How to increase website traffic in 2020
Here, we will discuss some recent and upcoming methods of generating traffic to your website or blog and believe me, these methodologies will also see changes in near future. But don't forget to write quality content as 'Content is the King'
Setting up and publishing a website or blog has become easier but generating a decent amount of traffic to your website is a challenge which every newbie as well as experienced professionals in the digital world face. If increasing your website traffic is one of the goals during work from home regime due to the COVID pandemic, then certainly you're not alone.
About 90%+ of published content doesn't get any traffic from Google as per the reports published by Ahref. This tells the tale that even the most popular blogs and websites won't get organic search traffic, no matter how well researched their post is. You can never be 100% accurate in targeting exclusively topics which people are searching for on Google. But the rest 9% are making the most of it and certainly, they are doing a few things right.
Social media helps in driving/ increasing website traffic, as they help not only in promoting your website but also building your audience. But the gist of all effort relies solely on high quality and enticing content. As the age-old saying, content is the king, and it still is. As existing platforms evolve every now and then and so does new practices emerge, the question remains: How to keep pace with emerging trends and leverage the trends to suit our purpose of boosting the website traffic in times to come.
Here are some emerging trend and platforms that will help to increase website traffic.1. Video marketing wave: IGTV
If you are yet to begin your video marketing promotion, then it's high time you did and that too immediately.
Everyday smartphones are getting smarter and have become data guzzlers. Data cost have also come down and the tech is ever-improving. Users have adopted video platforms as their first choice. The video medium is already an immensely powerful tool for boosting user engagement and conversions. Hubspot article suggests that 54% of people want to see more video content from marketers. The statistical data are available in abundance to suggest that video is changing the face of digital marketing. The current year 2020 certifies the trend.
Now to ride this bandwagon is IGTV, Instagram's video channel which has been rolled out in 2019 in summers.
IGTV can help publishers get a greater reach on social media and also avail the opportunity of turning the Instagram audience into your subscribers. IGTV can help you leverage Instagram and utilize it to drive traffic to your website and thereby higher conversions. Your dependency on the Instagram platform will be reduced for interacting with your existing and potential audience.
If videos are already there on your website, then they can be surely republished onto IGTV with catchy niche hashtags to gain visibility.2. Forums – the most genuine traffic generator
Online forums have been a constant source for generating genuine traffic and their role is expanding very aggressively. The audience usually flocks to Google Answers, Quora, and Reddit to find answers to specific questions. You participating in such platforms and answering in related forums of your niche and industry will mean being at the right place and at the right time. This should be a constant practice and not a one-time exercise. Quora has reached over 300 million monthly unique users as of this year. This mind-boggling number offers a huge opportunity to use this platform for online reputation management, link building, and advertising.
Forums freely allow you to do signature linking to your site, hence being a helpful member of the community you will not only build your reputation but also gain traffic and authority. Your efforts will directly increase traffic to your website and the audience will love to learn and be more loyal to you if they find your answers helpful and interesting. 3. The ever-evolving demands of SEO
Google has turned thousands of webmasters and bloggers jobless if not in millions with its constant and stringent updates in terms of SEO (search engine optimization) algorithms. Webmasters who were inexperienced or had considered SEO a one-time job have been gravely mistaken. Google is constantly updating its algorithms, so change in site structure and content needs optimization to boost your rankings and consequently drive traffic. SEO is a long term, ever-evolving process and not an overnight job.
With smarter Google's algorithms smart demands for white-hat SEO is the need of the day. One will need to keep itself abreast on the latest practices and progressively bring changes. Optimizing for mobile-first indexing, change in blogger structure, the introduction of Google answers, all are just the beginning. Finding frequent error messages in Google search console is a sign that a lot more work is required from your end on each aspect you had not paid attention to till date.
You can follow this blog to find detailed information that will get updated frequently.
Use keyword tools to find popular keywords and don't depend on single keywords but use long-tail keywords so that, you target the ones with better search volume, and in turn drive traffic. In long run your updated SEO strategy and quality content will get your audience stay longer on-page and in turn will complement your efforts.4. Authority from other sites to your advantage
Backlink generation is one the most detailed part of SEO strategy. Guest blogging is the most sought after tool for promoting your site and driving traffic. Through guest blogging and making available valuable content to popular sites, you'll be building high-quality backlinks and in turn gaining access to their audience.
But the maximum benefit out of other site is not limited to this. With the advent of effective advertising solutions, you can utilize its popularity to drive the traffic to your site. Ensure that you link to other, high-authority sites in your niche area and engage with fellow industry members on social platforms. As the competition gets tougher, collaboration synergy will be the only way forward. The emphasis of this will be seen soon enough and at many places already implemented. 5. Voice search revolution
Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri, and many more already in line, the voice recognition technology is expanding and the sales of smart speakers breaking the ceiling. The buzz about the "voice search revolution" is now real. If predictions are to be believed then, 50% of all searches will be voice-based by 2020. Marketing will see a major shift due to this. With AI in play, the impact reflects the way people search through voice: using more natural and native language, performing a search on the go (typically on a smartphone), and structuring their phrases as real questions, while text search, is keyword-based and much shorter.
This shift is already in play, but it is still not late as to how to adapt your content as to the way people search through voice to boost your website traffic in this and coming years.
The strategy shall include:Conclusion
To summarize, the general practices for increasing website traffic are changing but not drastically, so there is a door full of opportunity and need to tweak your strategy for better traffic. These five points have overall covered the most effective ways you can boost website traffic in 2020 and the most promising trends to look out for. Hopefully, I feel that the points were of help to you and you would make an effective change to what you are already doing. Stay updated, fix what can be and must be, and leverage all the existing channels and mediums at your disposal and also build new ones.
