Traffic. Conversions. Sales. Attend Search Marketing Expo.

• conversions, traffic
traffic-conversions-sales-attend-search-marketing-expo.

Make 2020 the year you take your search marketing campaigns — and career — to new heights. Attend Search Marketing Expo – SMX West – for the actionable tactics you need to drive more awareness, traffic, conversions, and sales. Join us February 19-20 in San Jose!

The all-new agenda features 85 sessions organized into three lanes with no limits: SEO, SEM/PPC, and digital commerce marketing. Keep reading for the big (read: 3,000 words big!) preview of everything in store, choose your ideal pass, and book now to save up to $450 off on-site rates!

Kickoff Keynote: The Rise of Digital Commerce Marketing Is Reshaping Search Marketing

Digital commerce is hot and it’s being driven by advertising and organic optimization across third-party platforms like Amazon and Walmart, search engines Google and Bing, and social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Search Engine Land Editor-in-Chief, Ginny Marvin, and Dana Tan, Global SEO Manager at Under Armour will bring the digital commerce marketing landscape to life with presentations and data including:

  • Marketing Land’s Digital Commerce Advertising Survey that shows just how marketers are spending on platforms like Amazon. You’ll gain an invaluable overview of where we are now and actionable insights to prepare for what’s next.
  • The 2020 Periodic Table of Digital Commerce Marketing, a new tool from Search Engine Land that you’ll use to navigate the many elements of marketing products online. This must-have resource will empower you to create compelling digital commerce campaigns and optimize existing ones.
  • Explore the intersection of SEO, PPC, and social media to increase digital commerce results during this candid, fireside chat with Dana Tan, Global SEO Manager at Under Armour. Hear first-hand from a marketing leader who’s responsible for driving results at this iconic global brand.

Three Lanes, No Limits: SEO, SEM/PPC, & Digital Commerce Marketing

The Search Engine Land experts built this year’s agenda in three lanes: SEO, SEM/PPC, and digital commerce marketing (new!). All 85 sessions fit into one of these lanes. Customize your experience based on your learning objectives: Dive deep into one or cross-train on all three — it’s your choice, and there’s plenty to choose from with up to seven concurrent tracks running unique, expert-led sessions.

Take a look at all of the lanes and sessions in store…

Lane #1: SEO

There’s much more to effective SEO today than modifying H1s and meta tags. The advent and adoption of machine learning and artificial intelligence, infinite algorithm updates, and no-click SERPs means you have to continuously train to stay ahead of the curve.

We’ve got you covered with tactic-rich SEO sessions that tackle everything from site speed to new NoFollow rules, JavaScript, Semantic HTML5, voice search, AnswerBox, Google My Business, and so much more:

  • Site Speed Is A Crucial Ranking Factor. Here’s What You Need To Know, with Jessica Bowman – Owner, SEO In-house, Editor at Large, Search Engine Land
  • Future-Proof Your Sites For Google Core Updates, with Mordy Oberstein – Rank Ranger, CMO and Lily Ray – Path Interactive, Director, SEO
  • In-house SEO Strategy: From Big Picture To Implementation, with Masaki Okazawa – AutoZone, SEO Specialist


    The New NoFollow And Snippet Rules, with Patrick Stox – IBM, SEO Specialist – Search Engine Land Contributor
  • Improving Relationships between SEO and Web Developers, with Jenny Jiang – Autodesk, SEO Developer
  • Behind The Scenes With Google Search Console And Bing Webmaster Tools, with Sandhya Guntreddy – Microsoft, Principal Program Manager and Daniel Waisberg – Google, Search Advocate
  • Google BERT: What SEOs and Marketers Need to Know, with Dawn Anderson – Move It Marketing / Manchester Metropolitan University, International SEO Consultant / Director / Lecturer
  • Solving Complex JavaScript Issues And Leveraging Semantic HTML5, with Russ Jeffery – Duda, Director of Strategic Integrations
  • Revisiting Google’s Quality Raters Guidelines, with Jennifer Slegg – The SEM Post, Editor
  • Optimizing For Voice Search: How Brands And Agencies Are Seeing Real Results, with Sathya Krishnamurthy – Milestone Inc., VP of Product and Sam Ruchlewicz – Warschawski, Vice President – Digital Strategy & Analytics
  • How Link Building Has Changed: What You Need To Do Now, with Jim Boykin – Internet Marketing Ninjas, CEO, SEO, and Founder
  • Leveraging Schema And Structured Data For Maximum Effect, with Cata Milos – Microsoft, Principal Program Manager
  • Ranking In AnswerBox/People Also Ask
  • What SEOs Need To Know About Changes To Its Crawling Directives And The New Evergreen GoogleBot, with Fabrice Canel – Bing, Principal Program Manager
  • UX And E-A-T, More Connected Than You Think, with Shari Thurow – Omni Marketing Interactive, Founder & SEO Director
  • Google My Business: Optimizing Images, Content And Q&A For Ranking Visibility And Engagement, with Greg Gifford – SearchLab Chicago, Vice President of Search and Niki Mosier – Two Octobers, Sr. SEO Manager and SEO Practice Lead
  • What’s Next For Maps? What Search Marketers Need To Know, with Damian Rollison – Brandify, VP Product Strategy and Conrad Saam – Mockingbird, President
  • Video And YouTube In Google Search: It’s A Really Big Deal, with Joey Daoud – New Territory Media, CEO and Aleyda Solis – Orainti, International SEO Consultant
  • What Does “Great” Content Really Mean? And How Do You Create It, with Stoney deGeyter – The Karcher Group , VP Search & Advertising and Ashley Segura – TopHatRank, VP of Operations

Bonus! These SEO track sessions were designed with collaborative, cross-departmental teams in mind:

  • SEO and SEM teams: Why Sharing Your Data Matters
  • Making Your Case For More Budget, New Tests: How To Communicate What Matters And Get Buy-In, with Khalid Saleh – Invesp, CEO
  • Experts Tips For Creating Killer Cross-Channel Reports, with Benu Aggarwal – Milestone, INC, President

Lane #2: SEM/PPC

The paid search landscape changes every day. Emergent platforms take center stage while others sunset. New ad formats roll out. Best practices evolve. SMX West features SEM and PPC sessions that deliver proven tactics that can help you succeed with Facebook campaign optimization, advanced LinkedIn Ads, writing compelling ad copy, and beyond:

  • Why And How To Run Top-Of-Funnel (Search) Campaigns: KPIs, Expectations, with Amy Bishop – Cultivative, LLC, Owner – Search Engine Land Contributor
  • The Art Of Structuring Campaigns, with Frederick Vallaeys – Optmyzr, Inc., CEO
  • Conversion Rate Optimization Tips From The Pros, with Stoney deGeyter – The Karcher Group, VP Search & Advertising and Jeremy Epperson – Conversion Guides, Growth Consultant and Startup Advisor
  • How To Optimize Facebook Campaigns That Deliver Qualified Leads, with Julia Vyse – Vizeum, Digital Media Manager
  • Ad Testing In An Automation World, with Michael Crimmins – Firmidable, Digital Manager
  • How To Manage And Optimize B2B PPC Accounts, with Robert Brady – Righteous Marketing, Founder and Tim Jensen – Clix Marketing, Campaign Manager
  • Genius-level Microsoft Ads, Google Ads Optimization, with Mark Irvine – WordStream, Senior Data Scientist, with Frederick Vallaeys – Optmyzr, Inc., CEO
  • LinkedIn Ads: Advanced Strategies and Tactics for B2B, with Michelle Morgan – Clix Marketing, Director of Client Services
  • How to Hack Your Customer Journey Through Behavioral Economics for the Customer Journey, with Justin Freid – CMI/Compas, EVP, Growth and Innovation
  • Deep Dive Into Data Flow, with Aaron Levy – Tinuiti, Director, SEM
  • Automation: How To Push Forward; When To Push Back, with Natalie Barreda – T-Mobile, Sr. Manager, Media and Andrew Goodman – Page Zero Media, President
  • Getting Reports Right, with Samantha Barnes – Bounteous, Inc, Associate Director of Data Analytics and Abigail Matchett – Bounteous, Manager, Analytics & Insight
  • Optimizing Your Day, Optimizing Your Month – Roadmap Of What You Look At When, with Robert Brady – Righteous Marketing, Founder
  • How To Understand and Beat Your Competitors, with Ayat Shukairy – Invesp, Co-founder, CCO and Purna Virji – Microsoft, Senior Manager, Global Engagement
  • Tactical Tips For Creating More Persuasive Ads, with Brad Geddes – AdAlysis Co-Founder – SMX Programming Team member
  • SEM/PPC Roundtable, with Robert Brady – Righteous Marketing, Founder, Aaron Levy – Tinuiti, Director, SEM, and Purna Virji – Microsoft, Senior Manager, Global Engagement
  • Entities: The Single Most Important Concept In Search, with Dave Davies – Beanstalk Internet Marketing, CEO

Lane #3: Digital Commerce Marketing (new!)

Marketers who sell or promote products online are increasingly turning to Amazon, Esty, Shopify, and Jet, in addition to Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Pinterest, to reach new customers. But leveraging these platforms is only half the battle: The key to driving remarkable revenue growth in this dynamic online retail environment is digital commerce marketing. Join industry experts for two days of in-depth digital commerce marketing sessions, including:

  • Shopping Actions, Structure, Bids & Formats: How To Get The Most From Google Shopping Ads, with Kirk Williams – ZATO, Owner
  • Driving Profitable Sales With Amazon Search Ads, with Kaitlin McGrew – PMG Digital Agency, Senior SEM Manager
  • Optimizing for Seasonality: How to Sell More in Your Peak Periods, with Michelle Stinson Ross – Apogee Results, Marketing Operations Director
  • SEO For E-commerce Category, Product Detail Pages, with Jill Kocher Brown – JumpFly, Director of SEO and Tony Verre – The Integer Group, VP of eCommerce
  • Selling With Video, with Joe Martinez – Clix Marketing, Director of Client Strategy
  • Tackling Rising CPAs On Facebook And Instagram, with Madeline Fitzgerald – 3Q Digital, Sr. Strategy Development Manager
  • Social Commerce Beyond Facebook: Drive Sales With Snap, Pinterest And Other Channels, with Duane Brown – Take Some Risk Inc., Founder & Head of Strategy
  • When Your Inventory Changes: SEO Tips For Changing Product Pages, with Arsen Rabinovich – TopHatRank.com LLC, Director of SEO / Founder and Aleyda Solis – Orainti, International SEO Consultant
  • Multi-Channel Attribution And Reporting For Digital Commerce, with Tom Affinito – Kenshoo, Vice President, Corporate Development and Colleen Harris – CDK Global, Product Manager for Business Intelligence
  • Future-Forward Tactics For Digital Commerce
  • Scaling Google’s Latest Discovery Ad Formats
  • How Brands Can Stand Out And Sell More

Need Answers? Attend The Clinics

Bring your burning questions to a panel of experts ready with answers and advice. These 100% Q&A clinics are your chance to speak directly and openly with the experts you know and trust. No presentations. No PowerPoints. No agenda other than to answer your case-by-case questions. So raise your hand, take the mic, and ask away. Our panelists will take turns sharing their opinions and advice. Here are the clinic topics coming to SMX West:

  • SEO Site Clinic
  • Amazon SEO Clinic
  • Google Analytics Clinic
  • Technical SEO For Digital Commerce Clinic
  • SEM/PPC Clinic
  • Content Marketing & Optimization Clinic
  • Landing Page Clinic

Solutions Track, SMX Theater, & Expo Hall

All of the sessions you’ve read about so far are “editorial sessions,” created by the experts at Search Engine Land. Speakers are hand-selected because of their authority on a given topic. No one bought their way onto a panel.

But sponsors and exhibitors — like LongtailUX, Instapage, Bruce Clay Inc., Page One Power, ClickCease, Internet Marketing Ninjas, and Exults — have great information to share. That’s why we provide three places for you to learn from them: the Solutions Track, the SMX Theater, and the Expo Hall.

The Solutions Track features full-length sessions including client case studies, actionable tactics, and practical advice; the SMX Theater is home to bite-sized presentations like product demos and tutorials. Presenting sponsors know they’re competing with our editorial sessions for your attention, so they’re highly motivated to deliver valuable information and insights. And of course, the Expo Hall is your one-stop-shop to quickly and efficiently evaluate products and solutions that can help streamline your marketing efforts.

Stay tuned for a closer look at the companies exhibiting and presenting in San Jose!

Meet Others Just Like You

SMX West brings together some of the most accomplished marketers in the world. You’ll share stories, exchange advice, and talk shop during meals, refreshment breaks, and the Expo Hall Reception. Growing your professional network has never been easier! And don’t forget to submit a request to join our SMX Facebook Group once you register. You’ll be able to chat with fellow attendees before, during, and after the conference.

SMX Highlights: 30 Ideas In 30 Minutes

Wrap things up with a recap of some of the most fascinating takeaways from SMX West. This entertaining and highly-informative closing session features a handful of our speakers sharing their top ideas, tips, and techniques to remember as you return to the office and implement the knowledge you gained at the show.

What’s Better Than All That Search Marketing? MORE Search Marketing

Hungry for more? SMX Workshops were designed for overachievers like you. Tack an extra day of learning onto your itinerary and attend one of six full-day workshops on Friday, February 21. These expert-led training seminars are the perfect way to drill down into a specific search marketing topic and round out an exceptional few days of learning. Topics include:

Workshops include breakfast, hot lunch, and refreshments. Bundle your workshop with an All Access pass for maximum value and enjoy $450 off on-site rates.

Don’t Take Our Word For It…

You’ve just read more than 2,000 words on what you’ll get at SMX West and why it’s a worthy investment for your company and your career. Now, check out what some of our past attendees have to say about their SMX experiences:

“Great speakers. I would say every speaker had at least 3 great take-aways; usually many more than that. Great location in Downtown San Jose, too.” – Natalie Kirkland, FriendFinder Networks Inc.

“The speakers are insightful and well-prepared, the hotel is a sigh of relief, and the after-hours events are thoughtfully planned.” – Heather Shipe, Dollar Tree

“The conference is very well organized and the speakers/content are top notch. I got many actionable take-aways and ideas from the sessions that I can take back and implement in my client accounts. Also love having a hearty breakfast, delicious lunches and fun networking activities… All-around great event.” – Robert Brady, Righteous Marketing

Pick Your Ideal Pass & Register Now

SMX West kicks off next month but Early Bird rates expire next week. Choose your pass based on your goals and budget and register by Saturday, January 18 to enjoy up to $450 off on-site rates!

  • All Access Pass: The complete conference experience — all sessions, keynotes, clinics, networking events, and amenities, including WiFi, speaker presentations downloads, breakfasts, lunches, refreshments, and the SMX Mobile App.
  • All Access Workshop Pass (best value!): Maximize your time by adding a full-day post-conference workshop to your agenda.
  • Expo Pass: Perfect for meeting marketers and connecting with vendors. This free pass gets you the Expo Hall, Solutions Track Sessions, SMX Theater presentations, Q&A Clinics, select networking, WiFi, the mobile app, refreshments, and more.
  • Team Rates: Striving to get your department on the same page? Send them to SMX for an unforgettable team-building experience. You’ll conquer the agenda, forge new bonds, and unlock special group savings while you’re at it!

I hope you’ve found this preview useful and that you’ll be joining your search marketing community in San Jose next month!


About The Author

Lauren Donovan has worked in online marketing since 2006, specializing in content generation, organic social media, community management, real-time journalism, and holistic social befriending. She currently serves as the Content Marketing Manager at Third Door Media, parent company to Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, MarTech Today, SMX, and The MarTech Conference.



21 ways to drive traffic to your website

• drive, traffic
21-ways-to-drive-traffic-to-your-website

ways to drive traffic to your website

Writing great content is only part of the equation. You’ve also got to get people to read it. As content marketing has become more popular in all industries it’s become much harder to get your content noticed. You need to be actively driving traffic to your content.

To drive traffic to your website, you need to employ a few different tactics and strategies.


Even if one channel is working really well, you don’t want to become overly reliant on it.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to diversify your traffic sources, these unique strategies can help drive traffic to your content regardless of industry.

1. Content marketing survey

content marketing survey

Unlike many other types of surveys, a content marketing survey can be used to drive inbound leads. You can survey people in your target audience and collect their contact information too (name, email, company name), so that while you get responses you also capture leads.

Check out this example of a survey report from Freshbooks. They surveyed 4,000 American workers about their likelihood to become self-employed in the future.

Even a survey of a few hundred people within your target audience can be valuable and informative.

A content marketing survey drives traffic to your website in numerous ways:

  • Drive survey respondents to engage with you after completion
  • Collect leads and traffic from people reading the report
  • Get press traction by releasing your own research

Furthermore, generating your own statistics and data is a really powerful way to get your content shared further. Think about how often you include stats in your own content.

Not only does doing your own research help to build your company’s knowledge base and position you well in the market, but it helps to build links. Valuable links to you core pieces of content.

2. Live webinar

webinars to drive traffic

Live webinars are one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website because they typically offer very valuable content for free. Webinars are also very affordable to host, especially when you compare them to in-person events.

Some great ideas for webinar content include tutorials, how tos, and expert panels. You can promote your webinar using organic social media posts, your email newsletter, marketing partnerships, influencer marketing, and paid advertising. Set a goal for the number of registrants and use two to three channels to meet that goal.

Try co-hosting webinars with other people in your industry to boost your reach even further. Opportunities like co-hosting enable you both to benefit from the sharing of each other’s audience.

3. Pre-recorded video trainings

pre-recorded video for driving traffic

Some marketers and small business owners shy away from live webinars. Nerves, concern about attendance, finding the time, and other worries keep people from hosting them. The good news is that there are alternatives.

Pre-recorded trainings that are five to thirty minutes long are a great way to drive traffic to your website. They should solve a big problem for your target audience. You can either require an email address to view them or embed them straight into a blog post. Make sure to write killer copy for the title and description to inspire sharing.

4. Email newsletter

email newsletter

Your email newsletter is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website. In our weekly newsletter, we promote our recent blog posts.

You can also use your email newsletter to announce promotions, events, new features etc. You can encourage people to fill out your contact form, or to view a new product. Your newsletter is a really great way to stay in the mind of your audience and provide intelligently tailored recommendations.

5. Email automation

automated email for driving traffic

Your email newsletter is typically sent to all active subscribers, but smart automated email campaigns can be sent to leads or customers who meet certain criteria.

Here are some examples of how you could drive traffic back to your site:

  • Send out a tailored, personalised selection of blog content based on your customer’s recent activity
  • Send a check-in email to a customer who hasn’t logged into your software product in over 12 days
  • Send a special offer to a lead who visited your website in the past 3 days but didn’t become a customer yet.

6. Viral Facebook video

viral videos for driving traffic

While there are no guarantees that your video will go viral, there are definitely things you can do to increase your chances of getting thousands and thousands of views.

Viral video marketing expert Katya Varbanova actually has a documented formula for getting hundreds of thousands of views on her Facebook videos, regardless of the subject matter or industry. Spoiler alert: it’s all about triggering emotions.

Make sure your video is useful and a good representation of your brand and company ethos. Think outside the box, you might not want to talk directly about your product in the video but perhaps tell the story of how you got your company started, how you achieved something (like sending 150 weekly newsletters) or about the culture you’ve created.

You can use Facebook ads to launch your video, and then watch as organic sharing brings you free traffic. Just make sure to include a link to your site in the description text and at the end of the video.

7. Facebook Live

driving traffic through Facebook Live

Everyone knows that organic Facebook reach for business pages is at all time lows. However, just like you can still gain traction with Facebook videos, you can also get more reach with Facebook Live, even from a business page.

While Facebook posts on your business page will be seen by a tiny percentage of your followers, a Facebook Live video can be seen by 10 – 50% of your audience.

Facebook lives don’t have to be hour-long presentations. You can go live for just a few minutes and share high value trips and tricks with your audience. At the end, invite people to visit your website or landing page.

Perhaps think about using these spontaneous moments to share your company spirit and personality.

8. Facebook ads

facebook ads for driving traffic

Paid advertising very rarely works well to drive traffic directly to the homepage of your website. In B2B, most companies need to drive paid ads to a webinar, survey, or other lead magnet to get results. It’s a slower process for B2B, there’s far less impulse shopping and far more relationship building. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just different.

For ecommerce products or low cost apps it’s not the same. You’re more likely to get ROI from sending paid Facebook traffic to sales pages and product pages where you can reduce the number of steps between seeing the ad and completing the purchase. Check out this guide to help you avoid common pitfalls.

9. LinkedIn posts

LinkedIn posts for driving traffic

For B2B companies, LinkedIn is typically the top source of traffic from social media. To increase your chances of winning with LinkedIn, don’t just post from your company page. Make use of your personal profile, and encourage employees to post from their personal accounts too.

At the end of the day, people buy from people, and it’s far more interesting to engage with a person than a brand.

In order to keep people on their platform, LinkedIn doesn’t give as much reach to posts that have links in the main text. If this is the aim of your post consider putting the link in a comment instead.

10. LinkedIn ads

LinkedIn ads for driving traffic

LinkedIn ads can be used to drive traffic to landing pages for contact forms, free trial signups, or freemium signups. They can also drive traffic to optin forms for downloadable guides, ebooks, and trainings.

Make sure to have an optimised funnel in place and continually test your targeting and ad creative. Email sequences are a great way to make sure anyone in your new audience doesn’t forget about your offering.

11. SEO your site

optimise your site for search

72% of marketers say that relevancy is the single biggest factor for SEO. Relevancy means that you’re writing your content specifically for the keyphrase you’re targeting, instead of just including it in the title or the post.

Whilst the Google algorithms might be a mystery to all but a select few we do know that your keyphrase should inform what you write, not be an afterthought.

Here are some things you can do to increase your chances of ranking a certain web page or blog post for a target keyphrase:

  • Research your keyphrase and complete customer research before you even start typing
  • Include it in the title, URL, and meta description
  • Include keyphrase variations and related keyphrases
  • Outline the content in a way that fits the keyphrase (i.e. “how to” versus listicle)

12. Google search ads

Google Ads for driving traffic

The great thing about Google search ads is that potential customers are actively searching for a company like yours, or are researching an issue that they have. With social media ads, users are not actively looking for a solution to their problems. They’re taking a break, engaging with friends, or, most likely, they’re procrastinating.

With Google search ads however, you can run ads to keyphrases that match your product or service, or are highly relevant to your company.

13. Retargeting ads

retargeting ads to boost blog traffic

On Google and Facebook, you can run retargeting ads which are only shown to people who have viewed a certain webpage. You can use this strategy to drive traffic back to an important webpage, such as a landing page, a product page, or a pricing page.

These ads tend to have a much lower cost per conversion because you’re only spending money to acquire traffic that’s already aware of your company.

14. Cold email outreach

cold email outreach for driving traffic

Did you know that 79% of B2B marketers say that email is the most effective channel for lead generation?

While cold email is typically used to book sales calls and demos, it can also be used to drive traffic to your site. You can send cold email to promote valuable blog posts, tutorial videos, and case studies with notable clients and customers.

Don’t forget that you still need to be targeted and personal. It’s not ok to send out mass amounts of cold email and expect good results. Instead, categorise your audience and only send out relevant and helpful content.

15. Targeted direct mail

targeted personalisation for boosting traffic

Direct mail absolutely can be used to drive traffic to your website in specific cases. For example, food subscription company HelloFresh often sends direct mail that encourages people to navigate to their main website to sign up and redeem a $50 off coupon or some other offer.

Think about the appropriateness of this method to your business. Ecommerce or a subscription box might find this a useful form of advertising, but for a lot of online businesses direct mail won’t make sense.

If you want to send traffic to a landing page, make sure the URL is very simple, such as yourdomain.com/go or yourdomain.com/try.

Remember that this is never going to be as targeted as email marketing can be – you just don’t have the same intelligence available for personalisation. Factor this in to your decision.

16. Podcast tours

podcasts for boosting website traffic

33% of Americans, 18% of Brits, 33% of Australians, 28% of Canadians, and 22% of Germans have all listened to a podcast in the past month. There are dozens or hundreds of podcasts in every industry – including our own podcast!

When small business owners think about podcasts, they wrongly assume that they need to create one in order to jump on the trend. Not so! Guesting on a number of podcasts like a sort of Podcast Tour is a great way to gain brand awareness and get traffic to your site.

Here are some pitch templates you can use when asking podcast hosts to interview you. If you don’t have much press coverage to showcase yet, start with smaller podcasts and work your way up to the top ones in your industry.

As for traffic? Nearly every podcast host puts a link to your website in the show notes and allows you to tell listeners your website URL at the end of the show.

17. Guest posting

guest posting for traffic

As with podcast tours, guest posting allows you to access new audiences within your industry. You can use these guest post pitch templates when emailing bloggers and content marketers at companies you admire.

Typically, an unpaid guest post is done in exchange for one backlink to your website. This will help you gain traffic. Also, the post will usually be promoted on the company’s social media networks and email newsletter, which will gain more brand awareness and could result in a temporary uptick of direct traffic.

18. Expert advice roundup

collect advice and use networks

Blog posts that feature advice from multiple experts are a smart way to get more traffic to a blog post than you normally would. Simply come up with a topic and reach out to experts on social media or via email to ask for their input.

In this post about common conversion issues, we asked ecommerce store owners and marketers about common conversion issues.

When the post is live, make sure to email everyone you featured and ask them to share it with their network. Depending on how many people you’ve included you could have 10x to 100x more shares than normal on the post.

19. Infographics with statistics

infographics to draw people in

Infographics that include statistics are commonly shared on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. To gain more traffic for your blog posts, you can repurpose statistics from the blog post into an infographic.

Make them graphic, colourful, and well designed. Statistics don’t have to be boring!

You can use this technique for proprietary statistics gained from your own surveys or platform, or you can make an infographic of relevant statistics you find on the web (cite your sources).

20. Swap shares and promotion

swap and share link building

Never underestimate the power of marketing partnerships. You can create your own network of promotion partners to gain access to new audiences. Make friends with business owners and marketers of companies that aren’t direct competitors but that serve the same target audience that you do.

Then swap social media shares weekly and email newsletter features quarterly, or whatever you decide. You can even setup a Slack workspace with your industry partners, so that everyone can collaborate on mutually beneficial content curation.

Nearly every business shares links and content from other businesses online. You might as well do it as a trade!

21. Influencer marketing

influencers can help to drive traffic

With influencer marketing, you can have social media users post about your product in exchange for payment or free products. Depending on how many followers they have and how engaged they are, every influencer will have a different pricing structure.

Sometimes, businesses have better results paying more influencers a lower fee, than splurging on one mega popular influencer, however you’ll need to test that.

In order to drive website traffic, you can give the influencer a very short, memorable URL to post in the text of the post or in their profile link (you’ll likely have to pay extra for temporary takeover of their profile link).

How do you drive traffic to your website?

ways to drive traffic

The reality is there’s no one answer. There are so many ways to do it, and what works for one business might not work for another.

One thing is certain though: you need to have multiple strategies and not rely on just one. That way your business isn’t vulnerable to algorithm changes.

Once you figure out what’s working, double down on it, and then try something new.