No matter how well built or beautifully designed your website is, it’s difficult to get any tangible benefit from it without traffic. After all, you want people (particularly customers or clients) to see it! It’s not as simple as building your site and letting people come—to get more web traffic, you need to put in some work.
Figure Out Where Your Existing Traffic Comes From
Google Analytics will be your best friend through this process. No matter how minimal your existing traffic may be, examining and understanding where it’s coming from is crucial. Are your social media posts leading customers to your website, or are clients heading to your site directly? Armed with this information, you’ll be able to bolster what’s working and learn more about what isn’t in order to drive more web traffic from those under-utilized sources.
Take Advantage of Social Media
It should come as no surprise that your company needs a social media presence. Profiles on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow you to connect with your customers and spread the word about your company. Plus, these platforms give satisfied clients a way to share their experience and recommend your site to their friends by tagging or sharing a link. Link to your website (both new content and pages from the archive) through these platforms for consistent traffic from users with a demonstrated interest in what you offer. And you don’t need to stick to the most common sites: get involved in relevant Reddit communities or answer questions on Quora, too.
Implement SEO Strategies
If you aren’t taking advantage of search engine optimization (SEO), you’re undoubtedly missing out on a ton of potential traffic. By getting your content to rankly as highly as possible on search engines like Google, you’ll be able to generate more traffic, since there’s far more expose to your article and landing pages. There’s a lot to learn in implementing an SEO strategy and lots of effort that goes into it. Having an SEO content strategy is not a simple task, and if you’re a beginner, you’re better off getting some help. Consulting SEO experts like those at www.serptheory.com can make the process go more smoothly and help you to get the traffic you need more quickly.
Build Up Your Email List
The biggest downside to social media is that you’re ultimately at the mercy of the algorithm and its makers. An email list, on the other hand, is yours to control. Send a regular newsletter, alert your customers to sales and promotions, or share your newest product or service. If you haven’t started an email list, do it ASAP. If you’ve got one started, give it a little TLC to bring fast traffic directly to your site.
Give Something Away
People love free “stuff.” What could you offer to website visitors to catch their attention and keep their interest? Consider a free e-course, detailed infographic or printable, or even a complimentary sample of your service to show them what you have to offer.
Make Sure Visitors Have Something to Visit
Beyond that freebie, it will help to have more than just a basic homepage, short “about” section, and sales links on your website. To drive more web traffic, there needs to be something there that people are looking for or interested in. Once your SEO-optimization drives people to your site, you want them to have a reason to stick around a little longer. Consider adding customer testimonials or even a blog if you haven’t already—you can even outsource the content writing if it’s not your strong suit. And be sure to revisit some of your older posts and pages, too—keeping each page of your website refreshed and up-to-date means your clients will not just have a reason to head to your website, but a reason to return.
Whether your SEO strategy could use some expert advice or your email list is nonexistent, there are plenty of ways you can improve your traffic and make your website work as well as possible to drive customers and sales to your business.