Whether your eCommerce business is brand new or your established business is struggling to grow, it can be a challenge to develop new and effective ways to drive traffic to your website.

Website traffic is the lifeblood of every online business, and simply having an online store isn’t enough. To grow your eCommerce business, you need buyers (in fact, lots of buyers) to find and visit your site every single day easily.

If your eCommerce business is looking to increase your web traffic and online sales, try these 33 top strategies proven to yield explosive growth.

Let’s dig in.

1. Perform Keyword Research

One of the most effective ways of driving highly targeted traffic to your website is by including relevant keywords in your content.

Use your keywords throughout your website content, including the post itself,  meta description, page title, headers, and  URL.

Resist the urge to cram your keywords into your content. Aside from making the content distracting for the reader, this strategy is often penalized by search engines such as Google.

To find the best keywords for your site, you can utilize online keyword tools such as SEMrush, Moz, and Ahrefs.

If you have the budget, you might consider hiring a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) agency. They can provide your eCommerce business with valuable insight and help your site to rank for relevant keywords.

2. Target Long-tail or Very Low Competition Keywords

It can be challenging to rank your new website for competitive keyword phrases,  which is why long-tail keywords can be your secret weapon.

Long-tail keywords are searched for more often than general keywords, so utilizing them both in your web content and paid search is a solid strategy.

As consumers use voice search tools such as Alexa, Siri, Bixby, Cortana, and Google Assistant, voice search will become increasingly important to driving traffic to your website.

This is why optimizing your content for voice search and implementing long-tail keywords is critical. When people use voice search, they speak in full sentences.

Voice search increased by nearly 10% by the end of 2021. Emarketer.com estimates that over 111 million people (39.4% of internet users) use a voice assistant.

To find long-tail keyword variations, try using tools such as Google’s suggestions and Related Searches.

3. Write Great Headlines

A great headline draws more readers to your content and helps your business stand out in search results.

To write headlines with maximum impact, use a tool such as the Coschedule Headline Analyzer to optimize your headlines for word count, skimmability, clarity, sentiment, and word balance.

4. Create Memorable Content

It’s not enough to recycle the same tired blog posts your competitors are using. To drive traffic and make your website stand out, you’ll need to create memorable content.

Websites including blog content actually generate 434% more search engine-indexed pages search engine-indexed pages than sites without blog content.

Memorable content provides your business with a plethora of benefits, including increasing direct sales and lead generation, improving brand loyalty, and keeping reader attention.

According to a recent study, content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less.

5. Guest Posting

Guest posting on other websites can help your eCommerce business to generate backlinks, increase your referral traffic, and improve your search engine rankings.

To get the most bang from this strategy, make sure the website you’re posting is a  high-quality site with strong domain authority.

Be sure to follow the site’s guest posting guidelines, and to get additional benefit from your guest post, promote the post on your social media platforms. You can ask the publication to promote the post and tag you on their social media as well.

6. Update / Rewrite Old Blog Posts

Updating and rewriting your old blog posts is an effective way to repurpose your existing content and drive additional traffic to your site.

When you update blog posts, search engines treat the content as new.

Consider adding new images, eliminating outdated information, and adding in FAQs.

7. Go on Podcasts

Being a guest on a podcast can drive highly targeted and engaged traffic back to your eCommerce website.

The number of podcast listeners increased by 29.5% from 2018 to 2021, and more than one-third (104 million) of Americans listen to podcasts regularly.

What’s more, 28% of Americans listen to podcasts every week.

In addition to reaching the podcaster’s audience during the show itself, podcasters generally link back to your site or offer in the description or show notes,  making it easy for audience members who heard you on the podcast to learn more about you and your business.

These show notes appear on several high authority sites including iTunes, Spotify, and Anchor.fm.

To find podcasts in your niche, search “top [your niche] podcasts” in Google, or try tools like Rephonic or Site Explorer.

8. Social Media

Social media is an excellent tool to increase traffic to your website.

Some of the most effective tactics for posting on social media to drive traffic to your site are:

• Posting content from your site, including blog posts, ebooks, infographics, and videos
• Using relevant hashtags to help buyers find you
• Replying to people asking questions with links to your relevant content 
• Changing your cover photo to promote new content or products
• Tagging influencers who might be interested in your content or products

Social media tools such as Later, Zoho Social, and Buffer can help you schedule your social media postings in advance and leverage your website content across all your social media channels.

9. Newsletters

Regularly sending out newsletters and promoting offers from your eCommerce site is an effective method of driving traffic to your website.

Within the content of your newsletter you should provide useful information that links back to your website’s blog posts, product listings, and landing pages where buyers can learn more.

Pay special attention to your email subject lines, which have a major impact on whether or not your customer opens your email.

To increase your newsletter sign-ups, you’ll want to create a newsletter magnet, which is content that requires visitors to share their email addresses with you for access.  You can also share you’re newsletter magnet on social media, which is an effective method for converting your followers into subscribers.

Make sure it’s easy for visitors to sign up for your newsletter on your site, and include forms on both your home page and your about page.

10. Influencers

Inviting an industry influencer to publish a guest post on your site can drive additional traffic to your site through both organic search and the influencers’ own promotional efforts.

This strategy adds additional depth to your content and shows visitors that you have influence in your industry.

In addition, influencer marketing can be a budget-friendly solution to drive additional traffic to your eCommerce website.

When influencers post links, discount codes, reviews, or giveaways for your eCommerce site, they leverage their audience to drive traffic to your site.

11. Improve Your Website’s Responsiveness

Because most users now access Google search with a mobile device, Google has prioritized mobile-first indexing, which means they predominately use the mobile version of your site content for indexing and ranking.

You can drive additional traffic by ensuring your website is responsive for better mobile scoring from Google.

12. Create a Tool

Another powerful way to drive traffic is to provide users with a free tool on your website.

For instance, if your eCommerce business sells cleaning supplies, your customers might find a seasonal cleaning calendar helpful. Additionally, family law attorneys could drive traffic by offering a simple child support calculator tool based on the formula for the state in which they practice law.

13. Google Ads

Using Google Ads ensures your website shows up at the top of search results for specific keywords.

With Google Ads, you only pay when a user clicks on your ad. Your cost per click depends on how competitive the keyword is.  Paid search results show up at the top of the results pages and effectively drive more targeted visitors to your website.

14. Exchange Backlinks

Backlinks are links to your website from another website. Backlinks from businesses and influencers in your industry drive traffic to your eCommerce site, improve your search engine rankings, and give your business exposure to a larger audience.

Most eCommerce sites want to increase their web traffic, which means there are always plenty of opportunities to exchange backlinks with other websites in your industry.

15. LinkedIn Posts

LinkedIn posts and your LinkedIn company page are highly effective in driving traffic to your website. LinkedIn boasts nearly 800,000,000 active users and is the most trusted social network in the US.

Your LinkedIn posts and business page provide customers with an additional way to find your business online. Adding links to your website from your posts or business page drives traffic to your site and also improves your ranking in search engine results.

 

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16. Setup Google Business Profile

eCommerce businesses that optimize their Google Business Profile get 700% more clicks than those without.

Beginning in 2022, Google Will enable you to chat with customers from both search and on Google Maps.  Google will also provide your business with a detailed customer call history so you can see exactly how effective your listing is in driving calls.

To optimize your Google Business Profile:

• Claim and verify your business through Google Maps
• Complete all the information and verify it is accurate
• Add some images
• Optimize your Google reviews by responding positively to every review you get – even the negative ones. 

17. Online Directories

Another effective way to increase your web traffic is to list your business in free online directories. Most directories include a link to your website in your profile,  which can, in turn, drive additional traffic.

Some popular directories to help you get started include:

• • Google My Business 
  • Yelp
  • Foursquare
  • Facebook
  • Angi (formerly Angie’s List)
  • Foursquare
  • Bing Local
  • Yahoo Local
  • Glassdoor
  • YellowPages
  • MerchantCircle
  • SuperPages
  • Better Business Bureau
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • City Search
  • Mapquest
  • Manta

18. Host Webinars

Webinars are an effective tool to drive traffic to your website because they offer potential buyers valuable content for free.

Popular webinar topics include:

• • • Tutorials
    • Expert panels
    • How-Tos
   

  To expand your reach, consider co-hosting webinars with other people in your industry, creating a win-win scenario that allows you to benefit from each other’s audiences.

  If you are not comfortable with live webinars, pre-recorded trainings are another effective way to drive traffic to your website.

  The best topics solve a problem for your intended audience. You can either require prospects to provide their email address in order to view the training or embed them directly into a blog post on your site.

  19. Press Releases

  While links within the press releases themselves won’t necessarily drive traffic to your site, they are a useful tool in increasing your brand awareness and visibility.

  However, press releases do contribute to your eCommerce business and your website’s perceived expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, which are important to quality metrics by Google standards.

  Additionally, a good press release can generate media coverage for your brand and drive additional traffic to your site.

  20. Mix Content Formats

  Different content formats appeal to different buyers.  New content forms can help your site attract more targeted visitors, achieve higher conversion rates, and achieve better search engine rankings.

Some content formats to try include:

• Videos
• Memes
• Infographics
• Guides
• Reviews
• Lists
• Ebooks
• Case studies
• Podcasts
• Interviews
• Research and data

  21. Optimize On-Page Content (SEO)

  Optimizing your on-page SEO helps your website rank higher in search engines, increasing the traffic to your site.

  Some on-page elements you can optimize easily include:

• Headers
• Page titles
• Meta descriptions
• Alt-text for images
• Your URLs

  22. Create Videos for Your Site and/or YouTube

  YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world and is an excellent resource for driving free organic traffic to your website.

  Utilize your keywords in the content of your video, and be sure to link your content back to your website through the video itself, the description, and the about page.

  You can leverage your video content by embedding it on your website’s blog. Then,  post the content on your social media to drive additional traffic to your site.

 

23. Answer questions on Quora

Quora is an effective tool for driving traffic to your eCommerce website.

To reap the traffic generating benefits of Quora, provide detailed answers to questions on the platform and use your keywords to link back to content on your website or blog.

24. Use Schema Markup for Better SERP Visibility

Schema markup is code that you place on your eCommerce website to help the search engines provide users with more informative results.

Websites that utilize schema markup rank better in search engine results pages than companies without schema markup. On average, websites with markup rank four positions higher in search engine results than those without schema markup.

Schema markup can help your eCommerce site to rank better for a variety of different content types.

Schema markup can also identify you or your business as the author of an article, answers to frequently asked questions, display upcoming events for your business, and a host of other valuable tools.

If this seems complicated, there’s a great explainer here.

 

25. Interview Industry Thought Leaders

Publishing interviews with industry thought leaders on your website or blog is another excellent way to drive more traffic.

As an alternative, you can do what is called a “round-up,” where you ask five to seven experts in your niche to weigh in on a specific topic.

This helps your brand position itself as a leader in your field and provides many opportunities for backlinks and additional traffic as the experts promote the interview on their own sites and social media channels.

Additionally, a round-up is often more appealing to experts because it requires a lower time commitment and delivers the same visibility as a full interview.

 

26. Keep Your Site Fast

Keeping your eCommerce website fast decreases your bounce and improves engagement.

This is important because higher engagement often leads to higher placement in search engine results pages (SERPs) such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

 

27. Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most effective methods to grow your business and increase traffic to your site.

Once your lead is added to your email list from a lead magnet such as a white paper, e-book, or listicle, you can utilize an automated sales funnel to build the relationship with your prospect and drive traffic to your site within the emails themselves.

This can be accomplished with article snippets where the user has to return to your website to read the rest of the article, special promotions, videos, or other desirable content.

One thing to remember: make sure your emails are mobile-friendly. Today many people use their smartphones, iPads, tablets, and other handheld devices when accessing their email.

27. Use Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC, previously known as Google Webmaster Tools) is a free set of tools that can help you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your website’s search engine rankings.

Using the tools in GSC can help you optimize your site to boost your site’s performance.

You can use GSC to:

• Make sure Google is indexing your web pages 
• Fix usability issues
• See which other websites link back to your site 
• Submit a sitemap
• Identify your top organic pages
• View the search queries visitors use to find your website
• Make sure your schema markup is working
• Check your website’s score and general health

28. Post on Medium.com

Medium is a high domain authority site and an excellent platform for posting content to drive traffic back to your website.

Medium is a blogging platform for individuals and businesses to post content online. It is an excellent tool to drive traffic to your website.

A significant audience can view Medium posts, and their algorithm is especially adept at surfacing high-quality content.

Like other social media platforms, Medium has many influencers and subscribers, and you will find the greatest success on Medium by engaging regularly.

29. Post on Reddit

Reddit receives 1.5 billion visits per month, And participating in subreddits in your eCommerce business niche can drive significant traffic to your site.

Your best strategy with Reddit is to provide helpful content and answer other Redditors’ questions.

Self-promotion is frowned upon in this forum, and your posts will be removed if your content feels overly promotional. Make certain that you are familiar with the subreddit’s particular rules,  as they vary from forum to forum.

Your most effective strategy is to participate in discussions around your topic and provide valuable insights.

30. Create a Free Course

Forbes estimates that e-learning courses will climb to $325 billion dollars by 2025.

Creating and providing a free course offers an excellent opportunity to drive highly targeted traffic to your website.

The most effective e-learning courses solve a specific problem for the user, are creative, and are user-friendly.

While a free course is an effective way to drive traffic to your website, you’ll gain the most benefit to your eCommerce business if you require visitors to submit their email addresses to access the course. That way, you can continue to market to them and use the leads you’ve captured to drive additional traffic to your site in the future.

 

31. Use Analytics to See What Content is Working for Your Brand

Google Analytics is an invaluable tool to see exactly which content is driving visitors to your site, as well as which content is driving them away.

Leverage this critical data to replicate your successes and create more effective content.

Google Analytics provides you with valuable data about your audience. This helps your business to determine which channels and marketing efforts drive most of the traffic to your website.

The Audience Overview insights on Google Analytics provide a plethora of information about the people who visit your website including their age, gender, devices, interests, and location. This helps you to better understand who your customers are, and gives you clues about additional methods of reaching them.

Want specific data on how your visitors were driven to your website?  You’ll find it in Google Analytics, as well as the pages on your site with the highest bounce rates.

Google Analytics also allows you to see which social media platforms are driving visitors to your site, which can help you to allocate your marketing budget and efforts.

In addition, Google Analytics monitors your content for views and shares. This important data gives you insight into content areas you should expand as well as those that are not resonating with your client base.

Here are some of the most useful reports you’ll find on Google Analytics:

• Audience Overview
• Demographics
• Acquisition Overview
• Source/Medium
• Content Efficiency Analysis
• New vs Returning Users
• Funnel Analysis
• User Acquisition and Efficiency
• Landing Pages
• Mobile Performance
• Behavior Flow
• Custom Events

 

32. Test, Test, Test

A/B testing, also called split testing, helps you to determine what version of a headline, campaign, or ad performs best by comparing one against the other.

A/B testing can give you critical information about your audience to enable you to create content that resonates with your buyers and drives traffic to your site.

A/B test your headlines, ads, and content to refine your messaging and learn what resonates most with your audience.

Try some of these useful A/B testing tools:

• Google Optimize
• Freshmarketer
• Hubspot’s A/B Testing Kit
• Optimizely
• Omniconvert
• Crazy Egg
• Leadformly
• AB Tasty
• Convert

Final Thoughts

Driving traffic to your eCommerce website takes work and creativity, but the resulting targeted traffic and brand awareness will continue to help your business grow into the future.