How to drive traffic to your website using social media

Google likes websites with high quality content.

Driving traffic from social media can be a reinforcing factor: the more people like and share your content, the better chances of appearing in search results.

Plus, social media drives traffic directly from posts.

It is also an avenue to find out whether your content resonates or not. The social and interactive nature of social media gives you a chance to work out what your audience needs and how you can give it to them.

Social media and SEO

In 2021, 4.36 billion people were using social media, and that number is projected to grow to almost six billion by 2027.

Google wants to be as useful as possible in connecting people with the information they need.

They use the amount of engagement on social media as a way to measure how relevant a site and its content is.

When people share, comment and like content, it is an indicator that they find the content useful. So useful they go out of their way to interact with it. 

Do I really need to rank higher?

With millions of businesses trying to rank for the same keywords, many people ask themselves if it's worth trying to rank higher on Google.

Isn't it a lost cause?

Wouldn't one's energy be better spent on other avenues, such as word of mouth or having a physical location?

The short answer is: ranking is still important, if you want people to find your business website.

No one can buy your service or find your store if they don't know you exist. This is where social media comes in - it's a channel where you can present your content to your audience and receive engagement that will feed into Google's algorithm.

How to drive traffic to your business website from social media

1: Create relevant content based on keywords and market research

Keyword research is all about figuring out what your audience is actually searching for.

Look at 'intent': what was the intent of the user when they searched for a specific phrase?

Try to use keywords and phrases as an indicator of what your audience want to know. If they for example search: "Best web agency Europe," you know they are probably ready to hire an agency.

If they search "how to easily create a website without experience," maybe this is your chance to write a blog post giving tips on just that. If you are a website reseller, this would be a natural segway into introducing your services. Offer them to build a website for them. Or perhaps offer them a Do-It-With-Me solution.

Only a small percentage of your followers will see your posts on social media. Increase engagement by encouraging comments, likes and shares. You can do this by engaging with other people's content. 

The purpose is not to create a transactional relationship with your peers on social media. Instead, find content you genuinely find useful and make sure to let the authors know!

You can also share useful content from other creators on your channel. This shows that you engage with the world around you, instead of only promoting your own content. 

2. Share content from your website on social media

When you have new content on your site, share it.

It could be a news page, blog, or product page. You can share it on your business page, but it is also okay to go all in and promote the content via your private profile and private groups and networks.

The more exposure you can create, the more likely that the right people see and engage with your content.

3. Add a button back to a strategic page on your website to drive traffic

Link to your website from your social media account.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+ etc all have a dedicated button exactly for that purpose. This is how you tell your followers how they can best learn more about you.

It is also a good idea to make sure you have included links to your socials on your website, so new website visitors know where they can follow you.

4. Write blog posts to drive traffic from social media to your website

Blog posts are a great way to engage your audience. Not only does it give you new content to post on socials: Google also likes websites that are regularly updated with fresh content.

If you make sure to use relevant keywords from your analysis in the blog posts, it will also give the algorithm hints about what your website is about, and why people should go to you for answers.  

We dive deeper into many other reasons why content is a useful marketing tool in the article "How small businesses can sell more with content marketing".

As Michael said in the article: "Before you start your blog, you need to have a good understanding of what interests these people. Chances are if you have regular communication with your customers, you already have a good idea of what they are interested in, but you also need to know what types of keywords people are searching on Google..."

5. Post regularly, but don't spam

The balance between posting too little and too much is incredibly fine.

As Neil Patel says, "if you post too infrequently, your audience will forget that you exist and you will quickly fade into the deep dark recesses of their minds. However, if you are posting too often, you will become a complete nuisance and they will dread seeing your posts overcrowding their feed."

You know your audience the best and you should listen to the feedback they give you in terms of engagement. If you post too much or too little, you will be able to spot a drop in your data. HubSpot, for example, found that accounts with fewer than 10,000 followers saw a 50% drop in engagement per post if they posted more than once per day.

On the other hand, if you post too infrequently, your followers might forget about you. It also depends on the platform. Many agree that 2-3 times per week works well for Facebook, as an example.

6. Use incentive marketing to drive traffic to your website

The business dictionary defines Incentive Marketing as the "use of motivational devices such as competitions, games, premiums, special pricing, to promote the sale of a merchandise or service."

Incentive marketing lends itself especially well to social media, as posts quickly can get a lot of eyeballs. It is a way to encourage customer loyalty and can ultimately drive people back to your website to participate.

Even if the competition takes place on socials exclusively - it is still a good way to drive traffic.

Your business is re-introduced to your audience, increasing brand awareness, customer loyalty and ultimately it encourages your followers to keep following you. That way, your business will be at the top of their mind next time they need your service or product. 

The customer-centric model is a key aspect of this concept. The term was coined by KPMG. They define it as the model where “millions of consumers no longer ‘go’ shopping, but literally ‘are’ shopping — at every moment and everywhere.”

Path to purchase has traditionally been a linear process where the customer goes through a process of awareness, consideration, conversion, and evaluation. However now with many offline and online touchpoints this process has become more of a web where customers fluctuate between the stages depending on input from various channels.

It is important for businesses to keep providing these inputs, on as many channels as possible, to be present when the customer is ready to purchase.

Other marketing tactics to promote your website

There are endless options to promote your website online, and drive more traffic to it. Social media is just one way. We explored several other options in our blog post "Website Marketing trends 2022". 

About Mono

Mono was founded on the belief that all small businesses deserve beautiful and well-performing websites. We give website resellers an all-in-one white-label website creator to build and manage customer websites. Get a demo here.