So, you have your website up and running with a hip look and savvy product images. So where are your customers? Why haven’t they found you? With approximately 1.92 billion digital buyers across the globe, getting your website noticed is no small feat. One thing’s for sure, you’ll need a plan. So, to increase your website traffic and set yourself up for success, you’ll want to do the following:
- Broaden your audience
- Write pertinent content
- Use keywords and long-tail keywords
- Incorporate SEO Optimization
- Advertise on social media
If this list looks a little heavy, stop. Don’t panic. Before becoming overwhelmed by what seems like a digital quagmire, let’s break it all down and take it one step at a time.
1. Broaden your audience
There’s satisfaction and comfort in knowing exactly who you’re marketing to, so creating a profile for your audience is tempting, “Look Ma! I’ve created the perfect customer.” But this strategy is dangerous.
Whittling your audience down to a set of details that describes their background, interests, and shopping habits runs the risk of diminishing your sales. How? Because your cut-and-dry description of who you think your customers are eliminates potential customers who you never knew existed. You don’t want to market your product so tightly that you turn away customers who might be interested in your products but feel you’re not speaking to them.
People are usually more complex than we give them credit for. So, instead of selling to a group, try selling to an individual, like one of your customers. If you can, meet face-to-face. Now, you’re speaking with a multifaceted individual rather than the one you created from a list of adjectives. You can hear their unique story about why they purchase your products. Their reasons could be different from why you thought customers purchased your products and are very likely different from why other customers purchase from you. This practice of broadening your audience moves you away from thinking of your customers as two-dimensional and more as a dynamic customer base by opening you up to new ways of how to sell your products.
2. Write pertinent content
Don’t write content just to have content on your site. You want to write authentic content that honestly speaks to your customers about their needs and wants. It’s not even enough to have interesting or informative content. You also need to understand where your audience is coming from, and then write content about your products and services that showcase how they fulfill your customers’ needs and wants. After all, people visit your site in search of something, so make sure your content works together with your products and services to complete the sale. Once you understand your audience and begin writing worthwhile content that speaks to your customers, it’s time to turn to Google.
3. Use keywords and long-tail keywords
Google is an invaluable tool when it comes to increasing website traffic. And keywords help make it happen. Keywords come into play when you’re working on optimizing your site using SEO (Search Engine Optimization). But you won’t bring traffic to your website unless you use organic SEO practices. This begins by using keywords in your content. Your business’s keywords are no big secret. On the contrary, they are simply the words customers use when performing an online search. Keywords often just consist of the services or products you sell.
For example: If you search “knee replacement surgeon near me,” a Search Engine Result Page (SERP) will appear with a list of doctor’s offices specializing in orthopedic surgery or knee replacement. Notice that the words “knee” and “surgery” are in most of the websites’ titles and all of their descriptions. That’s because these are the keywords you entered
But long-tail keywords go beyond the obvious keywords and provide good traffic results that are not very competitive. A simple search on the Google search bar brings up a dropdown menu of all kinds of suggestions that people search for.
So do a keyword search of your website and see what the SERP brings up. Then include these words or phrases in your article and meta description. This will increase traffic to your website, because having included the words people are already searching for gives you a leg up. You can also search for long-tail words at the bottom of the SERP under “Searches related to.”
And a visit to Google AdWords Keyword Planner can help get you started by showing the monthly volume of the words and phrases searched and show you which keyword searches might perform well.
4. Incorporate SEO optimization
This title might sound intimidating, but learning how to optimize your website is one of the most important things you can do to make sure your pages and articles show up on a SERP. The following list includes easy ways to optimize your article that take very little time but offer big results.
- In the meta information, include keywords in the title of your article as well as in the description.
- Repeat those keywords in the natural flow of your text. Keyword variations work too. For example: using the word “surgery” instead of “surgeon.”
- Find reasons to include relevant, high-ranking source links to include on your site.
- Include one h1 title at the top of your article and a numbered list, using h2 headings for each paragraph title. Use this article as an example. Or for more information on how and why to use headings in your articles, see our blog “How Headings Impact SEO and How to Write Them.”
5. Advertise on social media
Because not everyone runs in the same social media circles, it’s important to know which ones your audience uses and which ones are most beneficial to your business. A little demographic research will easily tell you which platforms your audience frequents. And don’t worry about making everyone like you, just concentrate on finding customers who are interested and engaged in your posts. Because when you have a community of followers, even a small one, you build a supportive network of current and potential customers who will respond to your posts and repost your content.
Beware: Make sure to monitor people’s responses by interacting with positive posts and making sure any negative posts are addressed appropriately. Remember, to resolve any issues before they get out of hand.
As far as content is concerned, do a little research on what your audience finds interesting. Then create something they’ll appreciate, like posts that are educational, funny, poignant, or beneficial to them in some way. You can even ask questions. Just remember that your content should entertain people so they’ll want to read, share, and comment on it.
Tip: And so you stay organized and don’t drive yourself crazy, make a content calendar to keep track of which site you post to and on which days. That way, you can write a bunch of posts, maybe a week’s or a month’s worth at a time, and plan them in advance, complete with hashtags, links, images and whatever else you’ve got.
Final Thoughts
While increasing traffic to your website isn’t rocket science, you do need to know how to go about doing it. That said, it takes a lot of time and effort to get your website up to speed. But it’s worth it and so important if you want to get noticed in today’s digital marketing world.
Be a marketing Titan:
✓ Talk to your audience to find out who they are and why they like your products
✓ Speak to your customers and tell them how your products and services match their needs
✓ Increase traffic and sales organically by using keywords, long tail keywords, and social media
✓ Contact Titan Publishing and talk to an expert who can do an analysis of your website to make sure on the right track
Maureen Cooke
Production Writer