Every site needs traffic – we all know that.
However, targeted traffic isn’t always the easiest thing to get – especially if you’re not interested in spending hours and hours on drawn out blog posts and backlink strategies.
Because of this, I set out to see if there were any 5-minute traffic tweaks that might make a big difference.
Michaela and I approached this in 3 ways:
- Asking 7 industry experts what their top traffic-getting tips were
- Reflecting on what I’ve found to work the best
- Doing research
Here are some of the top tips we found:
Use Hash Tags When Promoting Your Content
I shared in this video how I got a sale on Instagram in 5 minutes, and it was mostly because of the hash tags I used:
Add This To Your Headlines
You’ve probably seen website headlines that said things like:
“7 Tips For Losing Weight Fast. #5 Will Blow Your Mind!”
“I never knew how much money I could make before I did these 5 specific things. Especially #3.”
These types of headlines drip with intrigue and you can’t help but want to know more.
If you add this type of “extra” to your headline, it really can help you get more traffic. You might not get extra people on your website, but more people on your website will click through.
You could do this with gift-guide type traffic too. I can easily see something like:
“Top 10 Gifts For Pit Bull Lovers. #7 Is Crazy-Cool.”
Add Opt-In Forms To Your Top 5 Posts
This technique is super simple and it’s something that not a lot of people do.
Log into your analytics account and find the five pieces of content on your site that have earned the most views over the last two months.
Add an opt-in form to each of those posts.
This strategy takes almost no effort but it can have a big impact.
Optimize Your Old Posts
If you have old posts that you’ve created in the past, open them up to see if you can make any quick optimization tweaks.
A couple tweaks like adding in a solid title and naming your images could be a huge difference-maker.
Create Personalized Flipboard Magazines
“One tip is to create a personalized Flipboard magazines where we have built followers and flip content to it from the blog.
We trialed one Flipboard magazine content tactic, and on some days, its organic traffic generation kicks sand in Facebook’s face. Some days it drives 25% of our traffic.”
– Jeff Bullas (Twitter, website, eBook)
Repurpose Popular Blog Posts
If you wrote a post that ended up being really popular (lots of likes, shares, tweets, etc.), you can take that post and repurpose the content. That is, use it in a different format, such as turning it into a Slideshare PPT or recording it as a podcast.
And be sure to link back to the original post in whatever new format you choose to increase your web visits.
Here’s a post I made a few years back about how to repurpose your podcast or blog content.
Have A New Headline For Each Social Networking Channel
A study conducted by BuzzSumo.com revealed absolutely zero overlap when it came to the most shared “trigrams” (three word phrases) on Facebook and Twitter.
On Facebook, people shared things like lists, questions and quizzes, warning posts, pictures, and funny posts.
On Twitter people shared more more serious and informative things like “the science of” or “the case for”.
If you know this, you can easily manipulate your headlines.
Take this post, for example. We could spin it to:
Facebook: 10 ways you can feel awesome about your web traffic (these are the BEST – especially #3!)
Twitter: The science of fast web traffic – and how you can now get people to your site quicker than ever
OK, the Twitter one wasn’t so great. But the point is, experiment to see if you get higher click-through rates.
Use An Image To Promote Your Content
Before you promote something to social media create an image based on your post.
Image-based posts always outperform text based, and images with (attractive) faces do the best.
Analyze Your Headline
Use a Headline Analyzer tool like this one to see how effective your titles are.
You can use this for product or blog titles.
Post on Quora
Quora can send you a lot of traffic when you post quality information.
This post is about “5 minute tips” so I’m not recommending that you write a dissertation, but I’ve seen some very quick comments get a ton of upvotes and traffic.
I’ve had some very quick-to-write posts get great traffic.
You can even sell products on your Quora when done in a useful way. For example, if someone asks about “Where does society get negative images of pit bulls?“, you can quickly (but helpfully) answer and include a picture of your “Don’t judge my pit bull” mug to show that you don’t feel pit bulls should all be judged negatively.
Create Shareable Content
“Write the best shareable informative content! Create interesting copy for your readers related to your industry.
Be as informative as you can, use high quality images and make the title of the article enticing!”
– Susan Dolan (Twitter, website)
Recycle Social Media Posts
“One of my favorite ways to get more traffic is through recycling social media posts.
Who said that you can only post something on social media once?
It definitely wasn’t me.
In fact, I have been recycling social media updates for years and getting great results with my evergreen blog content.
Here’s the deal, not everyone is going to see your social media updates when you post them. So instead of posting something only once, why not post it again at a later date?
And when you have multiple status updates around multiple evergreen blog posts, you’ll have a nice library of status updates to choose from.
Of course, you can go next level and use a social media automation tool that will recycle and post your updates on your behalf – automatically. As a result you spend less time figuring out what to post and more time on engaging with your audience.
When you recycle social media updates, you’ll be able to make your evergreen content work even harder for you.”
“Channels such as Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn are especially effective in not only sharing valuable content to promote thought leadership but driving traffic back to your website at the same time.”
– Richard Lorenzen (reported on his behalf by Kayla Starta) (Twitter, website)
Blog Pages Rank Higher Than Posts
“There are tons of ways to increase the amount of traffic your website receives. The first thing I recommend you do is add a blog to your website and fill this with relevant, evergreen content.
If you use WordPress as a platform try to concentrate on pages as a content type (rather than blog posts). They often may rank higher.”
– Lucasz Zelezny (Twitter, website)
Certain Tools Make A Big Difference
Include some long tail keywords in your blog posts, and promote them on social media. Use ViralContentBuzz to amplify content. Check long tail keywords using SEMRush or Searchmetrics (especially focus on competitors).
Even if these don’t instantly increase your traffic, over time, as they get linked to, they will.
Track your brand mentions with tools like Brand24 and proactively ask (where needed) if mentions can be also linked to your website.
These are [the] easiest ways of getting continual traffic, all it takes is some time (or money) to create some blog posts. And remember – getting traffic is not a sprint, it is a marathon.
Finally, don’t forget to interact with the traffic that appears on your site. If you can engage your audience, they will return, and that’s half the battle.”
– Lucasz Zelezny (Twitter, website)
Look For Holes
“For me it is not about tools, but about strategy and execution. Look for holes in your competition: Take a look at your competition’s blogs and websites. Are there content holes they’ve missed that you can take advantage of? Ways to add value not already available and help you stand out.
I know that the more quality content I produce and post, the more regularly I do it, and the more I emotionally connect, engage, and converse with those I am looking to reach…the more my blog will become visited, shared and known. Spend time sharing content of those you want to share you content… liking and commenting on their posts.
Then…syndicate, syndicate, syndicate. Share your content via all social channels always including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn, which also makes it easy for others to share. And don’t be afraid to do it more than once periodically sharing old posts via your social channels, especially those that were well received. Also, let others freely repost your content with a link back to the original post, and whenever they do…syndicate that as well.
The critical point here is to create a steady stream of valuable and relevant content that your audience (friends/fans/followers), and any audience you are looking to attract, really cares about. Simply put…#NoLetUp!”
– Ted Rubin (Twitter, Website #1, and Website #2).
Use This Tool
I personally really love this tool and use it to get lots of low hanging traffic:
I hope you found these traffic-driving tips useful! If you have any advice of your own to share or know of anyone else I should contact, leave a comment below and let me know!
