Referral traffic is a big part of a successful marketing strategy. By understanding what referral traffic is, why it matters, and how to maximize its potential, you can increase your website’s reach, credibility, and SEO rankings. Whether you’re just starting out with your website or you’re looking for more in-depth ways to drive traffic, investing in referral traffic is well worth the effort. We’re here to give you some ideas on how to increase referral traffic and build out a strategy to gain this kind of traffic.

What is referral traffic?

Referral traffic can come from various sources such as other websites, social media platforms, podcasts, blogs, online directories, and more. When another site links to your page and someone clicks on that link, you’ve gained referral traffic because that site has referred their visits to you. This type of traffic is different from direct traffic, which comes from people typing your URL directly into their browser. Referral plays a big part in how well your site will rank in the search engine results page.

Why referral traffic is important

Referral traffic brings users to your site who might not have found you otherwise. These people are often interested in the your topics, products, or services, which means this is very valuable traffic. Referral traffic can boost your site’s authority and credibility, because when reputable websites link to your content, it signals to search engines that your site is a trustworthy source of information. All of this helps with your SEO and should be part of your content strategy. The more links you have to your site from relevant, high-quality sources, the higher your site will rank in search results.

Strategies for how to increase referral traffic

Leverage social media

With billions of users across social platforms, your business should have a presence where it makes sense for your audience. Share engaging content and videos and be sure to optimize them with relevant keywords, hashtags, and links to your website. Make sure you post to these platforms on a regular cadence because your followers will expect to see your content. This can be time consuming, which is where True Anthem comes in. We can streamline and automate your content to free up time for your staff to do other projects.

Collaboration and partnerships

Another way to generate referral traffic is to create guest posts on high-authority websites that align with your niche. Guest posting allows you to share your expertise, build your brand, and earn valuable links from authoritative sites that can boost your website’s SEO. Research and identify websites that are relevant to your niche and have a large audience. Their audience could be interested in your products or services! Start by searching for your product/service and articles, then you can find who is writing about your industry. Next, reach out to see if they would be willing to have you as a guest author or even interview you. The same goes for seeing if you can be on someone’s podcast or hosting a joint webinar. Not only will they link to your site, but you can also link to their site for cross promotion.

High-quality content

Don’t forget that content is king, and you can’t cut corners to create good content. Some examples of high-quality content are blog posts, long-form videos, infographics, and case studies, anything that helps build your brand credibility and showcase your expertise. Make sure you research topics that your target audience is interested in. The goal is to create content you know they would like, and hopefully will share. Check out what’s trending for your products or industry on social media. You can also use an SEO tool to find content ideas.

Helps with SEO

When other websites link to your site, more people will see your content which can lead to more clicks and increased traffic. Google then sees that these are quality backlinks that show your website’s importance, which can improve your search engine rankings. By diversifying your traffic sources and getting high-quality backlinks, you can improve your website’s ranking. Overtime, the more people that keep linking to your website will show Google that they need to serve your website up whenever someone searches for a topic related to your product or service. When you’re in the #1 result in Google’s organic search results it has an average click-through-rate (CTR) of 27.6% and you’re 10x more likely to receive a click compared to a page that ranks #10, according to Backlinko.

​​Influencer marketing

This is another good way to generate referral traffic and improve brand awareness. With influencer marketing, you partner with an established social media influencer to promote your products or services. This partnership can help you reach a new audience and generate referral traffic. Make sure to choose an influencer whose audience aligns with your target audience and who can give your brand exposure to their followers.

Create email marketing campaigns

Email marketing is still one of the most powerful tools for reaching out to customers and potential clients. With a personalized approach when sending emails, you can drive more traffic to your website, generate more leads, and increase conversion rates. Be sure to analyze your email campaign’s metrics so you can see which emails are converting and so you can continue to provide value and make improvements where necessary.

Driving referral traffic requires time, effort, and constant analysis to refine your strategies and improve your results. Leverage social media, guest posting, podcasts, webinars, influencer marketing, and content marketing to broaden your online presence and generate referral traffic. Remember to focus on providing value, building relationships, and engaging with your audience. Set up a demo to see how we can automate your social media so you have time to focus on getting referral traffic.