So, you’ve got a brand new website! And—get this—you’ve even had a few extra people visit that new website of yours. Not bad, not bad at all. Only you and I know that the real test is keeping those visits fired up for the long haul. You want a bonfire, not a match. You want pages in your site stats that are warming steadily up instead of just warming up. Now that’s sexy, don’t you think? And let me tell you the main factors that will keep your innocent traffic press long after that initial visitor’s rush.
Mastering the Art of SEO for Stained Growth
A launch strategy is one thing, but SEO is a long-term engagement: it’s the task of staying still and shiny as the digital sea changes shape around you.
Beyond Basics: Advanced SEO Techniques
Sure, you’ve dabbled a bit in basic SEO—keywords, meta tags, and so on—but structured data, site speed optimisation, and the fact that Google’s index is now mobile-first? That’s advanced SEO. And, as Search Engine Land points out, websites that use advanced SEO see sustainable organic traffic growth because they are well-suited to Google’s ever-changing algorithm.
Voice Search Optimization: Staying Ahead of Trends
If voice search turns out to be as big a deal as commentators suggest, optimising for it now could offer a good return over the next few years: sites that are optimised for voice will hopefully accrue additional traffic as the number of Alexa’s and Google Home’s in homes continues to increase. Natural language and question-based content can help you rank well for voice queries, says Forbes.
Content That Captures: Building a Loyal Audience
Creating content is not only about bringing in visitors; it’s also about making them into return visitors. Let’s look at how you’ll create content that drives traffic and then begins to build that traffic into something bigger.
The Power of Evergreen Content
This is exactly what they call evergreen content—the queen of long-term traffic. Evergreens remain relevant for a long time and keep on pulling in visitors. According to HubSpot, it’s all about finding timeless topics in your niche that will benefit your readers no matter what the date on the calendar says.
Leveraging Content Series and Pillar Pages
When these pieces are interlinked, either via a series (as is the case with blog posts) or through a deliberate progression of information (as is the case with pillar pages), this can supercharge your SEO while also holding your audience to the site for longer, as Moz observes.
Social Media Strategies: Engaging Beyond Posts
Social media is a lot better for dribs and drabs of traffic, but you are not just touching off a firecracker. You are building a community.
Creating Interactive Social Content
The more your audience engages, the more you should engage with them. By creating stories that incorporate polls, live videos, or Q&A sessions, your followers will stay engaged and keep interacting. Interactive content, Social Media Today reveals, increases both visibility and engagement rates on Facebook and Instagram.
Strategic Partnerships and Collaborations
You can partner with influencers or other brands that can bring your site to new audiences. Again, you should be strategic here—these sites should align with your brand and be bringing your site to target audiences that would truly be interested in your content. Entrepreneur writes about how these partnerships would bring in ‘sustainable traffic’ because the target audiences are broader but targeted.
Email Marketing: The Unsung Hero of Retention
You get the people, but how do you keep them? Email marketing is still one of the most powerful ways of keeping your traffic engaged and coming back again.
Building a Robust Email List
The first rule of thumb in good email marketing is building a clean list. Offer an ebook, webinar, special updates, or some other piece of content worth subscribing to in exchange for emails. Campaign Monitor explains that a well-cultivated list of dedicated followers, like fans of a particular show, will drive traffic to your website. If they like what they see, subscribers will be more likely to come back for more.
Segmentation and Personalization
After you have your list, make sure to segment it, then personalise your content even further to make it more relevant. Personalized emails have a higher open rate, and once those emails are open, people go to the site more. On Mailchimp, anything that we do as a campaign away from a mass email campaign has 71% higher open rates and 73% more clicks.
Analyzing and Adapting: The Power of Data
Third, you need to study your traffic to see if you’re hanging in there for the long haul. What’s working? What isn’t?
Utilizing Google Analytics for Traffic Insights
Google Analytics isn’t just a simple ‘visitors’ counter. It can tell you where your traffic originates, what visitors do once they’re on your site, and what kind of content works best; as Kissmetrics is fond of saying, that information is an invaluable tool for optimising your strategy, especially if you want those traffic sources to continue flowing freely.
Conclusion
There is no shortcut to maintaining your website’s traffic flow—no silver bullet, no bandwagon. You create a rock-solid SEO foundation, you develop great content that will last, you build following on social media, and you engage in email dialogue with your users. You use data to decide what to do and what not to do. Stay with them, and you won’t just bring people to your website—you’ll cultivate an audience.
Want more? Learn how to take each of these tips to the next level with more deep-dive posts on our blog—now you’re well equipped to keep your traffic growing year-round!