Driving visitors from external sites is a powerful way to grow your audience, amplify content, and increase website traffic. By getting your content, links and brand in front of engaged visitors on third-party sites, you can tap into new streams of referral traffic.
Implementing an effective referral traffic strategy should be a key part of your overall marketing plan. Done right, earned traffic from other sites can deliver major dividends in expanding reach and conversions.
Follow this comprehensive guide to getting more referral website traffic:
Optimize Your Own On-Site Experience
Before looking to outside sites, make sure your own site delivers an excellent user experience optimized to convert visitors. Key factors include:
- Fast load speeds – Optimize images, minimize HTTP requests, compress files, and leverage browser caching. Slow sites lead to high bounce rates.
- Mobile responsiveness – With Google prioritizing mobile-first indexing, ensure your site is accessible across devices. Use a responsive design and check site speed on phones.
- Easy navigation – Menus, calls-to-action and page layout should make desired actions intuitive. Check your site analytics for high exit pages.
- Quality content – Offer in-depth, well-researched content addressing user intent and needs. Update or remove content not driving actions.
- Page speed optimizations – Minify code, use asynchronous loading, eliminate render blocking elements. Test regularly with Google PageSpeed Insights.
With a frictionless on-site experience, referred visitors are more likely to take desired actions like downloads, signups, purchases and more.
Build a Referral Page
A dedicated referral page offers one place to highlight referral programs, partnerships, and links out. Include:
- Details on referral/affiliate programs you offer along with links.
- Logos of key partners/brands you have referral partnerships with.
- Embedded latest content like blog posts, guides and resources.
- Quotes from partners on the value of working together.
Make it easy for sites linking to you to access relevant assets and info to display. Refresh content regularly.
Create Linkworthy Assets
Developing news-worthy content, tools, resources and assets that websites want to link to should be a priority. Ideas include:
- Research reports – Original data and industry surveys.
- Ultimate guides – In-depth how tos and listicles.
- Quizzes/calculators – Interactive tools.
- Free templates – Checklists, plans, spreadsheet templates.
- Expert roundups – Interviews and panels.
- Curated lists – Best of X compilations.
Promote these proactively through outreach and your own channels. Make it easy for sites to embed or link.
Guest Post Outreach
One of the most effective ways to land links and referral traffic is contributing posts to niche and industry blogs.
- Identify sites accepting contributor posts related to your topics. Blogs with engaged readership are best.
- Pitch ideas customized to each site with a title, summary and your expertise.
- Offer to include images, stats and embeddable assets for easy integration.
- Publish and promote your guest posts across your social channels.
Securing guest author spots allows you to tap into new audiences with leads linking back to your site.
Comment on Relevant Blogs
Joining and engaging in relevant site discussions helps build relationships and get your brand seen.
- Find blogs with an audience overlap to yours and comment on posts. Provide useful insights without overt promotion.
- Share comments on your own social channels to start a cross-conversation driving readers between sites.
- Respond to others who comment on your posts thanking them and building community.
- Eventually your recognizable brand presence may open the door for contributor opportunities.
Commenting builds familiarity that leads to clicks.
Leverage Your Social Audience
Share and promote your new content across all social platforms. Encourage your followers to share with their own networks for exponential reach.
- Post your latest blog content, videos, reports and assets across all social media profiles.
- Engage your followers in conversation around the content to drive amplification.
- Run social contests and campaigns incentivizing shares and referrals.
Social referral traffic doubles as followers click from networks like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and more to your site.
Join Relevant Forums
Industry forums and communities contain engaged potential visitors for your niche.
- Search for popular forums where your target audience is already active. Common software Q&A forums work well for SaaS.
- Create an account and detailed profile highlighting your expertise. Participate regularly across threads.
- Share insights and content when relevant without being overly promotional.
- Add links to your website and offers in forum profile signatures when permitted.
Forum participation establishes trust and authority with relevant peers.
Local Directory and Citation Listings
For local businesses, getting listed on popular local directories drives referral traffic.
- Register for Google My Business, Yelp, FourSquare, TripAdvisor and others.
- Fully complete profiles with images, descriptions, hours, menus or services.
- Be consistent with your NAP (name, address, phone number) across directories.
- Add a link back to your site where allowed.
Showing up on the directories people use to find local options leads to clicks.
Participate in Link Roundups
Keep an eye out for popular link roundup posts within your industry that accept submissions, like:
- Top 100 X blogs
- Best Y tools for professionals
- 10 Must-Read Resources for Z
Relevant high-authority sites often compile these. Provide your best content submissions with descriptions. If selected, it can drive referral traffic from a valuable contextual mention.
Broken Link Building
Find broken links pointing to dead pages on high-authority sites and offer to replace with your content if relevant.
- Use tools like Ahrefs and DeadLinkChecker to identify broken links.
- Contact the site asking if they’d like help finding a suitable replacement resource to fix the broken page.
- Recommend related articles or content offers from your site as appropriate replacements.
Broken link building improves the user experience while getting you links on authoritative domains.
Site Takeover Campaigns
Site takeovers allow you to sponsor content and promotions on a third-party site. Popular tactics include:
- Sponsoring posts – Work with bloggers in your niche to publish branded content.
- Publishing guest articles on popular sites.
- Site skins/headers – Temporary branded skins and site headers.
- Content widgets – Promoted content modules on high-traffic pages.
Site takeovers put your content and links directly in front of engaged visitors, driving traffic.
Review Sites & Directories
Having an up-to-date and fully filled out listing on key review and directory sites related to your business ensures people can learn about and click to your website.
- Claim or create your free listing on Nielsen IQ, Manta, HotFrog and other top directories.
- If applicable, add your business to software review sites like Capterra and Software Advice.
- Keep information like business descriptions and categories updated.
Discovery on reputable review sites builds credibility and referral traffic.
Syndicate Content
Find partner websites, blogs and publications with an audience that aligns with yours and syndicate content.
Provide them a content feed with rights to publish your top articles on their site with links back to you.
You can even syndicate content automatically using plugins like Feedsync.
Syndication places your content and links in front of new visitor bases that click through.
Promote Any External References
Anytime your brand, content or site gets mentioned on another website, amplify the reference!
- Link to the piece referencing you on your social channels, email newsletter, etc.
- Increase visibility by spreading the word to your audience about the mention.
- Thank the referrer online and invite them to produce more collaborative content.
This turns mentions into traffic as you maximize the exposure of any backlinks or references.
Monitor Traffic Sources
Use Google Analytics to identify your top referral traffic sources. Then optimize and double down on partnerships and placements that drive conversions.
- View acquisition reports to see the external sites sending visitors.
- Dig into metrics for individual referrers like pages visited, bounce rate, Goal completions.
- Compare traffic quality report to see high value sources vs quick exiting domains.
- Sort traffic channels by conversion rate.
Analytics equip you to focus efforts on referral partnerships that work.
Earning referral website traffic from external sites provides multiple benefits:
- Increased reach and brand exposure to new audiences
- Built trust and credibility through earned editorial links
- Diversified acquisition channels beyond organic and paid search
- Higher conversion rates from warm referral traffic vs cold visits
- More links and authority signals for SEO rankings
Referral marketing done right delivers results. Dedicate time to building relationships, creating linkworthy assets, and strategically getting your brand seen through strategic content placements and partnerships.
The return visit growth, lower bounce rates, and expanded reach justify the investment. Track your progress, test different opportunities, and double down on what works.