When you set up a website, it becomes your new digital storefront. Just like a shop or store by the street, you need to draw in patrons. Except, in this case, your patrons are online visitors who are interested in buying what your business is offering.
Websites only get you the desired results if they get sizeable traffic consistently. One may think that this would only matter if theirs was a business-oriented website, but that is unfortunately not the truth. The purpose for which websites are created is best served when they get a good amount of traffic flowing through them. To name a few examples, blogs thrive on high readerships, magazine websites would eventually die out without a good traffic flow, e-commerce websites would help in expanding the business only when they get substantial customers.
Other than business websites, there are websites of other forms such as – web portals, online forums, portfolio websites, educational websites, entertainment websites, and many more. All websites can sustain and grow only if they get appropriate traffic to flow through them. Now the only major question that stands tall before us is how do you get those visitors; how to draw in customers. Well, worry no more, for we are here to help you with that!
Here are some steps you can follow to drive more traffic to your website and take your project to new heights.
own the SEO game
Search engine optimization is like a thumb rule for widening and enhancing a website’s reach. SEO works like a fleet of steps that take you closer to your customers. Employ efficient SEO to bring up your search rankings and increase online visibility. Although you do need some good quality search engine optimization for your website, what you need more is smart SEO. Smart SEO advocates that don’t just go about flooding your website with the most popular keywords out there in your market field. Try to use long-tail keywords that more appropriately specify and describe the contents on your website and your business. Write high quality and engaging meta descriptions. This will fetch you visitors on account of Genuity and authenticity as it will correctly represent your website in the eyes of both search engines and visitors. This brings us to the next point.
prioritize content
Not having an SEO friendly website can be let slide for beginners but one thing you can’t afford to let slide is not having patron-oriented content on your website. Before catering to search engine ranking, you need to validate your content for your visitors. Because even if you manage to rank high in search rankings with content that is not patron-oriented, you will only attract the first lot of visitors and that lot of visitors is likely to be not great in number too with no returning visitors. And as we all know, high numbers of visitors mean high search rankings. So that’s like a conjoint positive consequence. That’s why make sure that your content is rich and of high quality and it’s something that your visitors would be looking for.
Consistency is key
Getting lost in the huge ocean of other small websites like yours that started with an objective similar to yours, is probably one of the easiest things about having a website. The key to not fade away and disappear in this vast ocean of websites is to update and upgrade regularly. Update your content and upgrade your website consistently. Updating your website regularly is reflective of the fact that you are truly invested in your website’s purpose and establishes your credibility. Consistency in updates and upgrades also helps with search rankings.
Infographics
Infographics (a clipped compound of “information” and “graphics”) are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly.
Use infographics on your website. People LOVE infographics. As unaware of the scientific reason behind this as they may be (they enable enhanced comprehension and improve the capability of reading trends and patterns in humans), people are greatly attracted by infographics and this brings more visitors to your website and also results in increased returning visitors.
YouTube
Put out content on YouTube, if at all possible. Youtube is a highly busy platform that has an enormous audience. There are all sorts of people looking for all sorts of content on YouTube. You can upload video tutorials, educational videos, promotional videos, etc. Youtube is such a large global platform, it will work wonders for your website if you manage to garner a decent enough following on youtube. If not much for a following, just having a youtube channel and uploading content from your end will enhance your online presence, search rankings and lastly instill trust and connection between you and your audience. Thus, you can use YouTube to drive traffic to your website.
let the social media bug bite you
Cash in on the social media factor by establishing a social media presence. Social media is arguably one of the busiest online public interaction platforms which coherently makes it one of the best places on the internet to gather traffic for your website.
Create accounts leading to social media websites. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook to name a few. Post content regularly on all of your social media handles regarding your website and might as well provide the link to your website. Also, one of the social media’s biggest advantages is that it enables community building better than any other online platform.
Engage your audience
Actively interacting with your audience will keep you in talks, and help spark interest regarding your business in the audience, thus generating more visitors for your website. Engage with your visitors and customers on your website or other platforms that facilitate interaction with people such as Instagram, Facebook, twitter, youtube, etc. You can do this by creating questionnaires, online contests, short quizzes, and replying to your audiences in the comments sections, re-tweets, or through mentions or tags; it will vary with the platform you’re using. In short, build your presence in groups related to your business or community.
Email marketing
Email marketing might very well be one of the easiest and most convincing ways to garner visitors for your website. In the pursuit of driving more traffic to your website, email marketing will primarily consist of inviting messages, commercial messages, promotional messages, and informative messages. Email marketing works best in conjunction with digital marketing campaigns. Otherwise, your target audience will be limited to the people who handed over their email id to you through your website or your social media account. This will award you with increased returning visitors.
Keep an eye on website speeds
Website speeds surprisingly affect the traffic on your website. And their ultimate impact is on conversion rates and on returning visitors percentage. Simply put, page speed affects your SEO. The faster your website loads, the more the visitors it will retain. Search engines such as Google consider your website speeds while ranking you in their search results. So it is highly advisable that you keep a check on your website loading speeds and update it if needed in order to not lose out on visitors just because your page did not load within 3 seconds.
Enhance usability/responsiveness – ensure smooth usage on mobiles, desktops, and tablet
Ensure high usability and excellent user experience on your website. Create a website that seamlessly works across the range of devices that different people use i.e. smartphones, computers, and tablets. By taking care of this aspect, you will be able to reach a wider range of people that access the internet via different types of devices. Consequently, widening your organic reach and also improving your SEO. You may need to hire an expert in web development for this.
Blogging
Set up a blog on your website right away! A large number of your prospective consumers are browsing the internet to learn and discover about your field of business or your community. Thus if you run a blog on your website, they are more likely to end up on your website after stumbling upon your blog content. Plus, if your blog content is search engine optimized, it can greatly improve your website’s search rankings.
Another way to milk this blogging avenue is to convince an established guest blogger to write a blog for your website. That will definitely drive new traffic to your website.
Paid advertising
The most prominent paid advertising option is Google Search Advertising. Known as Google AdWords, it is Google’s own advertising service which awards top search results ranking to websites that bid the highest for the ranking. These rankings appear at the top of the search results page in the form of ads.
Google My Business listings
When people search with certain keywords, the top-most relevant search results are displayed in the form of local-3-packs or local-5-packs that provide lists of top 3 or top 5 businesses including information about them.
When building your digital marketing strategy, do not miss out on signing up on Google My Business.‘Google My Business’ is a free online software service provided by Google that helps businesses to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. When an internet user searches with phrases like “near me” or “around me”, Google displays the businesses that match that search on parameters of – the type of business, location, and few others.
So if someone searches “restaurants near me” on Google, Google will display the names of businesses and a host of information about them including – contact number, address, the menu, opening & closing time, ratings & reviews, pictures, etc.
Thus, if you create a Google My Business listing for your restaurant, it will be surprisingly easy for customers to find you, and drive to you through directions on Google Maps. Your online visibility will get a major boost resulting in a high flow of traffic through your website!
Inbound links
Inbound links, also known as back-links are links that are present on web pages other than yours and refer the users back to your website. Google uses the number of inbound links as a plus-point by search to determine search result rankings. Back-links also enhance your online presence and improve your website’s SEO.
CONCLUSION
It’s about presentation – At the end of it all, it’s about presentation. With the advancements that exist in the field of website design in today’s date, you can’t be missing out on a stand-apart or an eye-pleasing website design at the least and be expecting high traffic flow through your website. Website design extends from the visual appeal of your website to ease of navigation on it. To make the best of it, hire an expert who will know what he’s doing. The roots of an effective SEO as well as user-friendly web design are embedded in the coding of the website itself. The look and feel of your website should be in sync with the nature of the purpose you aim to serve through it.
An all-round website design that covers excellent user experience to high and efficient SEO, is what is the prominent necessity on the path of driving more traffic to your website.