Digital Marketing
Driving traffic to your website is critically important if you are a serviced based business. It is hard to rank well in the search engines since you are competing against big corporates and their huge advertising spend which makes it near impossible to rank at the top.
So how you can cost-effectively drive traffic to your website?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO means that your website is technically sound so that it can be index by the search engines and well-designed for good usability. It contains content (including keywords and phrases) that people are searching for them.
The best way to start is to check that your website is appearing in the search engine. Then you need to verify your site with Google Search Console. To appear in local searches on Google maps make sure you add your small business to Google my Business as well.
It might take a while to see the benefits of SEO as it takes some effort and time to create the optimized site structure and content. However once your website is enhanced then you can gain traffic via search engines, so it is worth the investment.
Directory Listings
There are both free and paid options when it comes to directory listings. You can first start with the membership with associations that you belong to and search for a directory on their website. Before you pay for any directories and spend your money, do your research and check how much traffic is likely to come from that site. As well as how you will be billed.
Backlinks
Another way to drive traffic to your website is to partner with another business that can link to your site and send you referral traffic. This strategy is known as backlinking and it adds authority to your webiste. It’s excellent for SEO as it means that you will likely rank higher than other site with lower authority.
In addition, if you can find a website in your niche that has broken link and you happen to to have a similar blog article on the same topic then send a quick email to that business letting them know that they have a broken link and if they would like to replace the article then you have one to send them.
Internal Links
If you website pages link well, then you are likely to keep people on your website longer which can help with making those all-important sales conversions. You can also use high volume pages to drive traffic to other low volume pages on your site. Use you Google Analytics platform to identify where you might be able to boost the traffic to your sales pages with strategic links from well-performing blog posts.
Email Marketing
When writing emails to your list always ensure there are links back to your website within the email. If you write a new blog post or want to promote one of your services, be sure to include a link directly to the relevant pages. Don’t forget to add your website link to your email email signature on every email you send.
Blogging
Creating highly valuable content on your blog is a great way to drive traffic to your website. It will increase the chance of your website being found in the search engines and of being shared on social media by other people. There are many formats of your website that you can use within your blog to boost the chances of it being shared on social media. Interviewing an influencer in your niche is one way to do this, as there is a high chance that they will share the article.
Media and PR
If you have a story to tell or could contribute to an article that a journalist is writing then you can generate some free publicity for your business. Identify the publications that you would like to appear in and make a contact with journalist in your local area who write about small business or trends happening in your industry.
Paid Advertising
While you may not have a large advertising budget, there are low-cost ways to drive traffic to your website. Facebook, Pineterest and Linkedin all have affordable advertising platforms where you can promote your business for as little as $5. The benefit of these platforms is that you can target your audience quite specifically meaning that the return on investment is better than when advertising more broadly. You also have the option to remarket to people who have visited your site before when you install the tracking code.
Social Media
You can drive considerable refferal traffic directly from social media once you have built up your following. The key to growing your audience is to have an optmised profile that includes the keywords for your business and that your content is engaging and stands out.
Facebook Groups
Sharing your links and helping others inside of Facebook Groups is an excellent. Also monitor the results you are getting. You will find that you generate more traffic, subscribers and sales from certain groups and you will soon work out which ones to visit.
Video Marketing
YouTube is a massive search engine that can be very effective in driving traffic to your website Consider the types of videos you could creaate to post on here as well as the promotional videos your could make to market your services on YouTube.
Online Question Forums
Answering questions on forums such as Quora and Trip Advsor ( if you are a travel business for example) is a great way to build your authority in a niche. Search for others typing your industry with the word forum after it into the Google search.
Searching on these sites before you write a blog article is also an excellent way to research what you should write. If you are writing about a popular or trending topic, then there will be a larger volume of people who will be searching for your content.
