When you open a physical business, it’s very rare that you have to worry about customer traffic. With physical outlets, that old saying “build it and they will come” seems to hold up. With websites though, it’s a totally different story. You need to have active marketing resources in place if you want to gain any customers. For a lot of new entrepreneurs, generating traffic is pretty tough. However, there are certain proven tactics you can use to improve the figures at your site. Here’s a guide to boosting the traffic for your website.
Source: Wikimedia
The easy way around increasing traffic and conversions is paying for it. Yes, it’s absolutely possible to boost your online performance for free. However, you can get quick, easy results from a company like http://www.doublespark.co.uk . You may not have the funds to hire a full, professional service like this. However, taking an element out of the model can be a very big help. Consider PPC advertising. If you weren’t aware already, PPC stands for “Pay-Per-Click”. This refers to ads linking to your website, which you only pay for when someone clicks on them. Take a break from reading this post, and do any Google search vaguely related to any business. You’ll see those familiar ad listings pop up at the top and in the right-hand column. This essentially does what SEO does; bumping your website to the top of a page of search results. It won’t be organic, but it’ll certainly be visible! When you first start trading, using PPC ads is one of the best ways to bring traffic to your new site. Be wary though. Traffic may leap up when you first get PPC. However, if and when you pull out of it, you’ll see a sudden, terrible drop.
The next method I’ll look at is guest blogging. This has always had a strong link with link building and SEO tactics. It involves getting blog posts published on a site other than your own, preferably with a lot of active traffic! This can be done either through paying the blog owner for a spot, or pitching it to them for free. Remember that it’s in the blogger’s interest to have a steady stream of engaging content. Choose the platform you intend to publish on based on how relevant it is to your business. You should also try to find one with pretty high domain authority. https://www.quicksprout.com has a very helpful post for understanding this. In SEO, only certain links are of value. With link building, the more the better, provided the links don’t take up a whole 500-word post! The main thing you need to be worrying about with link building is relevancy. If you’re not including these links naturally and in the right places, you won’t see that much of an improvement in your traffic. You want to attract people who become naturally engaged with your business, rather than someone with a vague interest. If you don’t take some time selecting where you’ll publish, you’ll only end up with a higher bounce rate.
Source: Wikimedia
My final suggestion in the way of traffic is social media. These days, having a social media presence is a necessity for any online firm. If your brand is visible on a few social media networks, then you could be using this to drive up your traffic figures. If you’re not on a single social network, then this is reason to panic! If you’re going to set up on just one though, choose Facebook. This has well over a billion active users, making it a fantastic place to source more traffic for your site. You should be using social media to manage and build upon your relationship with your customers. If you’ve ever worked as a blogger before, this will help. The relationship you should be building with your customer base is like a blogger-reader relationship. If you want to maintain and nurture this kind of connection with your customers, an active social media presence is the way to go about it. The content you use your social media platforms for is up to you. Just bear in mind that different networks are better for different types of content. Twitter, for example, should be used for snappy announcements and promotions. You can afford to be a little more salesy in your tone here. LinkedIn, on the other hand, should be reserved for long, professional essays and is better suited to a B2B model. You can manage multiple platforms through tools such as https://hootsuite.com.
All three of these methods will improve the traffic on your site. However, there’s a certain balance you should keep between the different tactics. If you don’t integrate them into your marketing strategy gracefully, you won’t be getting the full effect out of it. Timing plays a pretty important part in this area. PPC is a great way to give your traffic a big kick to begin with. However, while your ads are running, you shouldn’t just be sitting back and letting it do its business. After setting up your PPC campaign, you can begin writing some high-quality articles for link building. Then, work on getting them spread across a few different platforms. You should be paying at least some attention to social media constantly. From this launch period, hold off on the PPC. I recommend leaning on organic tactics, and using pay-per-click during promotions or something similar. Guest blogging should be continuous, so set yourself a weekly or fortnightly quota.
There you have the most effective methods for generating more traffic for your site. Remember that these will only bring people to your page. Conversion is something for a whole other article! However, if you want to get your business seen, these strategies are the best way to go. Keep a good, healthy mix of different techniques. Also, make sure you’re consistent with content and social media posts. Execute it all in the right way, and your traffic will shoot up!
