How Can I Get More Visitors To My Website?

Are you looking for a solution to increase traffic to your website? A website is similar to a shop window, in that it allows a business to showcase itself in the hope to draw attention and connect with its target audience. The internet has become a staple part of life for most people in today’s day and age, so having a strong website for your business is absolutely vital. A business website should be that shop window for users to learn more about the business itself, its products, services, and contact information.

In this post, we’ll go over a few things you could do to boost your website’s traffic. Paying attention to the outlined information can be extremely rewarding if your website is not receiving a lot of visitors.

Your website needs to be SEO-friendly, in other words, it needs to be optimised for search engines. Think of search engines as a more modern version of the old phone book. Where users will think of what it is they’re looking for, type it in the search bar and browse through the available listings.

If your website isn’t even listed on said search engines, what chance do you have of grabbing their attention? Little to none. In fact, even if your business is listed on the second page of the search engine results, you’re likely to struggle to reach your target market.

What you really need is to be as high as you possibly can on those search engine results pages when people type in the services or products that you can offer.

There are a variety of methods that can be used to push your website up those listings and these methods are what is known as Search Engine Optimisation. Optimising a website for search engines entails a number of techniques including the usage of keywords, internal and external links, page titles, snippet text, meta descriptions, image optimisation, and a number of other elements.

Another thing to think about with regards to SEO (search engine optimisation) is your location. Local SEO is imperative for small businesses to get their business appearing in searches from users in a nearby location.

Not everybody is keen on using social media, but when it comes to marketing your business, jumping on the bandwagon is a no-brainer.

You don’t have to join every social media platform on the planet, but you should certainly consider putting yourself on one or more of the more popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or LinkedIn.

Before you decide on which platforms to register with, think about the demographic of your target audience. If you are offering B2B (business to business) services, then you should almost certainly get yourself registered on LinkedIn. If you’re a creative business with a young audience, then Instagram should be the place to be for you. There’s no harm in setting up your social media accounts and testing the water. Make a few posts, share them with your friends, and see which, if any, gain any traction. We’re not expecting to go viral here, but you should be able to gauge which platforms will drive more interactions.

If you’re not active on the platform then it’s a waste of time being there. Simply setting up your profiles won’t be beneficial at all. You can share news, exciting updates, images, anything you see fit to share. The most important part of social media is the interaction you get to have with potential customers.

Blogging, or posting updates, news or other regular content is a surefire way to increase traffic to your website. Businesses that post regular content on their websites are usually the ones that see the most improvements when it comes to traffic increases.

The frequency in which you should make these regular posts really depends on your schedule. If you can, then twice a month should be the bare minimum, and if you have time, then once a week would be great.

The key to successful blogging on your website is the quality of the content. Even if it means giving away some of your knowledge, it will prove to be worth it. You want to become known as an authoritative creator when it comes to your industry, if you share your tips, information, and knowledge for free then you will begin to notice that people will visit the website more regularly and quite possibly even share your content.

Try and focus your post topics on areas that visitors would find useful in your industry. Use videos, images, and other media formats where you can to increase engagements.

The better quality content you produce, the more valuable it is to your visitors, and the more that will drive further traffic and engagements.

Sending marketing emails to people who have subscribed to a mailing list is a great way to grab their attention and let them know that you are on hand to help them.

You don’t want to lose contact with potential consumers as soon as they leave your website, especially after you’ve worked so hard to attract them there. So if you haven’t already, add a newsletter signup form to your website and start collecting email addresses. The most successful email marketing newsletters will give you a discount on your first buy, include eye-catching content along with some recommended items.

You’ll eventually convert more customers and have the means to contact them.

You might have a well-optimised website for search engines, you might have engaging content and thousands of followers across a bunch of social media platforms, but your website still isn’t bringing you the conversions you were hoping for. If that’s the case then you should step back and analyse what else could be causing the site to underperform.

Running a website speed test can be a really beneficial operation. If your website is taking longer than a couple of seconds to loads, the chances are that your visitors are clicking the back button and going elsewhere.

Can you think of a time when you’ve clicked a link via a search engine and it’s taken more than a couple of seconds to load? Most people in this situation just click another link and don’t give the previous one a second thought. It’s reported that customer satisfaction can be reduced by around 16% with just a single second of a delay, and that’s before they’ve even landed on your website.

User experience is one of the most common downfalls of a website, it’s super important that you consider this when you look to make improvements.

When someone visits your website, it’s usually because they are in search of answers. You will know the kind of questions that your potential customers will be asking, so you should look to answer those as quickly and easily as possible.

If a visitor has to scroll through endless rows of text content or navigate from page to page to find answers, you’re likely to lose their attention and they’ll end up going somewhere else to find the answers. Your messaging needs to be clear, concise, and straight to the point. That doesn’t mean you should keep things basic, uninformative, and drab, it means making the user experience as easy and rewarding as possible.

A few years back, you could get away with just having a website that displays correctly on a desktop PC or a laptop. But those days are long gone now. Responsive, or mobile-friendly web design is no longer something you can avoid.

The majority of people who access the internet these days are doing so via a smartphone or other mobile device. That includes the number of people searching Google and Bing for businesses, the majority are doing so on a mobile device.

If someone is having issues with accessing a website due to it not having a mobile-friendly display, they are highly likely to visit somewhere else.

And let’s not forget that Google itself has algorithms in place that penalize websites for not being mobile-friendly, so if you want to rank higher, responsive design is a must.

Keywords are like highlights that, when applied correctly, can help promote a website significantly. These are the keywords that potential visitors will type into a search engine when they are searching for something in particular.

As a website owner, you’ll want your keywords to be relevant to what the majority of your target audience is searching for, as this will boost the likelihood of people visiting your website. If the keyword placement is correct, the website content has a strong likelihood of being displayed.

Look for keywords that are relevant to the content of your website, especially those that are searched more than 500 times per month. After you’ve identified your keywords, you’ll need to generate content around them. Use these keywords in page titles, headlines, image attributes as well as in content throughout the site, to improve your website’s ranking.

A solid website’s web design must appear to have been done by a professional. If we’re looking at this as a shop window, people are way more likely to enter a modern, fresh and clean store than a run-down old shabby outfit.

The goal of a good website is to serve as a reflection of your business. The more emphasis you put on making your website meet the expectations of your visitors, the more likely you are to see a return.

Think of your user experience, can they access the information they’re looking for quickly? Are your branding guidelines followed throughout the website? Are the colours consistent with your brand? Does your website look good across a variety of devices and browsers?

It’s always a good idea to get feedback from people who you can trust who will give you an honest review. Send your website link to a few people and ask them to be brutal. If they can see things that pop out to them that require attention, then attend to them.

If you’re not able to fix these issues, or even the thought of web design is something that gives you a headache, then get in touch with a professional web designer who can help guide you to get the most from your website.

Returning to the original question that prompted us to write this post, how do we increase traffic to our websites? We recommend going over all of the principles discussed above in order to increase your website’s traffic. There is no quick answer to this one, it’s more a case of putting in some time and exploring what can work for you and your website.

One important thing to remember when it comes to websites is that you’d be hard-pressed to find a niche or industry that hasn’t got a whole heap of competition online already. Businesses should try to do things a little differently, and ‘think outside the box’ where they can to give themselves a chance of grabbing the attention of those users who are already looking for a business just like yours. You’ll be competing with hundreds, if not thousands of people in this market, so stand out and grab all the attention you can.

A problem faced by many new website owners is that the market is already saturated with competition and getting your website to even tickle the first page of Google can take much time, patience, and effort. But that’s not to say that it can’t be done. With a clear and strategic plan in place, you can increase web traffic from search engines and you’ll likely see an increase in your conversions as a result of that increased traffic.

If there are elements above that you struggle to understand or implement, there are a plethora of professional web designers on the internet who will be able to assist you in increasing traffic to your website and making your website a success.

Contact us here or call us directly on 01827 932587 to learn more about how we could help you increase traffic to your website.