Do you struggle finding the time to do the work to get more traffic to your website? Are you not sure where to start when it comes to how to drive traffic? The short answer is, there is lots of strategies you can implement and normally, its an accumulation of a number of factors that makes your website successful. When you google ‘ways to get traffic to your website’ there are some great resources out there. This awesome article from Hubspot is a thorough guide in how you can seriously invest some time and money in driving traffic to your website with a goal of getting more conversions.
For bigger businesses, putting time and money into these resources are a bit more attainable. For the rest of us, we scramble to do what we can and end up overwhelmed trying to do it all. So, just do nothing (yep, I see you small businesses). I want to simplify these comprehensive lists and give you some guidance on what to start with for organic website traffic strategies. So, you’re seeing progress from your efforts and feeling a bit less overwhelmed.
Drive traffic to your site by understanding Google Search and Web page Ranking factors
First of all, understanding Google is an ongoing process. In summary, Google “sorts through hundreds of billions of web pages and other content in our Search index to present the most relevant, useful results in a fraction of a second”. Learn more about Google’s ranking rationale here. Google prioritises providing high quality results for users searching on Google.
Keep this in mind when you read through this article. If you build your efforts around Google’s purpose, you’re going to have a better chance at driving more traffic to your site via Google Search Results.
Let’s look at your website factors that can assist with your Google ranking:
Website Functionality
Does your Website Work Well? Your website functionality is a major factor in how your website performs not only in Google Search, but for your website visitors. Have you ever been to a website and been frustrated that it didn’t work as you wanted it to? If a website visitor finds using your website too challenging, they will decide to use someone else’s website to attain what they need.
Have an honest look at your website, on mobile and desktop.
- Website navigation – can visitors find what they need quickly and easily?
- Website speed – is your website slow?
- E-commerce sites – can your customer check out easily? With so many payment providers such as Klarna, Paypal, Apple Pay and Google Pay there are so many ways consumers prefer to make payments. What options does your website have?
Not only will google look on your website more favourably, it is more important that the traffic you drive can convert once they arrive at your website.
Website Content
From text, images and videos, what your website contains has to resonate with your target audience. If your website doesn’t have a blog, this provides an opportunity for your website to provide more value to your customer.
- Identify your target audience and understand the online shoppers google search
- Perform SEO research. Look into what ‘keywords’ consumers are using to search for topics related to your website. What questions do searchers need answered?
- Write content for your website with these keywords and answers to searchers questions.
- Get a friend to read it first – a second set of eyes does wonders for improving your content
- Publish it to your website
Yes, your website rank on Google Search results is awesome at driving traffic to your website. What else can you do?
Active Social Media Pages helps boost your brand authority and can drive traffic to specific pages on your site
Active social media pages act as social proof. Keep your money in your pocket, and see what you can do organically. Social media algorithms change, it is easy to feel a bit defeated that your posts aren’t doing well. Follow these best practices to begin with, and remember it takes time to see great results.
- Make sure your website is linked clearly on your social media platforms
- Cross-post. Repurpose your content across platforms to make sure you’re getting the most out of it.
- Use the features of your platform. Reels, stories, polls, video content Q&A.
- Promote. Use your social media to promote your products and content. This includes promoting your blog posts!
- Lost for inspiration? Look at what others are doing well and see how you can make it your own
- Keep on top of social media trends
- Connect with your audience. Reply to comments, and have conversations.
- Promote other local businesses and partners.
If you’re ready to go all-in with your social media, check out these tips from hootsuite.
Ask Customers for Reviews
Building trust with your potential customers is a great way to gain traffic on your website. The best way for people to trust your business, is to see what others have said about it. Getting reviews can be really challenging, however the best way to get more is to ask!
- Send out an email after a customer milestone, no longer than a week afterwards
- After a transaction
- After their first appointment
- Ask in person if you engage with customers directly
- Include a CTA on your website
- Make the review form easy to get to – more than one click is enough to deter people
Spend time on your Local SEO
Another great way to drive traffic to your website is to pay more attention to your Local SEO. This is the result that is generated when a user searches for a query that can be provided by local businesses, with a focus on those that have bricks and mortar locations. This is a type of search result generated in partnership with Google Maps, It is a great way to drive people near you to your website and store. To find out more about how to set up your Google My Business profile, we published this guide to help.
Contribute to your community
Nothing feels better than giving! As an active member in your online and offline community, you have the opportunity to grow with those around you. What benefits your community and customer, benefits you too. There are so many ways you can do this. Through education in your field of knowledge, volunteering your time and participating in a local event. Making sure you remember to give back is essential and is one of the most rewarding parts of having a local business.
Start looking into some of these strategies to get more organic website traffic. Be patient and consistent, good organic results take time. If you need help with tackling any (or all) of these strategies, get in touch. We’d love to help in any way we can!