How to Increase Traffic to Your Site

You’ve set up your site, you’ve set up your merch shop, you’ve set up all your social channels. So…where are all the customers? The Internet world is vast, and it can sometimes feel like you’re screaming into the void every time you post a tweet that gets no likes or an Instagram post that falls flat. Luckily, there are lots of ways you can increase traffic to your site, online store, and more. Find out how to increase traffic to your site!

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Do an SEO checklist

Going through and making sure you’re using SEO tactics throughout your online store, site, etc. is a great way of making your more discoverable in search engines (and, in the case of Artist Shops, in Discover and Threadless search).

FILL OUT AN ABOUT PAGE

Besides giving your fans a little window into who you are and building a connection between your brand and fans, About Pages are an important place to employ SEO tactics – like keywords – and they’re the perfect hub to connect fans and viewers to all of your social channels. Marketing expert Neil Patel also recommends that you don’t make your About Page SOLELY about you, but rather you should talk about a problem you solve for your visitors or, in the case of an Artist Shop, the types of designs you offer. For example, if you have an occult-themed Shop, it might benefit you to throw in a line like: “I wanted to create a place where all my witchcraft designs, black cat designs, occult art, and more could find a home, and where cool witchy folk like YOU could find them, too” (but better than that example, please). Use a headline on your About Page to introduce who you are, what your online store is all about, and to establish your voice and theme.

CREATE PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS

Using your product descriptions as a place to include keywords related to specific designs and products of yours that people might use to search for that design or product in particular is a great SEO tactic that you can use to enrich every design page. Not to mention, in Artist Shops your product descriptions auto-populate your design’s meta description that appears in a search result (see more specifics on that here), which is also key for SEO.

CREATE PRODUCT TAGS

Use tags for each of your individual designs in your online store. With Artist Shops, you can select multiple tags that can help direct people searching for designs like yours to your Shop and art. But be sure to stick to keyword rules and only use keywords that are relevant to your product and design! If you use “cat” as a tag to sneakily get more people to find your plant design devoid of cats, you’re 1: violating SEO rules, 2: misleading people, and 3: doing yourself a disservice; you want to attract the right audience looking to buy specific designs to those designs. That’s what keywords are for!

MAKE SURE THERE ARE KEYWORDS IN DESIGN TITLES

While clever design titles are always fun, if they don’t include any keywords relevant to the design itself, you’re missing out! If you have a cat design, make sure “cat” is mentioned somewhere in the title. You can use the product description to get a little more clever and continue using and enforcing your brand’s voice.

Use social media to your advantage

When it comes to how to increase traffic to your site, using social media is key. If you’re not utilizing social media to push your designs and online store, then you’re immediately missing out on a massive audience. Social media can feel like you’re a tiny fish in the world’s most GIANT pond. But there are ways to seek out and find your target audience.

USE HASHTAGS

Hashtags aren’t just the staple of the Internet age. They’re also extremely helpful when it comes to connecting you to people who are looking for exactly the kinds of designs and products you’re offering. Hashtags are kind of like SEO keywords tailored to social media. Use them!

CHECK OUT YOUR COMPETITION

Looking at the social channels of brands, artists, etc. who you view as competition and admire is a great way of getting ideas for what to post, figuring out how to connect with your target audience, and it’s a great way to actually poach audience members too by following people on those pages who you think would connect with your products.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF NEW FEATURES

Newer features like Instagram Stories are awesome to take advantage of. Not only does it show you’re active and keeping up with social media trends, but it also gives you amazing new ways to connect with your customers. For example, illustrator Andrea Bell is a consistent user of Instagram Stories. She posts questions to her followers, shares her process, shares self-care stories, and altogether connects with her audience in a personal – yet professional – way. One of my favorite Stories she’s done was used to wrap up her “Börk” series – an art series featuring her adorable dog character. To wrap up the series, she posed a question on Stories telling her fans to ask Börk anything they wanted. Besides being fun and super cute, it enforced the voice and style of her personal brand while also connecting with her audience.

POST POST POST

Post often and post actively! If people and followers don’t see that you’re active on social, there’s no point to following you. But of course, if you post so much that it becomes spam-worthy, you have a problem too. It’s a fine line and balance when figuring out how often to post on social media. But the point is to stay active and to give people a reason not just to follow you, but to actively keep up with you to avoid missing things.

Leverage Email

If you haven’t built an email list and started sending a little newsletter yet, now’s the time to start. According to Sprout Social, 82% of marketers report that Email is the most effective channel for marketing content to possible customers. It’s a creative way to connect directly with fans. Artist Shop owner Steven Rhodes has a weekly email newsletter (see above) that he sends out with information all about sales, new designs, new products, and more. 

Use data

Take advantage of the data you have to better understand who you should be trying to attract to your Shop! Knowing who your audience is, what your most successful designs are, and what your most successful posts are will help you figure out exactly what designs to market, what niche audiences to market to, and what type of content people like the most on social, in email newsletters, and more. This helps you construct a brand identity that will attract the RIGHT traffic to your products.

Work with micro-influencers 

Working with influencers and micro-influencers whose vibe and audience is in line with yours is a great way of getting your products and brand directly in front of an audience that would be interested in what you have to offer and lines up to the type of audience you’re looking to appeal to.

Guest blog!

Guest blogging is a great way to get your name out there! Find sites with an audience you think would be interested in your brand and products and offer to guest blog. This can grow your following as well as put you in front of a brand new audience excited about your products. We’re always looking for contributing writers. If you have an idea or topic you want to discuss, let us know!

Do you have any tips for how to increase traffic to your site, online store, etc.? Do you have tactics that have worked? Leave them in the comments!

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