Every business wants to get more customers and one way to do that is to increase your website traffic. The more eyes you get on your offer, the more chances you have to make a sale.
But it’s got to be the right sort of traffic. You can’t simply buy traffic and expect it to be the kind of top-quality traffic that converts. Not only that, but trying to increase your website traffic in the wrong way can have unpleasant repercussions from loss of your reputation to being banned from Google.
So, how do you increase your traffic in the right way?
Let’s start with quality traffic that will move the needle on your bottom line.
What is quality traffic?
Quality traffic is targeted and engaged traffic that’s most likely to convert, either by entering your sales funnel or by actually making the decision to buy.
Quality traffic will not be found on any of those wildly exaggerated internet sites with yellow, flashing banners, exclamation points for days, and calls to action that are WRITTEN ALL IN CAPS!!!! You know the ones, the sites that claim to get you huge amounts of traffic in minutes at the push of a button.
Trust us, you will regret any time or money that you spend on these sites. These are exactly the sort of sites that will produce zero results, except for the owners of said sites. Just steer clear. You can do better than that. And we’re going to show you how.
Is Your Website Visitor Ready?
Take some time to look through your website as if you were a visitor seeing it for the first time. Run through our handy checklist below and you should be good to go:
1) Appearance
Is your site attractive and well-designed? Does it look up to date and reflect where your business is now? Is there plenty of white space and have you avoided the mistake of having a great wall of text to greet people with?
Ensure you’re only using at most 3 colors and a couple of complimentary fonts. Use headings, bullet points, lists, and more to break up your text and make it easy to read. This also works to draw the reader’s eye down the page.
2) Clarity
Is it obvious what you do and who you are for within the first paragraph? Can visitors easily see how to navigate and find what they need?
Is your content tailored to your ideal customer and free from errors? Do you have clear calls to action that tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do?
Does your site draw the visitor through the customer journey and encourage them to take action?
3) Site speed, responsiveness, and accessibility
No one is going to wait much longer than 3 seconds for your site to load. If it isn’t available quickly, your customers will leave in favor of your competitors, so check your site speed and fix it, if your site is slow.
The use of mobile devices is increasing when browsing and buying. If your site isn’t responsive on every device, you are losing customers. Likewise, your site also needs to look good on each browser, so check that it works and appears how you want it to appear on every platform.
Make sure your site is accessible to anyone, including those with a disability. Check out ThemeIsle’s article on making your site accessible for more.
How to Increase Your Website Traffic
Now you know the type of traffic you need and you’ve primped and preened your website to perfection, let’s get into the nitty-gritty on how to go about increasing traffic in the right way.
Every one of these items below will have an impact on your traffic, but if you do them all, your business really should start to see a difference in quality traffic that converts.
1. Google Business Profile (GBP)
The way we shop has been changing to focus more and more online, especially since the pandemic began. Customers now spend a lot of time researching and comparing companies before they make a decision to buy. Google is by far the biggest search engine with an almost 86% share, according to Statista.
Why does that matter? Well, Google Business Profile (formally called Google My Business) is free and it gets your business more attention in Google’s search engine if you keep it optimized and keep it updated regularly.
Google is literally asking you how you want them to talk about you online and giving you a page of your own on which to do it. And your profile links to your website, which will of course drive traffic your way. Why wouldn’t you make the most of that?
A fully optimized listing on GBP gets seven times more visitors than one that’s not fully completed, so it’s time to either sign up, if you haven’t, or give your GBP a shakeup if you have.
Make sure you’ve chosen the right category for your business and linked to your website. Add in as much information about your business as possible and use keywords and high-converting key phrases in your copy. Give your contact details and your opening hours so customers can easily reach you, and answer any questions your customers have in your FAQ. You can even start off by answering questions you think they might need answers to, if you don’t have any questions yet.
Don’t forget to add high-quality images to your profile, including any of the outside of your premises and your signage. High-quality signage is eye-catching and an easy landmark for new customers looking to find you. And, adding good photographs gives a great impression of a thriving, attractive business.
Keep on top of your reviews on your profile too. We’ll go into reviews a little further down in this article, but at minimum, interact with each review you get, including the negative ones. This really does create a great first impression for new customers who are thinking of buying from you.
2. Business Directories
Make sure that your company is listed in the free business directories. You can list yourself in general business directories and also in any industry-specific directories for extra traffic.
Most directories will let you have a link back to your website, so you’re creating the opportunity for more qualified traffic. Some directories also have high authority with Google and the other search engines, and your directory listing may well be shown high up in the search engines because of that.
Just ensure that when you do your listings, you write your details in the same way every time. If you’re listed in one directory as AB Holdings and another as AB Company, for example, you’re likely to confuse both your customers and the search engines. Make sure everything from your phone number to your name, address and email are consistent on every directory.
If you’d like some help with that, Surefire’s local marketing platform can update your listing in over 80 online directories for you so you’re always displaying the same, accurate information across all listings.
3. Reviews
Obviously, the more reviews you have, the more impressive it is when new potential customers are searching for a business like yours.
Going back to your GBP for a moment, to keep your profile optimized, you need to keep acquiring fresh new reviews regularly. Older reviews diminish in value and customers are known for only looking at the most recently acquired reviews. Don’t neglect this or neglect interacting with your reviews.
Paying attention to your reviews increases your reputation and shows good customer service. You’ll also find that people aren’t put off by a few poor reviews if you handle them well and don’t lose your cool.
People do look at reviews when choosing a business to buy from and having a great selection of recent 5-star reviews can do wonders for your quality traffic.
We know it’s difficult to keep on top of your reviews and to keep acquiring new ones, but our local marketing software is built to help you request reviews and manage your response to them, all from one easy-to-use dashboard.
4. Social media
Having a great presence on social media is another way to send back high-quality traffic to your website. With a business page, you can fill in a lot of information about your business, including your website and other social links. You can also use buttons to send customers directly to your store or to sign up for your newsletter.
Create fantastic content that’s engaging and reflects your business. Interact, like, and comment when people comment on your posts. Be human, be appealing, and you will attract your ideal customers.
You can also get reviews on social media, and again, it’s important to engage with them and comment.
It’s also important to use the right hashtags to attract attention. You can use your tagline as a hashtag, your company name, any products or services you offer, and any industry hashtags.
Be consistent on social media, post regularly, and don’t let your page develop tumbleweed. Keep it active and full of great, engaging content and you will start to see quality traffic coming back to your website.
5. Content
We’ve mentioned content briefly above when talking about getting your website ready for visitors, but content plays a huge part in attracting your customers and persuading them to buy.
You need regular, fresh content on your blog, on social media, and on your GBP to keep visitors engaged and informed. Great content can also get you found in the search engines and seen as the expert in your field. You can establish trust, show off your products and services, and even persuade people to buy with top-quality content.
Not only that, but you need the right content at each stage of your sales funnel. At the top of the funnel, you need educational blog posts and videos to start to show people why they should look into your company further as an option. For the middle of the funnel, you need more in-depth, persuasive content, such as white papers, longer articles and posts, and webinars. At the bottom of the funnel, create case studies and webinars, and try to nudge people into booking a demo or a sales call.
Create a content strategy that matches your business goals and plan your content out in advance. You can use our local marketing platform to jot down ideas, write, and schedule your content. We like to make life easier for our clients.
6. Email marketing
With well-done email marketing, you can entice people to click on your links and take action. You can build a mailing list of people who really want to hear from you, and then you have a list you can market to every time you have a new promotion on a product or service to share. You can give your subscribers member-only discounts and make them feel special.
With email marketing, you can also set up a welcome sequence for new subscribers to guide them to your best content and to show them what’s available on your website.
Offer a valuable lead magnet to persuade people to sign up to your list, keep them engaged and educated, and you could be marketing to them over and over again for years.
7. Digital advertising
Try Google and Bing Ads, and perhaps social ads, such as Facebook or Instagram Ads. If you go where your customers go, you’ll have more chance of reaching the right audience, so think about where you’re likely to find your ideal customers before you get into paid ads.
When you’re setting up your ads, depending on the platform, you can choose keywords and phrases to target and demographics, hobbies, interests, and even your competitors.
If you’re not familiar with paid ads, do watch your budget. You can lose your shirt easily if you aren’t careful. Set an affordable daily budget and stick to it.
With the right tailored ads, you can send quality traffic back to your website and start people moving through your sales funnel.
8. Geo-location check-ins
When you create a check-in, you’re establishing your service area online and telling Google that you conduct business in this area. This then helps your business’s online visibility grow in that area. The more check-ins you can create, the stronger your online presence becomes in the exact local markets you service. With each check-in, you can link back to your website for people to learn more about your business.
Surefire Local’s mobile app makes creating geo-location check-in content super easy. Just snap a photo of the job, add a description, and upload it to your website and social media feeds.
Take your time and keep testing and improving, and with these eight steps, you could soon be seeing an increase in traffic to your website.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform demo
Surefire’s local marketing software is designed to make life easier for businesses when they’re trying to attract more customers and build quality traffic.
We have developed a platform that will allow you to manage everything in one place, including your social media, content, reviews, business directories, and your Google Business Profile.
There’s no need to learn multiple pieces of software or sign in to multiple accounts. There’s just one sign-in to our simple-to-use dashboard and you can manage everything right there.
Increase your website traffic the easy way with Surefire Local. Book your demo today.
