Not getting as much traffic as you need to meet your marketing goals or grow your business? Here are five ways that you can start to drive more traffic to your website without a ton of effort.
1) Blog more
Don't like blogging? I don't want to hear it! This is, hands down, THE best way to get more traffic quickly and easily — but the key is that you shouldn't write long, "salesy" blog posts that push your products or services. Instead, offer helpful tips, ideas, news or content that helps your prospects solve their problems and provides real value to them.
Digital Marketer's "The Ultimate List of Blog Post Ideas" article offers a ton of ideas for blog topics and formats, including many that are quick and easy to write. Aim for at least 1-2 "easy" blog posts each week and make at least one curated content -- i.e. you sharing something written by someone else, with a paragraph of two of additional insight. You should be able to easily create three blog posts per week in under five hours, so make it a priority and GET IT DONE.
Time Required: Spend 3-5 hours per week to get real, measurable results. If you're not seeing results within 1-2 weeks, you're not doing it correctly.
2) Offer More Valuable Content
Does the concept of "premium content" scare you? It shouldn't.
Think of premium content as something that provides loads of value to your visitors without expecting something in return. You want to help them, remember?
Spend an hour or two creating something quick and simple, such as a downloadable tip sheet or a case study or a free video. You should also simultaneously begin taking baby steps toward planning more robust types of content, such as a webinar or interactive content (Online calculators or assessment tools are a great way to capture prospects' attention and aren't as difficult to create as you might think.)
You can promote your premium content via a CTA (image, link or button) on your web site, on a landing page or via paid ads, but make sure you ask for visitors' email address before handing it over to them. Then nurture those leads and keep targeting them through ongoing email campaigns, retargeting campaigns or other tactics that will help them move through your funnel and convert to paying customers.
Time Required: Set aside 1-2 hours to create a quick PDF initially, then allocate 5-10 hours per month to create new content.
3) SEO
If your traffic has suddenly dropped off, your site might be getting dinged due to recent changes in Google's algorithm or it may be getting penalized. It's not a bad idea to do a quick SEO audit or ask someone to do that for you to help identify major SEO issues that could be affecting your search rankings.
The absolute worst thing you can do is bury your head in the sand when it comes to SEO, because this WILL come back to bite you down the road...and by then it will cost you a lot more time and money to fix those issues.
Time Required: 1-2 hours for an initial assessment if you're doing it yourself; amount of time it takes to fix issues varies widely depending upon the state of your site.
4) Keyword Research
Not getting enough traffic for your keywords? Do you even know what keywords you should be targeting?
If not, it's time to do some basic keyword research and really focus on which keywords will drive the most traffic and revenue to your business. Keyword research can be incredibly helpful for almost all of your marketing efforts, including minor updates to your web site, optimizing your content, creating new landing pages, identifying blogging topics, determining which social media content you'll share and developing new premium content.
If you don't have a good handle on what keywords people are typing into search engines, how can you create content that will be shown to them in the results? The answer is simple...you can't! Keyword research should drive almost every marketing decision you make.
Time Required: 2-3 hours
5) Get Social
It goes without saying that you should be liking and sharing content related to your products and services on a regular basis. This includes industry news, content created by your partners, information about complimentary products, or helpful tips, suggestions and advice that will resonate with your audience.
Share without the expectation of something in return...if you truly have your prospects' best interests at heart, there will be times when you give without receiving anything in return other than earning their trust (which incidentally, is absolutely the most valuable thing you can get at the beginning of a relationship!). And remember, that's exactly what you want to do in social media...EARN THEIR TRUST and start building a relationship. You want others to see you as a leader and authority within your industry, and that's exactly what will happen if you're giving them valuable content. Aim for a mix of original content that you create (i.e. sharing your own blogs, content offers or information about your products and services) and curated content that others are creating.
After someone likes one of your posts, remember to invite them to follow your page as well. This is a simple, yet highly effective way to build your followers and drive more traffic to your site.
Don't forget to download mobile apps for your favorite social channels! Many of these tasks can be done during your regular downtime, such as drinking your cup of coffee in the morning, sitting in a waiting room or lounging on the couch.
Time Required: 15-20 minutes per day to start; more when you get the hang of it
Don't have time to do all of the above? Pick one and be consistent at doing it week after week! I guarantee you'll get results if you do it correctly, but too many people try these tactics halfheartedly and give up after a week or two. Contact us if you need help putting together your traffic strategy or if you want to focus on other areas of your business.
