Driving customers to your website
Anyone who has ever been part of developing a dynamic and effective website knows it takes energy and patience. So now you have built it, surely ‘they’ will come… right?
Sadly, it isn’t that simple. The mysterious art of generating web traffic can feel a lot like a complicated road map with endless paths to the destination. There is no definitive answer, no magical algorithm and no simple ‘quick fix’ to guarantee potential customers will magically discover your website.
The internet is organic and with ever-changing goalposts, the answer sits between both art and science. The art is the use of great copy and imagery and the science is the optimisation of the technology. The key is ensuring both are regularly updated.
SEO – is this the holy grail?
Search engine optimisation (SEO) can have a significant impact on your site’s exposure. Search engines such as Google and Bing use bots to crawl pages on the web, going from site to site, collecting information about those pages and putting them in an index. SEO is about tweaking your site to ensure you’re rated by the bots as credible and relevant to the right searchers.
There are many pieces to the puzzle of a strong SEO profile, and three important areas are keywords, images and technical tips.
Make smart use of keywords
People use keywords when searching for information about a subject. Frequently integrating these words into your body copy means search engine crawlers will more likely prioritise your site as most relevant to that search. A great way to increase keyword frequency is to introduce regular blogging.
Images can add to your SEO success
If images are formatted correctly with effective tags and metadata, search engines will seek them out in the same way they seek out keywords, even though they are invisible to the visitor.
Get the technical side right
The technical side is vital for moving your site up the SEO rankings. That’s about making sure your site is well built and that you’re supporting it with advertising (also known as SEM - Search Engine Marketing).
Use social media to reach new eyeballs
As a fourth puzzle piece, paid and boosted advertising on popular social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn will get your website in front of target demographics. Compelling content within your advertising is crucial to motivate click-through.
Deliver a continuous stream of interesting content
At the heart of driving traffic is delivering content people want. Blogging, video and images will bring people in, introduce them to your brand and boost your search rankings – a triple whammy. Think about running competitions or sharing valuable industry insights to drive customer engagement.
This may seem relentless, because… it is. You can take the pressure off by partnering with other content creators or even paying influencers.
It may sound like you need to herd 100 cats to achieve the audience goal of your dreams. But catching small groups will reap great rewards and get your web traffic purring in no time.
Ready to start today? Talk to us now.