101 ways to use social media, social networking and more to increase traffic to your website

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101 ways to increase website traffic with Social Media
By David Attard
CONTENT IS KING
1. Be helpf ul – f orget the sales pitch. People want to “solve a problem” – make sure you, your
product and your website are f ocused towards solving a problem – whatever it may be. Whether
it’s “What shall I cook tonight?” or “How to increase website traf f ic” – your social media marketing
should all be about solving “Someone Else’s Problem” (a twist on the meaning of the SEP - with
apologies to Douglas Adams)
2. Publish more content, regularly – daily is ideal. Weekly as a minimum.
3. Publish ORIGINAL well-researched content - don’t just braindump. Brainstorm, think, plan, design,
write, ref ine, proof , then publish ;)
4. Author content which is relevant – don’t repeat content f rom other sources. Make your website
relevant, THE website to visit in your niche
5. Design a f unny comic related to your niche – with links to your site
6. Design a regular f unny comic or page – “Funny Fridays”, “Lazy Mondays”. Think on the lines of
“The Borowitz Report”
7. When publishing content, stick to one rule – “How would I behave if I were the one reading it?” If
you were looking f or something, would the article you are about to publish help, or would you just
skim it and bounce of f . If it’s irrelevant, ref er to 4 ;) If you’ve seen it bef ore, ref er to 4 ;) If you just
say “mehh”, ref er to 4 ;)
8. Use great titles f or your content, titles which tempt or create curiosity – “How I got my website to
load in 1.29 seconds” vs “Increase your website load time”. Think “How I made Google my bitch!” vs
“Improve your search engine rankings”. If necessary spend a lot of time titles – they are the
portals to your website
9. Share your expertise as website content – don’t underestimate the power of social sharing. The
viral ef f ect of sharing good content is much better than trying to charge f or that content through
your “consultancy services”. Only if you get the traf f ic will you be able to monetize it.
10. Author a good eBook and embed links to your content and “sales” pages
11. Give it out f or f ree – or at the minimal cost of joining your mailing list, liking your Facebook page,
or otherwise providing you with means to keep a user coming back
12. Give other stuf f away. Free sof tware works wonders f or traf f ic. SWAG in response to
questionnaires works very well too. FREE 30 DAY Trial is not f ree. Lite (f ree) versions of sof tware
on the other hand are cool
13. Don’t write the content you want your visitors to read –
write content your visitors want to read (huge dif f erence)
14. Author and publish something controversial – go against
established trends (with good reasons of course). Think
“How I abandoned Google SEO in f avour of Social Media
Marketing”.
15. Think about something which is bound to go viral –
inf ormative inf ographics, controversial content,
hilariously f unny content, a brand new concept or idea
which creates a revolution. Then create a killer article(s)
and publish.
16. Research the keywords you want to target (use Google
Trends or Google Keyword tool) and use them within

2. your articles
17. Test which content is working and which isn’t. Build upon
the content which is working
18. Stop being so serious when writing content f or the web
– let go, have some f un. Visitors want to be entertained
as well as inf ormed
19. Keep visitors on your site – Include a “You might also like” at the end of content and link to other
related content. Do this manually, not with automated plugins
Be Social, be heard, be everywhere
20. Embed Social sharing buttons in your website – Facebook, Twitter and Google+ (yes Google+ is
important) as a minimum. You may choose to add other social networks which are relevant f or your
specif ic website niche. Avoid using a 100,000 social share buttons
21. Find relevant communities in your niche and join. Whether they are on Facebook, independent
f orums, Reddit, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Spiceworks or wherever else they might be – join.
Most importantly, participate
22. If they allow signatures ensure you have a compelling one with a link to your website or your social
media presence
23. Become an authority in the community – one of the people who people are bound to f ollow not
ignore. Think of the communities you visit, who are the people you respect? Why do you respect
them? Become that person
24. Become a volunteer – help out in the above communities and in your niche when and where help is
required. Ensure that people know you and trust you
25. Create a compelling, attractive prof ile of yourself or your website. Make it attractive to your target
audience by helping – solve SEPs
26. Follow people who know their stuf f too. You want to know the latest trends and f ollow their
recommendations where applicable. Share their content when relevant, they will reciprocate
27. Build a personal relationship / strong network of people who would be willing to share your
content
Facebook
28. Create a Facebook page f or your website – whether
it’s a business or a blog, make sure you are on
Facebook. Link to your Facebook page f rom your
website – duhh!
29. If f unds permit, create a mobile app f or your website.
Something which provides a usef ul f eature rather
than a mindless dump of your content
30. Use the “Like” competition cliché - “Like and share
this photo to enter our f antastically rewarding
competition” – it works, f ree stuf f works
31. Showcase the results of the competition. This is
especially usef ul if it is a web-related content and
you will provide linkbacks (everybody loves f ree website traf f ic ;))
Twitter – Make your Tweets count
32. Setup a Twitter account f or your business separately f rom your personal accounts
33. Use that account to f ollow ALL the relevant people in your niche
34. Retweet the content they post which is important f or your audience
35. Tweet interesting content f or your target audience, don’t just tweet each new article you publish
36. Tweet snippets of inf ormation relevant to your community
37. Tweet your content – research and add popular #hashtags if and when relevant

3. 38. Tweet content multiple (4) times. Twitter gets updated very of ten and posts are likely to be missed
Google / Google+
39. Claim Google+ Authorship f or all your authors
40. Join relevant Google+ Communities and post relevant compelling content when relevant (without
spamming)
41. Follow relevant people in your niche. You are likely to get f ollowed if you f ollow the people that
matter
42. Set up a Google+ Business Page and link it to your website
43. Use Google Rich Snippets and structured data to “tag” your pages in Google WebMasters
YouTube and Podcasts
44. Setup a Youtube channel
45. Link to your other social media, Facebook, Twitter, website f rom the channel
46. Post regular inf ormative videos
47. Optimize your videos f or YouTube SEO
48. Make sure you are using a transcript with relevant keywords
49. Follow relevant people/channels in your niche
50. Record the video as a podcast where necessary and submit to relevant directories
Other Social Media Marketing
51. Link to your website on the about me of social networks
52. Create and upload relevant presentations to SlideShare and Scribd – ensure that you embed links
to your website!
53. Convert good popular content to link-f riendly PDFs and upload to Slideshare and Scribd
54. Try to get some content posted in a Reddit community. If you SPAM in Reddit you will get torn to
pieces and thrown to the wolves. Thread caref ully
55. Link to your website using your prof ile anywhere which will take a URL link. Do NOT SPAM.
56. Encourage your visitors to engage. Enable comments on your website – but monitor them f or
SPAM. Reply to emails, comments, queries and any other f orm of engagement. Keep the
conversation f lowing
57. Ask pertinent questions on Social media, and reply with usef ul advice af ter reading others’ replies
Directories
58. Advertise your website in the appropriate categories at Craigslist. Try posting your ads in the most
populated cities in the world
59. Local Craigslist submissions works just as well as international – people talk and recommend
60. Submit to the local popular web directories
61. Submit to Google Places f or Business
62. Submit to Bing Places f or Business
63. Submit to Yahoo! Local Listings
64. If you are a local business or have an actual physical presence, make sure you are present on
Google Maps
65. Submit your site to the relevant category in DMOZ.org and hope :)
66. Find other directories relevant to your niche and submit to them (if they are popular so much the
better – pay to enter if they are proven to work (check them with Alexa.com)
67. Specif ic vertical industries are a great idea – if you see a trend in a specif ic vertical f ocus extreme

4. ef f ort in that area
68. Piggy back on the success of others. Create a presence on websites which are highly traf f icked.
This is besides the Facebooks, the Twitters and the YouTubes. Figure out the relevant sites in
your niche and get yourself linked in there. If you are a music producer, it’s Soundcloud. If you are a
Joomla developer, it’s the JED. If you f ocus on Wordpress, it’s the Plugins directory. Find the
behemoth in your niche, and piggy back a ride on their success. It's also good to f ind a niche in
your niche.
Search Engine Optmization
69. Visit the SEO Periodic table and take the
time to understand it and apply f ixes
where necessary
70. Make you have an easy domain name –
something which can be remembered
easily. One words are ideal. Short words
or phrases are great
71. Make sure your website loads really
quickly
72. Create an XML sitemap
73. Submit your sitemap to Google
WebMasters
74. Submit your sitemap to Bing WebMasters
75. Use Google WebMaster tools to monitor
and f ix problems with your site
76. Link to your own content. Cross-
ref erence pages and point to the ones which are most popular and successf ul. Or point to the
ones you want to make successf ul
77. Make sure your website is mobile f riendly – some niches are particularly sensitive to mobile traf f ic.
Facebook gets most visits via smartphones, visitors ref erred via Facebook are likely to see your
site on a phone. Test and ensure they get a good experience
78. Make sure your content is available f or non-english speakers. Enable a one-click translation plugin
if you don't have translated conten
Surveys – Publish interesting analytics
79. Run surveys/questionnaires with interesting questions e.g. “What is your PPC Budget f or the next
year?” vs “Do you like our new website?” - of f er gif ts f or replies
80. Analyse the data and publish results
81. Make a press releases with your survey results
82. Create and publish an interesting Inf ographic with the result of your survey.
Email – reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated
83. Compel your visitors to join your mailing list
84. Strategically place and advertise your mailing list. The end of a great article would be ideal. Ensure
you make it usef ul: “Want more byte-sized tricks to increase website traf f ic delivered to your
inbox?” vs “Subscribe to our mailing list”
85. Post regular usef ul content – not just links to your latest articles
86. By regular we mean keep a steady schedule – daily will need a lot of ef f ort to maintain interest.
Fortnightly works well both f or you and your visitors
87. Give your newsletter a cool name: Tempting Thursdays, Freaky Fridays, Bluesy Mondays, Soothing
Sundays – whatever works f or your niche
88. Embed links to your website in your newsletter - yes yes it sounds quite obvious

5. 89. For the love of your f avourite god / deity (or lack thereof ) - don’t SPAM. By SPAM we mean, don’t
send contents which are irrelevant. If you don’t have any relevant content, it would be better to
send a joke to keep your audience amused rather than irritated with your spammy content ;)
90. Embed a link to a compelling article on your website in your corporate email signature. Remember
to link to relevant newsworthy content
Buy targeted traffic and get linked
91. Buy traf f ic through keyword targeting on Google Adwords
92. Buy advertising space on websites which are in your niche or are relevant to your website.
93. If you are paying f or links, it is advisable to use nof ollow links. Sponsored listings without nof ollow
are likely to penalize both the linker and the linkee
94. Guest blog on websites which are relevant to your niche. Link to your website via your prof ile
95. Sponsor adverts in newsletters on websites which your target demographic visits
96. Create a rewarding af f iliate program and f ocus on growing it…rather than thinking of the margin
you are giving away (-ve), think of it this way (+ve): 1) Free backlinks, 2) leads which you otherwise
would have lost
Just a few left - we're soon done
97. Post a detailed review of a great product you’ve used and then of f er to be an of f icial testimonial –
you might get used and linked to on the product’s pages
98. Place your website images in a Google indexable f older. Correctly name your images and include
keywords where relevant. Google Images will likely send you traf f ic
99. Create a presence on TripAdvisor and make sure your service is excellent to ensure you get great
ratings :)
100. Write a 101 things to do f or your f avourite topic and social share it :)
101. Skip the 101st just f or f un :)
102. (...and f inally the bonus 102nd) write f or online magazines and get linked