Strategies to Create Explosive Website Traffic in 2024
Below are 21 proven strategies to drive relevant traffic to your website and convert visitors into customers. Each method is designed for the savvy internet user of 2024 and will help you build a modern online presence.
21 Strategies to Drive Traffic to Your Website
- Facebook Ads
- Instagram Ads
- Pinterest Ads
- Google Ads
- TikTok Ads
- Ask your friends and family to share
- Be active on Instagram
- Post your store on Reddit
- Create excitement with contests and giveaways
- Offer a limited-time discount
- Send free samples to Instagram influencers
- Contacting Bloggers and Media
- Write a blog post featuring influencers and their advice
- Write blog posts that provide information or solve problems
- Creating a podcast for a new audience
- Create videos that educate or entertain
- Write a title that matches the search intent
- Writing an attractive meta description
- Using internal links
- Add long-tail keyword variations to your pages
- Differentiate with rich snippets
Running a Paid Social Media Advertising Campaign
To increase website traffic, you need to expose your business to your ideal customers.
Paid social media advertising allows you to create highly targeted campaigns that deliver personalized ads to customers who are most likely to buy your products.
Here are some platforms to consider when planning your paid social media advertising:
1. Facebook Ads
Traffic: 👤👤👤
Cost: 💰💰💰
Time to ROI: Days
Effort: Low
With 2.6 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the world’s largest social media platform. Facebook offers a variety of opportunities to connect with new customers and drive them to your website. Facebook ads allow you to target users based on their interests, behavior, location, and more, optimizing your chances of conversion.
Use Facebook dynamic ads to target your audience based on their browsing history and online activity. These ads are automatically generated and show relevant products from websites that people might be interested in.
Add meta pixels to your website for more sophisticated targeting. Ad pixels track user behavior to improve ad content and placement.
2. Instagram Ads
Traffic: 👤👤👤
Cost: 💰💰
Time to ROI: Days
Effort: Low
With 90% of Instagram’s nearly 1 billion users following business accounts, it’s a valuable source of engaged traffic. But if you’re only targeting organic Instagram engagement, you might not be tapping into its full potential. Instagram ads can drive traffic to your website, drive sales, and even allow you to sell directly on Instagram without having to navigate users elsewhere.
If you’re using a personal account, switching to a business account will give you access to additional features essential for advertisers. You can create ads in a variety of formats, including photos, videos, carousels, collections, and stories, giving you a flexible and creative approach to marketing.
By leveraging Instagram’s tools and hashtags and reflecting the platform’s latest trends, you can gain more followers and amplify your campaigns.
3. Pinterest Ads
Traffic: 👤👤👤
Cost: 💰💰💰
Time to ROI: Days
Effort: Low
If you’re looking for ways to drive shoppers to your online store, Pinterest can be a source of motivated traffic with clear interests. According to Pinterest, its users are more engaged and more active in their spending than other social media sites.
Promoted Pins are especially useful for reaching people who are actively looking for ideas and products. This type of Pinterest ad puts your content at the top of search results and has been shown to influence users’ purchasing decisions .
Pinterest is great for targeting niche audiences. Whether you’re looking to re-plant your garden, plan a wedding, or update your home decor, this platform connects your brand to their interests.
4. Google Ads
Traffic: 👤👤👤👤
Cost: 💰💰💰💰
Time to ROI: Days
Effort: High
Google Ads stands out from social media advertising in that it targets people who are already searching for what your website has to offer. These ads put your web page in front of Google and YouTube users who have entered relevant search terms.
Google ads come in several formats:
- Search Ads appear on search engine results pages.
- Display Ads and Shopping Ads that include media and products
- Video Ads to grab the attention of YouTube viewers
Understanding and effectively utilizing these tools will help you get the most bang for your advertising buck. Creating and managing YouTube ads is a time-consuming process, but when placed effectively, it can explode your website with relevant traffic.
5. TikTok Ads
Traffic: 👤👤👤👤
Cost: 💰💰
Time to ROI: Days
Effort: Medium
Despite questions about its long-term future in the U.S., TikTok remains a powerful platform for driving traffic. Users increasingly see TikTok as a place to find new content that matches their interests. For marketers, it’s a place to connect with a massive audience across nearly every demographic.
TikTok marketing content takes time to create, but it can be a great platform to add to your marketing strategy. Plus, you can sell within the platform using the TikTok Shop, so you don’t have to drive users to your site.
The TikTok advertising platform is easy to use, with preset options for setting budgets and selecting audiences.
Start a conversation on social media.
Generating traffic through social media can take more effort than simply posting website ads. Social engagement often starts with encouraging conversations with the right people, responding thoughtfully, and generating interest and enthusiasm.
6. Ask your friends and family to share
Traffic: 👤👤
Cost: 💰
Time to ROI: Weeks
Effort: Medium
When starting a business, enlisting the help of friends and family is a great strategy to generate initial awareness and traffic, or even make your first sale (thanks, Mom!).
Consider the case of Upworthy , a content website. The company generated its initial traffic by reaching out to friends and family. It set a goal of 1,000 Facebook fans on its first day of launch, and the strategy paid off, gaining significant traction.
Reach out to your friends and family with your goals. Do you have a channel to connect with distant relatives, colleagues, or your local community? Send them a note and tell them about your new store. Share your business story as an update on social media.
Once you have captured the attention of your friends and family, ask them to share your website with their networks. This type of exponential growth is key to successful word-of-mouth marketing.
7. Be active on Instagram
Traffic: 👤👤
Cost: 💰
Time to ROI: Weeks
Leverage: Medium
You don’t have to start connecting with people on Instagram before you start selling products or posting content. Blackbird Baking Company , a bakery in Toronto, Canada, built a following of passionate bread lovers on Instagram before opening its first store. This helped it gain a huge following when it opened its doors.
First, the bakery followed a regular social media marketing strategy, following and receiving followbacks from people who might be interested in a new bakery, including restaurateurs and self-proclaimed bread lovers in Toronto.
You can find people who are interested in a specific field or industry. Search for relevant keywords in their profiles or bios.
Second, Blackbird took appetizing and shareable photos of itself baking and delivering bread to stores.
Third, Blackbird Baking Company actively engaged with their followers about community issues, including topics such as living in Toronto, great food, and of course, bread. As a result, when the bakery finally opened, many people showed up to buy their products.
Here's how to connect with your audience on Instagram:
- Once you've found your audience, look for opportunities to help or add value, and engage in those conversations without being salesy.
- Use Instagram Reels to promote special offers that are only available to those who connect through the platform.
- Invest time in engaging with people who are talking about your brand. Instagram is a great place to answer questions and actively engage with your community.
8. Post your store on Reddit
Reddit has thousands of niche topic-based forums, called subreddits. For example, you can find subreddits for specific topics like /r/bicycling , /r/scifi , and /r/corgi .
Reddit offers an exciting opportunity to build brand awareness and drive website traffic. It’s a place where passionate people gather to share advice, best practices, and personal stories about topics they care about.
For example, let's say you're starting a business selling hair products. If you go to a subreddit like /r/femalehairadvice, there's discussion on all aspects of women's hair care. There are also subreddits like /r/haircarescience , /r/curlyhair , and /r/hair .
Create a new post to promote your business and drive traffic to your site. Keep your posts short but detailed, and include specific examples to engage your readers. Here are some components of a great Reddit post:
- Compelling headline : Choose a topic that fits your subreddit. For example, if you're posting on a curly hair subreddit, you might use a headline like "Short hair can be cool too!"
- Add value and keep it concise : Make sure the text in the body of your post is concise, engaging, and doesn’t feel overly salesy. Also consider using a TL;DR subheading.
- Add a photo : Adding an image can help you convey your message and attract more readers.
- Add Related Product Links : Leave links so people can learn more about your product or business.
It is important to adhere to Reddit's platform guidelines and Reddiquette values. Some subreddits do not allow promotional material, so if you post your site in a thread with these restrictions, no one will upvote your link or you may be banned from the subreddit.
In addition to promoting your website on relevant subreddits, you can also seek advice on threads like /r/entrepreneur , where you can tap into the expertise of over 3 million subscribers. There are also other helpful threads like /r/smallbusiness , where you can get general business advice.
9. Create excitement with contests and giveaways
Traffic: 👤👤👤👤
Cost: 💰💰💰
Time to ROI: Days
Effort: High
Contests and sweepstakes are a great way to grow your Instagram followers, increase social media engagement, and drive traffic to your website. With viral contests, sweepstakes, and raffles, you can quickly increase your traffic by encouraging participants to share your site.
With the Contests & Giveaways app from the Shopify App Store, you can easily embed giveaways on your landing pages and blog posts. Social sharing gives your giveaways a chance to go viral and spread widely across social platforms. See how Toyota fan site Prime Driven uses giveaways to generate traffic.
10. Offer a time-limited discount
Traffic: 👤👤👤👤
Cost: 💰💰💰
Time to ROI: Days
Effort: High
Offering a time-limited discount can be an effective way to get people to take action, generate traffic, and increase sales. Setting an expiration date on your discount leverages scarcity, which is a powerful psychological selling incentive.
In the example below, the bag and accessories brand Rareform offers a discount that expires in one day. If you’ve recently opened a store, consider offering a discount with a minimum purchase requirement. This can be a smart way to incentivize your fans without hurting your bottom line.
Product discounts aren’t the only limited-time offer you can offer to your customers. If you don’t regularly offer free shipping, offering it occasionally can be an attractive incentive to drive traffic to your store through social media or email marketing campaigns.
Reach new customers through influencers
Influencer marketing is about working with successful social media content creators to promote your website to relevant audiences. This marketing strategy leverages the creativity and reach of prominent people in your industry, and uses the trust they have built with their audience to drive traffic to your store.
11. Send free samples to Instagram influencers
Traffic: 👤👤👤👤
Cost: 💰💰
Time to ROI: Weeks
Effort: High
With 70% of shoppers using Instagram to make purchase decisions, it shows that Instagram has the potential to turn browsing into sales. For this reason, Instagram is a great way to increase brand visibility and drive traffic to your online store, especially when working with influencers.
Bloggers and social media celebrities are highly trusted by their followers. Finding relevant influencers to feature your products is an effective strategy to increase traffic. For example, lifestyle influencer Este Lalonde promotes brands by including products in her posts.
12. Contacting bloggers and the press
Traffic: 👤👤👤👤
Cost: 💰
Time to ROI: Weeks
Effort: High
When it comes to generating traffic, the more connections you have, the better—especially those with an engaged audience. Having people who will promote your product is essential to driving traffic to your site and increasing sales. This is where blogger outreach comes into play.
Blogger outreach is more than just making friends online. It’s the process of making a valuable offer to bloggers and clearly communicating what benefits they have. Simply asking for help doesn’t work because people are busy and have a lot to do. Instead, here are some blogger outreach ideas that will help you generate traffic:
- Guest posting on other blogs : Guest posting gives you a way to get in front of other people's audiences. You can link to your site from related content and drive traffic to it.
- Do an expert roundup : Find experts on a specific topic and ask them to provide ideas for blog posts (e.g. tips, recipes, stories, etc.). Then compile all the responses you receive and post a list. Once the post is live, let the experts know so they can share it with their audience.
-
Ask for product reviews : Reach out to bloggers with relevant and engaged audiences and ask them to write honest reviews in exchange for sending you the product for free.
- Find Affiliates : Use affiliate programs to encourage others to drive traffic to your business and pay a commission for each sale.
- Get Press Coverage : If you have a great story or an interesting product that people would like to write about, let the world know! Contact journalists who cover topics similar to your business and talk about what you’re doing.
13. Write a blog post featuring influencers and their advice.
Traffic: 👤👤👤👤
Cost: 💰
Time to ROI: Days
Effort: Medium
Instead of waiting for influencers to introduce you, you can introduce them first. This networking strategy is an extension of blogger outreach. The idea is to write a blog post introducing an influencer, then send it to them via email or X, and hope they share it with their audience.
For example, a cosmetics brand could write a blog post about what to consider when buying your next foundation and ask beauty influencers for their opinions. Or an outdoor gear website could write a blog post listing their top 10 hiking influencers.
After you write your blog post, contact influencers with a link and ask if they can share it with their audience.
Get relevant traffic with content marketing
Content marketing is about creating interesting, informative, and engaging content to organically drive traffic to your website. From videos and podcasts to guides and e-books, there are endless opportunities for your business to expand into the world of content and generate traffic.
Original content helps establish your business as a thought leader in your industry and builds your brand. Your business’s content strategy can include anything that your customers might find useful or interesting. Don’t limit yourself to content that includes or focuses on your products. Instead, consider all topics and resources related to your business that your customers might find useful.
14. Write blog posts that provide information or solve problems.
Traffic: 👤👤👤👤👤
Cost: 💰
Time to ROI: Months
Effort: Medium
Every month, approximately 70 million new blog posts are published on WordPress, the world's largest blogging platform, which receives over 20 billion page views each month.
Blogging offers ample opportunities to reach your audience, but you need to give your content purpose to drive relevant traffic. Solving problems with SEO-optimized content is the most effective editorial strategy for most blogs. Finding the right topics requires persona building, keyword research, and content gap analysis.
Successful blog content marketing starts with two elements:
Identifying Your Ideal Audience
What are your potential visitors’ problems? What are their interests? What activities do they enjoy? What are their passions? Create blog content based on the answers to these questions.
Creating engaging content
Make a list of topics and phrases you want to target to reach the right audience.
Ask yourself: If you were looking for this product/service/article, how would you search for it? What words would you use? What phrases would you use? Understanding your potential visitors’ minds is the key to generating quality traffic.
15. Create a podcast for a new audience
Traffic: 👤👤👤👤👤
Cost: 💰
Time to ROI: Months
Effort: High
By 2023, approximately 42% of Americans will listen to at least one podcast every month. Like blogging, podcasting offers the potential for success in specific fields that target specific audiences.
However, unlike blogs or social media posts, podcasts don’t have a call to action that can easily convert listeners into website visitors. So you need to find a way to make it easy for your listeners to get to your website.
Shuang Esther Shan, who runs the Shopify Masters podcast, uses three methods: First, she provides a summary of the episode and a link to the corresponding blog post in the in-app podcast description.
Second, we post transcripts and summaries of the podcasts for the hearing impaired on the Shopify blog. Finally, if the episode mentions apps, tools, or other helpful resources, we provide a list of relevant resources and add links to each item.
16. Create a video
Traffic: 👤👤👤👤👤
Cost: 💰💰
Time to ROI: Months
Effort: High
There are many options for hosting videos, but YouTube is the most popular channel for generating traffic. YouTube is also the second largest search engine in the world.
YouTube’s potential reach is impressive: With over 2.7 billion active users , it has a larger reach among 18- to 49-year-olds than all of the cable TV networks in the United States combined.
So how do you narrow down this massive audience to attract the right viewers to your YouTube channel and drive them to your store? Here are some different types of YouTube marketing you can use for your business:
- Educational content: Build trust with your audience by teaching them new skills, and if possible, use your product as the centerpiece of their problem-solving. Educational webinars are particularly effective at highlighting the features of your product and the problems it solves.
- Storytelling: Inspiring narrative videos that align with your business identity are ideal for communicating your brand image and ideals.
- Entertainment: Fun videos tailored to your audience's interests are one of the best ways to grab their attention and focus their attention on your product.