So, you’ve built the perfect website for your small business… it may not have all the bells and whistles that giant corporations have on their websites, but it’s a quality representation of your company. It’s ready to start generating leads and sales, now you need people to visit! Rather than play the waiting game, you can implement these 5 strategies for driving website traffic.
1. Get Listed
One of the most common ways that businesses are found online is through listings on directories. Directories you know, like Google My Business, Yelp, and the Yellow Pages. These listings rank high in searches for businesses, especially localized searches (like “dentist in Memphis, TN). Make sure that your name, phone number, address, and website url are consistent across each listing and that your profiles are complete. Add professional photos to your listings for a significant increase in click-through rates to your website.
2. Get Reviews
If you have your website listed, you should be actively encouraging your customers to leave reviews. More reviews = higher search engine ranking. Plus, it looks better when an online searcher sees that you have a large number of positive reviews. It increases the chance that they’ll visit your website, therefore driving website traffic. Encourage reviews by offering a small discount or add-on for a future purchase if a customer leaves a review.
3. Digital Advertising
Paid digital advertising is a powerful method for driving website traffic. If used correctly it can generate an outstanding return on your investment. If used incorrectly, digital advertising can be costly and ineffective. The key to PPC (pay-per-click advertising like Google AdWords) is to bid on the right keywords: ones that indicate purchase intent. Ones that you can realistically compete for. Get specific with your keywords and don’t be afraid to bid on long-tail phrases. For instance, a PPC campaign centered around the keyword “motorcycle mechanic” wouldn’t result in as much relevant traffic. Try instead one centered around “Harley Davidson repair in Providence, RI”.
Another form of digital advertising is remarketing. While this method doesn’t get new traffic to your website, it gets past visitors back to your website, increasing the likelihood that they’ll convert into customers. All you have to do is include a special piece of code on your website. Then, when someone visits that page, your advertisements will follow them around the web for a certain period of time. Remarketing produces high conversion compared to PPC. People who have already been on your website are more likely to buy than first-time visitors.
4. On-Page SEO
Successful business websites get loads of traffic from search engines. This is because they rank high in relevant search results. SEO refers to a variety of ways that businesses improve their ranking. By including relevant keywords in your content, meta-descriptions, and image alt tags you can appear higher in search results that lead to sales.
Driving website traffic through SEO can seem daunting. There is a lot that goes into SEO and the methods are constantly changing. It’s often worthwhile for businesses to invest in professional SEO services.
5. Guest Blogging / Interviewing
If you become an active and engaged member of your industry’s community, you’ll see an increase in relevant website traffic. One great way to do this is to find other businesses in your industry that run successful blogs with large audiences. When you have new information or a unique opinion about a popular topic in your industry, write up an article.
If the content you provide is valuable and relevant to a target company’s audience, you may be able to secure a guest post on their blog. You can link to your website in the header of your guest blog post or link to an article from your own blog somewhere in the article.
Alternatively, if you can build a relationship with popular bloggers that post content you’d deem relevant to your audience. You can host their guest posts on your blog. Oftentimes bloggers will share their guest posts on social media, bringing new traffic to you. Either way, building a reputation in your industry’s blogosphere and sharing audiences with relevant companies will help bring relevant traffic to your website.
These are just a few of the ways you can drive website traffic that converts! If you found this article helpful, you may be interested in some of our other posts on the topics covered above:
6 Simple SEO Tips to Increase Your Organic Search Ranking
Are You Making These 6 Google AdWords Mistakes?
Is Your Website Helping Or Hurting Your Business?