.webp){kind=logo}
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
Wenn Sie rund um Ihr Unternehmen etwas Aufmerksamkeit erzeugen, Ihre Kunden auf ihrer Reise begleiten und auf natürliche Weise interessierten Traffic auf Ihre Website lenken möchten, ohne die mit PPC-Anzeigen verbundenen Ausgaben oder fragwürdige Praktiken in Kauf zu nehmen, ist Content-Marketing der richtige Weg.
Wir alle konsumieren Online-Inhalte im Terabyte-Bereich – sehen jedes Jahr online zig Millionen Wörter und verbringen durchschnittlich 4 Stunden täglich mit Scrollen, Lesen, Zuhören und Ansehen. Das bietet Unternehmen eine fantastische Gelegenheit, ihren potenziellen Kunden echten Mehrwert zu bieten, indem sie ihnen interessante, unterhaltsame und ansprechende Inhalte bereitstellen und dabei ganz nebenbei auch ein wenig Marketing platzieren.
Wir alle konsumieren Online-Inhalte im Terabyte-Bereich – sehen jedes Jahr online zig Millionen Wörter und verbringen durchschnittlich 4 Stunden täglich mit Scrollen, Lesen, Zuhören und Ansehen. Das bietet Unternehmen eine fantastische Gelegenheit, ihren potenziellen Kunden echten Mehrwert zu bieten, indem sie ihnen interessante, unterhaltsame und ansprechende Inhalte bereitstellen und dabei ganz nebenbei auch ein wenig Marketing platzieren.
Schritt 1: Vorbereitung auf Content-Marketing
Praktisch jede Form des digitalen Marketings umfasst die Erstellung von Inhalten in irgendeiner Form. Blogs, Webseiten und soziale Medien sind für die meisten Unternehmen praktisch ein Muss, doch eine bewusste Content-Marketing-Strategie erfordert etwas mehr Überlegung und Aufwand. Wir unterteilen es in Phasen:
Traffic generation Technique
Cost
Targeting Ability
Chances of Conversion
Amount of Traffic Generated
Best For
SEO
Low over the long term
Limited to targeting interests and search intent
High
Potentially Huge, depending on ranking and search volume
Attracting bulk traffic through targeting interests and search intent
Content Marketing
Low over the long term
Limited to targeting interests and search intent
Variable, depending on the type of content and its value to your customers
Reasonable through a mixture of direct and indirect traffic generation
Improving SEO and awareness of your brand
Social Media
Organic- LowPaid- varies depending on targeting
Organic- limited to influencing the algorithm to show your content to similar people.Paid- High. Incredibly granular targeting is possible
Organic- reasonable though indirect.Paid- high
Reasonable, though mostly through awareness building rather than direct traffic
Organic- improving awareness and engagementPaid- targeting traffic with granular detail
Video Content
Can be as high or low as your budget allows
Limited to influencing who sees your content
While some direct traffic is possible, video content is mostly an indirect source of visits
Reasonable, though mostly through awareness building rather than direct traffic
Building awareness of your brand and generating indirect traffic
Email Marketing
Low
Very tight targeting of people who have signed up to your mailing list.Not usable for targeting new customers
High- emails can be targeted to people you are fairly sure will be interested in a particular product or blog.
Depends on the size and quality of your mailing list.
Retargeting previous customers
Paid Ads
High
Incredibly versatile targeting is possible. Parameters can be as tight or as wide as your goals require
Medium- while people who click on your ads are likely to convert, many people who see them simply won’t follow the link.
Potentially huge, depending on your targeting parameters
Can be tuned to almost any purpose
UX Improvements
Varies depending on the scope of the improvements
N/A
High- encouraging people to stay on your site for longer will increase their chances of converting
N/A
Improving SEO and Paid advertising by improving your bounce rate
Local Search
Low
Targets local traffic very well.
High- appearing in the Map Pack can bring a lot of motivated traffic to your site and physical locations
Potentially huge, depending on your area
Targeting a particular locale and search intents
Analytics
Low
N/A
High- analytics allow you to improve the results of your other efforts
N/A
Improving your other traffic generation efforts
Affiliate Links
Varies: depending on commission rates and conversions your campaign generates
Allows you to target by interest but limited in how accurate you can be
High- people who click the link know exactly what they will see and are likely to be ready to purchase
Potentially huge, depending on the audience size and engagement of your partner.
Targeting traffic from a partners’ audience.
2. Nutzen Sie alle Link-Arten
Auch wenn wir bereits erwähnt haben, dass direkte Klicks über Links in Ihren Videos und Beschreibungen in der Regel recht gering sind (sie liegen im Durchschnitt bei etwa 1 %), sind Links ein wichtiger Bestandteil dieses Prozesses, wenn Ihr Hauptziel im Marketing darin besteht, über Ihre Videos Besuche auf Ihrer Website zu generieren.
Tatsächlich kann man sagen, dass diese Links im Hinblick auf messbare Ergebnisse der wichtigste Weg sind, auf dem ein Video direkt Traffic erzeugen kann.
Es gibt 4 Hauptarten von Links, die Sie in Ihren Videos verwenden können:
What SEO Is Good For:
SEO has certain advantages over other forms of generating traffic:
- Value for money- once something is written, it can generate traffic for years to come.
- Bulk- most online traffic, especially sales-based traffic, starts with a search. SEO lets you position yourself here.
- Targeting intent- you can position your site as a source of information as well as a place to shop, allowing you to engage in a little thought leadership.
What is SEO Bad at?
Of course, nothing is perfect, and SEO does have a couple of problems as a source of traffic:
- Targeting- you’re really limited to targeting by search intent. You have no control over who actually clicks your links.
- Quick results- SEO is a long-term strategy, not a quick fix. It might take months to start showing measurable results.
3. Gestalten Sie Ihren Call-to-Action
Es ist mittlerweile ein bisschen ein Klischee, aber Menschen dazu aufzufordern, „zu liken und zu teilen“, funktioniert immer noch. Wir nennen das den Call To Action, und tatsächlich ist es der Teil eines Videos, der am direktesten mit Marketing zu tun hat. Im Grunde ist das der Abschnitt, normalerweise gegen Ende des Videos, in dem Sie das Publikum auffordern, die gewünschte Handlung auszuführen.
Wenn der wichtigste Marketingzweck darin besteht, direkte Klicks auf Links zu erzeugen, können Sie mit etwas wie „Klicken Sie auf den Link in der Beschreibung unten“ abschließen oder, je nach Ton und Stil Ihres Videos, etwas Subtileres wählen.
Unabhängig von der genauen Formulierung Ihres Call To Action gibt es ein paar Dinge, die Sie beachten sollten und die dabei helfen können, Ergebnisse zu erzielen:
- You’ll earn a certain number of direct visits from people who saw your content and want to find out more.
- It provides backlinks, offering a huge boost to your SEO efforts, signalling to Google, other search engines and AIs that you know what you’re talking about.
- It increases awareness of your brand, leading to more visits as people search for you.
Pretty much everything that we see online can legitimately be called “content”, and most of it can be used as a funnel for attracting website visits. So long as what you're producing really does provide people with some value, you should be able to see an increase in visits.
On the downside, while content marketing can potentially bring in a lot of traffic, you don’t have much control over what traffic it brings in. Of all the direct traffic generation methods, it’s probably the least precisely targeted.
On the downside, while content marketing can potentially bring in a lot of traffic, you don’t have much control over what traffic it brings in. Of all the direct traffic generation methods, it’s probably the least precisely targeted.
What Is Content Marketing Good For?
Content marketing stands out as a way of:
- Improving your SEO efforts through backlinks
- Building awareness
- Explaining your offering
What is Content Marketing Bad at?
While content marketing does have a lot to recommend it, it’s not always the right tool to use. In terms of generating traffic, it falls in the following areas:
- Targeting - you can influence who sees your content, but you can’t really target very closely at all.
- Attributing sales- it can be tricky to accurately attribute which pieces of content actually convinced someone to visit your site, especially if you’ve aimed mostly at building awareness.
- Fast results- like SEO, a content marketing strategy takes time and consistency to really start to show results.
4. Konzentrieren Sie sich auf SEO, damit mehr Menschen Ihre Videos sehen
Da die Klickraten relativ niedrig sind, erzielen Sie die besten Ergebnisse, wenn Sie sicherstellen, dass Ihre Videos von möglichst vielen Menschen gesehen werden. Das Grundprinzip ist: Je mehr Menschen zuschauen, desto mehr Menschen sehen Ihren CTA und Ihre Links.
SEO für Videos folgt weitgehend denselben Regeln, die Sie auch anwenden würden, wenn Sie Ihre Blogs und Landingpages ranken lassen möchten. Wir konzentrieren uns weiterhin auf die Keywords, nach denen Menschen wahrscheinlich suchen, wenn Ihre Inhalte am relevantesten sind, und stellen sicher, dass unsere Metadaten, Titel und vor allem Transkripte sie alle enthalten.
Da Suchmaschinen und AIs Ihr Video nicht „ansehen“ können, ist es wichtig sicherzustellen, dass Ihre Transkripte korrekt sind. Die automatische Generierung gibt es, aber jeder, der schon einmal ein YouTube-Video von jemandem mit schottischem oder irischem Akzent gesehen hat, wird Ihnen sagen, dass sie wirklich nicht besonders gut ist. Es lohnt sich auf jeden Fall, etwas Zeit zu investieren, um sie durchzugehen und sicherzustellen, dass dort auch wirklich das steht, was Sie möchten.
What is Social Media Good For?
Social media is a bit of a mixed bag of marketing techniques, and you could really use it in a huge number of ways to improve traffic flows. What it really stands out for is:
- Building awareness- social media has an absolutely huge audience, and the algorithms want to show your content to people who will engage with it.
- Paid advertising- while CTRs might be relatively low, social media allows even more granular targeting than most platforms.
- Low costs- you don’t pay for the traffic that you generate unless you want to, so social media can be amongst the cheapest sources of visits.
What is Social Media Bad At?
Social media, while a brilliant tool for generating indirect traffic and building awareness, has the following problems as a source of direct traffic:
- The algorithm: while this can be turned to your advantage, you’re ultimately at the mercy of the platform’s best guess at who will want to see your content.
- Low CTRs- social media platforms effectively sell attention. This means that they don’t want people navigating away, so direct links are often suppressed. This damages it as a source of direct traffic.
- Competition- social media is a crowded environment, and people’s attention spans are short.
5. Bringen Sie AIs dazu, Ihre Videos und Links zu empfehlen
Es ist erwähnenswert, dass Videos im Zeitalter der KI-Suche und von ChatGPT-Empfehlungen auf völlig neue Weise Traffic generieren können. KIs verweisen Menschen gerne auf Videoinhalte und stützen ihre Antworten auf Ihre Transkripte, und einige von ihnen fassen Ihre Inhalte sogar zusammen und leiten Menschen für weitere Informationen direkt auf Ihre Website weiter.
Im Allgemeinen ist es ziemlich einfach, sich diese Eigenschaft von KIs zunutze zu machen – sie mögen dieselben Dinge wie Menschen –, aber es erfordert dennoch ein wenig Nachdenken.
Ein Aspekt, den viele Menschen übersehen, ist, dass Google Summary die Search Generative Experience verwendet und Ergebnisse aus Videos und anderen Inhalten kombiniert. Sie können Google Summary dazu ermutigen, Ihre Inhalte wahrzunehmen, indem Sie Blogs haben, die Ihre Videos unterstützen (und das eröffnet auch einen völlig neuen Traffic-Kanal über traditionelle SEO).
Producing video content is a fantastic way of building awareness of your brand and earning indirect traffic. While it’s possible to earn some direct visits through links embedded in your videos, it’s better to think of them as a way of building trust and engagement. In terms of targeting, you’re slightly limited, but a successful video can more than make up for this in bulk. For a more detailed action plan, our guide has you covered.
YouTube is the second most visited site on the internet, beaten only by Google itself, and some estimates say that upwards of 85% of all internet traffic is dedicated to people watching videos of some description. It doesn’t take a marketing genius to work out that this presents an opportunity to drive a little traffic towards our own sites.
While videos can be a source of direct visits, by including embedded links in both the videos themselves and their description texts, they’re often best used as an indirect awareness-building exercise and earning traffic that way. That being said, a strong Call to Action (CTA) that encourages people to visit can be a powerful tool.
There are all kinds of videos which might help drive website visits to your site. For some topics and audiences, a long-form tutorial might make sense; for others, a short, punchy, entertaining clip might be the right call. It all depends on what you’re making, what you’re selling and who you’re targeting.
It’s always worth ensuring that there is a full, accurate transcript of your videos attached to them (usually in the form of subtitles). Not only is this great for ensuring your videos are as accessible as possible, but it can also help search engines and AIs to feel confident in recommending your content to their users.
YouTube is the second most visited site on the internet, beaten only by Google itself, and some estimates say that upwards of 85% of all internet traffic is dedicated to people watching videos of some description. It doesn’t take a marketing genius to work out that this presents an opportunity to drive a little traffic towards our own sites.
While videos can be a source of direct visits, by including embedded links in both the videos themselves and their description texts, they’re often best used as an indirect awareness-building exercise and earning traffic that way. That being said, a strong Call to Action (CTA) that encourages people to visit can be a powerful tool.
There are all kinds of videos which might help drive website visits to your site. For some topics and audiences, a long-form tutorial might make sense; for others, a short, punchy, entertaining clip might be the right call. It all depends on what you’re making, what you’re selling and who you’re targeting.
It’s always worth ensuring that there is a full, accurate transcript of your videos attached to them (usually in the form of subtitles). Not only is this great for ensuring your videos are as accessible as possible, but it can also help search engines and AIs to feel confident in recommending your content to their users.
What is Video Good At?
Video traffic opens up a potentially massive audience, and it’s particularly noteworthy for:
- Generating awareness and indirect visits
- Attracting AI attention
What is Video Bad At?
That being said, the downsides of focusing on video content marketing as a source of traffic are:
- Poor targeting- depending on the platform, you’re limited to influencing, rather than controlling, who sees your content.
- Low CTRs- while you might generate some direct traffic from an embedded link, it’s likely to be a fairly small amount.
- Attribution- as most traffic that’s generated through video content is likely to be indirect, it can be hard to pin down exactly what is and isn’t working.
6. Motivieren Sie die Menschen, bis zum Ende dranzubleiben, um Ihren CTA zu sehen
Wie wir bereits behandelt haben, befinden sich die besten Plätze für Ihre CTAs und Links in der Regel am Ende Ihrer Videos. Das bedeutet, wenn Sie möchten, dass Nutzer auf Ihre Links klicken oder nach Ihrer Website suchen, müssen Sie sie dazu bringen, dranzubleiben und sich das Video bis zum Ende anzusehen.
Ganz gleich, wie gut Ihr Produkt ist: Wenn das Video, mit dem Sie Menschen darüber informieren, nicht fesselnd ist, scrollen sie weiter, bevor sie die Gelegenheit haben, auf Ihren Link zu klicken oder Ihren CTA zu hören. Engagement und Mehrwert für den Zuschauer sind noch wichtiger als eine direkte Möglichkeit einzubauen, auf Ihre Website zu gelangen.
Es gibt viele unterschiedliche Dinge, die Menschen fesselnd finden könnten, und sie alle beginnen mit einem grundlegenden Verständnis der Personen, die Sie erreichen möchten. Sie können Einblicke in Ihre Zielgruppe gewinnen, indem Sie Ihre Social-Media-Analysen prüfen oder sogar Fragebögen versenden. Mit diesem Wissen können Sie Videos skripten, die ihnen gefallen sollten.
Auch wenn es keine festen Regeln dafür gibt, was gute Zahlen liefert und was nicht (und oft hat es auch nichts mit der Produktionsqualität zu tun), gibt es ein paar Dinge, die die meisten erfolgreichen Videos gemeinsam haben:
What Is Email Marketing Good For?
Email marketing is one of the most popular ways to generate traffic directly for a few reasons:
- Allows direct engagement
- Can be tailored to appeal to either larger groups or individuals, based on the data you hold.
- Potentially fantastic ROIs
- Easy to understand analytics
- Simple segmentation based on previous behaviour on your site
What Is Email Marketing Bad At?
While email is a fantastic way to retarget your previous visitors and encourage them to come back and visit again, it does have a few major flaws:
- Cannot generate new traffic- you’re limited to the people who have signed up to your mailing list.
- Limited by the data you hold: while a mature contact might have a lot of data, a newer sign-up might require some guesswork, and this carries the risk of unsubscribing.
- Cluttered inboxes- people receive a lot of emails, so you have to work hard to stand out.
- You have to encourage people to sign up for marketing emails, and you have to keep them signed up.
7. Nutzen Sie die Zielgruppen von Influencern
Ob man sie liebt oder hasst, Influencer spielen im Videomarketing eine überproportional große Rolle. Sie haben ein gebundenes Publikum, das ihre Empfehlungen ernst nimmt, und viele von ihnen klicken auf die eingebetteten Links. Tatsächlich hat Influencer-Marketing eine CTR von etwa 2 %, wobei diese je nach Nische und Influencer stark variiert.
Der Hauptvorteil einer Partnerschaft mit einem Influencer besteht darin, dass er bereits ein engagiertes, interessiertes Publikum aufgebaut hat. Das bedeutet, dass Sie etwas sicherer sein können, dass Menschen Ihre Inhalte sehen und mit etwas Glück mehr Menschen auf Ihren Link klicken.
Die Zusammenarbeit mit einem Influencer bedeutet, bei Dingen wie Tonalität und wasserdichter Markenführung ein wenig Kontrolle aufzugeben, aber der ROI und der Zugang zu einem bereits engagierten Publikum können dies mehr als wettmachen. Ein Affiliate-Link in der Beschreibung eines relevanten Influencers kann mehr Traffic generieren, als die meisten Marken allein erreichen könnten.
Was auch immer Ihre Nische ist, es gibt den passenden Influencer dafür. Jede Branche, von Mode bis hin zu den nerdigsten Hobbys, kann ihre Reichweite (und damit ihre Website-Besuche) durch die richtige Partnerschaft erhöhen.
- Targeting by location: city, Zip/Postal Code, country or even wider.
- Targeting by interest: If they like something related to your site, they might well like your site.
- Targeting by age: aiming your ads directly at your core demographics can help avoid wasted spend.
- Targeting by gender: some sites might get significantly more traffic from men than women, or vice versa.
- Targeting search intent: having your ads pop up at the very moment someone is looking for a solution that you can offer.
When it comes to targeting new traffic, it’s hard to beat the granular nature of paid advertising.
What Are Paid Ads Good For?
As a tool for generating traffic, paid advertising stands out in quite a few ways:
- Granular Targeting: target by location, age range, gender, interests or cast your net as widely as you like.
- Reach: much of the internet funds itself by hosting ads, meaning that you can appear in all kinds of places and generate traffic through exposure.
- Building awareness: even if they don’t directly click your ad, they might still take it in and visit later.
What Are Paid Ads Bad At?
While paid ads are only really challenged by SEO as a source of traffic when it comes to the potential number of visitors, they do suffer from a few problems:
- Costs- paying per click means that a successful campaign can get expensive quickly.
- Time - to get the most traffic out of your campaigns, they need constant refinement, sucking up time that could be used elsewhere.
- Ad blindness- we’re all so bombarded with ads online that we’ve developed the ability to mentally filter a lot of them out, limiting their effectiveness.
- VPNs and Adblockers- these technologies are becoming more popular and can play havoc with your reach and analytics.
8. Erstellen Sie Shorts, um Aufmerksamkeit zu erregen
Auch wenn längere Videos durchaus ihre Berechtigung haben, besonders wenn Sie möchten, dass Menschen auf Ihren Link klicken, sind Kurzvideos in der Regel das beste Format, um sicherzustellen, dass Zuschauer bis zum Ende dranbleiben und Ihren CTA sehen. Tatsächlich schauen sich etwa 50 % der Zuschauer ein 90-sekündiges Video von Anfang bis Ende an, was Ihnen die beste Chance gibt, Ihren Call-to-Action geschickt unterzubringen.
Auch wenn die CTR für beliebige Links wahrscheinlich niedrig ist, kann der Traffic, den Sie indirekt durch den Aufbau von Markenbekanntheit generieren, dies mehr als ausgleichen. Social-Media-Plattformen wie Facebook und Instagram sowie dedizierte Video-Sharing-Seiten wie YouTube und TikTok zeigen Menschen diese kurzen, scrollbaren Videos besonders gern.
Kurzvideo-Plattformen wie TikTok, Snapchat und sogar Metas Facebook- und Instagram-Reels und Stories geben Ihnen außerdem die Möglichkeit für sofortiges Feedback, sodass Ihre Zuschauer direkt interagieren können, Beziehungen zu Ihrer Marke aufbauen und sich zu Ihrer Website lenken lassen.
Sie eignen sich außerdem hervorragend dazu, Ihre Kreativität zu präsentieren, eine Markenstimme aufzubauen und die sofortige Befriedigung zu nutzen, die aus schnell konsumierbaren Inhalten entsteht. Das gilt besonders dann, wenn Ihre Hauptzielgruppe die Gen Z ist, aber im Grunde konsumiert jeder in gewissem Maße Shorts.
Sie können Ihre längeren Inhalte außerdem wiederverwenden und in ansprechende Shorts aufteilen, wodurch ein Funnel entsteht, der Menschen zu Ihren vollständigen Inhalten und von dort weiter auf Ihre Website führt.
Der wichtigste CTA für diesen Videostil ist in der Regel etwas in der Art von „Link in Bio“ oder etwas Ähnlichem.
What is Improving Your UX Good For?
While your UX won’t attract any visits by itself, it can help you make the most of your other traffic-generating efforts:
- Improving SEO: Engagement metrics play a decent-sized role in how AIs and search engines rank content, so a better UX can lead to better rankings and more traffic, though it’s fairly indirect.
- Retaining traffic: making navigation easy can help to spread traffic that does find your site around, potentially improving the value of each visit.
- Improving advertiser scores: most ad networks consider bounce rate when deciding which ad to serve, so the more engaging your site, the more effective your paid ads.
What Will Improving Your UX Not Help?
As we’ve said, UX improvements are very much a supplementary activity. You should absolutely ensure that your site is as pleasant to navigate and easy to parse as possible, but you should also be aware that it is not a source of traffic in and of itself.
Häufige Herausforderungen für Video-Marketer
Auch wenn Videos inzwischen den Großteil des gesamten Web-Traffics ausmachen, bedeutet das nicht, dass sie ein fehlerfreies Mittel sind, wenn es darum geht, Traffic auf Ihre Website zu bringen. Es gibt einige häufige Probleme, mit denen viele Menschen konfrontiert sind:
Erstens kann es, weil die CTRs im Allgemeinen niedrig sind, schwierig sein, einen Besuch direkt einem bestimmten Video zuzuordnen. Es ist gut möglich, dass Menschen Ihr Video sehen und dann nach Ihrer Marke suchen, oder dass eine KI-Zusammenfassung Ihr Transkript aufgreift und in ihren Antworten präsentiert. Das kann bedeuten, dass es schwierig ist, einen exakten ROI zu ermitteln, aber wenn Sie Ihre Daten zusammensetzen, können Sie in der Regel einen ungefähren Wert bestimmen.
Zweitens sind Sie darin eingeschränkt, die Handlungen Ihrer Zuschauer zu beeinflussen. Auch wenn Ihr CTA perfekt sein mag und Ihre Markenbekanntheit mit jedem Beitrag steigen mag, können Sie nicht kontrollieren, was Menschen nach dem Ansehen Ihrer Videos tun. Der beste Weg, dies zu umgehen, besteht darin, Links einzubinden und Menschen so gut wie möglich dazu zu ermutigen, ihnen zu folgen, ohne Ihre Inhalte mit ungeschickten CTAs zu überladen.
Ein weiterer wichtiger Aspekt ist, dass Sie oft den Algorithmen Ihrer Zuschauer ausgeliefert sind. Das gilt besonders für YouTube und die Kurzvideo-Plattformen. Jede hat ihre eigenen Kriterien, die sie belohnt, aber letztlich hängt es von der Art der Inhalte ab, die jemand bereits angesehen hat, was wem angezeigt wird. Auch wenn das eine Stärke sein kann, kann es ebenso eine Schwäche sein – die meisten Menschen sehen sich wahrscheinlich keine Tutorials dazu an, wie man dieselbe DIY-Aufgabe erledigt, wenn die Arbeit bereits abgeschlossen ist.
What Is Local Search Good For?
Local search stands out as a way of generating a very specific type of traffic: locally targeted visitors. It does this in a few ways:
- Maps searches: catching people as they are literally about to head out the door and make a purchase.
- Targeting tourists: visitors to an area will appreciate the information you can offer.
- Targeting local residents: if your business serves a certain area, local search is probably the most useful source of traffic in terms of conversions and sales.
What Is Local Search Good For?
While local searches should be the bread and butter for many sites, for others who cast their nets wider, it’s of limited use. If your market isn’t confined to a certain physical location, your efforts are better spent on other techniques.
9. Make Use of Analytics To Refine Your Traffic Generation
Analytics aren’t a source of traffic by themselves, but they do allow you to refine your other efforts and get more out of them. By looking at what is and isn’t working in your efforts to generate traffic, you can ensure that you’re spending your time and effort where it will have the biggest impact. If you want more information about what data you can gather and how to start turning it into visits, our guide can get you started.
The real key to getting the most traffic possible from any source is understanding what is and what isn’t working, then using this data to refine your efforts. While even the best analytics tool won’t generate a single visit by itself, the impact of understanding your data on all your other efforts can’t be overstated.
With a tool like Google Analytics 4, you can:
The real key to getting the most traffic possible from any source is understanding what is and what isn’t working, then using this data to refine your efforts. While even the best analytics tool won’t generate a single visit by itself, the impact of understanding your data on all your other efforts can’t be overstated.
With a tool like Google Analytics 4, you can:
- Understand where your current traffic is coming from: social media, search results, paid ads, etc.
- Discover where your visitors are: you can get detailed estimates about where people are when they find you, allowing you to either double down or expand your efforts.
- Audit your site: working out which pieces of content are doing numbers and which need further refinement allows you to focus your efforts more efficiently.
- Understand who is visiting your site: analytics tools often offer demographic insights, including things like age, gender and interests. This allows you to target your other efforts much more closely.
- Monitor your search results: knowing which search results you rank for allows you to refine your SEO efforts.
Other analytics tools can help you with generating ideas for new content based on keywords and search volumes, or even let you judge how well your competitors are doing in their own traffic-acquisition efforts.
What are Analytics Good For?
While they won’t generate a single visit by themselves, analytics are a vital part of any traffic generation exercise. They allow you to weigh up what is and isn’t working, allowing you to put your time and effort into the activities which will generate the most traffic.
What are Analytics Bad At?
Analytics are simply not a source of traffic for anyone; they’re included in this list because they allow you to refine and improve all your other efforts. One area where they might cause problems is in judging what is and is not a vanity metric. Without careful consideration of the data they present, it’s very easy to get caught up chasing the wrong statistics.
10. Borrow traffic through Affiliate Links
Affiliate links allow you to partner with content creators who might be willing to send some of their followers to your website. You pay a commission on any sales from people who visit your page via the affiliate link. If your target traffic matches your affiliate partner’s audience well, this can be a great source of traffic and save you a lot of time and effort in terms of building engagement and awareness. If you want to get started with affiliate link marketing, our guide has you covered.
It’s a truism of the modern internet that for every industry, there’s an influencer with an audience. There are a few different ways that you can take advantage of this to generate traffic, but by far the most direct is through affiliate links.
They basically work by attaching a short code to your website’s URL, assigning the visits from anyone who clicks it to a specific affiliate. Your partner promotes the link in their content, and for every sale they push your way, you pay a small commission. They can be time-limited, allowing you to build and promote offers, or they can be longer-lasting, allowing you to take advantage of a single piece of content for longer.
The key to success here is finding the right affiliates to partner with. A creator who already covers your niche will almost certainly be able to attract more traffic to your site than someone who is more general. There are exceptions to this, however, when it comes to lifestyle brands and certain consumer goods that most people are likely to be interested in.
Alternatively, you could partner with other local businesses and offer their customers a special offer- think restaurants offering theatre visitors a discount, or bus companies partnering with local attractions.
It’s a truism of the modern internet that for every industry, there’s an influencer with an audience. There are a few different ways that you can take advantage of this to generate traffic, but by far the most direct is through affiliate links.
They basically work by attaching a short code to your website’s URL, assigning the visits from anyone who clicks it to a specific affiliate. Your partner promotes the link in their content, and for every sale they push your way, you pay a small commission. They can be time-limited, allowing you to build and promote offers, or they can be longer-lasting, allowing you to take advantage of a single piece of content for longer.
The key to success here is finding the right affiliates to partner with. A creator who already covers your niche will almost certainly be able to attract more traffic to your site than someone who is more general. There are exceptions to this, however, when it comes to lifestyle brands and certain consumer goods that most people are likely to be interested in.
Alternatively, you could partner with other local businesses and offer their customers a special offer- think restaurants offering theatre visitors a discount, or bus companies partnering with local attractions.
What Are Affiliate Links Good For?
Affiliate links stand out as a source of traffic for a few reasons:
- Easy access to an existing audience- turn your affiliates’ followers into traffic for your own site.
- Suitable partners for any site- whatever the purpose of your site, there’s bound to be an affiliate whose followers would love to see it.
- Pay per sale- you only pay for visits which actually lead to a conversion, rather than paying per visit.
- Advertise offers quickly- time-limited links allow you to offer certain audiences customized offers, creating a large influx of reasonably well-targeted traffic.
What Are Affiliate Links Bad At?
Of course, affiliate links do have certain drawbacks:
- Paying commission: an unexpectedly successful campaign can get expensive quickly, blowing through your budget.
- Limited targeting: while you can choose your partner carefully, you’re limited to vaguely targeting interests rather than more detailed segmentation.
Increasing Your Web Traffic
Getting more people to visit your site means that you’ll generate more leads, earn more referrals and generally make more sales. The number of visitors that you receive is often (but not always) proportionate to all your other important metrics.
Attracting traffic usually comes from a marketing mix that includes a variety of techniques, each bringing something slightly different to the table:
Attracting traffic usually comes from a marketing mix that includes a variety of techniques, each bringing something slightly different to the table:
- Focusing on SEO: Search engines and AIs offer access to a potentially huge number of visitors. SEO is relatively cheap, and the effects can last for years.
- Content marketing attracts people to your site, either through offering entertainment, information or education.
- Social media can turn your followers into visitors and, with luck, customers.
- Creating and sharing videos can boost your profile and even attract some traffic directly.
- Email can help you keep hold of the attention of people who have already visited you, keeping their traffic coming back time and again.
- Paid ads let you target new traffic on an incredibly granular level.
- Ensuring your site has a clean, effective UX can provide a noticeable boost to your SEO and paid ads, as well as helping retain visitors for longer.
- Local Search and Maps allow you to target traffic from people who live, work or are visiting your area.
- Analytics allow you to examine and refine all your other efforts, helping you to generate more traffic from them.
- Affiliate Links allow you to turn a partner’s following into traffic for your site.
What makes most sense as your main focus for directing traffic towards your site will vary from website to website, but a good rule of thumb is that you should be trying at least most of these techniques to some degree or another.
