There once was a time when you could separate yourself from the competition by simply paying a little extra to develop an aesthetically pleasing website, but that’s no longer the case. Having a sleek, well-designed website is pretty much the norm for competitive businesses of all size these days.
It takes more than good looking web pages; you have to attract the right traffic to those web pages, too. You have to be capable of weeding through irrelevant website traffic to find potential customers that will actually be interested in what you have to offer. Typically, you can accomplish this by focusing on five important guidelines.
The backbone of any successful traffic-building strategy is good, relevant content. You can’t skimp here and it’s important to take time developing the right articles, blog posts and site copy from the start. Your content is your voice on the internet and there needs to be a consistent tone that’s true to your brand identity.
While it’s certainly a viable option to outsource your writing efforts, don’t take a totally hands-off approach. Work closely with whoever is writing your content to ensure the tone is consistent with the message you’re trying to portray.
There is some overlap when it comes to SEO and content marketing, but don’t assume that they’re the same thing. SEO is more than keyword stuffing; it’s an art form that deals with strategically structuring titles, linking to appropriate sites, using the correct anchor texts, optimizing images, and more.
When you’re looking to drive highly relevant website traffic, your best option is to invest in long-tail keywords that your niche market would search. For example, if you’re a restaurant in Colorado, you may want to use the keyword “best vegan restaurant in Colorado Springs,” as opposed to “best vegan restaurant.” The latter will end up acquiring people from all over the country – driving down your conversion rate.
The third tip is to master the art of creating compelling, high-converting landing pages that persuade visitors to take a specific action on your website. While there are hundreds of options, you don’t need to spend thousands on a web developer to get quality landing pages.
One of the easiest ways to build successful landing pages is to simply install good landing page plugins. These streamline the process and save you time. But if there’s one thing to keep in mind when building landing pages, it should be to always narrow your aim and focus on a specific niche, as opposed to casting a wide net.
While social media platforms are great for building communities, they’re useless unless community members take action. Include your website information in all social profiles and include direct CTAs to visit your site or landing pages in approximately 10 percent of your posts. Paid social advertisements can also be a great way to drive targeted traffic to your site and generally reaches users that aren’t already following or participating in your social media groups.
If you have the patience to try an extremely organic method of traffic acquisition, you can participate in regular discussions on industry blogs, forums, and social media groups. This not only allows you to establish yourself as an active thought leader but also gives you an opportunity to link back to your website in your profile or signature. Over time, you’ll begin to develop a reputation among regular users and may become respected enough to be asked to write guest blogs or participate in podcasts where you can include a plug for your site.
Are you effectively driving the right traffic to your website? If you aren’t focusing on any of these five tactics, you’re probably missing out on some major opportunities. Next time your organization reassesses its customer acquisition traffic, consider bringing up these points and making a change.
