You’ve paid a web designer or gone down the DIY route to create an amazing new website. It’s up and running and you love it. Maybe you’ve even started publishing blog posts because everyone tells you it’s a good thing to do.

BUT, you’re not really sure whether anyone is looking at your website. Are they reading your blog posts? Have they found out how fab your products or services are yet? How on earth do you get more people to visit your website?

Because at the end of the day, you’re hoping that more visitors to your website is going to mean more customers for your business.

There’s no one answer to the question so read on for 20 things you can do to get more people to click on your website…..without paying for advertising.

1. Get social

Social media is such an easy way to share information and promote your content. To make it work, it’s important to create connections with people, to be active and to participate in conversations.

It’s not enough to push your content without engaging. Build connections, share things they’re interested in and you’ll find those people will always click or comment on your posts and links.

2. Produce shareworthy content

Create inspirational, educational or entertaining content on both your social media and blog posts. Work out what people want to read and what information they’re looking for. Deliver that and they’ll read your posts, share them, link to them and come back for more.

3. Learn how to write headlines

Headlines grab the reader’s attention. It’s the first thing they see and helps them decide whether they want to read any further. If you do a Google search for a topic, the results generally show little more than the headline - and that’s what people will use to choose whether to click or scroll by.

To give you the best chance of creating a great headline, write a few and then choose the best. Check Sumo’s headline generator for ideas.

4. Guest blogging

Consider writing a guest blog on a reputable site in your industry, making sure that your information (including a link to your website) is included.

Alternatively, think about inviting other people to guest blog on your own website. If you publish on of their posts, they’re likely to share it with their own followers, giving your website a wider audience.

5. Create internal links

Make sure you create internal links to other pages or blog posts on your website. It’s good for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and also helps to keep people on your site by giving them other interesting information to click and read.

The extra advantage is that you can bring older blog posts to the attention of new readers who may have missed them first time round.

6. Check your analytics

You can learn lots from your social media or website analytics. Most social media platforms have some form of analytics which tell you which of your posts are the most popular. You can also see the best performing posts on your website.

Google Analytics has an incredible amount of information but, if it’s a bit too daunting, you can usually pick up the basics of page views and popular blog posts from your website provider. Once you know what people are reading, you can produce more of the same.

7. Face to face is important too

We get so hung up with online activity that we sometimes forget that the simplest form of communication is face to face. Tell people you meet about your website. Give talks, sponsor events or volunteer in your local community. These are all great ways to get your business and website better known in the area.

8. Interview interesting people in your industry

Finding interesting people and interviewing them for your website will help you find and produce new content which people will enjoy reading. But, the added bonus is that the people you interview are likely to share their published interview with their own community of followers - giving you access to a much wider audience.

9. Think about your website

When searching for information, people are put off when a website is too slow to load or doesn’t work very well on their mobile phone.

Ask your web developer to pay attention to this or, if you’re working from a web design template, make sure you choose a mobile responsive one. Most modern templates should incorporate this in the design.

10. Build an email list

Unlike with your social media followers who may or may not see your posts depending on the latest algorithms, you have control over your email subscriber list so focus on building one from the start.

Your subscribers are people who have already indicated an interest in your business or blog, so share updates with them via regular newsletters.

11. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is often thought of as a mystical art which most of us will never be able to get our heads around. It’s true that there are specialists who can work their magic on the back end of your website but there are some simple things you can focus on yourself.

Create internal links to new content, make sure you add meta descriptions to your pages and blog posts, use keywords and headlines to help Google find your website. Read my blog post ‘SEO for beginners’ to learn more.

12. Offer some freebies

Freebies (also called lead magnets) can help bring more people to your website and also give you a way of building your email list. The best freebies give just enough information to make the reader find it helpful or interesting, but also leave them wanting just a little more.

When looking at freebies for your business, consider short online workshops, free downloads or a short webinar.

13. Comment on blog and social media posts

Posting comments on other people’s blog and social media posts can help you to build connections and also get your name better know.

I’ve often commented on questions asked in Facebook groups with a link to one of my blog posts which helps to give answers or relevant information. My web analytics always increase afterwards, meaning that other people seeing the post are checking the link too. The important thing to remember is only giving links which are relevant, otherwise you’re just spamming people.

14. Update your blog

Creating new blog posts gives readers a reason to visit your website. Google also likes sites which are regularly updated so publishing blog posts will help with your SEO.

If that doesn’t convince you, read my blog post ‘Why have a blog for your business’ for lots more reasons why updating your blog is a good idea.

15. Podcasts

Starting your own podcast can get you in front of a different audience. But if that sounds like too much hard work, you can make connections with people who already run successful podcasts and become a guest. Their listeners will become aware of you and your business, giving you more people to entice onto your website.

16. Make your website useful

People may not be clicking on your website because they simply find no value from being there. Write useful content which answers their questions. Make it inspirational, educational or entertaining (those words again) and you’ll find readers will come back for more.

• Outdoor adventure businesses could create picture galleries of images which inspire people to visit

• Business support organisations could create how to guides for starting their business

• Charities could create entertaining posts of volunteers having fun

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17. Create ‘evergreen’ blog posts

An evergreen blog post is search optimised content that is continually relevant and stays fresh for readers over a long period of time.

To give you an example, for years the highest performing blog post on my outdoor blog was about 5 European climbing destinations. I did nothing to promote the post, Google just kept showing it to new readers. It’s been overtaken in the last year by a blog post about a Walk at Wessenden and West Nab, and yet again, I’ve done nothing to promote or share it since the original publication date a couple of years ago.

Writing a post which performs so well month on month is like discovering gold…well, kind of!

18. Check your links

You know how irritating it is to click on a website and find the links are useless, taking you to that frustrating 404 error page? Your readers will think the same and are likely to click off and try another website.

The other problem with broken links is linked to your SEO. When Google can’t find, crawl and index your website, you’ll end up with no ranking and no organic traffic. I only discovered this recently, but finding your broken links is actually really easy even with loads of pages and blog posts on your website. Google broken link checker and all you have to do is pop in your website to get a list of any links which have stopped working.

19. Republish your blog posts on LinkedIn

Once your blog post has been published on your website, you can go to LinkedIn a couple of days later and republish it as an article. Choosing an article rather than a LinkedIn post helps to generate longevity as posts disappear down Newsfeeds pretty quickly.

It could be a good tactic to publish just the salient points, with a link back to your website for the full details. It’s also helpful to add words such as “This article first appeared on the [business name] blog at [website link]” and maybe include a different image so the content looks fresh.

20. Consider your content strategy

Content marketing covers a whole host of different media from blog posts and email newsletters, through to videos, podcasts, lists, magazines, how to guides, social media posts, infographics and pretty much everything in this blog post.

So when it comes to choosing your overall strategy, the options are kind of huge!

Whichever way you go, you still need to understand who your customers are, what problem you’re solving for them and the results they’re going to get. That way, the content you write will speak to their hearts.

…and here’s a top tip! If you decide to use a writer to help with sharing your marketing messages, pick someone who understands this and can do more than simply write. You need a writer who can direct their brain towards your entire business, looking at the big picture and your vision for the future, ultimately helping you to get more customers.

Final thoughts

No one activity from the list above will be enough to bring more people to your website. You’ll need to adopt a combination of strategies and some will work better with certain businesses than others.

Everything listed is free to do but, if you want fast results, you may want to look at PPC (pay per click) marketing to help target your dream customers with Google Adwords and social media promotions. Just remember it’s a specialist area so do your due diligence before investing lots of money which delivers poor results.

I’d love to hear what works best for you.

Jacquie Budd is a content writer and strategist, helping businesses, charities and not for profits to connect with their customers.

Get in touch to chat about working together.