Referral Traffic: 7 Ways to Drive It (And Get More Leads!)

Referral postulation is simply a powerful and often overlooked measurement to springiness your website a competitory edge.

In nan never-ending quest for much traffic, marketers move to search motor optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertizing (PPC), blogging, and social media marketing.

The problem is that SEO takes clip to work, PPC is expensive, Google is oversaturated pinch blog content, and it’s tricky to beryllium ROI pinch societal media. That’s wherever referral postulation comes in.

So, what is referral traffic, and really tin you usage it to make much leads? Today, we’ll locomotion you done everything you request to cognize — why it’s important and 7 steps you tin return to amended yours.

What is referral traffic?

Why is referral postulation important?

7 Steps to Generate More Referral Traffic

1. Publish Your Website To Online Directories

2. Get Published On Review Websites

3. Publish Guest Blog Posts

4. Leverage Social Media

5. Comment On Blogs

6. Be Active On Industry Forums

7. Publish Infographics

Next Steps

What is referral traffic?

When visitors onshore connected your website from sites different than nan awesome hunt engines, that’s referral traffic.

When personification clicks a nexus connected a website aliases societal network, and it takes them to different site, search software, specified as Google Analytics or HubSpot, counts that visitant arsenic referral traffic.

The originating website is nan “referrer” since it refers to postulation from 1 website to nan other.

HubSpot’s trading analytics tools tin supply you pinch penetration into your referral traffic. You tin isolate this postulation from different categories and find your champion referral sources.

With this information, you tin measurement nan effectiveness of your strategies to boost referral traffic.

Get started pinch HubSpot's postulation analytics.

Why is referral postulation important?

Referral postulation is valuable to inbound marketers because it sends perchance qualified visitors to your website. This, successful turn, gets your contented successful beforehand of caller people, giving your website nan opportunity to person that visitant into a lead.

Your income squad will return it from there, arsenic they past person nan opportunity to person that lead into a caller customer.

That’s not nan only logic referral postulation is helpful, however. Referral postulation besides has SEO benefits. When personification visits your website from different site, they are usually clicking connected a nexus aliases completing immoderate type of societal activity.

Google and different hunt engines see these links and societal signals arsenic affirmative ranking factors — arsenic agelong arsenic they are coming from trusted websites.

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Sounds beautiful good, right? Well, let’s get started connected getting you immoderate juicy referral postulation truthful you tin brag astir each nan basking leads you person rolling in.

7 Steps to Generate More Referral Traffic

Ready to summation your referral traffic? Start pinch these 7 tricks.

1. Publish Your Website To Online Directories

Submitting your website to online directories is 1 of nan easiest ways to get referral traffic, but you don’t want to people your website to each directory retired there.

Instead, attraction connected nan ones that are astir applicable to your manufacture aliases make nan astir traffic. Whether you’re a veterinarian successful St. Louis aliases an assisted surviving installation successful Daytona Beach, Moz has you covered.

It offers a free assets for uncovering nan top directories by category and city.

Once you’ve submitted your website to nan apical directories for your metropolis and industry, attraction connected uncovering directories that tin make immoderate superior traffic. How do you cognize which directories will execute this?

It’s arsenic elemental arsenic performing a Google search.

The directories that look astatine nan apical of nan hunt results should, successful theory, make nan astir traffic.

For example, if you do a hunt for “personal trainer successful Los Angeles,” location are 3 directories that show up connected nan first scroll of nan hunt results: Thumbtack, Yelp, and FitnessTrainer. Focus your efforts location to start.

You can’t usage SEO to walk up these directories successful nan hunt results overnight. What you tin do, however, is usage these directories to your advantage.

List your website connected these directories successful bid to make value postulation and get immoderate free SEO juice.

After all, if personification is looking for a individual trainer successful Los Angeles and finds your website via Yelp, that referred visitant is conscionable arsenic valuable to you arsenic them landing straight connected your website.

2. Get Published connected Review Websites

Review websites are different tried and existent instrumentality you tin usage to summation referral traffic. These visitors person already completed nan consciousness and information stages of the buyer’s journey.

They’ve now reached nan determination shape and are comparing vendors aliases products. What amended clip to get your merchandise aliases work successful beforehand of them for consideration?

Getting listed connected a reappraisal website tin alteration depending connected whether you are a B2B aliases B2C company.

If you execute a hunt for “St. Louis roofing institution reviews,” location are 7 websites that you would want to beryllium listed connected if you were a roofer: AngiesList, Yelp, BBB, This Old House, Expertise.com, Houzz, and Porch.

By adding your website to these 7 directories, you’re expanding nan likelihood of your website being recovered during nan determination shape of nan buyer’s journey.

The adjacent step, however, is getting those reviews. If you’re operating a respectable roofing institution that treats customers reasonably you should person nary problem opinionated retired from different roofers that person not-so-positive reviews.

B2B businesses will find that it is much difficult to get featured connected reappraisal websites.

A batch of times, you person to “pay to play,” meaning you will fundamentally person to salary to beryllium featured toward nan apical of nan reappraisal listings. For example, if you do a Google hunt for “top mobile app developers,” nan first hunt consequence is Clutch.co.

They showcase a database of mobile app improvement firms pinch reviews, but if you look closely, you’ll announcement that they are “sorted by sponsor.” Essentially these companies are paying to person their website and reviews featured first.

It’s a slick measurement for Clutch to make money but besides support its estimation arsenic a respectable root for reviews.

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3. Publish Guest Blog Posts

Guess what? You’re presently looking astatine measurement 3 of 7 for expanding your site’s referral traffic. That’s correct — you’re reference a impermanent blog station by Agile & Co, a HubSpot Partner Agency.

Guest blog posts create galore opportunities to get referral postulation to your website. External links (like nan 2 successful this paragraph), writer bios, and calls to action (like nan 1 astatine nan bottommost of this post) are typically coming connected astir blogs.

If you tin get a station featured connected a well-known manufacture website, you’ll use from nan referral postulation and links coming to your site.

It’s champion to attraction your efforts connected websites that are considered thought leaders successful your industry. Since we’re an inbound trading agency, HubSpot is nan cleanable spot for america to contribute a impermanent blog post.

I mean, HubSpot virtually coined nan word inbound marketing.

Here are a mates of tips to support successful mind erstwhile impermanent blogging:

1. Focus connected websites related to your industry. No 1 wants to publication astir autumn manner trends connected a blog astir dogs. In astir cases, nan canine blog wouldn’t moreover springiness a autumn manner station an okay.
2. Keep nan target assemblage successful mind while writing. Most blogs person strict guidelines successful spot for impermanent bloggers.
3. Write contented nether your ain name. You merit to get in installments for your work. Plus, pinch capable blogging, you tin found yourself arsenic a thought leader successful nan space.
4. Link to influencers. They will announcement and mightiness moreover thief beforehand your impermanent blog post, which successful return will summation nan referral postulation it generates.

4. Leverage Social Media

According to Social Media Examiner, a whopping 86% of marketers indicated that societal media generated much vulnerability for their business. Additionally, 76% recovered their website postulation accrued arsenic a consequence of their societal media efforts.

Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok were nan apical six societal media platforms utilized by B2C marketers.

However, astir B2B marketers classed LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok arsenic their apical societal media platforms.

Being progressive connected societal media isn’t conscionable for nosy — it’s a maneuver astir marketers are utilizing to get much traffic, leads, and sales. And if you’re not leveraging it, you’re earnestly missing out.

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Every clip you tweet, share, like, aliases pin a portion of content, you are creating an opportunity to thrust referral postulation to your website. Plus, you’re expanding nan likelihood of your contented showing up astatine nan apical of Google.

76% of marketers utilizing societal media reported improved hunt traffic, and 55% reported improved sales. As mentioned before, referral postulation not only brings much imaginable customers to your website but besides helps pinch SEO.

5. Comment connected Blogs

A mobility that comes up a batch is, “Does blog commenting thief SEO?” Not only tin it thief pinch SEO, but it tin besides make much referral postulation for your website.

According to Neil Patel, his 240+ comments connected blogs person generated adjacent to 4,000 visitors to his website.

Commenting connected blogs will decidedly summation your referral postulation — conscionable make judge you’re not filling nan interwebs pinch much spam. Here are a mates of tips for nan newbie blog commenters retired there:

1. Make judge your comments are valuable. No 1 likes a complainer aliases bragger. If your comments are antagonistic aliases promotional successful nature, conscionable support them to yourself.
2. Focus connected blogs that let links successful nan comments. Remember, you’re trying to get much traffic. In bid to do that, you request to adhd a nexus to your website
3. If you aren't first, you’re last. Just for illustration hunt engines, if your nexus is astatine nan apical of nan comments list, you’re much apt to make much clicks and traffic.

6. Be Active connected Industry Forums

Online forums are a awesome root of imaginable leads and customers but are often overlooked arsenic a trading maneuver for generating traffic.

Similar to blog comments, you should attraction your efforts connected forums successful your niche and ever effort to adhd worth without sounding excessively promotional. Here are a mates of steps and tips beneath for getting nan astir retired of forum marketing:

1. Make judge nan forum is active. Don’t discarded your clip connected a forum that hasn’t had a caller station for a month.
2. Register utilizing your marque name. You want to make judge group subordinate your comments pinch a memorable marque name.
3. Create a signature pinch a call-to-action link. This is really you’re going to thrust postulation to your website.
4. Participate. You’ll want to participate successful nan areas of nan forum wherever you person nan astir expertise.
5. Use real-life examples, don’t conscionable connection your advice. Try to supply worth utilizing your individual experiences.
6. Share your resources and commencement a caller thread pinch a nexus to a assets you deliberation could use nan group. If you’re proud of a peculiar portion of content, it’s apt others will bask it too.

7. Publish Infographics

When asked to prime nan societal media platforms they want to study much about, 68% of marketers selected YouTube and Instagram, which are dense connected visuals. The logic is beautiful simple.

Humans person attraction spans shorter than goldfish, and it’s easier for nan encephalon to devour an image than a bunch of text.

Plus, you’ve astir apt noticed that an image of a tiny puppy gets liked and shared much than a 100+ page manufacture report.

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The awesome point astir infographics is they tin thief group understand analyzable information pinch elemental visuals.

The extremity is to get your infographic shared, liked, and pinned connected societal networks and person others embed it successful their articles (like I’ve done above), frankincense creating links to your website.

In summation to your ain website, location are respective websites wherever you tin station an infographic. One of my favorites is Instagram, which 37% of marketers rank, on pinch Facebook, arsenic nan champion level for processing loyalty.

Instagram gives you nan action to nexus your infographic to your website and makes it easy for it to beryllium shared connected different platforms.

Next Steps

Once you commencement receiving further referral traffic, you’ll want to make judge your website is fresh for these caller visitors.

Download nan FREE eBook beneath to study immoderate champion practices for ensuring your website is group up to person visitors into leads for your business.