Before anyone can shop your online store, they have to be able to find it. Learning how to drive traffic to your website is a critical step for business owners.
According to Contentsquare’s 2026 report, 59% of sites saw traffic decline last year. And in a 2025 Shopify survey,* more than a third of store owners identified finding customers (36%) and marketing in general (37%) as their top challenges in their business’s first year.
"The most humbling thing about starting this business was me thinking that we would just turn the website on and sales would just start coming in—and that was not the case,” says Rocky Xu, founder of Rocky’s Matcha, in an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast.
The Contentsquare report also found AI-referred traffic—visits originating from platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini—grew 632% year over year. It still accounts for a small share of overall visits, but the pace of growth signals a channel you can’t ignore.
This guide shares 27 strategies to drive traffic to your website across a variety of sources, with guidance on how to measure website traffic.
How to increase website traffic (27 ways)
Paid channels can generate traffic within hours of launching. That speed comes with a dependency: visits stop when spend stops.
Organic channels like search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, email list building, and social following take longer to build but don’t require ongoing spend like ads do. Instead of asset creation, analysis, and fluctuating costs per click, the investment is time spent to develop helpful, engaging content and nurture the brand and communities.
There are many ways to drive traffic to your website with tactics such as:
- SEO and content. Optimize your store for search and publish content that answers questions your customers search for. “Most sites can expect to see measurable results from their SEO efforts within three to six months,” Arthur Camberlein, senior SEO specialist at Shopify, says.
- Social media (organic). Build audience growth through consistent posting, community engagement, and user-generated content (UGC). Growth depends heavily on content quality and platform fit.
- Paid search. Ads appear in Google results for queries you bid on. Traffic starts quickly but stops when your budget runs out.
- Paid social. Targeted ads on Meta, TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest reach audiences immediately, but it requires ongoing creative testing to avoid ad fatigue.
- Email marketing. Communicate directly with opted-in subscribers. Tools like Shopify Messaging offer a low cost per send.
SEO and organic traffic strategies for more website visitors
- Consider AI search optimization
- Optimize meta tags
- Prioritize backlink building
- Add internal links to and from important pages
- Add collection pages
- Stand out with rich results
- Focus on local SEO
- Audit your site and fix technical issues
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of fine-tuning your website to increase its chances of appearing on search engine results pages (SERP) for relevant keywords. But the way people search online is changing, and ranking well no longer guarantees a click.
Google, the largest search engine in the world, now uses generative AI to summarize search results into an AI Overview visible at the top of the SERP. When these AI summaries are visible, 60% of searches don’t result in a click to a website.
Searchers are increasingly turning to AI search engines for answers. Half of consumers use AI tools like ChatGPT to search for information, with the platform reportedly processing 66 million “search-like” prompts per day.
Google Search Console shows which queries are already driving impressions and clicks to your store—including pages with high impressions but low click-through rates, which represent the clearest near-term optimization opportunities.
From there, here’s how you can adapt to evolving ecommerce SEO best practices:
1. Consider AI search optimization
Similarweb data found that during June 2025, AI platforms generated more than 1.13 billion referrals to the top 1,000 websites globally—a figure that’s up 357% since June 2024.
Even traditional search engines like Google and Bing are incorporating generative AI features. AI Overviews, which don’t require users to click onto websites to get the information they need, are becoming more common on SERPs, particularly for informational content.
Ahrefs’ 2025 study found AI Overviews appear for 21% of all queries, but are present for 99.9% of informational intent keywords—like “What is” or “How to.” (If your focus is on commercial or transactional queries, you may not need to worry about AI Overviews just yet: They showed up for 5.5% and 1.2% of those types of searches, respectively.)
To optimize for AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, and large language models (LLMs), here are a few things to try:
- Add expertise.Google has consideredEEAT (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust) in its algorithm for years and it is increasingly valuable as more sites host AI-created content. Relevant statistics, academic studies, and an expert point of view can help your web pages show up in AI-powered search results.
- Experiment with video. If you’re not already on YouTube, now may be the time to start a YouTube channel. YouTube videos frequently show up in AI search results.
- Focus on product benefits. To optimize your product pages for LLMs, focus on product benefits and use cases.
- Follow SEO best practices.Ahrefs’ 2026 study found that 38% of pages cited in AI Overviews also rank in the top 10 organic search results.
“We appear in search results alongside Home Depot and Lowe’s,” says Matthew Burrows, cofounder of Plant Material, on an episode of Shopify Masters. “We’ve been really focused on SEO since day one so that we could pop up and compete without a lot of ad dollars. Now, we’re competing with national chains despite operating with a small team.”
Tip: A 2025 Shopify survey* found 75% of store owners now use AI tools, but 29% of non-adopters cite not knowing where to start as a barrier. Now’s a great time to learn: The same study found AI users are more likely to report reduced marketing costs.
2. Optimize meta tags
Meta tags, which include meta descriptions and title tags, help search engines understand what your content covers and how to categorize it.
A title tag is the text that appears in the SERP, influencing your click-through rate and whether a user visits your website. Along with the meta description, this is the first impression your site gives to potential visitors discovering you via search engines.
To write website title tags:
- Create unique titles for each web page
- Limit titles to about 55 characters
- Include a target keyword
- Ensure titles match the search intent of queries
The text that appears underneath a website’s title tag on a SERP is the meta description. Whereas title tags grab attention and set expectations, a meta description acts as a summary of the linked page’s content.
To write a high-quality meta description:
- Summarize the linked page’s content
- Stick to about 145 characters
- Make the description unique for each page
- Use sentence case
- Include intriguing, click-worthy information
- Include a page’s target keyword
Tip: Shopify’s ecommerce website builder automatically generates title tags that include your store’s name, but you can manually optimize your title tags and meta descriptions for your blog posts, web pages, products, and collections.
3. Prioritize backlink building
One of the primary ranking factors in Google’s algorithms is authoritativeness. When high-quality, relevant sites link to yours, it tells Google that your domain publishes credible content.
The more backlinks you receive from trusted entities, the more authoritative search engines regard your site, which can help your content come up at the top of SERPs. This gives you a chance to combine CRO and SEO by driving referral traffic to pages with high conversion potential. Think adding calls to action (CTAs) to your most popular pages.
Here are some ideas for building backlinks to help you improve your site’s authoritativeness and generate more qualified traffic:
- Guest post on other blogs. Identify publications whose audiences overlap with your customer base, and pitch articles sharing specific expertise from your business. Link back to your website where relevant.
- Curate expert roundups. Gather tips from industry experts, notify them once you publish the roundups on your website’s blog, then encourage those experts to share your posts with their networks.
- Pitch product launches to editorial publications. A pitch to be included in a “best of” roundup or a seasonal gift guide serves two functions: the backlink helps increase domain authority, and the placement can bring referral traffic from readers actively looking to buy. Research a publication’s existing roundup format before pitching, and send product samples where the editorial process calls for it.
- Solicit product reviews. Offer free products (known as product seeding) to bloggers with relevant, engaged audiences in exchange for honest reviews that link back to your site.
4. Add internal links to and from important pages
Internal linking creates a structure for your site, improving both user navigation and the way Google understands the relationships between your pages. Linking less important pages back to key pages reinforces their importance to Google.
Here are a few internal link building strategies to try:
- Find and submit your sitemap to Google Search Console.
- Add website breadcrumbs to instantly create internal links.
- Identify high-value target pages and those that have the most authority and page rank, then link your authority pages to your target pages.
- Incorporate links naturally, using anchor text related to the keyword you’d like the target page to rank for.
5. Add collection pages
Collection pages, also known as category pages, are the pages on your website where customers can find products with shared characteristics.
But they’re not just for website navigation: “Adding more collection pages is the closest thing to a hack that exists in ecommerce SEO,” says Kyle Risley, senior SEO lead at Shopify. “It’s one of the simplest, most effective ways of growing organic traffic and revenue without even having to add any more products.”
Fashion retailer Princess Polly, for example, has a collection page for tops. They also have a separate page for “going out tops” and “pink going out tops.” Each new page is a new URL with an opportunity to rank for a niche keyword.
According to Kyle, collection pages have a better chance of ranking on Google than standalone product pages because they offer searchers more options.
To create more collection pages:
Check Google’s shopping filters
“Type the base product into Google and then look at the filters they add on the left,” Kyle says. For example, a search for “going out tops” yields filters like sleeve style (long sleeve, short sleeve, sleeveless), color, and features (cropped, with stretch, wrap). Based on these filters, you might consider collections like “long sleeve going out tops” or “cropped going out tops.”
Use AI for keyword research
Use generative AI tools like ChatGPT to help brainstorm collection ideas. Export your products as a CSV file, then import the file into your preferred AI tool along with a list of your existing collection names. Then ask your AI assistant to recommend new collections containing at least five products.
6. Stand out with rich results
Rich results are search results enhanced with extra information, such as ratings, pricing, images, and availability. “Google is showing more and more pieces of that structured data in your search results,” Kyle says. “So it helps to have that appear right on the SERP.”
To create these rich snippets, your website needs to use structured data—extra coding that helps Google identify specific aspects of your page.
Check and manage your structured data using tools such as Google’s structured data testing tool, which helps identify and fix any issues with your site’s markup.
7. Focus on local SEO
Local searches have more opportunity to drive website traffic from organic results. Ahrefs’s 2025 study found AI Overviews are significantly less likely to show up for searches with local intent (6.85% versus 93.15% for non-local terms.)
Search Engine Land found three factors most important for local SEO: relevance, prominence, and conversion.
Keep this in mind when building your local SEO strategy:
- Create a Google Business profile.Google Business is a free tool that helps customers find your store when searching for related terms on Google Maps. Google knows to tie your listing to localized keywords (like “ballet shoes near me”). This can be a competitive advantage: Just 35% of small businesses have a Google Business profile.
- Keep your name, address, phone number (NAP) consistent. Google looks for consistent NAP details across your website, Google Business profile, and online directories to verify your business’s legitimacy. Inconsistent information can confuse search engines.
- Tailor your keyword strategy to your locale. Use keywords that include your city, neighborhood, or region. Lola’s Cupcakes, for example, uses “Fulham Bakery” in the meta title of its local landing page.
8. Audit your site and fix technical issues
An SEO audit surfaces technical issues that accumulate over time tht routine content work doesn’t catch: broken links, crawl errors, missing metadata, slow-loading pages, and internal linking gaps.
“It’s a good opportunity to take a more comprehensive look at a website in a way that most business owners or site operators don’t do on a day-to-day basis,” Kyle says. “It’s like going over your financials once or twice a year. It’s a way to remember if pages you forgot about are still live on your site.”
A full site audit covers several categories:
- Do any of your pages have broken links or bring up 404 errors?
- How fast are your pages loading?
- Is there any outdated information that is no longer accurate or relevant?
- Do pages have unique, accurate title tags and meta descriptions?
- Are there any pages missing internal links?
- Are there orphaned pages—pages with no internal links pointing to them—that crawlers may struggle to reach?
- Do mobile visitors have a good user experience (UX) with fast load times and responsive web design?
- Is all your information clear and answering questions a user might ask?
Content marketing that attracts visitors to your site
Content marketing covers blog posts, videos, podcasts, guides, and other formats that educates and/or addresses questions your audience is already asking.
“Content is like that free tool that you can get brand awareness and traffic to your website and not have to pay a dollar for it,” says Anaita Sarkar, cofounder of Hero Packaging, in a Shopify Masters episode.
Think about the topics or resources that relate to your business that your target audience would find useful. Focus on topics for which you’re a subject matter expert (SME) to build trust with readers. Subject-matter specificity is also what Google’s EEAT guidelines and generative AI platforms use to assess whether a source is worth citing.
That said, product context belongs in content where it’s genuinely relevant, like a hairstyle tutorial that uses your hair curling tongs. Prioritize usefulness first and your product second.
“A lot of times we see sites reduce content and make it vague or use ‘marketing speak,’” says Shopify SEO strategist Greg Bernhardt. “When that happens, you lose information density, context, and opportunities to rank for secondary and tertiary keywords. The page becomes like a billboard.”
Here are four content marketing ideas to drive traffic to your website:
9. Write a blog
A blog gives your online store extra content search engines can index, other sites can link to, and readers can find through organic search.
The editorial process starts with understanding what your customers are actually searching for. Personas, including their pain points, help define whose and what questions to address.
Research and prioritize keywords and keyword phrases with high search volume and low competition—i.e., the best opportunities to rank. If you’re already publishing, a content gap analysis identifies the content your primary audience seeks but your site lacks.
You can also tap experts to add authority and encourage visitors to share your content. This is part of gardening brand Epic Gardening’s strategy.
“We bring on other creators in different areas of the country because gardening is so regional,” says founder Kevin Espiritu on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “They’re all trained in some kind of gardening, so we’ll pick the right writer for the right topic. But then we also have all articles passed through a horticultural review for accuracy.”
Epic Gardening also ensures the content remains fresh. “We go backward year-over-year and say, ‘Do we need to refresh that blog?’” Kevin says. “‘Let’s go ahead and see if we’re still accurate.’”
10. Produce podcasts and webinars
A podcast is an audio series that listeners can stream or download on demand. According to iHeartMedia’s State of Podcasting 2026 report, 55% of Americans regularly listen to podcasts, with people trusting them 23 more times than traditional media.
Webinars are live or pre-recorded video sessions, usually built around a specific topic, product, or question-and-answer format.
Both formats build familiarity with an audience over time, but neither converts a listener or viewer into a website visitor automatically. You’ll need to find ways for listeners to easily reach your website.
Shuang Esther Shan, who produces the Shopify Masters podcast, uses three methods to nudge listeners to the brand’s website:
- Publish episode transcripts and summaries as blog posts to make them more accessible for deaf or hard-of-hearing audiences.
- Write an episode summary in the show notes that includes a link to the episode’s corresponding blog post.
- Compile lists of useful resources mentioned in each episode—prioritizing any products or tools that you provide on your website—and link to them in the show notes.
For webinars, the registration process itself directs attendees to your site before the session begins. Linking to additional resources at the close of a session gives attendees a reason to return after the event.
11. Make videos
YouTube is one of the largest social media platforms in the world, with more than 2.5 billion active users and a wider reach than traditional US cable TV networks. It’s also the second largest search engine after Google. So, it’s a great outlet for YouTube SEO strategies as well.
Focus on video content that aligns with your brand and audience, such as:
- Educational content. Teach new skills to build trust with your audience and, if possible, use your product as the centerpiece for solving their problem.
- Storytelling. Communicate your brand’s image and values to a wider audience with inspiring narrative videos that fit your business’s identity and your audience’s lifestyle.
- Entertainment. Capture viewers’ attention and focus it on your products with fun videos that cater to your audience’s interests and use humor relevant to your niche.
“YouTube was definitely our kind of bread and butter that we use for not only my personal content, but also to deliver the skin care education that our brand and our company subscribes to, which is about less is more and add product when you need to—not every single day,” says, Liah Yoo, founder of KraveBeauty, in a Shopify Masters episode.
“If I were to start a business now I would fully lean into TikTok to make sure that the education is there but in a way that’s super short, concise and more entertaining,” Liah says.
Tip: While YouTube marketing is ideal for in-depth, long-form videos, consider using shorter versions of your video content for YouTube Shorts or TikTok marketing. This helps get more value from your assets.
12. Invest in email marketing
Email marketing covers promotional campaigns, product announcements, and recurring newsletters sent directly to subscribers. Unlike search or social, it reaches an audience that has already opted in to hear from your store.
Klaviyo’s 2026 data shows email campaigns have an average click rate of 1.69%, with the top 10 performers recording a 3.38% click rate. This means a list of 10,000 subscribers could translate into160 visitors to your website from a single campaign.
“Having a healthy, strong email list is something as a business that you can always rely on without having to rely on external advertising,” says Julie Brown, cofounder of Province of Canada, in a Shopify Masters episode.
“Not only did we build a strong email list that we could control fully without relying on external platforms, but our consistent content creation strengthened our SEO and owned channels,” Julie says. “We were relentless. We showed up every day. And slowly, organically, our community grew.”
Focus on sending personalized, timely messages—such as product updates, special offers, or helpful educational content—to stay top of mind and encourage recipients to return to your website.
“We’ve been very consistent with our newsletters,” says Ally Walsh, cofounder of Canyon Coffee, in a Shopify Masters episode. “We do about two to three a week. They range from selling coffee products to journals, interviews with artists, musicians, chefs—content that’s related, non-related to coffee that people have found inspiring through the years."
Tip:Shopify Messaging allows you to segment email subscribers based on any tags you have set up in Shopify, like how often they purchase. It comes with advanced features like AI-optimized subject lines and the ability to cancel email campaigns mid-send.
Social media marketing strategies to increase online traffic
- Get friends and family to react, comment, and share
- Proactively engage on social media
- Engage in online forums
- Run promotions and time-sensitive offers
- Leverage user-generated content
- Partner with influencers
Social media is a discovery engine. According to a 2025 survey conducted by Salsify, 51% of shoppers discover products on social media (up 9% on the year prior). Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook lead the way.
“TikTok has been our main driver of traffic, particularly in the US,” says Erika Geraerts, founder of beauty brand Fluff, on Shopify Masters. “What we found was our content really lands with consumers in that it sort of catches their eye with the nature of the product that is so beautiful, like the Cloud Compact itself being very eye-catching.”
As a result, 35% of store owners use building social media presence as a first-year growth strategy—second only to word of mouth, at 53%, according to a 2025 Shopify survey.*
Here are a few social media marketing strategies to consider:
13. Get friends and family to react, comment, and share
When launching a new store, your immediate network is an accessible starting point for early traffic. Letting friends, family, coworkers, and community contacts know your store is live—through a direct message, an email, or a social media post describing what you’ve built—puts your store in front of people who already have a reason to pay attention.
According to McKinsey’s State of the Consumer 2025 survey, family and friends are the most trusted sources when making buying decisions. The value of that reach extends beyond the first visit.
14. Proactively engage on social media
You don’t need to start selling products or publishing content before you engage with people on social media. Build up an engaged following before you start selling, so you have an audience who is invested in your brand and willing to visit your website to learn about your products come launch time.
Creator Amanda Rach Lee started journaling videos on YouTube before launching her stationery brand. “I was just an avid YouTube watcher,” Amanda said on Shopify Masters. “So I was like, ‘You know what? I can do this too.’ And I started making them just for fun, and I didn’t think anyone would see it.”
Here’s ways to engage with your brand’s audience:
- Look for chances to help people or add value to their conversations in a way that connects on a human level and lacks a sales pitch.
- Use Instagram Reels to promote specials only available to your audience if they contact you on the platform.
- Spend time engaging with those talking about your brand. Instagram is a great place to answer questions and proactively engage with your community.
15. Engage in online forums
People turn to forums like Reddit and Quora to ask informed audiences specific questions and to exchange ideas.
“If you look at any community, they have shared problems,” says Liah of KraveBeauty. Liah joined forums to talk about skin concerns with other people in the same position.
Reddit is one of the most popular forums. People congregate around their favorite topics. The /r/gaming community, for example, has 2.4 million weekly visitors as of April 2026, while /r/DIY had 1.4 million.
When Sock Candy founder Mary Gui discovered a spike in traffic from a single Reddit post, she decided to create an account to share pictures of her outfits (featuring Sock Candy socks, of course).
“We are not directly marketing on Reddit,” Mary explains on Shopify Masters. “People like seeing my outfits and almost all of them have my socks in them and they’ll be like, ‘Where are your socks from?’ I’ll be like, ‘It’s from Sock Candy.’”
To promote your business and drive targeted traffic to your own website, create a new post in a subreddit relevant to your brand.
Make the post brief but detailed, with concrete examples to engage readers:
- Use a catchy headline. Keep it topical to the subreddit. For example, when posting to the curly hair subreddit, you could try the headline, “Who says that short hair can’t be fancy?”
- Add value and be concise. The text within the main body of the post should be snappy, catchy, but not salesy. Consider a TL;DR (“too long, didn’t read”) subheading that gives visitors a quick summary of your post.
- Link to your store. Help visitors find out more about your brand and product line with a convenient link to your online store.
Pay attention to Reddit’s platform guidelines and Reddiquette values. Some subreddits don’t allow promotional material. If you post about your site in a thread that doesn’t allow it, you may find that no one upvotes your link, and you may get banned from the subreddit.
Even if allowed, read the room. Reddit has an authentic culture and salesy posts can backfire. Imagine joining an alumni group to get reunion info and getting hit with MLM posts from someone you barely know. Mary’s story above is perfect because she only mentioned the site after she shared photos of her fit and someone displayed interest by asking about her socks.
16. Run promotions and time-sensitive offers
Contests, giveaways, and sweepstakes give followers a reason to visit your site, especially if entries are tied to sharing a URL or completing a form on your website.
Time-limited discounts also create a defined window for action. Post the offer, specify the end date or condition, and link directly to the relevant page on your store. Instagram’s countdown sticker lets you attach a visible timer to Stories to create a sense of urgency.
Product discounts aren’t the only time-sensitive offer you can provide customers:
- Minimum purchase threshold. Eighty percent of people spend more when there’s a minimum shipping threshold to meet.
- Free shipping windows. For stores that don’t offer free shipping as standard, a time-limited free shipping promotion is a distinct offer from a product discount and may reach a different segment of your audience.
- Early access. Give social followers priority access to a new product or restock ahead of the general public.
Tip: Contest and giveaway apps like ViralSweep let you run giveaways on landing pages and blog posts without custom development.
17. Leverage user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) refers to photos, videos, reviews, and other content created by customers instead of your brand. It frequently connotes the coveted “authenticity” element in social media. Positive UGC is gold.
According to Bazaarvoice’s Shopper Experience Index, 52% of shoppers cite customer reviews as the biggest factor in their final purchase decision. Just over one-third of consumers trust real-life photos and videos from other shoppers.
Reposting customer content on your store’s social accounts—with permission—creates an additional use for content that already exists. It lessens the pressure on your team to continuously create new content, while also signaling to other customers that you’re engaged with the people who buy from you.
“If the product has content creation and self-expression and a form of art involved, naturally you are going to get so much UGC content created without even having to ask,” says Razvan Romanescu, founder of Underlining, in a Shopify Masters interview. “It’s just built into the product."
18. Partner with influencers
Influencer marketing involves partnering with social media creators to promote your products to their audiences. Creators typically direct traffic to a store through affiliate marketing links, links in bio, or tagged product pages to give followers a direct path from content to purchase.
Finding a relevant influencer whose audience overlaps with your customer base matters more than follower count alone. For example, lifestyle influencer Estée Lalonde promotes brands by incorporating products into her lifestyle content.
In one video, Estée reviews products she received from makeup brand Merit. Estée has more than 640,000 followers, who she’s encouraging to visit Merit’s website because of her glowing review:
Tip: Shopify Collabs lets you recruit new influencers and issue free gifts and samples. It tracks sales from each influencer and pays out commission through Shopify Billing.
Paid advertising methods to boost ecommerce traffic
Paid search is now the second-highest traffic driver. Marketers in HubSpot’s 2026 State of Marketing Report voted it as the second-highest ROI-generating channel.
But unlike organic search or content, paid advertising doesn’t compound over time—website traffic stops when the budget does. If you have the marketing budget to invest, here are a few methods to get started with paid advertising:
19. Social media ads
Social media advertising lets you target new users by interests, behaviors, demographics, and location. Retargeting ad campaigns appear for people who have previously visited your store. Think of them as boomerangs that help people browsing to come back to complete a transaction.
Here are a few platforms to consider:
According to Triple Whale’s benchmarks, brands allocated 68.31% of their total ad budgets to Meta in 2025. Facebook’s dynamic ads automatically generate placements from your product catalog based on a user’s browsing behavior. The Meta Pixel tracks on-site activity and feeds that data back into ad targeting and measurement.
Instagram ads run across feed, Stories, and Reels placements. An Instagram business account unlocks access to Instagram Shopping, where you can sync your product catalog with Shopify.
Pinterest ads appear at the top of search results and in users’ feeds. Promoted Pins use the same visual format as organic content, which means ad creative and organic content strategy overlap closely.
TikTok
US sales on TikTok Shop reached $15.82 billion in 2025, representing 18.2% of total US social commerce. The TikTok ads platform supports in-feed video ads, shoppable ad formats that link directly to product pages, and TikTok Shop integrations for in-app purchase.
20. Search engine ads
Unlike social media advertising, with search engine ads, you can target people who are already searching for the type of products or content your website provides. These ads let you place your web pages in front of users who’ve made relevant searches on Google and YouTube.
Google accounts for 90% of the online search engine market globally. There are several Google ad formats to capitalize on traffic:
- Search ads that appear on search engine results pages
- Display ads that may appear anywhere in the Google Display Network
- Shopping ads that highlight media and products in search results
- Video ads to capture the attention of YouTube viewers
“If your product is a very searchable product, and people are looking for the problem all the time like, ‘I have rosacea on my skin. How can I fix it?’ Google Ads could be a really good way to get in front of a new audience,” says Anaita of Hero Packaging. “What I would do is actually target the keywords that are the problem areas and then get visitors to go straight to a product page.”
Other ways to drive traffic to your website
- Encourage in-person customers to connect online
- Create a QR code
- Participate in local events
- Leverage affiliate marketing
- Use push notifications
- Earn press coverage
- List your brand on aggregator sites
Bridging the gap between offline and online channels helps you engage customers wherever they’re already interacting with your business. Pymnts reported that of the 48% of shoppers who made their most recent retail purchase through a smartphone, almost one-quarter consulted their device during the in-store visit.
If your brand has a physical presence—through events, brick-and-mortar storefronts, or product packaging—here’s how to attract visitors to your website:
21. Encourage in-person customers to connect online
A physical store or pop-up shop creates contact points that can be used to direct customers to your website after they leave. Signage, receipts, and product packaging can each carry a URL or QR code that points to a specific landing page, promotion, or product category.
Incentivize shoppers to explore your online store by offering perks such as exclusive discounts, customer loyalty points, or early access to new products. For example, with an in-store purchase, they could get a discount code to redeem at your online store.
Collecting email addresses at checkout is one of the more direct methods to drive website traffic. Beauty brand Sculpted by Aimee uses this Shopify POS feature to boost email capture rates by 275% across all stores.
“We explain the benefits, such as getting access to rewards and other exclusive offers, and we make sure they know they can opt out at any time,” says Kevin Clarke, head of ecommerce at Sculpted by Aimee. “It’s a simple process and also ensures we stay compliant with GDPR regulations.”
📚 Read:Email Marketing Trends To Watch
22. Create a QR code
A QR code bridges a physical surface—packaging, a flyer, an in-store display, a receipt—and a specific page on your website. To scan your QR code, a customer opens their phone camera, points it at the code, and taps the link that pops up at the bottom of their screen.
You can embed QR codes into product packaging, event flyers, or in-store displays to direct customers to your site, product pages, or exclusive offers. Drake even displayed them onto the sides of concert venues. Fans could scan the code to download the Shop app, enter their shipping address, and claim a gift.
Tip: Use Shopify’s Free QR Code Generator to create your own scannable codes and increase traffic to your website.
23. Participate in local events
Community events, trade shows, pop-ups, in-person brand activations put your business in front of people who might not have heard it before. Offer free samples, handouts, or product trials to spark interest.
During the conversation, explain how attendees can engage with you later online. For example, you could hand out flyers, promote event-exclusive offers they can claim on your website, or encourage them to follow your brand on social media.
Luggage brand Béis recorded 30% increase in traffic in markets where it runs a Shopify-powered pop-up. Customers acquired from these events also have a 20% higher 12-month long-term value, on average.
24. Leverage affiliate marketing
An affiliate marketing program is a reward-based system in which creators or influencers earn commission on the sales they generate. Traffic arrives from unique affiliate links on the creator’s website, social channels, or newsletter.
“It’s a nice win-win: publications earn commission on product links, and [we get] in a roundup in Vogue,” says Pia Mance, founder of Heaven Mayhem, on Shopify Masters.
The cost structure differs from paid advertising: rather than paying upfront for impressions or clicks, you pay a commission only when a referred visitor completes a purchase. The affiliate’s incentive is to drive converting traffic rather than volume alone, because their earnings depend on completed sales.
Tip:Shopify Collabs lets you set up and manage affiliate and creator partnerships directly from the store admin. Ramen brand Immi used the tool to recruit 432 brand ambassadors who’ve generated more than $200,000 in affiliate sales.
25. Use push notifications
Push notifications are brief, informational pop-up messages that appear on desktop and mobile devices. Customers receive around 46 push notifications per day, according to Business of Apps. They boast an average click-through rate of 4.6% on Android and 3.4% on iOS.
To send out push notifications:
- Be concise. Limits range from 50 to 240 characters. Text that exceeds display limits gets cut off.
- Personalize your messages. Basic personalization improves open rates by 9%, per the same report. Include the customer’s name, preferences, and past shopping behavior to encourage customers to click.
- Use GIFs, emojis, photos, and videos. These rich elements improve reaction rates by 25%.
Tip: Shop app allows you to send push notifications directly to customers who have opted in. Send order updates, shipping status, and promotional offers without building your own notification system.
26. Earn press coverage
Public relations (PR) isn’t only for big corporations. Editorial coverage—a product feature in a relevant publication, a mention in a gift guide, a quote in an article—generates both backlinks and direct referral traffic from readers.
To earn media coverage featuring your website:
- Answer a reporter’s question. Platforms like Qwoted and Featured.com send daily emails with questions from reporters who need product ideas or expert quotes. Send a quick, helpful reply when you see a request that fits your business.
- Make a Media page on your site. A dedicated page on your store with brand background, product images in downloadable formats, and a press contact address gives journalists the assets they need without requiring back-and-forth.
- Share your story. What makes your business special? Maybe you use eco-friendly materials or support your local community. Share this with journalists through a press release.
“I would highly recommend—if you’re a pre-launch product ... work the PR angles as hard as you can,” says Ryan Close, founder of Bartesian, on Shopify Masters. “Reach out to all the big publications and agencies and send them information, visuals, assets, and just say, ‘Here’s something we’re working on if you want to write a story.’”
27. List your brand on aggregator sites
Aggregator sites curate products from multiple brands within a specific niche, presenting them to audiences who are actively browsing for new discoveries rather than searching for a specific product.
The best platform depends on your product category. For example:
- Uncrate curates unique gadgets and men’s gear
- The Grommet recommends products from small businesses
- Lyst gathers clothing from thousands of brands into one place
- Apartment Therapy create shopping guides that feature new products
How to measure website traffic
Fewer than half of store owners actively track their website traffic, according to a 2025 Shopify survey.* Without that baseline, there’s no reliable way to know which channels are driving visits, which tactics warrant more investment, or where visitors drop off before purchasing.
Here’s how to track website traffic:
Track performance in Shopify
If your store runs on Shopify, traffic data is available directly in your admin through Shopify Analytics.
The Sessions by referrer report breaks down visits by channel—organic search, direct, paid search, email, social, and referral. This is so you can see where visitors come from and determine whether those channel strategies are working. If you see one is more effective than others, you may want to increase investments in that one and decrease others.
💡 Tip: Before switching budgets, see how those visits convert. One channel driving a lot of visits but few or low average order value (AOV) sales is worth an upselling campaign or being reclassified as a brand awareness campaign.
Maybe you’re getting fewer visits from a second channel but the sales tend to be from high-value customers. It’s possible the second channel needs to be nurtured instead.
For paid campaigns, the traffic source breakdown works alongside UTM parameters. Adding UTM tags to your ad URLs lets Shopify attribute visits to specific campaigns rather than grouping all paid traffic together.
Plus, because Shopify unifies data from every sales channel, you can see how customers behave both online and offline after visiting your website.
“Our online promotions absolutely drive in-store sales and vice-versa,” says Natalie Shaddick, VP of ecommerce at Mizzen+Main.
“When we advertise our promotions, we always highlight them being available online and in-store, and we see a huge spike in retail traffic and sales at the same time as ecommerce, so we know the two channels are talking to each other.”
Use Google Analytics and Search Console
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) tracks what visitors do on your site: which pages they visit, how long they stay, and where they drop off.
Connect GA4 to your Shopify store and configure event tracking to evaluate:
- Which pages people find and land on
- Pages with the highest bounce rate (which drive website visitors away)
- How on-site behavior changes by referral source
Google Search Console tracks how your site performs in Google Search. The Performance report lists the queries your pages are appearing for, how many impressions they generate, and what percentage of those impressions result in a click.
How to choose the right traffic strategy
- Set your goals
- Consider your audience
- Take a look at your budget
- Use your existing skills
- Start small and scale up
- Measure and adapt
No single traffic strategy works for every store. The right mix depends on where your business is in its development, what resources you have available, and how quickly you need results.
Start by asking yourself:
- What are your marketing goals?
- How much time do you have to dedicate to marketing efforts?
- What’s your marketing budget, and can you afford hiring anyone to help?
Set your goals
If you’re just starting your business, brand advocacy can bring a big surge of traffic that will get your business off the ground. Building a social following and testing paid ads could help.
On the other hand, if you’ve been running your business for a few years but haven’t seen the kind of growth you had hoped for, it may be time to try new strategies. Some may take longer to pay off but lead to more consistent traffic generation over time, like SEO.
Outside of your business’s age, consider your immediate and long-term priorities. Do you want quick conversions for a new product launch, or are you looking to create a steady flow of visitors who become repeat customers with greater customer lifetime value (CLV)?
Some marketing strategies generate highly relevant traffic for your website, while others produce large volumes of general visitors. Your goals should guide your choice of tactics, so think about how soon you need to see a return on investment (ROI), and select the best strategies that fit your timeline.
Consider your audience
“If you understand who this group of people is and what set of experiences they have, you can relate to them through shared experiences,” says Ezra Firestone, founder of digital marketing brand Smart Marketer.
To do this, ask yourself:
- Where does my audience spend the majority of their time online? Social media platforms, search engines, or forums?
- What kind of content do they respond to? Informative blog posts, engaging videos, or short social media updates?
- What problem are they trying to solve, and how can my product be a solution? Align your marketing efforts with their needs and interests.
For example, if you’re a business-to-business (B2B) brand with an audience of professionals, you might focus on LinkedIn ads—the most-used social media platform by B2B buyers. If you’re targeting younger women, TikTok could be more effective. DataReportal’s Digital 2026 report found 17.6% of women aged 16 to 24 say TikTok is their favorite social media platform.
Take a look at your budget
According to a Gartner’s 2025 report, businesses spend around 7.7% of their annual revenue on marketing. That’s not a hard-and-fast rule—if your business is new or struggling, you might not be able to allocate quite that much to a marketing budget.
There are pros and cons to either approach:
- High-budget strategies like paid advertising often deliver fast results but come with higher costs and don’t compound value over time.
- Lower-budget strategies like content marketing and organic social media take more time but can be cheaper and more sustainable with long-term compounded value.
Use your existing skills (or be ready to hire someone)
When you’re running a business, you can’t always dedicate the time necessary to developing a new craft. For instance, if you aren’t already social media savvy, you might not get the hang of it quickly enough to rake in views without a significant time investment, but it is possible.
Business owners, even those with little-to-no marketing experience, can handle some strategies, like blogging or email marketing. These tactics are straightforward, affordable, and can be learned through practice.
For example, creating email campaigns or writing blog posts can be done in-house with tools like Shopify Messaging and a simple content calendar.
Running PPC ads, managing SEO campaigns, or producing high-quality video content can take months to learn and execute effectively. The practical question is whether the time required to develop a new skill is a better use of resources than hiring someone who already has it.
“We taught ourselves Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, and Google Ads because it would be expensive to pay an agency or pay someone a percentage of ad spend to run those ads for you,” says Selom Agbitor, cofounder of Mad Rabbit, in a Shopify Masters interview.
Start small and scale up
How long it takes to see results depends on the strategy you’re using. Paid ads can drive traffic to your website almost instantly while SEO strategies can take up to six months.
A digital marketing strategy that combines short-term and long-term channels gives you coverage across different timelines. The tradeoff is that running too many channels simultaneously, before any of them are optimized, makes it harder to identify what’s working and why.
Start with one or two strategies to keep testing conditions clean and limit how many variables you’re managing at once. Once a channel is producing consistent results, add another.
Measure and adapt
Reviewing traffic performance every few months gives you a basis for deciding which channels to continue, adjust, or deprioritize.
If you’re a Shopify user, you can use Shopify Analytics to evaluate the success of your digital marketing, according to traffic as well as by more direct metrics like AOV, website engagement, and percentage of traffic that comes from first-time customers.
Shopify Analytics includes pre-built reports and real-time monitoring. You can also connect to other apps to measure supplemental data.
Depending on your strategy, you may need other tools. For example:
- Google Analytics or Google Search Console for SEO
- Google Ads Manager for paid search campaigns
- Meta Ads Manager for paid social
Don’t look at website traffic in isolation. Analyze whether your chosen strategy is meeting your initial goal. If your goal was to get higher-paying customers, but you’re seeing a strong influx of first-time customers on that marketing channel, deprioritize that strategy and choose one that better aligns with your marketing objectives.
More website traffic equals more customers
No single channel sustains traffic indefinitely. Search rankings shift, ad costs rise, and social algorithms change. Platforms that drive strong results today may underperform tomorrow.
A good digital marketing strategy is about using short-term and long-term tactics in conjunction. Once you feel like you’ve mastered one, come back to this list and pick your next traffic-driving tactic.
*Based on a 2025 survey of 500 Shopify merchants conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established merchants with two or more years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all merchants.
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How to drive website traffic FAQ
How do you drive traffic to a website for free?
Increase website organic traffic by leveraging some of these free website marketing strategies:
- Regularly post valuable organic social content that resolves common issues or provides insightful information relevant to your audience.
- Keep your audience informed and engaged with your brand and products by growing and nurturing an email list.
- Participate in conversations with relevant online communities and forums.
- Use SEO strategies.
- Tap into new audiences by guest blogging.
How do you increase organic traffic to a website?
Driving organic traffic to your website hinges on optimizing written content for search engines—a tactic known as search engine optimization (SEO).
Begin by identifying key terms and phrases your target audience searches for, and create relevant, high-quality content to answer those search queries.
How do you drive traffic to a website using social media?
Use social media to engage your audience and link back to your website. Post content that appeals to your target market—such as product showcases, blog posts, or special offers.
Include clear calls to action (CTAs) that guide followers to your site. Leverage paid advertising to reach a wider audience, and share user-generated content (UGC) to establish trust and increase social media engagement.
How do you drive quality traffic to a website?
To bring more quality traffic to your website in the following ways:
- Optimize your website for search engines to increase visibility in Google search results.
- Engage with your audience using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
- Run paid ads on Google and social media.
- Tailor content to the interests and needs of your target demographic.
- Invest in high-quality, engaging content to encourage shares and build backlinks.
- Consider running targeted pay-per-click advertising campaigns and collaborating with influencers to extend your reach.
What is the fastest way to get traffic to a website?
To quickly drive web traffic, invest in pay-per-click advertising to place links to your website in front of your target audience on search engines and social media platforms. This method allows you to generate significant traffic immediately after your ads go live.
