How to use Facebook to drive traffic to your website

 How to use Facebook to drive traffic to your website

How to use Facebook to drive traffic to your website

Imagine checking your blog’s traffic stats and finding loads of referral traffic from Facebook! What a wonderful prospect that would be! What if I say that achieving this feat is very much possible. Yes, all you have to do is read this post and execute the strategies I’ve mentioned!

increase facebook traffic like a boss

Do it like a boss!

I love taking risks, calculated ones of course! Being a blogger, I know that just relying on organic traffic is a ‘huge risk’, which I can’t afford. It is like putting all the eggs in the same basket. And with Search Engines being that ‘basket’, things get a bit too risky! A single algorithm update can wreak havoc with traffic stats of a blog! This is when social sites like Facebook, with good referral traffic, comes to our aid.

Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird are not adorable animals, when it comes to bloggers! These updates have managed to reduce traffic of sites and blogs by as much as 60% in many cases! That’s why many webmasters now prefer a healthy mixture of organic and referral traffic.

When one source dries up, the other one makes sure that there still is a decent flow of traffic to the blog! Here, I’ll share with you some strategies to help drive more traffic and visitors to your blog from Facebook.

Things to do on Facebook to get more traffic to blog

#1 Create a decent, engaging Facebook fan page (must have)

A facebook fan (of your blog) is like your blog’s spokesperson on facebook! It is the main source through which fans and readers get a glimpse of your blog’s latest posts, your personal updates, tips etc.

In short, it is a vital ‘extension’ of your blog, a must have entity! Make it engaging, active and appealing. If you treat your blog like a brand, I recommend that you treat its facebook fan page similarly. Here are some tips to create/renovate it-

Appealing graphics

Make sure that you use the ‘logo’ of your blog on the fan page. An aspect that many bloggers overlook is the cover photo. Cover photo can be used creatively to garner attention.

Why not put some testimonials/impressive stats and figures about your blog on the cover picture? Well, it is just a suggestion from my side. In short, cover pictures can be used to market your services, build reputation, show off useful posts etc.

+ Consistency

As I said earlier, fan pages are like spokesperson. We use them to update our latest blog posts, thoughts, helpful tips etc. A tinge of consistency in doing these updates will work wonders

Make sure that you post useful updates throughout the day at regular intervals. A static fan page won’t garner much attention, neither will it drive traffic to your blog!

+ Good Interaction with users

Okay, I agree that you are the admin, you are freaking busy and all that. But that doesn’t forbids you from engaging with your fans! Come on, reply to their queries, ask them questions, ask for suggestions. Take interaction to the next level!

The prime motive of interaction should be to lend a helping hand! I bet this will make your fans feel ‘closer’ to your blog. And they’ll soon become a part of your loyal reader base.

Another way to boost interaction is by hosting little contests, polls etc on the fan page.

#2 Use Images cleverly

We all know that images have a knack of grabbing our attention easily. It is how our brain works. It has a special ‘liking’ towards images and pictures.

Why not exploit this trait of human brain to our advantage? Hell yes, I guess we all should exploit this opportunity! Whenever you share your blog posts on facebook, try adding relevant, attractive images along with it.

I’ve tried it and found that the ‘reach’ of such posts increased. The reach was much more than the normal reach I would usually get. The more the reach, the more the click through rate will be!

#3 Find that perfect time to share your posts

This is a tricky affair. Timing is very important for a blog post to get noticed and clicked upon. What is the use of sharing posts at a time when no one is online to read it? So, how to find the perfect time for sharing your posts?

There are many articles available, which discusses this topic. But let me tell you one thing. The perfect time varies from place to place. It can be found with the help of a bit of observation. Here’s how you should observe-

+ Know your audience

Yes, know who constitutes your audience base. Try to follow their pattern of using facebook. Share posts throughout the day and see when it garners most likes, shares and comments. Do this for a while and you can zero in on a ‘good time’ to share your posts.

#4 Find, Join and Make use of groups

Facebook groups are good places to start sharing your posts. Make sure that you join and share posts on groups related to your blog/site’s niche. There is no point in sharing a blog post related to gardening in a tech group!

Another thing to be taken into consideration is the quality of the group. Find a group that is full of vibrant, active and useful members. An example of a good group is CommentDX created by Suresh Khanal.

I’m a happy member of this group! Don’t just share your own posts in groups. Take time to read others’ posts, share them and build bonds there.

#5 Making use of Hash tags

How to use Facebook to drive traffic to your website

Facebook too jumped into the hash tag bandwagon. Okay, Facebook couldn’t create quite a revolution with it. But still, hash tags can bring in traffic when used cleverly.

Using hash tag to highlight keywords is a good old strategy. Further, using hash tags to take a dig at trending topics will garner much more attention and reach for your blog posts.

#6 Networking

I see facebook as the best platform for networking. I interact with fellow bloggers and influencers of my niche using facebook.

Networking has a lot to do with give and take. Make it a point to share and promote others’ content generously. You’ll be rewarded for your deeds. Further, it helps build bonds that lasts long!

And if your content manages to impress an influencer, you’re all set to go on a wild ride! If your posts get shared by them, it will ensure some spike in referral traffic. But that ultimately depends on the quality of your blog post!

Things to do off facebook to get more traffic from it

So far, we talked about what can be done on facebook to get more visitors. Now let us take a look at some of the important off site factors.

I know, I know, you all have got those fancy set of social sharing buttons. I appreciate that. Still, I felt it is my duty to list this tip here. The ‘recommended by friends’ plugin is also handy to keep visitors engaged.

As we all know, when a visitor likes/shares a blog’s content using these buttons, it starts off a ripple. This ripple will let his friends know of our blog post, prompting him/her to visit it. Hopefully this ‘ripple’ will go on (depends on the quality of your post and the next tip).

# Use catchy (but non- misleading) titles

The above mentioned ripple effect works like a charm when coupled with a catchy title. But please don’t go for a misleading title though, I repeat, don’t go for misleading titles.

I’ve got something for you to ponder upon-

 

+ Outsourcing Facebook activities

At the beginning, I described that ‘consistency’ in promoting your content on facebook is important. I also suggested you to take ‘interaction’ on fan page to the next level!

I know that it takes time and effort. That’s why I’ve decided to put this extra piece of information, about outsourcing. Why not outsource simple tasks related to facebook activities? If you are willing to shell out some bucks, you may hire someone to take care of social media activities altogether!

What about going for a little ‘free’ outsourcing spree? Why not entrust some simple tasks like updating new posts etc to your friends, family members etc? It is just a little suggestion from my side.

+ Automating facebook activities

There are many tools that automate the process of social sharing. I’m not a fan of automating sharing and social media activities. But still, these tools come handy when you want to share posts on social sites at unworldly hours, such as late night, early morning etc.

HootSuite, Social Oomph etc are some of the many useful tools for automating these processes. But don’t depend on these tools only. Make it a point to use them only when you are time stricken.

Over to you

So, do you guys make use of facebook to its fullest? With the right techniques, one can drive huge traffic to his/her blog from facebook! I’ve been getting good traffic to my blog from facebook, so can you, using these methods. Waiting for your valuable feedback.