5 Free Proven Ways To Reliably Increase Your Website Traffic
Your small business website is running smoothly and you’re very happy with how it looks and functions but it’s not delivering on the quality website traffic and conversions that you’d hoped for (and needed in order to improve your Google ranking). What do you do next?
You’re not alone. More than 61% of marketers find attracting traffic to their website is one of their biggest challenges.
You took care with the words and imagery for your site, it looks beautiful and represents your brand to a tee but it’s frustrating when you’re not sure where to put your energies because after all, you want to be working in your business and not spending vast amounts of time and energy attending to marketing matters that perhaps make you squirm!
First things first - always come back to your ideal client/customer
I understand the overwhelm when you’re not sure what activities to pour your time and energy into. But I always advise my clients to return their focus to their ideal client because with them front of mind, you can’t go wrong.
Bonus Tip:
If you’re not sure how to identify your ideal client, start by asking yourself these questions:
What is their main problem/pain/angst that is getting in their way of achieving a certain outcome, AND that you can help to resolve via your product/offering/service.
What do they dream of making a reality that your product/offering/service can help to deliver?
What do they really fear, deep down on an emotional level?
What are their values?
Why will she/he want to visit your site? What are they needing as a priority?
Of course, consider all the basic demographics such as: age, gender, location etc.
The 5 Steps
Note: A word of advice (from personal experience) - don’t try to do ALL of these activities AT ONCE; that won’t work. There’s a real danger for scattering your energies too far and not getting back the results for the time and effort you’ve put in - I really wouldn’t want that for you.
Instead pick ONE STEP and then commit to seeing through that action. Like with my coaching clients, you set a specific goal, break up the steps towards reaching that goal and then track the analytics for a specific time period.
Step 1 - Publish blog posts
Write blog posts that deliver valuable and consistent content in your chosen niche. If you’ve done zero to very little blogging, I’d say start with a minimum of 6 posts based on a particular theme within your business eg a nutritionist might start with posts on one of the following topic categories: gut health, recipes, weight loss or the latest scientific research. Your initial blog posts need to deliver high value content that answer possible questions, or share a new insight that your ideal client might be searching for.
Bonus tips:
Do your keyword research, especially for long tail keywords.
Research what questions people are searching for in relation to your chosen topic.
Tweak your on-page SEO (aka optimising the pages on your website for favourable SEO) from time to time.
Bonus tips:
Try to get backlinks (aka reciprocal incoming links).
Don’t forget to include links with authority within your blog posts.
Make the content work hard for you (reuse and repurpose your content wherever possible).
Include a video within your blog post and then you get two for the price of one! Google ranks video higher than ‘regular’ content.
Step 2 - Log in/set up your Google marketing platform
The following services are free and are available to anyone with a Google account.
Google My Business listing. A very useful free tool that manages the information that appears for your business in Google Search and Maps. By creating a Google My Business listing, you can expand your online presence and help more customers find your business. Squarespace says it can: 'expand your online presence and help more customers find your business’.
Google Search Console & Google Analytics
Google Search Console - again, a free service offered by Google that ’helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search results’. It manages the ‘health’ of your website with data such as any broken links, etc. There’s no point putting out new content if the content already there needs some attention.
Google Analytics - another free service offered by Google that ‘collects data from your website and apps to create reports that provide insights into your business’. Data examples include: how people have found you, popular pages within your website, how long people are staying on particular pages, etc. A must-have for understanding what’s working and what isn’t working for your business website, so that you can act on that data and try another tack.
Step 3 - Create a lead magnet - email marketing
Create a lead magnet aka a freebie for your subscribers in exchange for their email address.
Bonus tips:
Great ideas for a free lead magnet: PDF, workbook, swipe file, slideshow, short video, free consult.
Make sure that it’ll delight your ideal customer, is only available for subscribers AND will help them to part-solve a small problem that they’re trying to fix.
Remember to share your lead magnet aka ‘cool thing’ across social media and within blog posts etc.
Make sure that signing up for your lead magnet is really easy and visible throughout your site.
Create a pop up for your website that promotes your freebie and newsletter signup.
Step 4 - Write a ‘welcome’ email series
Write 1-5 emails providing value as well as helping them get to know you and your services/products, sharing your knowledge, inspiration and how you can best help them. Make sure it’s mobile friendly as current stats suggest that 46% of all emails are opened on phones.
Step 5 - Expand your reach - spread your wings…
This step takes longer and might be further down your priority list.
Suggestions:
Guest blog - send a pitch but first make sure that it’s going to be worth your while with the potential for quality traffic to your site.
Collaborate with someone who is part of your industry and is a good ‘fit’.
Engage on social media - post to your favourite platform(s), join Facebook groups.
Send a pitch for a magazine article.
Write a press release, if you have a special announcement.
Conclusion
I’m not saying that any of these steps to boost your website traffic are quick to implement or will turn things around overnight, but slow and steady (I’d also add, strategic and consistent) will win the race.
Take small steps forward regularly and know that some of the suggestions above are more time-consuming than others, and on that basis, I’d always recommend creating long-form, evergreen blog posts over sharing on social media. Because blog posts bring the visitor back to your website with content that you own = a good thing.
Blog posts are not going anywhere, unlike a social media (Instagram) platform that may decide to block 7 years of your content because you've been hacked or change its algorithm overnight, meaning that you’re now only reaching 20 people(!) (Again, true story).
Finally, aim for researched, targeted, evergreen blog posts that deliver value for your ideal client/customer over the long term.
So, what’s your plan to boost website traffic? What will you start with?
As always, I’m cheering you on every step of the way, and I’m here should you need any specific help with your marketing or web design activities.
Jane x
