Visitors that convert to customers, who keep coming back for more. How do you achieve this? It may seem like a dark art or some form of alchemy, but if you follow our 10 steps below, rather than being caught in a jam, you'll be well on your way to being right in the middle of the type of traffic that will take your business to success.
1. Advertise
There are numerous ways to improve your website traffic and your brand out there, of which this is the most obvious: advertising. Whether it's social media advertising, paid search, mobile marketing or display advertising, they are all great ways to get your website in front of your audience.
With every channel having its pros and cons, find out what your objectives are and what you are trying to achieve. Are you looking for more website traffic? Or do you want to increase your on site conversions? Set your budgets accordingly, choose the channels that work best for you and refine your strategy.
2. Keep your SEO simple and straightforward
First of all, don't try to outsmart Google's ranking system by looking for possible loopholes (they are Google in the end, and probably have thought of your 'loophole' already). Play by the rules instead, or you may find that you increase your Google penalties rather than improve your website traffic.
SEO ranking is based on several factors. Among these are website copy – especially keywords and off-site backlinks. Make sure your website is friendly to the Google search engine by using clear titles and headers that consist of popular search terms related to your industry. Don't make it too complicated and keep your website as organized and structured as possible.
The only thing that's left to do then is to create great content that is engaging, refreshing, meaningful, and makes people want to share and give you those backlinks you need.
3. Quality vs. Quantity content
To improve your website traffic, good quality content is an absolute must for every website. Regardless of the number of blogs you publish or the amount of shares on your social media channels, using poor quality content won't improve your SEO ranking – in fact it could hurt it. This also goes for the reputation of the websites that link back to you for that matter. Make sure sites linking back to yours are good quality. Also, with some pretty crazy competition out there, it's essential to make sure your blogs are exciting and stand out from the crowd.
Blogs that always do well are Top 10's (or any number really…odd numbers prove to work even better sometimes), How To posts or anything related to specific events, holidays or roundups of the year (e.g. best of 2014).
And if you can't keep up, invite guest bloggers to do the work for you or interview thought leaders to talk about industry related topics. This way you boost your credibility and increase your website traffic at the same time.
4. Be Active on Social Media
Now you've got all that great content, it's time to spread the word. Be proactive about promoting your content on social media and see what channels are giving you the best response rates.
If you're a B2B business you might find Facebook great to keep in touch with your community, whereas posting on Google+ helps your site to show up in personalized search results. B2C companies might find more traction promoting their products using short, tempting headlines on Twitter or image-heavy social media sites like Instagram or Pinterest.
5. Nurture your community
Once you've build up your precious client base, don't let them out of your sight! Use your community as a sounding board. Let your (soon to be) customers speak their minds and start a conversation on your website by implementing a comment system or forum. This increases the traffic to your website and offers them the opportunity to ask questions about your product or service. Of course, don't forget to manage the content accordingly and more importantly join the conversation.
6. Host Webinars
No matter what business you're working in, if you are an expert in your field…or at least aiming to be one, look for ways to talk directly to your audience. What better way to let the rest of the world know than hosting a webinar? Use your social channels and email marketing campaigns to promote your webinar and attract visitors to your website by sharing your wisdom.
Don't forget to make full use of people who failed to attend by publishing the presentation slides onto your website after the webinar, creating a second influx of traffic to your website.
7. Attend conferences…become a thought leader!
Another great way of knowledge sharing is attending or, even better, speaking at a conference or event. Speaking about your area of expertise is a great way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and gain exposure for your website.
8. …and build a relationship with other industry thought leaders
Now you're an established thought leader, nothing should hold you back from talking to other thought leaders in your sector. By building these relationships, you will create mutual respect and are likely to increase the chances of being mentioned or even promoted by others. Whether it's sharing content on social media or word of mouth, this is an excellent way of getting people to visit your website.
9. Don't forget about traditional ways of advertising
With all the new ways of advertising and modern technologies we tend to forget about our traditional advertising channels. Email marketing is still one of the most powerful tools to improve your website traffic that should not be neglected. In a time where people receive 100's of emails a day it's quite a big thing when someone opts in to receive your content. Treat them with respect. Don't spam them, but give them useful content they like to read so that they want to come back to your website.
And if this is still too forward thinking for you, allocate some of your budget to advertise on tv or radio. A great, reliable source to get more exposure for your brand.
10. Analyze your data and refine strategy
So, now you've done all the things mentioned above (and perhaps more)…surely that means you can lean back and watch the traffic come in, right?
Unfortunately, the job doesn't stop there.
In an ever changing digital world, it's key to analyze your data at all times, see where you can improve and fine-tune your strategy. Google analytics is a great tool to get your numbers straight.
Are you targeting different geographies and is one of them underperforming? Go back to the drawing board and allocate that budget where you do get maximum results.
If you're looking to improve your online presence, create a multi-channel dialogue with your potential customers, create content that sparkles, or undertake in depth analysis, try shopping at blur. With over 45,000 vetted global service providers, you can achieve so much more, for less.
More traffic. Less cost, less time, and less effort.
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For more information, visit blur Group website: www.blurgroup.com
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