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Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur or an already established brand, one of the constant challenges you will be facing is: How do you attract (and continue to attract) the right audience to your online storefront? How to drive traffic to the Shopify store is a question that many of you merchants will be thinking about, and in this article, we will answer just that.
The idea of driving traffic can sometimes be overstated. But traffic is important to fuel growth, improve brand recognition, and ultimately generate sales and revenue for your business. We will explore the nine best ways to get traffic to your website, both free and paid, with pro tips for your benefit. So, let's get started.
Understanding Shopify Traffic: What You Need to Know
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Understanding Shopify traffic is essential for you to effectively drive visitors to your online store and maximize conversion rates.
Cracking the code to Shopify traffic isn't just about numbers but also about unlocking your store's true potential.
Traffic is all about the visitors coming into your store and navigating in it. This includes browsing, searching for specific products, or even just window-shopping. Understanding visitor sources, their behavior, and how they interact with your store is crucial for growth.
Why Targeted Traffic Matters
Not all visitors are created equal. Imagine attracting cat lovers to a dog toy store – not ideal conversions, correct? Targeted traffic brings people genuinely interested in your products, leading to higher purchase rates and happier customers.
Source: Fashionnova
For instance, one of the most successful Shopify stores, Fashion Nova, gets a monthly traffic of 2.7M. They achieved this through two key aspects.
- Targeted marketing: Instead of catering to stereotypical sizing, they offered affordable and trendy clothes for men and women of all shapes and sizes. This niche targeting resonated with a passionate customer base, driving loyal traffic.
- They leveraged their social media community to drive immense traffic to their website by encouraging user-generated content (UGC) from their existing customers, converting their followers to models and ambassadors.
Whatever type of traffic-driving tactic you adopt, there are a few questions you must answer:
- How much skill, time, or experience do you have or need to acquire to invest in this?
- Are you ready to wait for days, weeks, months, or even years to see the result after investing in it?
- What is your budget for this project?
- What is the traffic-to-revenue conversion you are looking at?
Answering these questions can help you take the first step toward building a successful and thriving Shopify store. Most ideally, when you see traffic flowing in through any specific method, the idea is to double down on it and continue to drive more traffic while focusing on other channels, too.
Targeted traffic also results in:
Enhanced Visibility and Brand Awareness
Greater traffic means more eyes on your products and brand, leading to better visibility in the crowded online marketplace. Increased exposure will translate to enhanced brand awareness, ensuring that your store remains top-of-mind for potential customers.
Boost in Sales and Revenue
More traffic can directly convert to more opportunities for sales. When you attract a larger audience to your Shopify store, you can expect to see an increase in the likelihood of converting visitors into paying customers.
Improved Search Engine Rankings
When a certain website receives a high amount of traffic, it will also be easily available on the web - meaning better search engine rankings. Search engines like Google tend consider high traffic as a positive factor, marketing them more authoritative and relevant. You can learn more about optimizing your store for traffic and SERP on Google’s SEO guide.
Customer Engagement and Relationship Building
Driving traffic allows you to engage with your audience, helping you create meaningful relationships and building trust. Through regular interaction, you can establish a loyal customer base who are more likely to return to your store for future purchases.
Data Insights and Analytics
Increased traffic provides valuable data and insights into customer behavior, preferences, and trends. You can analyze this data within your Shopify store or use Google Analytics and similar applications to understand your audience better.
How to Get Traffic to Your Shopify Store (Free+Paid)
Now that you have created your basic plan for acquiring traffic to your website, let's explore some of the best free and paid methods. You can adopt any of these methods (or a combination of them) for your store.
Free:
Here are some of the free and organic ways to drive traffic to your website:
Optimize Your Store for Search Engine
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Imagine your store being the top result when someone searches for "eco-friendly yoga mats." Search Engine Optimization (SEO) makes this dream a reality. It involves optimizing your website content and structure to increase its visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
How it works:
- Keyword research: Identify relevant keywords people use to search for products like yours. Tools like Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs can help.
For instance, if you have a clothing store on Shopify that sells t-shirts, caps, etc., then some of the keywords you ideally want to target would include the ones shown below:
Remember, the intent could vary. If you are looking for keywords for product listings, you can go for commercial or transactional keywords, and for homepage, a mixture of informational, transactional and navigational keywords should work.
- On-page optimization: Include target keywords naturally in your product descriptions, titles, and meta descriptions. Optimize page loading speed and mobile responsiveness.
- Off-page optimization: Build backlinks to your site from other reputable websites. Engage in guest blogging and online communities relevant to your niche.
Remember, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Consistent effort and high-quality content are key to long-term success.
Content Marketing
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Creating content that showcases your products, expertise, and brand personality can attract organic traffic to your store and establish your brand as a thought leader in your niche. If you are writing blogs, remember the SEO tips we discussed previously.
Creating content that effectively addresses user problems while also being optimized for search engines is essential for successful blogging. This strategic approach involves customer journey mapping, persona development, keyword research, and content gap analysis.
Now, to answer the big question: What type of content can you create to drive traffic?
You can create
- Podcasts - works the best for art-focused brands, or brands that are taking up sustainable methods of production.
- UGC - works well for all types of products and services.
- Blogs - ideal for clothing, home decor, kitchen and health and beauty brands.
- eBooks - great for electronics and technology-focused brands.
- Guides - if the product you sell require advanced assembling or techniques, or has software updates,
- Case studies - if you are a B2B brand.
- Videos - works well for all kinds of brands.
To choose which type of content and where to publish it, try to answer the following questions:
- Who is your ideal audience, and what problems do they seek solutions for?
- What are their interests, activities, and passions beyond your products or services?
- Where does your ideal audience spend their time online, and what type of content do they consume?
- How can you create content that aligns with their interests and addresses their needs?
Social Media Marketing
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Social media marketing can help you drive traffic to your website without spending money, that is, without the use of any ads. Here's how you can do that:
- Create compelling content that resonates with your target audience. This content could be videos, social media posts, and user-generated content.
- Optimizing your social media profiles is crucial. Make sure your profiles are complete and optimized with relevant keywords, a catchy bio, and a link to your website.
- Use relevant hashtags related to your industry or niche to reach a wider audience interested in your content. Check out this Twitter post by Gymshark with a trending hashtag.
- Consider collaborating with influencers or micro-influencers. This could involve sponsored posts, product reviews, or other forms of collaboration to reach a larger audience.
There are many social media Shopify apps you can use to support your efforts, such as SP - Auto Post Facebook if you want to automate posting on Facebook or Video Ad Machine for creating videos for your social media profile.
Shopify Discounts and Promotions:
Source: Allbirds
Offering discounts is a great marketing strategy to drive sales to your Shopify store. In Shopify, you can create new discount codes, set up automatic discounts, and even sell prices for individual products. To drive traffic to the Shopify store, you should
- Offer exclusive discounts and promotions to your email subscribers, social media followers, and website visitors.
- Create urgency by setting a limited time frame for your discounts and promotions to encourage customers to take action.
- Promote your discounts and promotions through your website, email marketing campaigns, and social media platforms to maximize visibility.
- Use discount or promotion Shopify apps to create and manage discount codes, flash sales, and other promotional offers directly within your Shopify store.
Read more: Wholesale Price Formula: The Key To Profitable Discounted Sales
Utilizing Google My Business
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Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool provided by Google that allows you to manage your business listing and appear in local search results. Here's how you can set it up:
- Create a complete listing using your business address, hours, contact info, descriptions, and high-quality photos.
- Get a verification code via mail, phone, or email to claim your listing.
Creating a GMB listing is not enough. You will have to optimize it to improve visibility in the search results. For that, you need to
- Categorize your business by choosing the relevant categories to help customers find you.
- Post regularly and share updates, offers, and events to keep your profile active.
- Respond to reviews and even address negative ones professionally.
- Offer incentives like discounts or early access to new products.
Here’s a GMB listing of a Shopify brand called Huit Denim Co.
Paid:
While organic strategies like content marketing and search engine optimization are crucial, sometimes you need a little extra push. Here's an overview of several paid traffic methods to consider:
Facebook/Instagram ads
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Highly targeted advertising and social media platforms across Facebook and Instagram, with over three billion and 2 billion users (source: Statista), respectively, can help your brand reach millions of users based on demographics, interests, and behaviors.
To get started,
- Set up a Facebook Ads Manager account and connect it to your Facebook/Instagram pages and Shopify store.
- Before you run the ad campaign, identify your ideal customer with detailed targeting options.
- Choose your campaign objective, which, in this case, would be traffic and product purchases.
- Create compelling ad copy and visuals. Feel free to use any design tools such as Canva or Adobe for the same.
- Set a budget and start monitoring performance.
Like with any campaigning, there are a few pros and cons you need to be aware of before starting.
Pros:
- Get super-targeted reach
- Receive detailed analytics
- Use a variety of ad formats
Cons:
- Requires budget and ongoing management
- Learning curve to an extent.
Google Ads
You might be already aware of or are using the pay-per-click advertising platform - Google Ads. This is where your ads appear at the top of search results or on relevant websites.
If you haven't yet tried out Google Ads, here's how you can get started:
- Identify terms or keywords potential customers search for to find your products.
- Determine the maximum you're willing to pay per click.
- Stand out from competitors with clear and concise text.
- Choose the campaign type, location, and language.
- Set your schedule.
- Track results and adjust bids, keywords, and ad copy for improvement.
With Google Ads, you are able to reach customers who are looking for products and services similar to the ones you have to offer. The key player in this is the keywords and demographics, resulting in a more targeted approach. You can also get insights into clicks, conversions, and return on ad spend (ROAS).
But remember, competition can be high as some keywords can be very expensive. Running Google Ads would also need regular monitoring and a decent budget.
Read more: Google Ads Landing Page Optimization Best Practices
Partnerships and Collaborations
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In a time where social media platforms are ruling and influencing purchasing decisions, teaming up with social media influencers, brands, or popular organizations can not only help you reach your target audience but also build trust.
- Explore co-branded product lines or promotions where you combine your strengths with another brand and gain exposure to each other's audiences.
- Guest blogging and social media mentions are great for getting featured on relevant platforms and reaching their followers.
- Affiliate partnerships where you work on commission-based sales to incentivize partners to promote your products.
While this method is great for building credibility and reaching an audience beyond your own marketing efforts, you need to identify partners that truly align with your goals to see positive results. Also, managing agreements and tracking results can be tricky, but it is an essential part of this.
Email Marketing
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An age-old method, but it still works! Building an email list and sending targeted emails to promote your products, engage your audience, and drive sales can still be your last trick to success.
To begin with,
- Build a solid and targeted email list offering incentives like discounts or exclusive content to encourage sign-ups.
- Segment your list based on interests and purchase history for targeted messaging.
- Create engaging email campaigns by crafting personalized emails with valuable content and clear calls to action.
- Monitor open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to optimize your campaigns. Don't forget to make changes based on the results to see more impact in the future.
Email marketing is a relatively low-cost method of driving traffic to your website compared to other paid channels, and it can have high ROI, too. However, building a targeted email list or finding high-quality leads can take time. Hence, you need to be patient. Also, when sending out emails, ensure you comply with anti-spam regulations and GDPR/CCPA requirements.
Conclusion
And there you have it! Nine effective strategies to drive traffic to Shopify stores. Remember, each paid or free strategy has its advantages and challenges. Evaluate your budget, target audience, and marketing goals to choose the best mix for your Shopify store. By starting small, experimenting, and analyzing results, you can easily unlock the power of Shopify store traffic and watch your business reach new heights.
