Want to increase your website traffic but don’t have the resources to invest in new content? Learn how to increase website traffic with your existing content.
How to increase website traffic: 3 methods
- Change the format.
- Bulk it up or break it down.
- Do a content upgrade.
When you’re trying to figure out how to increase website traffic, these three techniques are a great place to start. Let’s look at each strategy in more detail.
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1. Change the format
One of the simplest ways to squeeze more value out of the content you’ve already created is to change the format in which it’s presented. Have you ever clicked on a promising link, only to find a video without a transcript or summary? Ever pass up an article because you don’t have time to scroll through it when you’re on the move?
Users prefer different content formats depending on the environment in which they’re browsing, and which device they’re using.
Podcasts are great for a crowded commute where you don’t have room to sit down, or when you’re driving or jogging and have to keep your eyes in front of you. A video might be great if you’re trying to figure out exactly how to do something, whereas you might skip to an article if you’re sitting down to do research.
Wondering how to increase website traffic? Repurpose existing content in different formats, like podcasts, to appeal to users in different environments and on varying devices.
Whatever content you create, it’s important to remember that it doesn’t have to be wedded to a single format.
It requires relatively little work to take a blog post you’ve already written and send it off to be recorded as a podcast. You can even do it yourself, provided you’re willing to do the homework to make sure it sounds good. The same goes for getting a transcription of your video or audio.
2. Bulk it up or break it down
This trick is a variation on a theme. Sometimes the content that you have isn’t performing as well as it could be because it just hasn’t found the right combination of length, format and topic.
Let me put it another way: if you follow a sports team, you’re not always going to want to read a 5,000-word profile about a particular player’s life story.
Often, you just don’t have the time — you only want to know what they’re doing differently that makes them so good this year.
The same goes for your content. Longform content is valuable: it shows you know what you’re talking about; you can use it to build your mailing list or drive calls-to-action; and it can position you as a thought leader on the topic.
But people won’t always have time to read it. So, consider breaking down your long content into a digestible series of short blog posts or social media posts.
I could turn this article into a series of short posts with very little work.
This idea also works the other way around. If you have a bunch of shorter posts, consider gathering them together into something longer, like an eBook or a whitepaper. Organize the topics into a rough outline, figure out what goes together, do a little editing and you have a valuable “new” content asset.
3. Do a content upgrade
Do you have a piece that performed well but has fallen off recently, or otherwise gotten old? It might be time for a content upgrade.
Any metrics you can pull up are your friends. You want to target two types of pieces: ones that drew a lot of initial attention, and ones that draw continuing interest.
Freshness can be an important part of search rankings, so the idea is to take a piece that’s already been successful, updated any old information, add new features, and then post it again. Give it an edit, add an infographic, support your writing with a bunch of visuals — the list goes on and on. Get creative, republish it, and boost it on social media.
Reuse, repackage and recycle
When you’re looking for ways how to increase website traffic with existing content, remember: reuse, repackage and recycle.
- Find innovative ways to reuse old content by switching up the format: change a whitepaper to a podcast series, or your blog posts into infographics.
- Repackage by breaking up long content into smaller bite-sized pieces, or combining short things into something bigger.
- Recycle by taking your greatest hits and giving them a fresh look.
These tricks help you make the most of what you already have, so you can spend your energy where it matters most — growing your business.
