Google and other search engines are massively powerful tools when it comes to driving traffic to your site. Solid SEO techniques and having a high ranking on the results pages of these search engines are the best methods for increasing your site visits. But Google isn’t the only way to drive traffic to your site.
Google’s algorithms change regularly, so a successful methodology might not work the same in the future. The best option is to spread the risks and utilise social media. Social media is yet another vital tool in any successful company’s marketing efforts. Having active social media channels where a business can engage with consumers is imperative.
Not only can you drive traffic to your website from your social channels, but you can also use them as a platform to share your content, promote your products and build lasting relationships with consumers. You can achieve all of this for free, too.
Set up a Facebook account for your business
Facebook is the grand-daddy of social media, with nearly two billion active users worldwide. Facebook is the most popular platform in South Africa. You simply can’t miss out on reaching all of these users. Twitter and Instagram are important too, but Facebook is the pioneer.
Create a business profile and start building a following from the moment you register your company. This will make product launches and marketing efforts more impactful in the future. Facebook offers easy linking to and from your site, placing your website URL right on your profile page for easy access.
It also makes it easy to engage with your followers on your posts, with simple comment boxes and the option to react to different responses. You can easily respond to any concerns, queries and comments from your followers.
Another useful feature offered by Facebook is the ability to join conversations in groups. By starting a conversation or joining an existing one in relevant Facebook groups, you can open the door to more customers and visitors.
Only join if you have something useful to add or share. Don’t try to sell you products or pitch an idea, these won’t get the positive response you hope for. Actually engaging with people and offering advice or perspective will result in a better response from the audience.
LinkedIn is for professionals
LinkedIn is possibly the most valuable business networking tool for companies and individuals. It is also a platform where you can share your content and drive traffic to your website. By sharing important information or valuable research to a professional following, the results can be worth the time.
If your content is the most relevant and valuable on your followers’ feeds, then they are likely to click through to your site. That’s the difference with LinkedIn – you’re not trying to sell a product or promote your business; you want to provide useful information and solve problems for your followers.
Posting to LinkedIn is pretty straightforward and intuitive. The user interface is easy to use and writing a post is very easy. Follow the examples of some of LinkedIn’s biggest influencers, such as Bill Gates and Richard Branson.
Like Facebook, LinkedIn also has groups for people with similar interests or objectives. You can stay abreast of industry news, useful information and trends by joining some of these groups.
You can network with like-minded people and build brand awareness via these groups. Again, don’t spam people with promotions – rather engage naturally and have something to add to the conversation.
SlideShare can be a great tool
Owned by LinkedIn, SlideShare is an information-sharing platform that allows you to make your presentation documents publicly available. If you’ve held any talks or have any presentations and infographics from product launches, put them on SlideShare with a link to your website.
SlideShare accepts PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote and OpenDocument formats. The site also has about 80 million visitors so it can be a valuable platform for attracting organic traffic to your site. You can easily take your existing content and turn it into presentations, then upload it to this site for all to use.
You need to have a LinkedIn account to use SlideShare, but the potential to reach hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of potential customers through the platform makes it a no-brainer. SlideShare will also provide analytics and feedback on your statistics so you can track your performance and see how many people click through to your website.
Use Twitter chats to drive traffic
Twitter is another powerful social media platform but is more nuanced than Facebook. The easiest way to drive traffic from Twitter is to join a chat. Do a quick Google search for Twitter chats around the topic you are interested in, this is the easiest way to find links to these groups.
These chats take place live at certain times throughout the day, and it isn’t hard to find one that will fit your schedule. They often take the form of a Q&A whereby members can ask questions one at a time and get a response from other users.
Joining one of these chats allows you to share some wisdom and learn a few things from others too. One drawback is that these chats can move fast so it’s quite easy to lost track of the conversation and you can also forget to include the chat hashtag to ensure that it is logged within the chat feed.
If people like what you have to say and find your information useful, then they will check out your profile and click through to your website. Make sure your website URL is included on your profile so people can access it easily.
Share knowledge on Quora
Quora is a social channel where people ask questions and get useful answers. It has about 190 million monthly users – a great pool of potential customers. You’ll need to find a topic related to your area of expertise before you can spread some knowledge and help other users with their problems or questions.
By participating in threads and providing useful information, you can increase traffic to your website through referrals. The great thing about Quora is that the users are always looking for answers, so they’ll be willing to check out your website for more information.
You can create a Quora account or login with your Google or Facebook account. It’s simple and can be an effective tool for directing traffic to your site.
Take advantage of your emails
Most people send and receive multiple emails throughout the course of the day. We generally have a set signature or sign-off at the bottom of these emails with our names and contact details. A smart way to drive traffic to your website is to include your URL in your email signature.
The numerous people you speak to on a daily basis will be able to check out your site easily if they are interested in what you have to offer. You can multiply this effect by getting your employees to include the URL in their signatures too.
Do some guest blogging
Writing blog posts for other sites may sound like you’re putting in the effort for the benefit of someone else, but in actual fact, it can be a successful way to drive traffic to your site. By including links to your site on these blogs, you can direct some of their visitors to your website.
If you’re good at writing blogs and people enjoy reading what you have to say, then using other blog platforms can generate solid links for your business. Only write posts for quality blogs that you’d like to associate your brand with. Make sure these posts are engaging and thought-provoking to encourage people to check out your website.
Don’t worry about producing mass blog posts for other sites – rather write a few, well-researched posts that are high-quality. Finding the right blogger to collaborate with can be a lengthy process, so plan for this in advance.
In conclusion, there are numerous ways to drive website traffic without relying on Google and other search engines. Not all of these methods have been mentioned here, but hopefully, you can get some ideas and inspiration for alternative ways to market your website.
These ideas are all free to use and require no budget, so if you’re just a start-up looking for some exposure and a cheap way to spread the word, then try some of these social platforms. They are great ways to raise brand awareness and build effective relationships with potential customers.
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