10 Tips To Boosting Your Website Traffic
Boosting your website traffic can create an income boom for your business.
But with the number of internet products and services, one can soon become pretty confused about where to start. That’s why I have put together some basic tips that are easy, inexpensive and will have significant results. How do you use your website to increase visibility and get new leads? Read on to get that website traffic moving through.
Websites and the content of websites has been growing in importance steadily, year after year,. Many consumers look to the internet to research products and services before making a buying decision.
Therefore, having a good website presence and making it easy to find are vital to a successful web marketing program.
Following are my tips to increase your website visibility and traffic. Before starting on these tips is important to remember that the results are not instant and it may take weeks or months to see the results. Getting started sooner, rather than later, means the return on your investment will be realized that much faster.
1. Install Google Analytics.
One of the first items on the agenda is to install Google Analytics which is a tracking system that will give you website statistics. The site statistics include: source of the traffic, links clicked by visitors, how long they spent on the site, which pages they viewed, etc.
This information is invaluable in analyzing what is working on your site and what is not.
And Google Analytics is free! Usually, the only expense is having your web designer install it into your website if you do not have the know-how — but this is one-time fee and the information you’ll start receiving in a matter of days is well worth it. Here at RESPONSE!, we have years of analytics data available to us we use to tweak our website and increase results and traffic.
2. Keep Your Website Current With A Blog
Blogs, or Web LOGs, are a great way to update your website with latest news, stories related to your services, product reviews, event information and anything else you care to write about. It also helps boost search engine rankings because your website is more current. An added bonus is they can be pretty simple to use and if you can use email, you can blog.
All RESPONSE! websites have a blog included but if you don’t have one you can sign up for a free blog and link it to your website. Free blog sites include WordPress.com, Blogger.com and Blogspot.com.
3. Get a Facebook Account
Facebook is a key social networking site to get involved in. Create a profile at Facebook.com and start finding colleagues, friends, acquaintances, and possible business connections. You can also set up your blog to syndicate to your Facebook account so that your friends see your latest news and tips.
RESPONSE! website traffic increases 20% after every blog we post as my blog syndicates to my social networking profiles.
4. Get Listed on Google and Yahoo! Local Business Listings
Both Google and Yahoo Local Business listings are free and allow you to upload website data, contact info, videos, pictures and more. Your business then appears on a map under the categories you selected when you signed up. A user then searches for, say, “[City] Chiropractor” and Google displays a city map with local chiropractors flagged at the top of the search engine.
During our recent Clayton Grand Opening RESPONSE! was viewed so many times on Google Local Businesses that the our listing has been upgraded to a Google Favorite. And this leads to the next very important website traffic tip.
5. Promote Your Website Every Chance You Get
Prominently display your website address on business cards, brochures, postcard mailings, advertising and anywhere else you promote. Tell potential buyers to visit at every opportunity.
The RESPONSE! website statistics increase without fail when postcard mailings are sent out and, thanks to Google Analytics, we know which pages are getting attention and should be beefed up or given an additional investment of time — it’s free market research!
6. Check Your Google Analytics Stats
Remember to check what’s happening in your Google Analytics Reports, spend some time getting familiar with it and use the different features to find out more about your visitors.
Use the information to get your website edited or updated according to your findings. It’s a great method to find weak points in your website promotion and discover which links your visitors are most interested in clicking.
7. Make Sure You Collect Visitor’s Information for Follow-Up and Further Promotion
Once you get visitors to the site it is important to collect their information so you can continue to promote to them if they do not immediately call or respond.
Making an offer such as a free report, samples or introductory offer that requires their contact details to receive is a common method to collect the data. It helps if you state their information will not be sold and is for use by your business alone.
8. Use Email Marketing to Drive Up Traffic
Send email to your existing customers and to past leads and encourage them to visit the site. One method is to give part of an interesting newsletter or tip in the email and then give a link the reader has to click to complete reading the story on your website. And, because you have a blog, the full story is available on your website as a post in your blog!
When using email marketing, make sure to use a system like Constant Contact which will improve email deliverability and take the pain out of email bounces and undeliverable addresses that clog the inbox!
9. Remember To Target Your Audience
Don’t fall into the trap of trying to cater to everybody. By trying to appeal to everybody, you could appeal to no one. This is a key factor in why TV advertising is falling in popularity — lack of targeted audiences combined with high costs.
Your years in business will show clear demographics of who your customers are and what they want. Use this information to target your website and data to that audience. If you have an idea for a new audience you can always start a new website and repackage your campaign for the new intended audience.
If you are not sure what your customers have in common RESPONSE! has a profiling service available through our list company that will compare the records on your customer list and locate all the common points your customers have — information you may not have access to including income levels and credit profiles.
10. Remember to Keep Your Content Relevant
An additional factor in targeting your audience is keep your website content and blogs relevant to the business you’re in. Search engines have grown savvy over the years and now avoid sites that do not provide useful information. One key method to drive up results is to update the site and blog with current and relevant information to the industry that you are in: adding to the internet culture in general and providing useful tips, advice or data to users that they appreciate.
For example, a contractor would not write about cartoons or tax tips. He would write tips on roof maintenance, or a comparison or review of different roofing materials available and when to use which.
The internet is a big subject and ten short tips is all I could cover in this article. I will tackle the subject of web marketing in future issues but these are vital tips you should get started on straight away if you found any that your business is weak on.
Of course, here at RESPONSE! we can help you implement any of the marketing tips provided here and have packages available for ultimate value and maximum impact. Our Web Department has recently been beefed up with extra staff and our websites are being produced faster and better then anytime in our past.
And if any of this information was a little over your head our consultants are available to talk you through it at 1-800-690-0945.
Filed under Marketing Basics by on Jan 14th, 2010. 
