How Do I Get More Traffic to My Website?
Getting more website traffic is the main question asked by every type of business worldwide. With foot-traffic and traditional marketing techniques crippled for the unforeseeable future, online visibility is crucial. Here is our STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE to standing out from the crowd and actually drive traffic to your business.
Branding
It all begins with great branding.
The LOGO should be simple and relevant to your brand. This is not the time to have an elaborate or confusing design. Think of the most successful and recognizable logos: the Nike swoosh, Apple’s apple with a bite taken out, or FedEx’s simple two-toned name.
COLORS play an important part of conveying your brand. Red is attention getting but can be overwhelming, blue inspires trust, and green represents wellness. whether food-related or financial. Click here to learn more about colors in branding.
FONTS should also be representative of your branding’s message. Serif fonts (like Baskerville, Didot, or Georgia) are more traditional and sophisticated while San Sarif fonts (like Helvetica, Avenir, or Verdana) are more modern and humanistic. Slab Sarif fonts (like Clarendon, Josefin, or Museo) are more contemporary or trendy and Script fonts (like Edwardian, Snell Roundhand, or Zapfino) are more elegant and formal.
Your branding should also include a great, memorable TAGLINE like “Have it your way” or “Just do it”.
A great brand should immediately attract people to what your product or service offers and then give them a sense of belonging. It is important to remember that a good product or service generates customers, but a great brand generates advocates.
Website Design
Once your branding is well-defined, the next important piece of the puzzle is your website. You only have about 8 seconds to make a good impression online before your viewer will start to look for another site. You need a website that holds their attention long enough to make them want to learn more.
There are many website builder software options available that makes it very easy to create a beautiful website including Wix, Weebly, GoDaddy’s Website Builder, or more complex builders like Wordpress. Unless you have years experience in design and marketing, you will have just that: a pretty website with no substance, visibility or staying power. A quality website is just like a brick and mortar store, it’s worth it to spend the money to build something that people want to visit, see that you are authority, and trust giving you their money for a quality product or service.
There are a number of questions a qualified web designer will ask you in order to create that perfect website:
What is the PURPOSE of your site? Do you just need a landing page that gives an overview of your business with an easy way to contact you or do you need to sell products or services online?
Who is your TARGET AUDIENCE? If you are offering financial advice, you are not going to have a website with whimsical colors or fonts, but you may if you are advertising your daycare facility.
What is your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? What set you apart from the crowd?
Which type of devices will your audience be using? Mobile usage is increasing daily so all sites needs to be ALL-DEVICE RESPONSIVE.
What KEYWORDS will potential customers use when searching for you online?
Who is your biggest COMPETITION? (although a great web designer will already know)
Do you need any SPECIAL FEATURES like a scheduling system, client management system, inventory controls or anything else to help you run your business efficiently?
You should also have a list of questions to ask your potential website designer to ensure you have the right one for your business: Click here to see a suggested list of questions.
SEO
Keywords are the words that people use to find you online. Google and other search engines use hundreds of factors to determine your rank in their algorithm but using the right keywords is one of the most important pieces. The first step is finding the best keywords and phrases is by auditing your competitors’ sites through a third party site auditor like Moz or Ubersuggest. This is a complex process as some keywords are already so commonplace that it is nearly impossible to rank for them. Smaller companies need to rely on longer specific phrases (long-tail keywords) which give a higher return. Here are the steps:
Identify TOPICS to focus on
Identify KEYWORDS within the themes
Research related THEMES for more opportunities
Track head terms and LONG-TAIL KEYWORDS
Once you have a prioritized list, these keywords and phrases must be strategically placed in specific places on your website (like on your H1 and H2 headings or images) where the Googlebots know where to crawl. Your site will be deemed more authoritative and useful by Google’s algorithm, keeping your business’ climb up the search ranking scale steady.
Content Marketing
Content marketing or on-page optimization is a skill. Once keywords and phrases are discovered, they must be interweaved throughout your website content on a consistent yet strategic basis. One of the best ways to do this is by offering a blog or articles section on your website which is constantly growing and changing. Google will see viable new material as a positive and rank it accordingly.
Content marketing should include:
Fresh, HIGH QUALITY CONTENT that is relevant and original.
Minimum of 500 WORDS (1000-2000 is ideal)
Strategically INTEGRATED KEYWORDS and phrases in the appropriate amount in headline, title, sub-headline, and the content’s body
EXTERNAL LINKS to relevant sites and INTERNAL LINKS that direct the use back to your own site
When done correctly and effectively, on-page optimization plays a very important role in establishing your authority online and in search rankings.
Backlinks
Back linking, also known as inbound links, are the links to your website from other sites on the Internet. Backlinks can indicate how popular your site is and is yet another factor Google looks at when ranking your website. Because Google’s PageRank looks at the quality and quantity of links to a webpage, it is important not to choose a company that bombs your information everywhere. MORE IS NOT BETTER and Google will tend to overlook you if your website information is in too many low-quality links.
A good backlinks company will research the APPROPRIATE BACKLINKS for your specific business and will ensure that your information is consistent across the board. If you choose a company yourself, ensure that you will own the backlink in the long run and it won’t disappear once you stop paying a monthly fee.
Digital Marketing
Buyer behavior has changed (maybe permanently) and more consumers are spending their money online. Are you out and in front of your target market? What are your goals? What is your reason to advertise online? Here are a few more questions that need to be answered before starting any digital advertising campaign:
Are you looking for something more broad like BRAND RECOGNITION or are you advertising a specific product or service?
What SPECIFIC RESULTS are you looking for? Do you want to sell a certain number of products or drive more traffic to your website?
Who is your TARGET MARKET? Looking for the over 50 crowd? Facebook may be best. 30’s or 40’s? Try Instagram. Business to business? Try LinkedIn.
Will ORGANIC MARKETING or PPC (pay per click) work best for your needs?
It is easy to spend a fortune on digital advertising without getting measurable results. This is not the time to “try it out” just because Facebook or Google is having a sale. Effective digital advertising demands research and the knowledge where and when to place an ad. Some organic (or unpaid ads) are twice as effective as paid ads if used in the correct way. Contact us for more information.
Analytics
This is where many businesses fall short. They work hard to set up a marketing plan but then fails to measure what is working and what is not. If your website designer or digital marketer does not provide analytics, then you have no way of knowing which methods are actually worthwhile. At a minimum, add your website to Google Search Console and monitor your website platform’s built in Analytic reports.
When to Find Help
Because of the warp speed that everything changes online, it can be difficult for any business to generate traffic online consistently.
Ranking algorithms change constantly causing a SLIP IN SEARCH RESULTS
Websites can look DATED AND NOT WORK WELL on all device types
Content needs to be FRESH AND RELEVANT
DIGITAL MARKETING may not giving you the results you need or is just non-existent
NEW COMPETITION is cropping up and attracting your target customers
5-star Google-rated Charlotte’s Web Design, LLC is a sole proprietor web design and digital marketing firm specializing in custom, professional websites, SEO, branding, logo design, content writing, and graphic design. With over 35 years of technology experience, Charlotte's Web Design, LLC is currently working with over a hundred small businesses. It is based in Connecticut and Rhode Island but offers services to all states.