If you ask any entrepreneur or marketer what they want the most, they are likely going to tell you more customers. What do you think came in a close second on their wish list? It is almost always more website Traffic. The two just go hand in hand. However, entrepreneurs often feel that the deck is stacked against them, especially when it comes to digital marketing. Large corporations have massive marketing departments with people who specialize in every area. How can a small business person overcome these odds?

Nevertheless, it is not just an issue of website traffic, but also the quality of the traffic. One important statistic to understand is that only 4 percent of website visitors are ready to buy when they are visiting a website. This means that a significant portion of your marketing effort needs to be focused on effective frequency. In marketing, this is the number of times that a consumer must see your message before taking an action. So, it is critical to find effective methods to turn visitors into blog subscribers, social media followers, newsletter sign-ups, and other techniques that will grow your audience, increase brand awareness, develop trust, and convert those prospects and leads into active customers. Don’t you agree?

The Importance of Website Traffic

Your website is as important to your digital marketing as a location is to real estate. No matter what else you may have going for you, when it comes down to it, website traffic is the only thing that really matters. If you cannot attract your target to your website, you will not be able to grow sales. Simply put, website traffic is a combination of the total number of page views and a visitor’s time on your website. You need more than people viewing one page and then returning to Google.

Currently, there are 644 million websites on the internet, and many more new ones going live every day. Each one of those has their own online marketing strategy to grab the attention of your ideal customer. Every one of them needs traffic to survive. That said, many marketers sometimes forget that all those clicks are actually people. At the end of it all, your website doesn’t just need traffic, it needs traffic that most closely matches your ideal customer. Therefore, increasing website traffic is also an issue of attracting the most qualified visitors. Would that be of benefit in your situation?

Factors Affecting Your Overall Website Traffic

Many entrepreneurs and marketers obsess about things like page rank and data analytics. While these things are important, no potential customer is going to use your page rank as part of their decision-making process. That said, they do impact whether a user actually finds your site in the first place. Your website traffic, which is a reflection of your search engine ranking, is impacted by things such as web page load times, your website design and layout, and the content (or lack thereof) on your site. If you are not receiving sufficient organic and natural traffic from search engines, the best place to start is a website redesign, Search Engine Optimization, and content creation.

Regardless, there is a lot of content online. You need to use the most effective methods to break through all the noise. When you implement the most powerful techniques and strategies, you will see your website traffic skyrocket. Below it a list of straight-to-the-point, actionable tips for boosting website traffic. Some of these tactics do not provide a quick fix, but you will be shocked how quickly that many can generate significant results.

Ways to Improve Your Website Traffic

1. Optimize Your Website – This is the foundation all website traffic. Search engine optimization is much more than keywords, but also includes things such as design, user experience, mobile-friendliness, and more.

2. Social Media Marketing – The key to social media is in the name. It is all about being social. It is important not to just self-promote. You need to provide valuable information to followers and participate in conversations.

3. Create Unique Content – If you heard this once, you likely heard it a hundred times: Content is king. The way to improve search rank, attract an audience, create brand awareness, and convert sales is with website content.

4. Add a Forum to Your Website – A forum is a way to quickly rank for a specific keyword. The user generated content also helps to attract new visitors and decrease bounce rates.

5. Start a Facebook Group – While it does not provide the same benefits as a website forum, you can quickly build a community around your brand and drive more traffic to your website.

6. Become a Guest Writer – Look for blogs that accept guest writer submissions. Posting to a website that shares your niche exposes your brand to a new audience of relevant consumers.

7. Build Connections with Influencers – When you cite and quote highly influential people within your industry, in blogs and social media posts, they do sometimes reciprocate. However, it takes time to build relationships.

8. Write Cornerstone Content – These are long-form (2000 words or more) content focusing on your individual target keywords. They need to be of high-quality and valuable to readers. Then, link other content you publish to these pages based on their topic.

9. Advertise – You may already do this, However, adjust a percentage of your paid search and social media advertising to increase traffic toward content. You don’t want to increase one-time visitors, you want to build an audience.

What haven’t we covered yet that is important to you? If you would like to talk about more tips and tricks to increase website traffic, or a related topic, please contact me.

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