20 powerful ways to drive traffic to your website

You've built your website, invested in the design and filled it with useful content, yet the visits still aren't where you want them. The most reliable way to drive traffic to your website is a mix of search optimisation, helpful content, email, social media and video, paid ads and mentions on other sites, measured carefully so you can do more of what works. Below are 20 techniques to choose from.

Traffic isn't the most important metric on its own, but almost everything else depends on it: you can't get enquiries, leads or sales if nobody visits your site.

You don't need to apply all 20, but one technique on its own is rarely enough. If you need visits quickly, start with paid ads, email and promotions. SEO and content usually take weeks or months to show results, but they keep bringing visitors in without you paying for every click.

How do you measure website traffic?

Before you work on increasing traffic, make sure you can see it. Two free Google tools cover what most businesses need.

Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google's free analytics tool. It replaced Universal Analytics, which stopped processing data in July 2023, so if your site only ever had Universal Analytics, it hasn't recorded anything in Google Analytics since then.

Once the tracking code is installed, GA4 shows you:

• How many people visit and which pages they view.
• Where they come from, in the traffic acquisition reports.
• How engaged they are, for example through the engagement rate (the percentage of engaged sessions).
• Whether they complete the actions that matter to you, such as sending a form, making a booking or buying. GA4 calls these key events (older guides call them goals or conversions).

Google Search Console

Search Console is also free. Its Performance report shows the searches that bring people to your site, plus the clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR) and average position of your pages in Google Search. It also alerts you to problems Google finds on your site and includes a Core Web Vitals report.

Appearances in Google's AI features, such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, are counted in the Performance report under the Web search type, and Search Console has added reports that show how often your pages appear in these AI features. Link Search Console to GA4 and you'll also see your Google search queries and landing pages inside Analytics.

Tag your campaign links

When you share a link in an email, a social post or an ad, add UTM parameters (at least utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign) so GA4 can tell your campaigns apart. Google's guide to campaign URL builders explains how. Leave parameters out and you'll see "(not set)" values in your reports, and without tags it's hard to tell which campaign a visit came from.

Types of traffic

Not all traffic is the same. GA4 sorts visits into channels, and these are the ones you'll see most often:

• Organic search: visits from unpaid results on Google, Bing and other search engines. In GA4, clicks from Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode count here too.
• Paid search and paid social: visits from ads, such as Google Ads or Meta ads on Facebook and Instagram.
• Organic social: visits from unpaid posts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).
• Email: visits from newsletters and other emails, when the links are tagged.
• Referral: visits from links on other websites, such as blogs, news sites and directories.
• Direct: people who type in your address or use a saved link.
• AI assistant: visits from AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, which GA4 now reports as a separate channel.

Knowing which channels bring visitors who stay, engage and convert tells you where to put more time and money.

20 techniques to increase website traffic

Some of these techniques are free and others need a budget. Combine them to suit your business, and let your data tell you which mix works best.

1. Optimise for search (SEO)

Search engine optimisation puts you in front of people who are already looking for what you offer, which makes it one of the most valuable sources of traffic. The goal is to appear among the first results for the searches that matter to your business. If you're new to it, start with our guide to what SEO is and how it works.

Begin with keyword research. Keyword Planner, inside Google Ads, estimates how many searches a term gets each month, and Search Console shows the searches that already bring people to your site. Check what your competitors rank for and focus on the questions your customers actually ask.

SEO is usually split into on-page factors (your content and the technical setup of your site) and off-page factors (mainly mentions and links from other websites). Some on-page basics:

• Title: give every page a unique, descriptive title. There's no fixed character limit, but Google shortens long titles to fit the screen, so put the most important words first.
• Meta description: write a specific summary for each page. Google often builds the snippet from your page content instead, but a good description can still be shown and can encourage clicks.
• Headings: use clear headings to structure your content so readers and search engines can follow it.
• Image alt text: describe each image accurately. It helps people who use screen readers and helps Google understand your images. Don't stuff it with keywords.

Some old tricks no longer work: Google doesn't use the meta keywords tag, and keyword stuffing goes against its spam policies. If you serve a local area, complete your Google Business Profile as well. It lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps at no charge, and it can send local searchers to your website. Google's SEO Starter Guide is a useful official checklist.

2. Create genuinely helpful content

A site that never changes gives people little reason to come back. A blog, guides, FAQs or case studies keep giving them something new, and this is the heart of inbound marketing: attracting people with content that helps them solve their problems.

Start with a clear profile of your ideal customer, list the questions they ask before they buy, and answer them better than anyone else. Google's guidance asks for people-first content: content created primarily for people, not to manipulate search rankings, that shows experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).

Share what you know from real experience: examples, photos, results from your own work and practical advice. AI tools can help you research and draft, but Google lists using generative AI to produce large amounts of text without human oversight as a sign of low-effort content.

3. Use paid ads for a quick boost

If you're launching a website, a product or a campaign, ads are the fastest way to get qualified visitors, because traffic starts as soon as your campaign goes live.

The main options are:

• Search ads: Google Ads Search campaigns show text ads to people searching for what you offer.
• Performance Max: a single Google Ads campaign that can reach people across all of Google's ad inventory, including Search, YouTube and Display.
• Social ads: on Meta (Facebook and Instagram), the Traffic objective is designed to send people to a destination such as your website.
• Retargeting: ads shown to people who've already visited your site, to bring them back.

The big advantage is targeting: you can reach people by what they search for, where they are, their interests or their previous visits. If you've already defined your ideal customer, your campaigns will waste less. Start with a modest budget, track key events in GA4 and conversions in each ad platform, and move money towards what works. For more ideas, see our SEM tactics.

4. Build and use your email list

Email brings people back to your site on your schedule, and you own the list. Invite visitors to subscribe with a clear reason (practical tips, early access or a discount), then send at a steady rhythm: often enough to stay top of mind, not so often that people tune out. Our guide to email marketing covers the basics.

If you have a CRM or an email platform, automate the essentials: a welcome series, reminders and follow-ups based on each subscriber's interests. And only email people who've agreed to hear from you.

Two things have changed in recent years:

• Deliverability: since 2024, Gmail and Yahoo have required bulk senders to authenticate their email (SPF, DKIM and DMARC), offer one-click unsubscribe and keep spam complaints low. Check that your email platform and domain are set up correctly.
• Measurement: Apple's Mail Privacy Protection loads email content in the background, so open rates are no longer a reliable signal. Judge your emails by clicks and by the visits and key events they generate in GA4.

5. Work with influencers and creators

Creator partnerships put your brand in front of an engaged audience that already trusts the person recommending you.

Look for creators whose followers match your customers and whose style suits your brand. Smaller, specialised creators can be more affordable and more relevant than big names. Agree on clear terms (a fee, free products or a commission), give each creator a trackable link or discount code so you can measure the visits and sales they bring, and make sure sponsored posts are clearly disclosed as advertising.

Choose platforms (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn or podcasts) based on where your own audience data says your customers spend time, not on assumptions.

6. Use video

Video is one of the best ways to show what you do, explain how something works and build trust before someone contacts you. Tutorials, how-to guides and behind-the-scenes content work well on almost any platform.

Short vertical video, such as Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and TikTok, is great for reach. Longer YouTube videos can bring steady visits over time because people search YouTube for answers, and you can embed them in relevant pages on your site. Live streams let you answer questions in real time.

To turn views into website visits, give people a reason and a route: mention the full guide or offer on your site, and add your link wherever each platform allows it, such as your profile or video descriptions.

7. Make your content easy to share

Share buttons let readers pass your page on with one tap, and every share can bring new visitors. Place them where they're easy to find without getting in the way, and include the channels your audience uses, such as WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Facebook or X.

Make sure your links look good when they're shared. Open Graph tags control the title, description and image shown in link previews on platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and Meta's Sharing Debugger lets you check how yours appear.

Then give people something worth passing on: a quotable insight, a checklist, a template, a striking image or a short video, with a clear invitation to share at the end.

8. Repurpose your best content

If you've been publishing for a while, you already have material that works, and GA4 and Search Console will show you which pages attract the most visits. Turn those pieces into new formats: a blog post can become a short video series, a carousel, a podcast episode, an email course or a downloadable checklist.

Each format reaches people who prefer it, and each one can link back to the full version on your site.

9. Optimise your old posts

Your archive can deliver quick wins. In Search Console, look for pages with plenty of impressions but few clicks, and pages that rank just below the top results. They're already close to bringing in traffic.

Improve them: rewrite the title and meta description, tighten the introduction, add the answers searchers are looking for, fix broken links and images, and link to them from your newer content. Then give it a few weeks and check the page's clicks and position again.

10. Update your outdated content

Articles with old dates, prices, screenshots or statistics quickly lose readers' trust. Review your older content regularly and bring it up to date: correct facts that have changed, replace discontinued tools and features, remove stale figures and add what's new.

Make the update real. Google's guidance asks whether you're changing the dates on pages to make them seem fresh when the content hasn't substantially changed. If you've genuinely improved a page, showing the updated date helps readers.

Techniques 9 and 10 work best together: update the content and optimise it in the same pass.

11. Write guest posts

Writing for respected blogs, industry publications or partner websites puts your expertise in front of a new audience, and inviting guest writers to your site does the same for them. Both sides benefit when the article adds something new and fits the host's editorial style.

Focus on exposure and relationships rather than links alone. Google's spam policies count links with optimised anchor text in guest posts, when they're there to manipulate rankings, as link spam.

12. Earn quality backlinks

Links from other reputable websites (backlinks) help people discover you and can help your pages rank, because links can pass ranking credit. They also send referral traffic directly: a link from a popular publication can produce a noticeable spike in visits.

Quality matters more than quantity. Earn links with content worth citing (original data, useful tools, in-depth guides), partnerships, industry associations and media coverage. Avoid buying links or swapping them in bulk, because Google's policies list both as link spam. If a link is paid or sponsored, it should carry a rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" attribute.

13. Optimise for mobile and speed

Google completed its move to mobile-first indexing in 2023, which means it mainly uses the mobile version of your site to index and rank it. Our guide to responsive design explains how to build a site that adapts to every screen.

Check that your text is easy to read on a small screen, buttons are easy to tap, forms are short and pop-ups don't cover the content. Speed matters too. Google's Core Web Vitals measure loading (Largest Contentful Paint), responsiveness (Interaction to Next Paint, which replaced First Input Delay in 2024) and visual stability (Cumulative Layout Shift). Google suggests aiming for an LCP within 2.5 seconds, an INP below 200 milliseconds and a CLS below 0.1.

Test your pages with PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse (built into Chrome's developer tools), and keep an eye on the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console.

14. Run promotions and giveaways

Offers (such as a discount code for new subscribers), competitions and giveaways can bring a burst of visits, especially when you promote them through social media, email and ads.

Keep the mechanics simple and send people to your website: if the entry form or the offer lives on a landing page, every participant visits your site, and you can grow your email list at the same time. Publish clear terms and conditions and check the legal requirements where you operate, as some promotions must be registered with the authorities.

Follow each platform's rules too. Facebook, for example, doesn't allow promotions that require or reward people for sharing, reposting or tagging others.

15. Improve your click-through rate (CTR)

CTR is the percentage of people who see your page in search results and then click on it. More clicks from the same rankings means more traffic without climbing a single position.

Use Search Console to find pages and queries with a low CTR, then:

• Write clearer, more specific titles that match what people are searching for. Numbers and concrete benefits help; clickbait doesn't.
• Write meta descriptions that summarise the page and give people a reason to click.
• Make sure the title and description reflect the page accurately. Google may rewrite titles that don't.

16. Public relations and media coverage

Traditional PR still works in a digital world. Share press releases when you have genuine news, offer expert comment to journalists and speak at events.

Coverage in newspapers, magazines, podcasts or industry websites reaches a new and wider audience. Even when a story doesn't include a link, a mention can increase searches for your brand and visits to your site.

17. Use internal links

Once someone is on your site, help them keep going. Link to related articles, services or products so each visit can lead to a conversion, whether that's a purchase, a booking or a newsletter sign-up.

Use descriptive link text that tells readers what they'll find, link where it genuinely helps, and make sure every important page is linked from at least one other page on your site. Grouping content into categories or topic hubs helps visitors (and search engines) find related content and stay longer.

18. Build a community

Big brands aren't the only ones with a community. A local café, a consultancy or an online shop can bring people together around shared interests too.

Agree on a consistent tone of voice for your social channels, reply to comments and messages, and share content your customers create, such as photos and reviews (with their permission). Take part where your audience gathers: Facebook or LinkedIn groups, forums, Reddit or Quora, or a WhatsApp channel for your updates. Be helpful first and promote second. Google's own SEO guide describes word of mouth as one of the most effective and lasting ways to promote a site, even if it takes time.

19. Publish on other platforms

Platforms such as LinkedIn and Medium let you publish articles and link to your website from your profile. They put your ideas in front of readers who might never find your blog.

Publish the full piece on your own site first, then share an adapted version or a summary that links back to it, and promote it on social media to give it momentum. The traffic is usually modest, but it costs little and helps you reach new readers and build authority.

20. Create content offers

Content offers, often called lead magnets, attract visits and turn them into leads. Think guides and ebooks, templates and checklists, webinars, free tools or calculators, short courses and demos.

Host each offer on a landing page on your website, ask for an email address in exchange, and promote it through social media, email and ads. Track sign-ups as a key event in GA4 so you can see which offers and channels perform best.

Conclusion

A common mistake is to launch a website and leave it as it is. Treat yours as something to grow: the effort you put into measuring and publishing is what pays off.

You don't need all 20 techniques. Choose a few that suit your business and resources, measure them in GA4 and Search Console, and invest more in what brings engaged visitors. Whatever else you choose, cover the SEO basics, because they support almost every other technique.

If you'd like help choosing the right mix, setting up your measurement or running your campaigns, our digital marketing team can help.