Perfect! You have a beautiful website and are ready for the world to see it! Except there is still one problem… Where is everybody?

You can have a fabulously designed, professional website, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you will have thousands of people swarming to check it out. In fact, your website traffic might be similar to how it was before. Don’t get me wrong. Once a visitor makes it to your website, it will be much more likely to convert them into a sale. However, you have to get them there first.

So, how do you do that? What are ways you can get more people to visit your website?

Here are six of my favorite creative methods to drive more traffic to your website and increase those sales!

1. Optimize Your Pages for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization means you are optimizing your pages in a way to allow Google to understand the content better and, in turn, post your website page higher on the search results. Having your page rank higher means more impressions, and ultimately more clicks. SEO is an intense undertaking and can often take months for results to begin showing. However, it can bring a massive increase in traffic to your website. Here are a few tricks you can use to make sure your website is formatted properly for better SEO results.

• Use Header tags correctly: Google reads your H1 tag as being the main topic of your page. They should include your keywords. You should only have one H1 per page. Use an H2 tag for your subsections. Headers allow Google to gain a better understanding of what you cover on the page.
• Use Alt. Image Tags: Alternate image tags should be used on all of your images to describe what is shown and how it adds value to the page and your viewer. Try to embed keywords into your alt tag but do not use keyword stuffing. Google can view this as a red flag and penalize you for it.
• Compress your image: Page load speed has a major effect on SEO. If your page takes too long to load, Google will penalize your ranking. Compressing your images is one way to make sure your page loads faster. Aim for all image files to be at least under 15 KB.

2. Utilize Social Media

Social Media can be such a powerful way of building an engaged audience and driving website traffic. One of my fellow entrepreneur friends told me she gets 80% of all website traffic through Pinterest. That’s amazing! Social media often allows your target audience to build a relationship with you and fosters a desire for them to learn more. This increased interest accompanied by an easy link to access your website drives a larger audience to your website.

When using social media to drive website traffic, focus on the social media platforms where your target market hangs out. You can use this website to gain a better idea of the typical audience on each platform.

3. Answer Relevant Questions on Reddit or Quora

Another way to drive visitors to your website is by providing them with value and establishing yourself as an expert in the field. You can do this by answering niche-relevant questions on Reddit or Quora.

For example, you may come across a question targeted at your area of expertise. This question may even come from your ideal customer. To drive them to your website, give them a concise answer to their question in a reply on Reddit and then link them to your website to read your blog, answering their question in more depth. Once they are on your website, it is likely they will become curious and search your website further. If they see your website is a gold mine of valuable information, they may bookmark it or subscribe for notifications when any new value is added to your website.

Answering questions on Reddit and Quora in this way is a great way to drive traffic from your ideal clients.

4. Be a Guest on a Podcast in Your Niche

If you do not already have a podcast of your own, you can be a guest on another. Speaking as a guest on a podcast in your niche is a great way of introducing yourself to a new audience interested in your offering. When you are on the podcast, provide them with valuable information and position yourself as an expert in that field. Podcasts often provide an ever-green platform for you to provide value. The podcast’s audience members can go back and listen to the podcast for years after the podcast is published. This can be a long-term method of generating more traffic to your website.

An even more effective way of driving traffic to your website through podcasts is by offering a freebie on your website in the podcast. For example, You discuss how new entrepreneurs should break up their daily activities to reach their month’s total revenue goal. You can then offer them a template on your website to help them layout the different revenues and expenses in a chart. Valuable freebies drive traffic.

5. Create a Free Online Course

As with providing valuable freebies on podcast episodes, you can also provide freebies through social media platforms, speaking events, and any other way you interact with potential clients. Consider your target audience and what they will find as a valuable resource to achieving their goals. Next, develop a resource to help them reach their goals in a shorter amount of time. Different audiences may need different resources. This is another reason why niching down your audience is beneficial to you in the long-run. Create a resource for your ideal audience, and advertise it on your other points-of-contact with them. This is likely to pique their interest and drive them to your website, where you will have a better chance of actually forming a relationship and making a sale.

These five methods of driving website traffic are by no means exclusive. However, they can be some of the most effective methods to increase website traffic and overall sales. I would love to hear about your results if you implement any of these methods. Let me know below how it goes for you! Until next time friends…

Upward and Onward,

Bailey Thibodeaux

Founder of Honeywave Creative