The act of building a shiny new website and making sure it perfectly represents your brand and mission is usually an exciting process. But once you’ve spent time and money getting it to the point of completion, what’s the next step? If you have a polished, professional website but no one to look at it, what’s the point? As any businessperson knows, drawing traffic to your site is a key goal for collecting prospects and acquiring new customers. Here’s a look at a few proven ways to increase the number of eyes on your website without spending a fortune.
Refine your Content
SEO is a behemoth of marketing in and of itself, so if you don’t understand the nuances, it’s a good idea to consult an expert. Another good idea is to check out a site like Top 10 Best Website Builders, which will quickly clue you in to which website services offer the best and most user-friendly SEO for your site. Once you have a good grasp on what you need to do, comb through the existing content on your website to be sure your posts are optimized. Every piece of content you publish should include URLs, meta descriptions and title tags.
After that, go back through the content piece by piece. Are your headlines interesting and unique? If not, it’s never too late to spice them up so they have the potential to earn more clicks. Also, do your posts include links to other posts on your site? Internal links are a smart way to get more people clicking through more than just one of your pages.
Take Advantage of Easy Actions
When you think about bringing in traffic, it’s sometimes easy to overlook some of the more basic tactics. But the truth of the matter is that some of the most simple methods of bringing people to your website can also pay dividends in terms of visitor counts – and ultimately customer conversions. Think about every communication you have with current customers, prospects and even random individuals who may not be candidates to be customers right now. Are you giving them every opportunity to easily come to your website?
In your email signature, Entrepreneur says you need to include a link to your website, as well as your social media profiles. Interested individuals should never have to click more than once to view your website or connect with you online. Also, don’t discount the value of taking a few minutes a day (or week) to jump into some digital discussions or group chats. If you read a powerful article on LinkedIn, leave a comment. If you’re looking for answers to a question on a marketing forum, and are able to answer someone else’s question, do so. And wherever appropriate, leave your website’s URL. These simple things can motivate people to seek out you and your business on multiple levels.
Pay Your Way
While most business owners agree that free methods for increasing website traffic are preferred, some paid options can really help spike your visitor numbers in conjunction with free ones. If you feel like you’ve tried optimizing your content and are maximizing every opportunity to share your website and social profiles with people who may want to look into your company, consider some more traditional marketing approaches. Pay-per-click ads bring more eyes to your site, as do banner ads. And if you want to make an impact via social channels, Facebook ads can help you out. The amount of money you spend on paid advertising in order to get people to your site is dependent upon your budget, but the bottom line is: any of these strategies should supplement your other marketing efforts.
When your goal is to get more visitors to your site, one effort is just not enough. Start by optimizing all of your content and getting with an SEO expert to raise your success with search engines. Then, be deliberate in using your email signature, online posts and beyond to put your website in front of readers. With a strategic marketing mix and some creative thinking, you’ll be seeing those website visits increase indefinitely.