This is called digital marketing and, this might be stating the obvious, but websites need lots of traffic from as many different sources in order to help them get more visitors and ultimately appear higher organically in search results. The little spiders at Google want to see lots of different platforms linking to your website so that they sit up and take notice. So much so that they want to see what all the fuss is about and go and take a look themselves (this is called site indexing)
But how do I do this?
I have banged on and on about this, but content on a blog within your website should be one of the first things that you do. You need your content to be written for humans, be localised wherever possible, be fresh and authentic and be content that people engage with. Your content should also be regular so that you have a dynamic area on your website that visitors almost come to as a source of information or a point of reference.
Other key ways to drive traffic are –
Optimise your website for your search terms.
Google wants to see that the websites it lands on have been put together correctly with nice, ‘clean’ code, labelled images, correct page properties and the right balance of appropriate words for it to scan read.
Submit your business to search engines
Use Google Places for Business
https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/business/
Submit your site map to Google Search Console
Use Google Search Console
Google Search Console
Add new products or content to your website daily
….or as often as you can. Sites that display lots of products for you to browse and buy generally get lots of visitors as there is so much more to look at.
Add downloads or whitepapers to your website
A report or a guide that informs readers about a complex issue and presents your philosophy on the matter is a good way to attract attention. Write something that can be downloaded which helps readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision
Use email marketing and send out campaigns
Use a platform like Mailchimp. https://mailchimp.com/
Guest blog for other websites
You are the authority in your sector. You know what works, what doesn’t, what people like etc. Offer to write about it on other blogs as your knowledge WILL get noticed.
See what your competitors are doing!
AI like SEM Rush allow you to see exactly what your competitors are up to; what works for them, what content has the best reach etc.
Google also wants to see answers to questions that you put into its search bar or via Siri so that it can direct you accurately to what you are searching for and it doesn’t want to see the same information multiple times (duplicate content).
Other ways to drive traffic to your website is to keep active on social media. It’s no surprise that what someone types in the search bar of Instagram or YouTube is the most important signal to search. Social Media looks for relevant usernames, bios, captions, hashtags, and locations to send you to.
The above initiatives are all ‘free’ to use. However, they need a strategy to be effective and need doing professionally. Once you put something out there, it is out there for life so do not just jump straight in and start sending out poorly written content or shoddy eshots. Similarly, social media is called social media for a reason. It is a dialogue not a monologue so interact with people. And by the way, nobody really cares about your evening meal or your son’s birthday (sorry!).
The next part of your strategy to attract more site visitors is to use paid traffic and I will give you some pointers in my next post.
