Now that the internet is more widespread than ever, it’s no surprise that you’re worried about doing business offline. After all, reports show that offline commerce is expected to decline by 20% over the next few years. So the question is, how can you change things up to get traffic to your business website to make sales?
If improving website traffic is a goal for your business, this post will help you get started. Keep reading to learn six tips that will help you craft a digital marketing strategy that works.
1. Start a Blog
Like many businesses, you don’t have a large marketing budget to advertise on all the paid ad platforms. Even if you can invest a small amount into ads, you may not see success straight away and make money. It takes time to gather data to create profitable campaigns.
If you’re in this situation, focusing on website SEO and starting a blog is great to get more website traffic. Your traffic from blog posts primarily comes from Google when you rank on the first page. Your goal with your posts is to target keywords that get high search volumes in your industry.
There are countless search terms out there, so there should be no shortage of blog topics to write about. The good thing about going this route is that once your blog posts are up and rank on Google, you can take advantage of the free search traffic for as long as you remain on the front page.
2. Create Social Media Accounts
You won’t capture the whole internet audience by relying on search engines and display ads from other websites. Many people now spend their time online browsing social media sites. The question is, will they find your brand on one of those sites?
Creating accounts for your business on social media gives you a way to reach your customers directly. Set up a company profile and a fan page to go along with it.
Once you set your account up, you can direct people to your social media pages to follow your business. From there, you can send updates to people that follow your company.
Your goal is to create compelling content that people want to share. The ultimate win is to go viral and to gain more visibility for your business than you could achieve by advertising on your own.
3. Build an Email List
Advertising will only get you so far when you’re trying to increase your customer base. Even if someone shows interest in your products, that doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy the first time they’re exposed to your brand.
It takes most people several interactions before they get enough information to buy. The problem is that you have competitors out there that will try to get the sale. So you need to make sure your brand is top of mind if you want to win someone’s business.
One of the best ways to do this is to build an email list. Incentivize people to provide their email in exchange for something valuable. Then, once you get someone’s email, you can send them informative content and deals that make it more likely to become a customer.
4. Build Backlinks
Creating great content will get you far when you’re trying to increase website traffic. However, it does have limits if you’re trying to rank your site in a competitive industry. Even if you have the best content out there, websites with more authority will probably outrank you.
If you want to rank higher on Google, you need to show that your website is authoritative. One of the best ways to do this is to build backlinks for your site.
A backlink is a hyperlink on another website that links back to your business. You can think of a link as a vote. The more high-powered votes you have, the more authority you have in the eyes of Google.
Many business owners start this process with guest posts. When targeting an audience with your guest posts, look for sites in similar industries. Then, ask the webmaster to write content for their website and include a link to thank the content.
5. Get on YouTube
It’s no secret that people are watching more video content on the web than ever. As a result, people from all walks of life are cutting the cable cord and shifting their viewing habits to internet content.
The question is, will a consumer find your video content when they look for things to watch online? YouTube provides your business with a way to offer valuable, informative content in video format.
The YouTube game is similar to the SEO one. Your goal is to create valuable content with keyword-rich descriptions. Target highly-searched video content in your industry and produce great content to convince people that your business is worth buying from.
6. Monitor Your Traffic Sources
Once you establish your website, you won’t only get traffic from one source. The chances are good that you’ll get it from at least three different websites.
The problem is that some of those traffic sources will convert better than others. The last thing you want to do is waste time working with traffic sources that don’t lead to sales for your business.
You can use tracking scripts as both a website traffic checker and a conversion optimization tool. These tools will show you which traffic sources lead to the most sales.
Getting this information will tell you which traffic sources to optimize to get the most results for your time.
Improving Website Traffic Isn’t Easy.
While it’s a great thing that building and managing a website is easier than ever, that does come at a cost. The web is a more competitive place than ever. Use the tips above to make your goal of improving website traffic a success.
Of course, getting people to visit your business website is only the first step in acquiring new customers. Check out the blog to learn more about converting those visitors to sales.
