Proven Ways to Generate and Optimize Website Traffic

Website traffic is crucial to the survival of any online business.  The relation between web traffic and online sales is the same of store visitors to brick and mortar stores -  you need people to see your products. The more people do, the more likelihood of sales.

And by online business we mean blogs too. Every website with a commercial view needs an audience. In this detailed post today, we will discuss the different ways to generate and optimize website traffic. By the end of this tutorial, we would have covered the types of website traffic, where to get them and the one definite source to understanding website traffic secrets

What is Website Traffic?

Traffic pertains to the number of visitors your website gets on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. This is a measure webmasters base their site’s effectiveness on to  attract readers and/or consumers. Broadly speaking, there are two types of website traffic -  Organic and Inorganic. 

What is Organic Traffic?

Organic traffic refers to the traffic that lands on your website as a result of unpaid search results. Organic traffic is generated naturally i.e. users visit your site having found it on search results or social media and not through paid advertising strategies. 

Content plays a large role in generating Organic Traffic. If your website has relevant and high-quality content, there is a higher chance of ranking up in Google's search results pages. A higher rank increases the likelihood of your website link getting clicked. 

What is Inorganic Traffic?

In contrast to Organic traffic, In-Organic traffic is generated through paid platforms. This can come in the form of affiliate links, paid referrals, advertisements, and other marketing strategies. To efficiently get inorganic traffic, it is important that you choose a strategy that best fits your goals.

For example - if you are launching a product or selling an affiliate product through your blog, an effective paid traffic strategy would be through Social media (Facebook Ads works best). You create a landing page on your blog where you explain the product in detail and then advertise that page on Social media. People click on your Ad and are routed to your landing page.

There are tons of paid marketing types, to use the strategy which works best for you, you have to consider factors like end goal, price, potential gains and reach. 

OR

When to Choose Organic Traffic over Inorganic Traffic?

We are always proponents of Organic traffic since its inexpensive and can generate more traffic volume than paid traffic. However Organic traffic takes time to build. The process of scaling up the SEO ranks is slow and time taking and can take somewhere between 6 months to a year. 

Paid traffic on the other hand is fast. Since the Paid Ads are directly targeted for conversion, the impact is almost immediate. 

When to use Paid traffic over Organic traffic - When you have short term or Immediate goals. Paid Traffic can help you sell that product fast and put money in your pocket. Paid traffic can also help you with generating leads for Email marketing which you can use for future sales. 

When to use Organic traffic over Paid Traffic- Organic traffic is best used when your goal is long term. Organic traffic uses strategies such as Keywords, Content, Backlinks etc which take time but reap results in the long term. 

Ways to get Organic Traffic

Listed below are the 5 proven ways to generate and optimize website traffic Organically.

1. Create High-Quality Content

Content is the essence of your website. Quality content is what drives people to your website. Content also makes Google love or hate your website as it is one of the key algorithm factors to determine how Google will rank your website. 

2 . Optimize Web Performance

A slow website is going to fizzle out. Google does not like slow websites because they do not provide the best user experience. To optimize your website for the best traffic gains, you have to ensure that it loads under 3 secs. 

How can you increase website speed?

While there are more than 20 different factors which can help reduce website load speed, the most prominent ones are listed below. You can find our detailed article on website speed here.

3. Use High-Value Keywords

Keywords are search terms and phrases that users type when they are looking for something online. These are also the words that search engines index in their systems. Notice we mention “high-value” keywords instead of just keywords? This is because not every word or phrase has a high search rate. Read our detailed article about keywords and its role in SEO here

How to find High Search Rate Key-Words?

The answer is through keyword research. Listed below are some of the common ways to find keywords:

4. Build Backlinks

Backlinks are links that redirect a user from one site to another when clicked. These are highly valuable when building the credibility of your website. 

For example, you can guest post an article and publish it on a prominent website. In the article, you can link your website through an anchor text. This link gives Google a signal that your website must be relevant if an established website is linking to it. However, Link-building can be expensive and difficult. Writing a guest post on an established blog can set you back by couple of 100 $s

An alternate way of link building is through building relationships. You can contact other medium sized bloggers and then ask them if they accept guest posting and in return offer them a place to guest post on your blog. 

Read our complete article about Backlinks and its role in SEO here

5. Promote Your Site

Site promotion is an active way to build traffic. You can do this by creating content on other channels, and then leading the audience from that channel to your website. You can start with large platforms such as YouTube and Facebook and start posting and promoting content. Beneath the content you can put a link to your website. If people like the content, they can click on the link and go to your website. 

You can also comment on Question and Answer forums like Quora and Reddit and provide links to your website. There are a couple of pointers which you need to follow else your profile would be flagged and blocked:

• Always answer questions related to your Niche
• Build credibility first by providing answers frequently and adding value
• Avoid posting your website link in all your answers. Make sure the link forms a relevant part of your answer.

Ways to get In-organic Traffic

Now that we have discussed Organic Traffic, let us talk about some of the ways to get Inorganic traffic.  Inorganic Traffic requires you to spend some money to drive users to your website. 

1. Paid Search Query Traffic:

You can buy Google Ads to generate traffic. Prior to buying the Ads it is advisable to do your keyword research through Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner so you can finalize which keyword you want to put an ad for. Once you have the keywords decided, you can create the below Ads:

Google Search Ads - Lets you reach people when they are searching for specific keywords. The Ads are displayed on the top of the search result as below

Google Display Network - These are Ads which are used to reach people outside of the search results. This could be in the form of a banner Ad, Widget Ad or Video ad being displayed while a customer is looking at another website

YouTube Ads - YouTube is a great platform for educators and entertainers. Use YouTube ads if you are offering services, like online courses. You can also use the platform for advertising software programs or music. For product Ads, its better to use Social media. 

2. Paid Social Media Traffic:

Social media Ads are one of the biggest and most successful ways to generate Paid traffic. The most common Ads through Social media platforms are:

Facebook Ads - Facebook is one the largest and most successful social media platforms. With over 2.7 Bn users diversified over various demographics and interest groups and representation from over 230 countries, you can be confident your target population definitely exists here.  Moreover creating Facebook Ads is easy. You can create Facebook Ads with a minimum budget and target the Ad towards generating more leads, sales, or website visits. Facebook Ads work best when you have products to sell since the conversion rate and ROI are high. Click here for our complete review of Facebook Ads

Instagram Ads - Instagram Ads are an extension of Facebook Ads and can be created in Facebook Platform itself. Instagram has more young followers who are visually driven hence selling physical or virtual products here can result in great conversions. Products related to health, making money and fashion do reasonably well through instagram. 

3 - Buying Traffic or Solo Ads:

This strategy is only recommended if you have a product to sell and want eyes on the product. You can buy traffic or leads from platforms such as Udimi.com. The leads available here are specific to niches and are tried and tested for conversion. You can buy Solo Ads through vendors who would then share your landing page and product detail with their email list. You can generate traffic and conversion. This is an expensive method and not recommended for beginners. 

The Secrets to Website Traffic Revealed

Website Traffic is a maze and mastering it can be a daunting task for people. The biggest problem that most entrepreneurs face today is not that they don't have a product or service to sell but its finding customers or at least letting people know they exist.

Statistically 90% of online startups fail in their first year of launch. Many of these fail because of lack of funds, lack of research but almost all of them have 1 thing in common - lack of traffic. 

The key to understanding traffic is to understand and master the below:

1. Who is your dream customer
2. Where are they congregating
3. How can you grab their attention
4. How can you retain them for repetitive sales

As a person who has struggled with traffic before, I can't express enough the importance of the above concepts. Understanding and mastering the above concepts can lead your blog or website to heights you have never seen before. And to master it, I high recommend the book - Traffic Secrets: The Underground Playbook.

This is by far the best traffic  book to be ever written. Written and Narrated (if you opt for audio version) by Russell Brunson, this book walks through the core concepts of website traffic and provides an in-depth analysis on both Organic and Inorganic traffic. 

A brief about Russell Brunson:

Russell is a force to recon with. At mere 37 years of age, he has created numerous multi-million dollar companies and has written 4 books, all of which have been listed as best sellers in NYT. 

One of those books is Traffic Secrets: The Underground Playbook.

Details about the book:

The book is written with just 1 goal - To guide the readers on the secrets of earning website traffic. 

There are 20 secrets to be learnt as listed below:

• Secret # 1 - Who is your dream customer 
• Secret # 2 - Where are they hiding ? The Dream 100
• Secret # 3 - Hook, Story, Offer and the Attractive character
• Secret # 4 -   Work you way in, Buy your way in 
• Secret # 5 - Traffic that you own
• Secret # 6 - Follow-Up funnels
• Secret # 7 - Infiltrating the Dream 100
• Secret # 8 - Fill Your Funnel Organically (Working Your way in)
• Secret # 9 - Fill your Funnel with Paid Ads (Buying Your way in)
• Secret # 10 - Instagram Traffic Secrets
• Secret # 11 -  Facebook Traffic Secrets
• Secret # 12 - Google traffic Secrets 
• Secret # 13 - YouTube Traffic Secrets 
• Secret # 14 - After the Slaps and Snaps 
• Secret # 15 - Conversation Domination 
• Secret # 16 -The Funnel Hub
• Secret # 17 -Other People's Distribution Channels
• Secret # 18 -Your Affiliate Army 
• Secret # 19 -Cold Traffic 
• Secret # 20 - Other Growth Hacks 

The secrets are applicable equally to both online businesses and Brick and Mortar stores. These secrets have helped people scale up their businesses from nothing to a million dollars in a matter of months and years. 

The Best part about this Book - It is FREE. You just need to pay for shipping ($9.95 domestic and $19.95 international).

There are also bonuses that come with this book as listed below. You can claim these bonuses for FREE here

• 4+ hours of training
• 60-minute presentation (made by Russell Brunson)
• Dean Graziosi’s video presentation
• Prince EA’s video speech
• Pen Joon’s Presentation
• 30-Day Traffic Secrets Challenge (Workbook)