Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
If you’ve just started working on an engineering blog, you may find yourself asking one burning question: How do you get people to visit your site?
Luckily, understanding the world of website traffic doesn’t have to be too complex, and you can implement a few simple strategies that can help you drive traffic.
In this guide, I’ll take you through some top practices that help generate free website traffic, plus give you a brief look at paid traffic in case that’s a route you’d like to take.
Google is the world’s most popular search engine, dominating 92% of the market. So if your goal is to generate organic website traffic, it’s a good idea to make friends with Google!
If your engineering site matches what Google values, after all, the engine will push your content towards the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), increasing your website traffic.
But what does Google value?
That’s the million-dollar question, and one that’s certainly been on the minds of all content marketers with Google’s more recent helpful content update.
In a world dominated by AI and spam, Google is determined to rank content that adds value, and producing top-quality content has never been more important. It’s so important, in fact, that I’ll add this in another section further down.
But content isn’t the only thing that Google cares about, and there are multiple on-page and off-page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices every engineering marketer should focus on.
You should definitely consider elements like site speed and ensure your site is hosted by a server that prioritizes this. In today’s fast-paced digital age, a website that takes longer than a second to load is a no-go. It’s like wanting to access a shop but having to wait forever for the doors to open.
It’s also worth optimizing your on-page SEO by ensuring each page or article contains relevant meta titles, meta descriptions, headings, image alt texts, etc. These attributes will help Google index your page more effectively.
Chances are you’re relying on a CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress or Wix to manage your engineering site. This is good news as it means you can also rely on a host of on-page optimization plugins to help you meet on-page SEO requirements. Yoast is one of the most well-known ones, and one I’ve relied on myself.
Even if you follow the best on-page and off-page SEO practices, you will still need to ensure your website looks nice and is easy to navigate.
After all, it’s always worth remembering that while you want to meet Google’s ranking criteria, you are still, at the end of the day, creating content for humans.
Some of my top tips here:
- – Work with a well-designed website theme and ensure consistency across pages. Nothing scares potential customers away like a website that doesn’t look good.
- – Make your site simple to navigate. By including a good number of internal links (links within your content that direct to other pages on your website) and easy-to-access menus, you can help readers move through the content on your site more smoothly.
- – Ensure your site is designed to be mobile-first. Roughly 60% of internet traffic comes from mobile devices, so you have to make sure your website looks and functions well on mobile phones. I still find it helpful to look at Google Analytics, though, to gain insight into more personalized data on how much mobile traffic my site gets.
By optimizing the design and navigation of your website for both desktop and mobile, you can improve the time users spend on your site and decrease bounce rates, both of which are value markers for Google, leading to higher rankings and more website traffic.
I don’t look at the Google traffic measures (like bounce rate) in this post, but you can head over to my article on website traffic and why it matters for more information.
I’ve already mentioned that Google prioritizes high-value content, and the platform has actually released a whole document with guidelines on this.
But without going into the nitty-gritty of it all, what does this mean for you and your engineering site?
To put it simply, you need to ensure the content you produce is the very best it can be.
Here are some top tips:
- Quality over quantity: While you may think posting frequently is vital, it’s also a case of quality over quantity. One long-form article a week that really dives deep into a complex engineering subject will offer far more value than five short pieces that aren’t very helpful.
- Consistent posting: Producing quality content doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention to regular posting. A content schedule that allows you to post consistently is worth gold, demonstrating to both your readers and Google that your blog is active and relevant.
- Updating old content: You can also focus on updating old blog posts, adding new data and giving the content a refresh at least once a year.
- Creating interactive media: Long-form posts aren’t the only way to move forward. Interactive media like infographics, video content, web slides, and tutorials allow for a creative way to share ideas and can keep potential customers who don’t like reading entertained. You can even repurpose long-form posts into different interactive media and share these on social platforms.
By creating content that adds value, you not only meet Google requirements but also genuinely meet the needs of your potential customers.
Social media is here to stay, and you’re missing out if you’re not relying on the latest social media trends to drive traffic to your site.
There are a multitude of social media platforms, but you’ll be familiar with the most popular ones, like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube (though this technically ranks as a search engine), Pinterest, and more.
Social media is such a complex topic that I actually dive into social media for engineering firms in a different article.
But here is a quick overview of how you can make social media work for you:
- If you’re utilizing interactive media, repurposing long-form blog content to create bite-size images, slides, and videos, you can share these on social platforms to drive traffic back to your website.
- Social media helps establish brand authority, which can, in turn, increase website traffic. This is especially true if you’re very active on social media and can create a true community feel. If you’re very involved, you can even utilize the power of UGC (User Generated Content) and share this on your feed or website.
- If you focus on creating very shareable content, social media users are likely to share your content within one platform or across multiple social platforms, giving you the chance to create viral content that can, in turn, lead to higher website traffic.
- If social media isn’t your strongest point to start, you can consider working with influencers in your niche and create collaborations that can improve your social presence.
Don’t forget that social media isn’t a one-way channel. Unlike a website, where you can simply post your blogs, social platforms emphasize the social aspect, and you’ll need to spend time interacting with the community in order to maximize the power of socials.
Online forums and communities like Reddit and Quora are fantastic tools in helping to establish brand authority, but they can also generate free traffic for your engineering blog.
By taking the time to provide helpful answers to engineering-related questions on these platforms, and including a link to your blog when appropriate, you not only help people get the information they need but also enhance the potential of driving traffic back to your site and gaining new customers.
Forum users also recognize genuine efforts to create dialogue and personalized conversations, which helps establish you as a brand authority.
Becoming a community figure does take a great deal of time, but it’s an investment that may well be worth it.
Incorporating a back-linking strategy should definitely be part of your marketing plan, and the end goal is to have content so good that other websites naturally link to it – like I’ve just done with the Neil Patel link here!
But, to start, you can focus on creating guest posts for other popular blogs in the engineering niche.
Say you’re a big fan of an engineering digimag or love the blog a well-known engineer in your community runs. Contact information is generally publicly available, so you can reach out to these sites and ask if you can create a guest post for them. This means you’ll create a high-value piece of content that will then help drive traffic to their site.
While you may not receive the initial traffic as a reward for your hard work, focusing on guest posts helps you reach new audiences and establishes your authority in the field.
If you make an effort to always include a link back to your blog in your author bio or the actual post, you’ll also start building a great portfolio of backlinks.
The number of worldwide email users is expected to grow to 4.8 billion by 2027, and email marketing remains a vital part of overall marketing strategies.
Of course, you do need to put some time and effort into creating an email marketing list in the first place, relying on existing website traffic and social media to help you in your efforts.
However, once you have an email subscriber list in place, you can use this to further enhance your website traffic without having to rely on search engines.
By sending regular newsletters to your subscribers, sharing the latest blog posts, exclusive content, and engineering updates, you can encourage newsletter readers to click straight over to content on your website, increasing direct, organic traffic.
So now that we’ve looked at a number of ways to generate free website traffic, what happens if you’re not winning or if you’re just starting out and need to generate website traffic immediately?
Paid advertising is always a route you can take, whether this is paid search or social media advertising, and it can certainly help you attract visitors if you don’t have the luxury of time that many of the free website traffic techniques require.
Of course, many of the free traffic generating techniques will still have to be met – you need to ensure your website is aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate, for instance, and it’ll help immensely if you have well-designed social profiles set up already.
But if you have these basics set up, you can also rely on paid advertising to get your engineering site noticed. Going forward, you can then also make use of a strategy that combines both paid advertising and organic traffic generators to further enhance your website traffic.
Even if you rely on paid advertising, there’s no way around high-quality content, optimized websites, and an effective social media strategy.
But you don’t have to do it alone. Contact us today if you need help with your engineering content, and we can work together to take your blog to the next level.
The answer to this question really depends on your niche, but you’ll find that very helpful or very funny content gets shared most often. Helpful content is most likely to be shared via email, but funny content can go viral on social media.
Is there a way to create something funny or iconic that’s very shareable in your niche?
This may require some brainstorming, but I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with something that matches current social trends.
Building an email list isn’t always easy as it often requires you to already have some sort of website traffic or social media presence.
But if you have that, you need to ask yourself: Why would someone want to give me their email address?
Offer incentives such as exclusive content, access to a webinar, or a free eBook, which will encourage potential customers to give you their email address.
You can use pop-ups on your website, add email sign-up forms in your sidebar, or even promote your sign-up campaigns on social media to get started.
No, you certainly don’t have to collaborate with influencers to be successful on social media, especially if your target audience isn’t on platforms like TikTok or Instagram.
It’s vital that you focus on your niche and content or collaborations that are relevant to your blog and your business.
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