With all the focus on social media, you might be tempted to ask if it’s worth the effort to increase traffic to your company’s website. There’s no doubt that social media marketing is one of the best ways to increase your brand awareness, but the numbers also show that websites and web traffic still matter—a lot.
According to the Digital Consumer Report, 63% of consumers use a company website to find local business information, and 80% of consumers use search engines to find local business information. This matters because traffic to a company’s website plays a significant role in how it ranks in a Google search. This short video explains more about why having a website is important.
The bottom line? Increasing website traffic can help you reach your business goals in more ways than one. Consider these nine ways to increase website traffic to your company’s site.
Purchase ads
Spending money on paid advertising isn’t the only way to increase website traffic, and it isn’t always the best one. But under the right circumstances, it can be a worthwhile investment. The important thing is to understand how paid ads work, then develop a thoughtful strategy for your ad campaign. Don’t just throw money at Google or social media ads and just hope that the right people land on the right section of your website.
If you’re ready to tackle paid ads, check out our introductory guide to internet advertising. If not, there is still plenty that you can do.
Optimize Your Site to Increase Website Traffic
Improve your SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is all about how you can improve the chances that your website will land near the top of a search. The factors that influence Google’s algorithms are complicated, but this amazing checklist covers the key elements.
Short version? Have an easy-to-use website with high-quality content. Choose a highly relevant keyword to use in the title and headings on your website, and include it in your web content as well.
Refresh your web content
High-quality content is still one of the best ways to regularly draw people (back) to your website. But just because an article was fabulous four years ago doesn’t mean that it’s still relevant today. Give your web content a makeover by removing outdated material and refreshing useful content to make sure that it’s engaging and up-to-date.
When updating older material, look for opportunities to add new external and internal links to your newer content. This will also help your SEO ranking.
Bonus tip: Create infographics. Similar to other top-notch content, infographics are highly shareable because they present interesting information in a compact, attractive format.
Give your website a technical tune-up
We live in a busy world where people won’t wait for a slow website to load. As we discussed in our post about having an intuitive website, the more positive a person’s web experience is, the more time they will spend on your site. This includes optimizing your website for mobile devices, which account for more than half of website visits worldwide.
Taking these steps will also contribute to better SEO rankings, and it will help ensure that visitors to your site are willing to come back.
Email marketing
If you have an email subscriber list, email marketing can be an effective way to bring existing customers or prospects back to your website. According to McKinsey & Company, email marketing remains a significantly more effective way to acquire customers than social media.
If you’re new to this approach, get up to speed with our introduction to email marketing. The most important thing is to make sure that your subscribers never think of your emails as spam. Share relevant, high-quality information at appropriate intervals, and give them a reason to continue doing business with you.
Hint: You can do this easily by using Postcron’s newsletter system. Just be sure to include a link to your company website (as well as social media links) at the end of each email!
Schedule social media posts with links to your website
Publish LinkedIn articles
LinkedIn is still the go-to social site for professionals, and it’s a great place for companies to demonstrate expertise by posting original articles on LinkedIn’s publishing platform. This is especially valuable for B2B companies that want to build authority as thought leaders. Need ideas on what to write about? Review our post on how to write LinkedIn articles that your network will love. At the end of each article, include a short bio about you or your company, and include a link to your website.
You can also post updates on LinkedIn that will take readers directly to your website.
Use Instagram to drive traffic
Instagram has become the most popular social platform, and it’s a fabulous tool to increase your company’s profile. Sharing engaging photos, videos, and stories on Instagram gives your company a personality that people can recognize. Be sure to include your company’s website URL in your profile so your followers can easily find more information when they want to.
Instagram also recently made changes that allow some uses to add links to Instagram stories, making it easier to use Instagram to directly increase website traffic.
Post on your company Facebook page and groups
Facebook still dominates the market when it comes to fan engagement. Your company’s Facebook page is like a mini-profile for your business. As we recommend in our post about how to maximize Facebook page engagement, be sure to complete the “About” section and add your website URL. Post content regularly and add a URL to your posts that people can follow for more information.
Facebook groups are also a great way to engage directly with your fans. For example, you can answer questions and prompt discussions. And, of course, you can invite your fans to visit relevant sections of your website for more information.
But treat Facebook as a way to support your website, not a way to replace it. Companies without a website rank lower in search engine results. And the fact is, consumers till rely on company websites as a source of information to make decisions.
Hint: You can efficiently schedule Facebook, Instagarm, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterests posts with Postcron’s scheduling tool.
Answer questions on Quora
You can position your company as a valuable resource by visiting Quora and answering questions in your company’s area of expertise. Quora is a question-and-answer website where users go looking for information to help them solve problems. Like LinkedIn and Facebook, you need to set up a profile where you can include a link to your company’s website. Quora also gives you the option to create multiple mini-bios if you are answering questions in more than one subject area. This is a fantastic way to showcase various skills.
You can include a link to your website in your answers, but only do this if the link you include has additional relevant information. For more guidance, have a look at our post on how to use Quora to market your business.
What strategies have you used to increase website traffic? Share them in the comments below!