You might be creating a website to serve as a personal blog, a launchpad for your new business, a foundation for your marketing strategy, or even a persuasive platform for a cause you believe in. Whatever your goals are, you’ll need a steady flow of traffic to your website to make it successful.
So how do you get it?
The Foundation: Your Website
While it’s technically possible to drive traffic to a website that doesn’t have a good foundation, it’s advantageous to make your website as compelling and high-quality as possible to support better results. Having a stronger website will make it easier to build a marketing and advertising campaign – and even more importantly, it will make your users more likely to stick around and engage with your brand.
These Are the Most Important Points to Optimize:
Design
With the help of better web design, you can make a better first impression on your visitors, communicate in a visual medium, and ultimately drive more conversions. There are many fundamentals of web design you’ll need to learn to be successful, and you’ll also need to find your own unique signature style – which is a tall order if you have no web design experience or if you’re using a free website builder. Most brands are better off working with a professional web design firm to end up with a better finished product.
Content
Content works synergistically with your website design to communicate with your audience. Better, more informative, more eloquent content grabs attention, effectively persuades, and demonstrates expertise.
Usability
It’s also important to ensure the usability of your site. Visitors should be able to freely read and browse your webpages no matter what kind of browser or device they’re using. Ideally, pages will load quickly and with no content loading issues.
Once that foundation is in place, you can move to the next stage.
Initial Promotion and Visibility
There are almost 2 billion websites currently online, with more added every second. Because of that, it’s almost impossible for people to discover your website totally naturally. To drive traffic, you must use marketing, advertising, and visibility strategies to promote your work.
These Are Some of the Most Popular:
Pay Per Click (PPC) Ads
Pay per click (PPC) ads can be purchased almost immediately for your website, requiring you to pay only for the traffic that you actually generate. This strategy is fast and straightforward, making it perfect for attracting initial visitors, and it scales up efficiently as well.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is free if you pursue it organically, and it could potentially connect you with millions of people. Just make sure you post interesting content regularly and engage with your audience so you keep growing your following.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) allows you to increase your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) with the help of content and offsite links. The only real downside to this strategy is that it takes time to get up and running, often requiring months of effort before you begin to see measurable progress. An experienced SEO Company can save you a lot of time on this.
Guest Posts and Referral Traffic
If you’re already pursuing SEO, you’re probably already writing guest posts and driving referral traffic with backlinks. Even if you’re not interested in SEO, this can still be a valuable strategy.
Traditional Advertising
There are many traditional advertising strategies that can work to promote your website, depending on your target audience. Billboards, radio ads, pamphlets, and brochures can all feature your website and drive traffic to it.
Word of Mouth
Don’t forget about word of mouth! If you have existing customers, make sure to let them know about your website – and encourage them to spread the word by instating a referral program.
Partnerships and Influencers
You can also consider promoting your website through partnerships, cross promoting with other websites and online personalities you know. Influencer marketing can also be powerful here if you’re willing to spend some money or dramatically expand your personal network.
Ongoing Support
Building a good website and promoting it should help you establish an initial stream of steady traffic to your website, but there’s no guarantee that this stream is going to last – and besides, most website owners are interested in expanding and growing continuously. If you want to keep boosting your traffic numbers, it’s important to provide ongoing support to your visibility strategies and continue optimizing your website.
That means studying the data, adjusting your content strategy, experimenting with the design, and spending more time and money on marketing and advertising. It’s a tricky balancing act if you’re new to the world of website marketing, but as long as you keep learning and adjusting, you’ll keep making progress.