Breaking It Down
Referral traffic. Everybody wants more of it, but before we delve into the “how to” we need to define what, exactly, it is. Referral traffic pertains to visitors who reach your site via a link from anywhere other than a search engine. Why is referral traffic important? It helps businesses gauge the impact their brand has on consumers, can increase a blog’s page rank and boost your SEO rank. It also drives targeted audiences to your website, who are more likely to make a purchase than those visitors who stumble across it.
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So how do you get more? You could pay big money for banner ads, social media ads, advertising slots and sponsored placements or, if that’s not in the budget or you’re looking for another method, you can follow our cost efficient guidelines. Trying to increase your referral traffic may seem a little daunting at first, but if you follow these three steps, you’re sure to succeed.
Step 1. Create Custom Content- Start by producing great pieces of content that your current, and potential, customers would be interested in reading. Your blog articles, videos, infographics etc. should be chalked full of useful information that will benefit your readers. Publish your content in one place (a blog) so all your visitors will be brought back to the same spot. Why? Companies with blogs have 97% more indexed links, and produce 67% more leads per month than those without.
Step 2. Learn to Share- In a study conducted by Facebook, they found that making frequent posts increases referral traffic by 80%. So, the next step is to share your content on multiple social media platforms. The key is to produce unique, enticing posts that will draw attention and persuade people to click on your link. Social media allows you to drastically increase your audience reach and online presence. Last year alone the average referral track from Facebook to other sites increased by 170%.
Step 3. Share Some More- You already have the contact information for your current and previous customers, so use it! 82% of consumers open emails from businesses, so establish a monthly eNewsletter and insert links back to your blog and other webpages within it. Go even further and encourage your customers to refer others to your company and products by starting a referral program. People pay 2x more attention to recommendations made by friends than any other sources, so you can expect more visitors.
Now that you have an idea of how to increase your referral traffic in a cost efficient and effective way, here are some more tips to get the ball rolling.
• Create attention-grabbing titles for your content. If a reader isn’t engaged by the title, there is no way they will click the link to continue reading.
• Get 94% more views by incorporating an image into your article.
• Don’t forget to also share other people’s work; by sharing great content and enticing others to share it too, you will increase your online presence and bring in more targeted visitors.
• Get 94% more views by incorporating an image into your article.
• Don’t forget to also share other people’s work; by sharing great content and enticing others to share it too, you will increase your online presence and bring in more targeted visitors.