16 KILLER TACTICS PROVEN TO BOOST QUALITY WEBSITE TRAFFIC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ORGANIC SEARCHQuality ContentLong-Form ContentFormattingSEO Best Practices

SOCIAL MEDIAShare Your Blog PostsRespond to Comments and SharesPost RegularlyCreate a Content Calendar

EMAIL MARKETINGCreate a Tripwire/Lead Magnet OfferUse a Welcome SequenceConsider AutomationDevelop a Publishing Calendar

REFERRAL LINKSWrite Guest PostsConnect with InfluencersBuild Relationships with Content Creators

PR and Free Media

PAID SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

PART FOUR

BONUS

We’re all trying to do it.

Get more, quality traffic to our websites.

You can spend days, weeks, and months researching the topic without realizing there are

tactics you may be overlooking.

This e-book is about the proven tactics to get more traffic to your website that will likely

convert to leads, sales, opt-ins, and more. We’ve used these methods to generate millions

of dollars’ worth of website traffic for our clients, and now we’re sharing our secrets.

You’ll learn about four main areas:

1. Organic Search 2. Social Media 3. Email Marketing 4. Referral Links

Plus, you’ll get two bonus strategies to speed up the entire process.

Let’s dive in.

WWW.STRATEGYNEWMEDIA.COM1 BOOST WEBSITE TRAFFIC: INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: ORGANIC SEARCHOrganic search is traffic generated from free search engine results. Anytime someone clicks a

non-ad link to your website from a search engine like Google, Bing, or Yahoo, it’s categorized as

an Organic Search visit in Google Analytics.1

• Organic Search is usually the most common source of traffic to a website, and most of that traffic comes from Google.2

• Typically over half of those searches are conducted on mobile devices.2

• Organic Search is vital to your website’s visibilty online.

Here’s how you can get more traffic from searches on Google, Bing, and Yahoo:

CREATE QUALITY CONTENTLet’s get this one out of the way first: your content must be quality. Quality content provides

immediate value to the reader. And value could mean knowledge, entertainment, or inspiration.

There’s not a set formula for quality content. You have to provide the value. But here are some

key characteristics:

• Unique & Original • Relatable • Well Organized

Listen to your target audience. If they are commenting, sharing, and liking content on social

media, you know they find value. And when there’s value, there’s trust in your business.

LONG-FORM CONTENTWhile it’s true that your audience likely has a shorter attention span, the best performing

content is long-form.

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• Easy to Consume • Provides Insight

According to Neil Patel3, Google4, A Moz/BuzzSumo study5, HubSpot6, and Search Engine

Watch7, longer content that provides value and satisfies the reader is more effective.

The data is clear. Long-form content gets shared more…

...and gets more organic traffic.

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Think about the questions your audience has or problems they want to solve as a starting point

for content ideas.

Then, take detailed, deep dives into solving those problems for your audience. Create in-depth

blog posts with photos, diagrams, and charts. Shoot for 3,000 words or more.

FORMATTING IS IMPERATIVEYour audience wants information quickly.

They’ll get lost in 3,000 words of 6-sentence paragraphs, formatting will help keep their focus on

your content’s value.

Try these formatting hacks:

• Subheadings – help identify the main points of each section and leads readers through the content.

• Short sentences – make your sentences short and sweet. Keep it shorter than 10 words when you can.

• Short paragraphs – forget what your English teacher taught you. Whitespace helps your reader’s eye focus on the screen; 1-3 sentence paragraphs are perfect.

• Lists – use bulleted or numbered lists as often as it makes sense.

• Bold & italics – use bold and italics to highlight key terms and add emphasis to make your points clear. Stay away from underlining words. This typically signals a link.

• Edit, edit, edit – remove all unnecessary (“fluff”) content. Your readers won’t return if you waste their time.

APPLY SEO BEST PRACTICESAnyone can easily do basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It can get very technical, very

quickly … but don’t worry.

The concept of SEO is to give Google (or any other search engine) confidence in your content.

Google’s confidence comes from 2 major areas: 1. Relevance of content 2. Content value

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Relevance Google understands what your content is about by automatically “reading” every web page on

your site and looking for clues.

Those clues are things like:

• Title tag

• H1 and H2 tags

• Words used in the body content

• Image tags

• Image file names

This step-by-step guide to increasing your search rankings8 teaches you how to use those

clues to increase Google’s confidence. Give it a try.

Value The second half of SEO is helping Google know how valuable your content is.

Google uses clues to understand value as well. Value clues include:

• Links from other websites called backlinks9

• Click through rates from search results pages

• Bounce rate of the number of people who leave your site

• Time reader spends on your website

• Social sharing

Backlinks are generally regarded as the strongest value clues for Google.

Learn how to get quality backlinks in our article on increasing your search ranking8.

NEED HELP GETTING MORE ORGANIC TRAFFIC?If you’d like more search traffic to your website, let Strategy help.

We’ve used the tactics above to increase clients search traffic by over 96%.

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PART TWO: GET MORE VISITS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

Social Media is another great channel to gain traffic to your

website. The purpose of social media should always be strategic…

don’t just post on social media to “have a presence.”

For many businesses, social media can be a platform to generate

blog traffic, business leads, and, ultimately, sales.

The key to social media is to provide value more than asking for

things.

With that broad guideline in mind, here are 4 ways to generate

traffic from your social media platforms.

1. SHARE YOUR BLOG POSTSIf you’re following this guide, you’re creating some amazing

content for your audience. You need to share that content to

get eyeballs on it.

Don’t just share your content once, either.

Your content won’t be time-sensitive, so share your new posts 3–5 times in the week after you

publish. Come back and share it again a few weeks later, too.

We call this type of content “evergreen content,” because you can keep sharing it and providing

value indefinitely.

Sharing your content on social media is also a great way to learn what your audience likes.

Which leads us to the next point …

2. RESPOND TO COMMENTS AND SHARESEngaging with your fans is a great way to build your brand. Continue the discussion. Ask follow-

up questions. Share insights. Say thanks.

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A thoughtful response to a comment or gratitude for a share goes a long way to building trust

with your readers.

3. POST REGULARLYDon’t stop. Keep publishing content on a regular basis to keep your audience engaged and

informed.

If you’re infrequent with your posts, your readers may lose confidence in your authority.

You’ll find the right frequency for your bandwidth, but shoot for at least once a week. Some

experts will even argue for publishing new content 5+ times a week.

4. CREATE A CONTENT CALENDARA content calendar is the best way to publish content consistently.

To create a content calendar: 1. Brainstorm ideas (including keyword research) 2. Make a list of topics 3. Assign a writer for each 4. Assign a date for each 5. Start writing

One of the best content calendars we’ve used is called Co-Schedule10. It’s a paid service, but it is

well worth it for serious content creators.

Co-Schedule integrates with WordPress, every major social media platform (even Instagram and

Pinterest), Evernote, Google Docs, and has a litany of slick productivity features.

Or if you want to save money, use a free option like Google Sheets11.

WANT HELP GETTING MORE SOCIAL MEDIA TRAFFIC?If you’d like help getting more social media traffic to your website, let Strategy help. We’ve

used the tactics above to generate over $500,000 in social media traffic.

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PART THREE:BOOST YOUR WEBSITE TRAFFIC USING EMAILThe third way you can get more traffic to your website is with email marketing.

Email marketing has some of the strongest cases for ROI among online marketing strategies.

Here’s how to generate more traffic to your website using email:

CREATE A TRIPWIRE/LEAD MAGNET OFFERA tripwire or lead magnet offer is an offer your audience can’t refuse.

You want to offer something of value to your audience in

exchange for an email address and permission to contact

them.

A good lead magnet:

• Solves a specific problem or answers a specific question.

• Provides immediate value.

• Quick to consume (not a 4-week e-course).

• Delivered immediately and automatically.

Once a user opts-in for your lead magnet, you can begin to

tell your brand’s story via email.

USE A WELCOME SERIES TO TELL YOUR STORYA welcome series of emails is automatically delivered to a new subscriber.

It’s great because you can immediately connect with a new prospect while they’re still in a

euphoric state from your incredibly valuable lead magnet.

A welcome email series also provides the best platform (other than a live conversation) to

introduce your company and value proposition.

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Here’s an example of an email welcome series: • Email 1: Deliver lead magnet and introduction to your brand. • Email 2: Highlight a specific tip in the lead magnet. • Email 3: Share content of value from your blog. • Email 4: Sales offer with a time limit. • Email 5: Create a survey to find interests.

CONSIDER EMAIL MARKETING AUTOMATIONEmail marketing automation is like a welcome series on steroids. Instead of triggering emails

only when someone subscribes for the first time, automation triggers emails based on behaviors

users take on your website.

Let’s look at some examples to explain: • Cart Abandonment – a series of emails automatically sent to users who add an item to their shopping cart, but don’t check out. • Birthdays – automatically send a birthday discount to your customers. • Refills/Reorders – send emails based on time from purchase to reorder food, beauty, or any other consumable product. • Interest – send emails to subscribers based on products or blog posts they view or based on interest they’ve shown via survey responses. • Reengagement – send emails to users who haven’t visited your website in a while. • Survey – create segments of subscribers based on survey responses.

Try an email marketing automation like Drip12. It offers the best balance of simplicity and

features. You can do all of the use cases listed above and more.

Another automation tool is MailChimp13. It’s an excellent email service provider as well.

Although it cannot do all of the automation described above, it’s user friendly and helps

familiarize you with basic automation.

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DEVELOP A PUBLISHING CALENDARAs with blog content, we recommend creating a publishing calendar for email. An email

publishing calendar will help you:

• Send emails consistently • Strategically time emails • Coordinate email with blog content or special offers • Coordinate email with social media • Save you time to focus on priorities

WANT HELP GETTING MORE EMAIL TRAFFIC?If you’d like help getting more email traffic to your website, let Strategy help. We’ve used

the tactics above to help generate over $2.5M in website traffic.

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PART FOUR:USE REFERRALS TO GET MORE WEBSITE TRAFFIC

Referral traffic is any click from another website to a page on your website (that’s not from

organic search or social media).

Referral links are commonly called “backlinks,” and they are an important factor in Google search rankings8.

We have a full list of strategies to get backlinks in our article on Improving Your Website Ranking8, but here are some highlights to focus on for boosting traffic:

WRITE GUEST POSTSGuest posting is another great method to gain referral traffic.

A guest post is a blog post that you write for someone else’s website. As part of your content,

you include links to your website.

As a result, you increase your brand’s awareness and expand your audience.

Find opportunities to guest post by searching on Google for something like, “guest post [your

industry],” and look for trustworthy sites that openly accept guest posts.

CONNECT WITH INFLUENCERSInfluencers are maybe the fastest free way to explode traffic numbers for your site. It’s a long-

term, time-intensive effort, though.

The idea is to create a lasting relationship with people who hold influence in your industry.

Here are some ways to build those relationships: • Follow on all social media platforms • Subscribe to their email list • Share their content • Tag them in your content • Engage in conversation on their posts

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You may find they follow you back and even share your content without you needing to ask.

However, when the time is right, i.e. a natural opportunity presents itself, you can engage them

directly via email or a direct message.

Let’s say you use a quote from them or credit them with a concept you write about on your blog.

Send the influencers a message and ask them to review for accuracy. Often times, you’ll get a

response and they’ll share your content as a way of thanking you for the exposure.

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH CONTENT CREATORSSimilar to the industry influencers, you can build relationships with other content creators

in your industry. Your goal with content creators is to secure guest posts, cross promotions,

backlinks, or other marketing opportunities.

PR AND FREE MEDIAAppeal to local or regional media outlets for free media coverage. Media loves human interest

stories, so play off that as it relates to your business. Maybe you helped a customer make a

dramatic life change or played a role in keeping jobs in your city.

Try these tactics: • Follow the media’s social media profiles to see what stories they cover • Follow reporter(s) who cover stories related to your business • Comment and share on stories as it makes sense • Pitch to the media outlet or reporter directly using a press release

When you get your story covered, media outlets will often link to your website on the online

article.

There are unlimited ways to get referral links to your site. Try some different ones (we have more listed here)8 to see what works in your industry.

WANT HELP GETTING MORE REFERRAL TRAFFIC?Partner with Strategy to get results that matter most to you. Call us today! 913.440.0672

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BONUS: PAID SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA

All of the above strategies are 100% proven to work. However, most take months before you’ll

see a noticeable impact on your website traffic.

The short-term answer is to gain traffic through paid search.

Paid ads on Facebook and Google have proven to give our clients an immediate, profitable boost

in traffic, leads and sales.

Here’s why we love paid traffic as a solution to boosting website traffic, fast:

• It’s immediate – paid ads start running in a matter of minutes and will show results in a matter of days, instead of months. • You only pay for clicks – unlike traditional advertising, you only pay for clicks with online ads. You don’t have to pay unless you get traffic to your site. • Incredible targeting – online ads let you target your ideal customer with incredible accuracy based on search terms, interests, demographics, and buying behavior. • You can measure ROI – tie your ad campaigns to ROI using conversion metrics and goal values so you know your return on ad spend.

CONCLUSIONMore website traffic is the goal of any online marketer (and more leads, sales, etc. by

extension). This guide has consolidated the best strategies from our years of client

experience.

So, when revisiting your tactics to increase website traffic, keep these 4 areas in mind:

Additionally, consider paid traffic using Facebook or Google ads to see a boost in traffic

fast. If you’re ready for help getting traffic to your website, contact Strategy today!

• Organic Search • Social Media

• Email Marketing • Referral Links

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SOURCES1. www.strategynewmedia.com/know-online-marketing-working/

2. www.searchengineland.com/google-controls-65-percent-of-search-bing-33-percent- comscore-228765

3. www.neilpatel.com/blog/why-you-need-to-create-evergreen-long-form-content-and- how-to-produce-it/

4. www.blog.serpiq.com/how-important-is-content-length-why-data-driven-seo-trumps- guru-opinions/

5. www.moz.com/blog/content-shares-and-links-insights-from-analyzing-1-million- articles

6. www.blog.hubspot.com/marketing/seo-social-media-study?goal=0_9a3ff4abc7- cc2da15005-176356773

7. www.searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2287597/google-highlights-indepth-articles- in-search-results

8. www.strategynewmedia.com/improve-websites-search-ranking/

9. www.strategynewmedia.com/what-are-backlinks/

10. www.coschedule.com/content-marketing-calendar

11. www.google.com/sheets/about/

12. www.drip.com

13. www.mailchimp.com/

14. www.smartinsights.com/email-marketing/email-communications-strategy/email- social-roi/

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