If you’re just getting started with WordPress, you should know: building the site is just the beginning. Once you have it up and running, you’ll want to look for ways to boost your WordPress site’s traffic.
Thankfully, there are a host of tools and combined knowledge on the best ways to get more people to visit your site. Here’s a distilled version, with 6 tricks for boosting traffic.
#1: Double Down on Search Engine Optimization
Nothing will give you long-term, sustainable growth on your WordPress website’s traffic quite like search engine optimization (SEO). If you’re not sure what that means, it’s time to do some homework. If you have invested a little time in making your site SEO-friendly, you might want to consider doubling down.
Start by using an SEO tool to audit your WordPress website. The audit will tell you if your site has any big issues that may be restricting your traffic growth, identify organic search traffic sources, and assess whether your content is SEO friendly. Implementation of proper on page optimization can also often times have a drastic impact on search rankings in a very short amount of time.
#2: Step Up Your Social Media Game
Social media presence has an impact on your search engine ranking, so you shouldn’t be neglecting it. The odds are the majority of your target audience is on social media, and reaching them via social channels is often more straightforward than organic search.
Start by setting up branded accounts on several channels if you haven’t already. Use social media monitoring tools to create and schedule regular content, linking back to your website often. Once you build a solid following on social media, the traffic to your WordPress site is sure to follow!
#3: Start a Backlinking Campaign
Backlinking is a crucial aspect of search engine optimization. It does take quite a bit of work, but the payoff is well worth it. In basic terms, backlinking simply means placing links back to your WordPress site on other authority websites.
In most cases, this involves writing guest posts, making sure your listed in directories and writing testimonials. Many SEO tools will help you get started on your campaign.
#4: Learn to Use Valuable Tools
A host of powerful tools are available to professional and amateur marketers alike, designed to help you stay on track. We’ve already mentioned several of them!
Marketing automation tools can help you take a strategic approach to growing your audience - and your site! A/B testing tools can give you a better idea of what works on your WordPress site - and what doesn’t. Collaboration tools can help you stay on top of communication and projects if you’re working with a team. The point is, the tools are there - so learn to use them!
#5: Take Analytics Seriously
A good web analytics tool will tell you who’s visiting your site, where they are coming from and what brought them to your site in the first place. You can take this information to determine how to move forward marketing your WordPress site.
Do you have a lot of visitors from social channels? Are most finding you with an organic search? Are you getting referrals? The answers to these questions will help you take a strategic approach to driving traffic to your WordPress site.
#6: Invest in Good Content
Consumers love good content. Help your WordPress site stand out from the crowd by creating engaging, helpful and authentic content. Depending on your niche, this could be a shareable video, an informative blog post, or quick how-to guide.
Whatever the case, it should be content that converts your target audience with a specific call to action.
Brooklin Nash writes about the latest tools and small business trends for TrustRadius. When he’s not writing, you can find him reading YA dystopian fiction (with guilty pleasure) and cooking.