A small business without a website will stay small, plain and simple. As critical as a website is for small business success, a website that gets little-to-no traffic is just as bad – or even possibly worse. These 20 tips will help you drive traffic to your website that will generate engagement with potential buyers, build brand awareness and lead to profits.
- Build a great website.
A website that loads slowly, uses too many flash elements or doesn’t speak to your target market won’t do your business any good. Make sure your website has top-notch content, loads quickly and speaks right to the pain points of your target market.
- Start a blog.
Blogging in short, easily scannable chunks of SEO-optimized content is just plain smart. It’s a no-to-low cost way to establish yourself as the go-to expert in your field. That’s called attraction marketing, and it means bringing your ideal client to you rather than your chasing them all over the Internet.
- Strengthen your SEO.
Your ideal clients are the people for whom you solve a problem. The key to search engine optimization is to use the keywords and long-tail keywords your ideal clients use to identify their problem and to search for your solution. Aim to fit your keywords in once for every 200 words of content on your site.
- Add social channels.
You should be present on every social media channel where your target market hangs out. Make sure your social media profiles and website create a cohesive brand story and that your profiles have links to your website (and vice versa).
- Create valuable video tutorials.
Did you know YouTube is owned by search engine powerhouse Google? Did you know YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world, second only to Google itself? You can create a free YouTube channel for your business and provide video tutorials and content. Put links to your website in the video captions and watch the traffic roll in.
- Lure with loot.
Host contests on your social media. Contestants winning inexpensive, but high-value, prizes are popular social media lures. Just make sure the full contest details and application are available on your website, not your social media channels.
- Offer exclusive discounts.
Use email newsletters and social media to drive buyers to your website for discount codes, sales and special offers. Tell them about the discounts via other outlets, but make the codes available exclusively on your website.
- Advertise like a pro.
Spend your marketing dollars to strategically target your ideal demographic with paid search and social media advertising. Optimize your paid advertising for website conversions and drive steady streams of traffic to your small business website.
- Invite industry influencers to guest blog.
Guest blogging is a mutually beneficial one-two-three punch. Guest bloggers with huge followings will write quality posts, save you valuable time on content creation, and they’ll post about it on their online outlets. Make a link to your website is mandatory in their guest blogs, and you’re in business.
- Leverage the professional power of LinkedIn.
Unlike other social media channels, LinkedIn is a strictly professional atmosphere. Post content – even your repurposed blog posts – to LinkedIn on a regular basis and include links back to your site. You’ll boost your site’s traffic, raise your brands awareness and grow a nice-sized following on LinkedIn.
- Utilize question-and-answers sites.
Quora is a question-and-answer site with a huge community of users. As of April 2017, Quora snagged 190 million monthly users – that makes it a small business owner’s dream. If your target market is online (and they are), they’re asking questions on Quora. That’s where your expertise comes in. Answer relevant questions on Quora and link back to your website.
- Emphasize with emails.
Email marketing is here to stay, and it’s a good way to make special offers, create a community of newsletter readers and attract new customers. Don’t neglect email marketing because it’s a powerful tool – especially among the people who’ve already purchased from you. Don’t bombard your subscribers with emails on a daily basis, but it’s a good idea to use email marketing to remind them of upcoming events and of new products and services, some of which might only be available by clicking the link that takes them to your website.
- Build your email list.
One of the best ways to do that is with a landing page. Think of it a landing page as a one-page website that offers a lead magnet – a checklist or giveaway users download after they subscribe to your email list. Make the lead magnet irresistible and include a compelling call to action.
- Turn texts into traffic.
If you’re like the majority of people over the age of 12, you probably have a smartphone in your hand or close by your side right now. You might even be reading this on your smart device. People might look at emails and read them later, but most people look at and answer text messages as soon as they get them. They just have an immediacy built into them. Use that sense of urgency to share discounts and special offers that lead right to your website.
- Speed things up.
Make sure you have high-quality images and videos on your website that load quickly. If your website takes more than three to five seconds to load, your visitors will probably head off to another site. Make all your website’s pages as technically optimized as possible for faster loading and a better user experience because once you get them to your website, you need to get them to stay.
- Keep content current.
Would you be impressed by a website with seriously outdate content? Neither will your potential clients. If your website looks dated, is hard to navigate or contains outdated content, it will turn users away in droves. Keep the look, feel and content fresh, and visitors will keep coming back.
- Market like a maniac.
Put your website URL on everything. Make sure it’s prominently featured on your business cards, in your outgoing text message signature, in your outgoing email signature, on every piece of promo material, on every guest blog and on every social media profile. Everything.
- Survey your target market.
Sites like Survey Monkey and many social media channels allow you to create surveys and polls at no cost to you. Those surveys and polls are often overlooked and undervalued in the small business and entrepreneur community. They’re the perfect way to get your target market to tell you want they want you to sell them and how much they’re willing to pay for it. At the end of the survey or poll, send them right to your website to buy what they’ve already told you they want.
- Teach a class.
Sites like Udemy, Teachable and LinkedIn Learning make it easy to create webinars and online courses that your target market will love. They’ll find the information and resources they need in small chunks and visit your website for more.
- Host live events.
At the end of the day, all the individuals who make up your target market are looking for one or more of the solutions you provide. Turn those lessons into workshops and host one, or a series, of live events. Deliver quality material, let your audience get to know you up close and in person, dazzle them and make sure your website URL is on everything you put in their hands.
Ask any small business CEO what they need most and they’ll tell you they need more capital and more clients. One of the best ways to get those clients is with a website that compels action, engages users, and builds profits. If you leverage the twenty tips above, you’ll drive much-need traffic from the right buyer to your website.
