It can be very frustrating for people when they have spent a lot of time and effort developing their website, only to get disappointing or even dismal results. As a result, you might be wondering how to drive traffic and improve your conversion rates to help your website be more successful. If you're not happy with the way your website performs, there are many ways to boost performance with the right strategies. 

If you want to increase website traffic, the following are steps to take that can drive better performance and attract visitors.

1. Paid Ads

One of the most effective ways to boost website traffic is to develop and launch high-quality paid ads. Ads can include image ads that appear on other websites, video ads that play before or during videos on YouTube and other streaming sites, or ads that appear at the top of search engine results. A combination of paid ads can be the key to getting in front of your audiences. One of the main advantages of paid digital ads is reaching audiences through precise targeting. This ensures that the right people see your ads. These targeted advertising capabilities also enable paid ads to attract more high-quality traffic than traffic from SEO efforts; traffic gathered from paid ads lead to 50% more conversions than organic ads.

2. Social Media Presence

Another great way to bring more people to your website is through a highly engaged social media presence. Make sure you find out which social media platforms your audiences use and target them. Post regularly and respond to users' comments, encouraging more people to follow you and visit your website through links in your posts or on your profile. 

3. Optimize with SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) can complement your paid ad campaigns by targeting search engine users naturally. SEO can be cost-effective, and you can appear for many popular search terms with well-optimized website content. The fact is that organic search accounts for 53.3% of website traffic, making SEO invaluable if you want people to find you. You can optimize your website by producing fresh, high-quality content that includes naturally incorporated keywords, building a network of backlinks with more authoritative sites linking back to yours, and other practices that further drive visibility and traffic.

4. Utilize Email Marketing

Email marketing can also increase traffic through engaging and helpful messages, calls-to-action, and links. You can encourage people to sign up for a newsletter or get into your email campaigns during the checkout process, encouraging more returning visitors. Like paid ads, email marketing can be the key to driving sales with increased traffic, with 4.24% of email traffic leading to sales compared to 2.49% of traffic from search engines and .59% via social media.

5. Cross-Promote Blog Content

Having a well-maintained blog with plenty of relevant content that audiences love is a great way to attract visitors. While optimized blog posts may attract organic visits from search engines, you can make the most of them by cross-promoting them on different platforms. When you publish a new blog, don't just let it sit and ferment—share that post to email subscribers or on your social media pages to encourage interested audiences to click-through and visit your website.

6. Ensure You Have Fast Loading Times

People don't have the patience for slow loading times on websites, and they haven't for a long time. Website visitors want to see content as soon as possible, or they're likely to leave and look for another more reliable source. Generally, your pages should take no longer than three seconds to load. Any longer and you're more likely to see a significant increase in bounce rates and an overall decrease in engagement.

7. Invite People to Visit Your Website

Whether you want to attract more people to your main page or boost traffic for specific pages, you can also invite people to visit your website in many places. Include links in your emails, social media posts, and digital video ads, with enticing calls-to-action that get people to click. You can also encourage people to visit your website by including your domain name in TV or OTT ads.

8. OTT Advertising

More and more people are subscribing to one or more video streaming services. If you want to drive traffic from those audiences, over-the-top (OTT) ads can be a great asset. OTT ads are non-skippable, which helps make sure that people watch your ads to completion, ultimately leading them to a call-to-action that can direct them to your website. People are also likely to learn more about you using another device simultaneously, as 88% of Americans use a second device while watching TV or streaming services.

9. Link Internally

It's essential to incorporate a good interlinking strategy to keep people on your site and increase engagement. On your main pages and blog posts, link to other relevant pages on your site with appropriate anchor text, which uses a keyword that you want the linked page to rank for. Interlinking can not only help keep people browsing your site, but it can also improve search engine performance if authoritative pages link to other lower-ranking pages within your area.

10. Make Sure Your Website is Responsive

Every website should be responsive, which means it should load properly and provide a user-friendly experience across all devices. You can test your website on mobile devices to see what mobile users' experience will be like, and optimize if needed. Everyone who visits your website should benefit from the same optimal experience and easily navigate your site and digest content. It's also important to keep in mind that Google is likely to punish websites that aren't mobile-optimized, making it necessary to maintain good SEO.

To increase website traffic, taking all of these measures can help you get the results you want from your site. From good SEO and PPC ads to consistent blogging and social media posting, there are plenty of ways to boost traffic and, subsequently, sales. To get the most from your website and digital marketing strategies to maximize traffic, consider working with an experienced media partner to help you develop winning campaigns.