For online publishers, website traffic is king. Whether your monetization strategy relies on advertising, affiliate marketing, ecommerce, or a combination of tactics, your earnings depend on people visiting your site. So the more traffic you can generate, the more revenue opportunities you create.
There are plenty of ways to drive traffic through paid sources, like paid search, paid ads, and more. But if you want to build an engaged audience of people who are interested in your content — and are likely to come back — your focus should be on organic traffic. Advertisers and commerce partners are also looking for this kind of high-quality audience, so it literally pays to bring organic visitors to your site.
As a reminder, organic traffic happens when people reach your site by entering search terms into a search engine and choosing your site from the search results. Direct traffic is also great. (That’s when people come straight to your site by typing the URL into their browser or clicking a bookmark.)
Start driving more organic traffic
Increasing your organic website traffic takes a little work, but it’s definitely worth the effort. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
1. Optimize your content for search.
Search engine optimization can help you attract more visitors by optimizing your website copy based on the keywords people use. Identifying keywords that are relevant to your content and using them throughout your website can rank your web pages higher in search terms, making it easier for users to find your content. Our quick guide to keyword strategy can help!
2. Create original, high-quality content.
Readers are more likely to visit a site — and keep coming back — when they find unique content that isn’t available anywhere else. So your content should always be original, engaging, and written in your own authentic voice. Original content is also a key requirement for getting approved on our Advertising platform.
3. Experiment with different types of content.
High-quality content is the foundation of an effective monetization strategy. There are countless different types of ways to use content—from product reviews and buyers’ guides to newsletters and shopping galleries. The trick is finding a mix of content that keeps your audience coming back for more while maximizing your revenue opportunities.
4. Keep your content fresh.
Fresh content is important to satisfy both search engines and human visitors. Search engines place more value on new content versus old — and visitors won’t return to your site if there’s nothing new to explore. Repurposing or refreshing the content you’ve already created is a great way to keep things fresh without reinventing the wheel.
5. Stay active on social media.
Establishing a consistent presence on social media can help you reach a wider audience and drive more traffic to your site. The key is understanding the channels where your target audience is most active — Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. — and creating engaging social content that pushes them to your main site.
6. Keep an eye on the competition.
No matter what industry you’re in, it’s important to understand what your competitors are doing, and online publishing is no exception. Checking out your competitors’ content can be a great source of inspiration, keyword ideas, and more. Just be sure you’re always creating your own unique content.
7. Understand your traffic trends.
In order to optimize your monetization strategy, you need to understand what’s working and what’s not. The Sovrn publisher dashboard can help you figure out which sources are providing the most traffic, the most engagement, and the highest conversion rates. From there, you can make better strategic decisions about where to invest your resources going forward.
Ready to monetize with Sovrn?
Whatever your monetization strategy looks like, Sovrn can help. Our products and services are built to help publishers diversify their revenue and maximize earnings — and we’re always making improvements.
- Commerce: We’ve recently added price and merchant comparisons to our Commerce offering, so you can now earn more revenue from every click. Diversify merchants, improve conversions, and boost revenue by building price comparison widgets into your existing commerce content.
- Advertising: Our easy-to-use suite of Advertising tools let you monetize content in a snap, and our Ad Exchange provides everything you need to connect with advertisers, set pricing for your valuable inventory, and maximize your ad revenue.
- Signal: It’s easier than ever to optimize every ad placement using “engaged time,” which measures not only when an ad can be seen but also when a user is actively engaged with the content. With engaged time, you can accurately identify your most valuable ad inventory and price accordingly.
- Services: Optimizing your revenue diversification can be complicated, but you don’t have to go it alone. With Sovrn Ad Management, you can stop worrying about the details and get back to what you do best: creating great content and growing your audience.
To learn more about all the ways Sovrn supports publishers, just email us at sales@sovrn.com and our team will be happy to help.
