2 Facebook page strategies that can drive traffic to your site

I know how frustrating it can be to try and get people from Facebook to visit your site. If you’re used to optimizing your site for Google, pivoting to this new game is challenging.

At least, it was for me and my team. It’s taken us months to figure it out – and we’re still constantly learning and improving.

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Why Facebook traffic is a big deal

Facebook is one of the largest potential traffic sources for a website. I hadn’t realized just how big it could be until I started getting that traffic.

According to Meta’s report for their investors, in Q3 of 2023, the average number of daily users was 2.09 billion. This number shows 5% growth year over year.

I tried but couldn’t find the corresponding number for Google Search. The best I could find was 8.5 billion searches a day. Assuming two searches per user, that can be around 4 billion people a day.

This means Facebook has roughly half the number of Google visitors every single day. That is a LOT, especially when you consider the time people spend on social media vs. the time they spend searching for something.

There are many ways to get traffic from Facebook. Paid ads and Facebook groups are two popular channels that I have very little experience with, but I know many people do well with those. For me, Facebook pages work well.

Facebook page traffic strategies

The basic concept of driving traffic from a Facebook page is simple. It goes something like this:

Create a page on a topic in your niche. Buy likes from Facebook to get the page going. Then serve your followers with content that will get their attention and ultimately get them to click through to your website.

I get a lot of questions from people regarding the type of posts and frequency of posting. As with most things, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to successfully generating traffic from a Facebook page.

Note that I don’t profess to have a blueprint or a formula. I doubt anyone has, to be honest. I can only share insights based on what has worked for me on some pages.

Two strategies seem to be working so far. I call the first “The Viral Game” and the second “Accumulative Clicks.”

The Viral Game Strategy

When a post goes viral on Facebook, the numbers can be mindblowing. We’re talking millions and millions of views.

Getting something to go viral is actually easier than it may seem at first. Hit the right note with your audience with a combination of the right image and an inspirational quote, and engagement is pretty much guaranteed. Memes work very well too.

People will like and share your post, and many will tag their friends to boost it further.

The problem with this approach is that this audience is less likely to click through on any links you give them.

These people get their dopamine boost from the Facebook post and don’t need additional information from your site. They interact with the post and then keep scrolling their Facebook feed.

So, what can you do about that?

Option 1: Go viral and skim the cream

If you have a million people viewing your post, you only need a 1% clickthrough rate to generate 10,000 visitors to your site. Even if 99% of viewers don’t click through, you still get a decent amount of traffic.

And before you ask –

In my experience, adding a text link in the description doesn’t affect the reach of these posts. Most people ignore the link, but the algorithm doesn’t seem to mind.

The key here is to find a link that actually makes sense to the topic of the post. Even 1% CTR can be challenging to achieve with a viral post.

The link must be one that would be interesting for these specific people to explore further. It’s harder to do when the audience is – almost by definition – only interested in sharing fun memes.

Option 2: Monetize through bonuses

Did you know that Facebook can pay you to generate engagement on your page? I’m not sure exactly how they calculate the payments, but it can really add up.

Unfortunately, it’s an invite-only program. You can “express interest” here, but Facebook being Facebook, it’s impossible to know if that page even works or to contact anyone there with questions. I have tried their support – more than once – and they were friendly yet remarkably ineffective.

The Accumulative Clicks Strategy

The other way to generate traffic from a Facebook page is to focus on a higher clickthrough rate instead of virality.

With this method, you focus on niche-specific problem-solving topics. Your Facebook post presents the problem, whereas the answer is to be found in the article on your site.

For example –

• A foolproof method for keeping your pup’s paws warm in the snow
• How to keep your fish tank crystal clear without using chemicals
• The secret to mastering your backhand in under 30 days

You’re looking for problems likely to be on the minds of niche fans. Listicles work well as a format, but even informational posts like the ones above can be effective as you craft your title and image well. And yes, you can actually share these in link format, which tends to increase CTR.

Now, these posts are less likely to go viral. Just how many views you would get depends largely on the number of engaged followers on your page.

But the key here is that CTR is likely to be much higher. The people who actually stopped the scroll to read your title are far more likely to click through to the site.

So, how often should you post?

I don’t have a definitive answer (I doubt anyone does). My hunch is that to achieve virality, you may want to post less often. The idea is to allow the algorithm time to pick a post and really get it going without being distracted by more posts from your page.

Having said that, posts often go viral days after we publish them, so it’s probably more complicated than that. Still, with a potentially viral post, I prefer to wait at least a couple of hours before posting another one.

The Accumulative Clicks strategy requires more posts. That’s the “accumulative” part of it.

Each post will probably max at a few dozen – possibly hundreds – of site visitors. To build a decent stream of traffic, you want to have 8-12 of those posts shared every day.

I know some people go even higher – which may work if the page is well-established. I wouldn’t try more than a few a day with a new page, though, to stay on the side of any spam flags.

The idea is to place multiple hooks in the water every day. That is true for both strategies, but even more so for the Accumulative Clicks one.

Which strategy do I apply?

On most pages, we mix and match and see what works best. It’s a neverending journey of testing and re-testing to see what resonates with that particular audience.

Some pages get to be more focused on virality. Others end up getting a drip of potentially high-click posts.

Neither method is foolproof. Some – for me, most – posts will sink dead in the water. We often keep reposting multiple times to give them a chance. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

In that respect, it’s as much of a numbers game as the longtail SEO approach. The reward is there for those who take the leap of faith and invest in figuring out the right mix for their site.

As always, I’d love to know your thoughts. What Facebook strategy works best for you and why? Leave me a comment and let me know!