Top 10 ways to increase your website's traffic levels

There are many methods available to increase the amount of traffic that your website receives. Here are 10 that I feel are the most effective.

01. Email marketing

You should have methods in place to increase the number of people that have opted into your mailing list. When you have done this you can email them with information that they will be interested in such as new products or services, discounts or information that is related to your website and which helps them.

An example of a high quality email marketing strategy is from Elegant Themes who create and sell Wordpress themes and plugins. They send an email out every day to their mailing list providing great information on subjects they know their audience are interested in such as how to improve a website and how to use it to help a business.

02. Videos

Videos are a great way of giving a visual insight into you and your business or project. Video platforms are also being accessed from more and more places these days with them commonly being used on devices such as games consoles, living room media players and smart TVs.

Videos online can be distributed in a number of different ways such as the more traditional platforms like YouTube and Vimeo and the short video sharing apps such as Vine as well as newer platforms like Periscope and Meerkat which are specifically designed for live video streaming.

03. Podcasts

These have taken a back seat to video over the past five to ten years but seem to be making a come back with many companies such as Gimlet Media and Slack making a big effort to promote their companies using podcasts.

A major benefit to using this platform to raise awareness is that people do not have to sit in one place when listening like they do when watching a video. This means that the thousands of people on trains, walking to work or doing anything that requires a little concentration can still get to know you and your project.

04. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

By making sure that your website is optimised for search engines you can, over the long term, increase the amount of traffic that it receives from people that are interested in the content on there.

The first step in making your website optimised for relevant words is to perform research. This can be done via Google's Keyword Planner tool within Google Adwords. You can sign up for an account for free and this tool will give you approximate monthly search numbers for words that you type in.

05. Adwords

Performing the SEO research mentioned above will also benefit any Google Adwords campaign that you run. A major benefit of Google Adwords marketing over SEO is that it provides you with instant traffic although the cost per click (CPC) reflects this.

Obtaining instant traffic in this way is a great method, assuming that you have set-up website traffic tools such as Google Analytics properly, for analysing how people use your website and what exactly they are interested in.

06. Twitter

You can find people that may be interested in your website and so increase the traffic levels by using Twitter. There are tools out there, such as Followerwonk, to help search through Twitter profiles for words which are relevant to your website. Simply following people interested in your project will mean that a number of them visit your profile and will click on your website link if they are interested.

07. Paid Twitter advertising

It is becoming more frequently used but Twitter advertising is still a platform that has more opportunities than some other traditional digital advertising platforms such as Google Adwords.

With Twitter advertising you can find people with relevant interests and place different kinds of advertisement in front of them. Adverts can use Twitter cards which are a smart way to do things such as allow people to sign up to your mailing list directly from Twitter with just their name as Twitter already has a user's email address.

08. Paid Facebook advertising

Facebook has so much information on people that advertising on this platform can enable you to quickly get your business or project in front of them to increase your website's traffic levels.

With Facebook advertising you can reach relevant people using a scarily high amount of criteria such as country, region, postcode, age, gender, interest and language. You can also target people behaving in a way that means that they are relevant to your website for example they may be looking to buy a house and, if so, then you can place your advertisement in front of them.

09. Email your business contacts about your website

You may already have a list of contacts that you email regularly about various things and telling them about your website is a great way to increase the level of traffic. Being subtle is certainly the way to go so make sure that you send them a direct link only if you think that there is a great reason for them to visit. This may be because you have written a new blog post that they will benefit from or there may be a new offering on there.

10. Networking in person

Going to any kind of event where there are people who may be interested in your website will certainly increase the amount of traffic it receives. If you receive a person's contact details after meeting them a great way to encourage them to visit your website is to send them a polite email saying that it was nice to meet and make sure that your email signature includes a link to your website.

I hope that has given you some useful information on how you can increase your website's traffic levels and that you feel inspired to come up with some great ideas!