Generating quality website traffic is a perennial problem for businesses.

Only 5.7 percent of web pages rank within the top 10 on Google results within a year of being published, Ahrefs research has found. Nearly one in 10 pages get fewer than 10 visits per month. Over nine in 10 get no traffic at all.

If your site isn’t getting enough traffic, there are a few common reasons why you may not be attracting more visitors. Here are three reasons why your site may look like a ghost town, along with some tips on what you can do about it.

1 – Lack of Blog Content

If you’re not getting enough traffic, you’re probably not posting enough blog content. Blogging is the most effective way to generate traffic, HubSpot research has shown.

Companies that post four or more blog posts a month start to see significantly higher traffic than companies that post three or fewer blogs per month. Companies that post 16 or more blog posts a month enjoy traffic 3.5 times higher than those that post four or fewer times a month.

For B2B companies, posting 11 or more blogs a month generates three times more leads than posting once, while for B2C companies, posting 11 times a month generates four times more leads than posting four to five times.

As these numbers indicate, publishing more quality blog content should be a primary strategy for increasing your traffic. Use keyword research to identify which topics are drawing traffic from search engines, and incorporate these topics and keywords into your blog titles and posts.

Create a blog publication schedule to help ensure that you’re posting enough content on a regular basis. Use content management platforms to automate the process of sharing your blog content on social media when it gets published.

Using a tool such as FlashMarks, create a digital-friendly logo to distribute along with content on your site, on search engines, and on social media, so that your brand maintains a consistent look across all platforms. Choose a unique company logo design so readers can recognize your brand immediately.

2 – High Bounce Rates

Another reason you may not be getting enough traffic is that visitors who arrive at your page are leaving right away.

The average website has a bounce rate of 58.18 percent, meaning that over half of visitors leave immediately after viewing only one page, Google Analytics data reviewed by Brafton shows. The average visitor only sticks around for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. For blogs, nearly eight out of 10 visitors leave after viewing only one page.

High bounce rates can be caused by a number of factors, including mis-targeted marketing, technical difficulties loading your page, irrelevant content, and navigational issues. Make sure that your blog content is targeted toward your intended audience so that you’re not attracting traffic from visitors who aren’t likely customers.

Check your site to make sure it loads in three seconds or less on mobile devices so that potential visitors aren’t getting frustrated by slow loading time.

Use a navigational structure that makes it easy for visitors to find other relevant content once they land on a page, and include visible internal links to related and suggested content to encourage visitors to stick around.

3 – Not Enough Backlinks

Another major reason most sites don’t get enough traffic is that they haven’t built enough backlinks to drive traffic and boost their search engine rankings. Backlinks are one of the biggest factors that determine your content’s search engine ranking, but most sites don’t pursue an effective backlinking strategy. Over half of pages have no links pointing toward them, Ahrefs has found.

Consistently creating quality blog content will help you build backlinks.

To support this strategy, SEO authority Moz recommends creating pieces that incorporate useful information, newsworthy facts, or humor in order to encourage your social followers and email subscribers to share your content. Post links to your blog content on social media in order to promote sharing and backlinking. In addition, you can offer your best customers and business associates partnership badges, which are graphic icons that link back to your site.

For example, Google’s AdWords certification program gets AdWords-certified partners to link back to Google.

Lack of blog content, high bounce rates, and insufficient backlinks are three major reasons sites don’t get enough traffic. By taking steps to avoid these mistakes, you can increase your site’s traffic, improving your ability to attract customers and generate business.

BONUS TRAFFIC STRATEGY:

Consider testing content strategies with paid advertising (Facebook Ads, Google Ads) and collect important metrics and stats to determine (in advance) how well a content piece works. This strategy often proves worthwhile, and it will save you time and money when done right!