too. It’s more work upfront but when that traffic starts rolling in from organic search results, you’ll be thankful.

If you are using Pinterest, it’s a wonderful visual site that can increase website traffic fast. To learn more, read my article about How to Make Money with Pinterest.