So you have a website. Now you’re waiting for someone to come and look at it. Waiting, waiting. Crickets. Why isn’t anyone coming to my website? You may be wondering what else you should be doing in order to drive traffic to your nifty new domain. The fact of the matter is, simply having a website does not guarantee that your clients will find and/or visit it. There are many things that you can do to improve your visibility online in an effort to increase the amount of site visits you get, however. Let’s check them out.

SEO, SEO, SEO

Have we mentioned SEO? If you have been with us for a minute, you have probably noticed that a big part of website success is quality SEO. If you have not been around, welcome to our SEO spiel.

SEO stands for search engine optimization. Most simply put, this means optimizing the content on your website to rank higher in search results. (We go over how to boost your success in searches in our recent blog found here). There are many aspects to successful SEO, one of which includes sourcing and utilizing high-ranking keywords. It’s important that you are picking keywords that are not just catchy and trendy right now, but are also relevant to your business and the services or products you provide. (Check out our blog on how to pick relevant keywords here).

DON’T STUFF

Once you have sourced these keywords, and you know which ones you would like to target, it is essential to know how to incorporate them properly. You may think that including these catch phrases as much as possible would be ideal for ranking higher in searches that involve those terms, right? Eh, not so much. The practice of shoving this terminology into every nook and cranny of your website is known as keyword stuffing. This is frowned upon in the SEO community, because it doesn’t equate to quality content, and it doesn’t truly provide any useful information to your potential audience. Chances are, you will end up lower in the rankings than where you started, and you will drive away any possible clients with the excessive redundancy.

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

In addition to integrating relevant keywords, you should also look into using keywords of varying lengths. Long and medium tail keywords typically provide better matches with an ideal audience. For instance, imagine you are searching for someone to lay down some turf grass in your yard. You could simply search for “landscape” or “landscaper” but that might not give you the results you want. You could then try narrowing down your search to “turf grass” but it’s still probably not what you’re looking for. Searching “turf grass installation near me” is probably going to produce the best results. Keeping this in mind, these longer keyword phrases are great to target in the content you are placing on your website.

SET YOURSELF APART

Now that you have gotten the hang of SEO and keywords for your site, take a look at your competitors and see what makes your business different from them. Are you providing better products or additional services? What problems are you customers facing that you are intending to offer a solution for? Check out other businesses in your niche and assess how you can set yourself apart. If you potential customers don’t know why they should choose your company over another one, chances are, they won’t.

CONTENT IS KEY

Not only should your content be written with SEO in mind, it should be understandable and interesting. People visiting your website do not want to devote their day to reading walls of texts that are jam-packed with difficult terminology and foreign concepts to them. Keep your content succinct and to the point, focusing on the most important bits of information and ensuring that every aspect can be easily understood by anyone who is not well-versed in the subject matter. Break up longer sections of copy with imagery, dividers, calls to action, and other visual elements. Label various parts with catchy headlines and subheaders, providing an organizational hierarchy and making it easier for your viewers to navigate.

THE POWER OF PAID PROMOTION

While expanding your reach organically is ideal, there is a lot that can be said about how much further your tendrils can extend when you back them with some money. Before you invest a ton of cash into advertising, however, make sure that you have optimized your content, you know your intended audience, and you are advertising in the right space.

PAY ATTENTION TO ANALYTICS

If all else fails (and even if it doesn’t), take a look at what analytics are telling you. In simplest terms, analytics are how you access insights into your website traffic and performance. There are many tools you can utilize to get this information, and various ways you can implement it to achieve greater success. We won’t bore you with the details right now, but keep an eye out for another blog post soon where we will take a deep dive into using these for your benefit!

Generating website traffic and knowing how to turn this into conversions can be a lot to learn. We know this isn’t everyone’s wheelhouse, and that’s alright! We have a vast array of knowledge and experience that we can put to good use for you. Want to buff up your business site and start generating more success? Let us know how we can help today.