As a business owner, your main concern for your business online is probably: How can I get more customers to come to my website? In today’s world, most leads are generated through your website. To gain high-quality leads and convert them to sales, it’s important to consider all the strategies you can use to drive as much qualified traffic to your website as possible.
Driving website traffic doesn’t just impact your sales, it also impacts your credibility as a business.
How to drive more traffic to your website
This article will highlight some of the top strategies on how to drive more traffic to your website for free.
1. Focus on search engine optimization (SEO)
The top strategy for driving traffic to your business is SEO. Many consumers turn to search engines for purchase decisions or to simply find an answer to a question. With SEO, you have the ability to make your site the one to be there in the consumer’s time of need. Without optimizing your website for search engines, searchers won’t be able to find it.
SEO focuses on keywords.
To rank higher in the search engines, you need to target specific keywords that consumers are searching for. The higher you rank, the more likely you are to gain traffic to your website. There are a ton of factors that can impact your rankings. These factors include:
- Title tags
- Headings
- Internal and External Links
- High-quality, optimized content
- User experience
- Site Speed
- A mobile-friendly site and responsive site design
- Accurate business information
In order to a more detailed and wholesome understanding of where and why your site is currently ranking and how to improve those factors, consider running an SEO audit. We’ll also go into more detail on some of these factors later in this article.
The bottom line with SEO is you can control your rankings. Taking the time to use on-page and off-page SEO strategies can help your business move its way up on the search engine results pages.
The higher you are in the search engine result pages (SERPs), the more traffic you’ll see coming to your website.
How to be at the top of SERPs
Below we will look at a real-time example of how SEO can put you at the top of the SERPs. Let’s say you’re an employer looking to run background checks on your employees. You go to Google and type in “how to do an employee background check.”
Your goal is to be in the first few positions of the results page. Searchers typically click through the top pages to try and find their answers.
Another important thing to note is although some of these resources are outdated, they still remain relevant, so they will continue to drive traffic year after year. For example, How to Do An Employment Background Check from ShareAble for Hires was published in January of 2018, but is still in position 2 on the SERP. This proves your SEO efforts drive traffic to your site. It can happen long after your content is published.
2. Build backlinks
One of the top-ranking signals Google looks at is backlinks.I
Backlinks are links from to your website from another website.
The more relevant backlinks you have pointing back to your site, the more Google sees you as a trusted business, thus leading to higher rankings. Aside from higher rankings increasing your website’s traffic, having your website placed on these relevant and trusted sites puts your site in front of a wider audience. The wider your audience, the more likely you are to gain more quality traffic.
3. Ensure your website is responsive
Briefly mentioned above, having a responsive site design is one of the key factors that contribute to SEO. Responsive website design is important today because most individuals searching the web are doing so through their mobile devices.
Having a responsive site design means that your site will properly adjust from any device that is accessing it.
When accessing a site from a mobile device, the screen is a lot smaller, so your site needs to adjust accordingly. If the user must zoom in and scroll their way around your website, the user experience becomes too difficult which will likely lead them to click right off the page.
In this example below, we can see how Hausera, an online kitchen and bath faucet supplier, has a responsive site design.
The navigation bar that is located at the top of the left corner on the desktop view is now conveniently located in a drop-down menu of the mobile view. Making it easier to click from a mobile device.
Desktop version
Mobile version
4. Post on social media
Social media is a powerful tool that businesses can utilize to drive traffic to their website.
When creating content, social media is a great way to promote your work and get it seen by a wider audience.
Not only is social media a place to promote your content, but it’s also a place you can build a community and establish yourself as a credible business.
Like the name implies, social media is a social channel, so you should be actively engaging with your audience.
Some ways you can engage on social media are by responding to comments, commenting and liking other’s posts, participating in Twitter chats, sparking conversations within related hashtags, etc.
Hashtags are extremely beneficial and almost act as keywords on social media. You can use specific hashtags to reach your targeted niche and find relevant opportunities to engage with others.
Engagement brings loyal customers and the more loyal customers you have, the more likely they are to refer you to others.
5. Create a blog
Part of your content marketing strategy probably includes blog posts. Blog posts are a great way to write content relevant to your niche. It proves you with another opportunity to be found online.
Optimizing your content and targeting keywords will help drive more traffic to your site.
Blogs also give your company a voice and allow you to connect and engage with your audience through a different medium. By producing high-quality content, users will find this information resourceful, increasing your chances of the post being shared online.
Useful website content
Credit.com wrote an article on why millennials are moving, which included a link to useful and relevant resource titled The Anatomy of the Millennial Renter from SmartMove.
The more useful your content is, the more likely it is to be shared. The great thing about blogs is they continue to remain relevant long-term and continue to drive traffic for years to come. This content is referred to as evergreen content.
Make sure you are targeting specific topics of interest relevant to your target audience.
6. Write guest blog articles
Guest blogging is a great strategy for driving relevant traffic and establishing yourself and your business as a leader in your industry.
Share your expertise with other sites whose audience is relevant to your niche.
Alternatively, you can invite guest bloggers to contribute to your site. Have them mention your site somewhere in their existing posts. It’s a win for both parties.
7. Conduct competitor research
Researching your competition is a great way to gather insight into pieces of content to create. Being that they are your competitors, you should have the same general audience.
You can see what type of content these readers are Qengaging with most on your competitor’s website to help you brainstorm topics of interest for your website.
By gathering information on your competitors, you can determine what topics to center your content around. You can also target new keywords to target to help drive more traffic to your site.
Summary of how to drive more website traffic
By implementing some of the strategies mentioned in this article, you will see a boost in quality traffic. Focus on bringing leads to your site the right way and watch the great impact it has on your business.
This guest blog article was written by Corey Doane who is a contributing editor for 365 Business Tips. She has a bachelor of science in Public Relations from San Jose State University. She has experience in public relations, marketing and communication.
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