8 Ways to Grow Website Traffic When Google Sends Less of It

By Nick Schäferhoff on September 9, 2026

If you’re confused about how to grow website traffic now that AI is reshaping search, welcome to the club.

With search fragmented and audiences spread across multiple platforms, it’s less straightforward than it used to be — especially for new websites.

But that doesn’t mean organic traffic is dead. It simply means it comes from multiple smaller streams rather than a single large source.

If you’re a small business owner, freelancer, or creator trying to grow your site, this guide covers practical ways to attract visitors through search, AI visibility, newsletters, partnerships, and personal branding.

Step 1: Create content to answer real customer questions

Answering real audience questions clearly helps customers understand what you offer.

It can also give search engines and AI tools a useful page to consider when someone asks a related question — but no format guarantees a citation.

You can find out what questions your audience is asking online through:

Keyword research: Type your keyword into Google and check the “People also ask” section and autocomplete suggestions.
Customer support and sales: Mine your support inbox and sales calls for recurring questions, or ask your customers directly.
Social media listening: Monitor your brand mentions and important keywords in social networks. Browse relevant niche communities on Reddit, Quora, or Facebook.
Competitor research: Check what questions your competitor’s content answers and look at reviews on G2, Trustpilot, or Google.
Product reviews: Read online reviews of your own products to find what questions customers had before buying them.

Next, answer customer queries in your content, for example:

Dedicated website landing pages (“Is [product] worth it?”)
Blog posts (how-to posts, comparisons, etc.)
Headings inside your content
FAQ sections and pages (use the Accordion block to create them)
Infographics
Case studies

When you do create this content, get to the answer quickly. Start each section with a short explanation, then expand on the details below it.

That’s good for readers first, and it also makes the page easier for search and AI tools to interpret.

WordPress.com users can use the integrated AI Assistant to help tighten long paragraphs, clarify answers, or add FAQs — right inside the WordPress editor.

Step 2: Build landing pages for high-intent searches

When someone is close to requesting a quote, booking a call, or buying from you, they should land on a page built for that decision – not a generic blog post.

That might be a service page for a specific audience, location, or problem. Comparisons and “best for” posts can support those landing pages by helping people narrow down their options.

These specific, high-intent pages are easier to rank for than broad topics and often convert better.

What can those landing pages look like in practice?

Highly specific service pages → “SEO Audit Services for German E-Commerce Stores”
Comparisons narrowed to a target group → “MailChimp vs Kit for Bloggers”
Targeted best-of list posts → “Best [product] for [specific audience]”
Location-based variations, if relevant → “Best Coworking Spaces in Munich for Freelancers”

Here are two examples of targeted blog posts that show up in Google for “vegetarian meal prep for college students.”

This content strategy also helps appear in AI searches. According to Ahrefs, “best XYZ” blog lists make up 43.8% of all page types cited in ChatGPT responses, with 35% of those lists coming from low-authority domains.

Case in point: One of the websites from our previous example is also recommended by ChatGPT.

Additional growth tips:

Use Table blocks for side-by-side comparisons.
Be honest and thorough in your blog posts, not just self-promotional.
Link prominently (e.g. from your homepage) to your niche pages to boost their authority and help visitors discover relevant information.
Keep layouts clean and scannable by using well-designed block themes and reader-friendly formatting.

The AI Assistant can help here as well, for example, by brainstorming targeted content ideas.

Step 3: Turn one content piece into multiple traffic sources

With traffic more fragmented, new sites rarely grow from search alone.

Get more out of the content you’re already creating by feeding several traffic channels with each piece.

Here’s what that process may look like:

Publish a focused blog post.
Send it to your newsletter subscribers (see step 4).
Share three short insights from it on LinkedIn or turn key points into a Bluesky thread with a link back to the full post.
Post it to one relevant niche community (e.g., Reddit threads, Facebook Groups, or Slack channels). Note that many of these communities frown upon overt self-promotion.
Use the article as a basis for a video or podcast episode — even if it’s just a two-minute screen recording.
Add internal links to and from older posts to keep traffic circulating.

Below is an example of me repurposing one of my own articles.

One blog post, repurposed and distributed across multiple channels.

One article, then one newsletter send, three LinkedIn posts, and one community contribution — same core idea, different ways for people to find it.

To speed things up, you can use the MCP Claude Connector to give Claude access to the content of your WordPress.com site. It can then automatically generate social media snippets from existing posts or recommend niche communities to share them in.

Step 4: Use newsletters to attract visitors

A newsletter can bring visitors back to your site without hoping a search engine or social algorithm puts you in front of them. These are people who have already asked to hear from you.

The hard part is not sending the email – it’s giving people a reason to open it: something useful, timely, or interesting enough that they want to come back to your site.

An email list doesn’t just allow you to share your latest post, but also to send special offers, weekly updates, or behind-the-scenes information. It helps you encourage repeat business and learn more about your audience.

To use newsletters effectively:

Publish your newsletters publicly as web pages to provide examples and attract organic traffic.
Promote newsletter topics on social media to establish your expertise and drive more subscribers.
Link back to your service pages or blog posts — the goal is to get people on your website after all.
Place sign-up forms in your blog posts, your about page, and everywhere else people see it, not just the footer.

Need an example? Marketing Examined shows how a newsletter can grow into a broader media business. It’s a reminder that email can become a traffic source of its own — not just a place to announce your latest post.

On WordPress.com, you can put Subscribe blocks where readers will actually see them, email new posts to subscribers, and offer paid subscriptions when it makes sense.

Step 5: Build partnerships that send referral traffic

Partnering with others in your industry can be another source of traffic.
Establishing win-win relationships helps you gain visibility with existing audiences and attract highly targeted traffic.

Find potential partners by looking for businesses who share your audience but aren’t direct competitors. One way to do that is by contributing to communities your target customers are already a part of.

Use your expertise and initiative to provide value and build genuine relationships with leaders and influencers in the space.

Partnering can take many different forms:

Write guest posts for complementary businesses.
Co-host webinars and publish recap pages on your site.
Appear on each other’s podcasts.
Exchange expert quotes and link to each other’s resources.
Collaborate on research and create co-branded assets.
Create dedicated landing pages for collaborations or events.
Cross-promote each other on social media.

An example of such a partnership is the one between speed testing tool GTmetrix and WordPress performance plugin WP Rocket. The two businesses have been recommending each other on their respective websites for years.

Partnership between GTmetrix and WP Rocket

Step 6: Grow your personal visibility alongside your site

In 2026, people often discover businesses through individuals first. People trust other people more than logos, so building a personal brand as a business owner can increase your company’s visibility and drive website traffic.

Tips for expanding and using your personal visibility:

Consistently share practical, targeted insights: Use platforms where your audience hangs out, e.g. LinkedIn for B2B, TikTok/Instagram for visual industries.
Show your personality and process: Post about what you and your team (if there is one) are learning, testing, or even failing at.
Link strategically: Tie insights back to deeper resources on your site (e.g., “For the full guide, check out [link]”).
Optimize your About page: Include specific results (“Helped 50+ clients increase traffic by 30%”) and social proof (testimonials, media features).
Make authorship easy to verify: Use a named author, a short bio, and a linked About page so readers can see who is behind the advice and why they should listen.
Keep branding consistent: Use the same name, photo, and bio across all platforms so people recognize you instantly.

Find additional tips in our post on how to build an online presence.

Step 7: Make your site easy to trust and reference

A fast, secure, easy-to-navigate site is more likely to hold onto the visitors you worked to bring in.

Before you chase another traffic source, check whether a new visitor can quickly work out what you do, who you help, and what to do next.

Start with a rock-solid technical setup that makes your website easy to understand and reference:

Clean and descriptive URLs
A logical site hierarchy and permalink structure
Dedicated, linkable pages
Trust signals via a clear About and Contact page
A list of all your pages in an XML sitemap
Additional information through schema markup

Using the block editor, you can create well-structured content with descriptive headings and relevance signals, such as image alt text.

The AI Assistant comes in handy here, too. It can help clean up unclear sections, tighten long pages, check grammar, and propose page titles. It’s also able to generate images, edit and add alt text to existing visuals, as well as adjust layouts, styles, and patterns.

Step 8: Treat AI search tools as decision influencers

AI tools shape buying decisions even when they don’t send a direct click. That’s why your brand needs to be referenced in them.

It’s worth checking what they say about your brand, but you can’t control every answer. Clear, accurate information on your site gives them one solid source to work from.

Steps you can take to guide the conversation:

Add concise summaries to your service pages.
Include precise, consistent descriptions for your products.
Answer specific questions your customers may ask AI to be cited in answers (see step 1).
Clearly state who you help, what you do, and where you operate.
Add pages that list your solutions for key customer types.
Structure your content well so it’s easy to summarize.

AI mentions also rely on external platforms. Monitor how people discuss your brand on Reddit, reviews they write, etc. Try to get featured on trustworthy sites, such as well-known publications, industry directories, and industry authorities (see step 5).

Bonus tip: Track your mentions by searching your brand name directly in different AI LLMs. See how they describe you, whether they mention you at all, and what sources they cite when they do. Think of this as a rough visibility check, not AI’s version of rank tracking. Results can change depending on the prompt, the tool, and the day.

Continue to grow your website audience

Website traffic is less likely to come from one big breakthrough now. More often, it grows through a mix of useful answers, focused pages, distribution, newsletters, partnerships, and a site people can trust.

The important part is consistency. Pick two or three tactics from this list and stick with them long enough to learn what works. You can always expand later.

Our free one-hour Grow Your Website’s Audience course covers the practical side: getting found through search and social media, turning visitors into subscribers, promoting your work, and reading your site stats.