Whether you just launched a brand-new website or have had a website for years, you should continually adjust your web content to attract and engage with your audience. Attracting prospects to your website is usually the first step in the inbound marketing process, but it’s easy to forget when there are other areas to focus on like ROI and other day-to-day business strategies. To make it easier, we’ve put together four tips to keep in mind when looking to generate traffic to your website.
When you think of search engine optimization (SEO), do you automatically think of optimizing your site for search engines? We know Google and other search engines are always changing their algorithms and adjusting what they look for, but we forget that our focus should be on how visitors are finding your site vs. how search engines are crawling. Your website should be optimized with keyword terms and content that make sense for your audience. Researching how your audience is searching for your services or business offerings is an important first step in the optimization process. A great place to start is by making a list of the most common questions that you get from your customers on a daily basis. Chances are, if they are asking you, many similar prospects are typing that search into Google, as well.
There are several keyword tools available that can help with research and will allow you to monitor your keyword ranking progress over time: Ubersuggest, SEMrush and Rank Tracker to name just a few.
Once your keyword research is completed and you’ve narrowed down the keyword terms your visitors are using, it’s time to create content for your website or blog. To get the most out of your content, make sure it is relevant to your audience and that you incorporate keywords from your research so you gain traction in search. If you notice that a lot of keywords from your research are problem- and solution-based, create a piece of content that helps solve that specific problem for your audience. You will be seen as a valuable resource, and your visitors will continue to come back because they know your content is relevant to them.
If you’re just starting out with a content plan, it might be helpful to prepare several new pieces of content at a time so you can schedule the articles in advance and stay on top of posting fresh content. We recommend planning for 2-4 articles a month, depending on your bandwidth, and creating a content calendar with the areas of focus and timing for each article. Sticking to a schedule around your content will help your website move up in Google search results.
To boost the number of visitors to your website, share your new content using email marketing and social media platforms. Along with a content calendar, it can also be helpful to put together a social media schedule with posts drafted for each topic. If you have the ability to calendar your posts in advance, it can also be a big time saver. Consider sharing one-off e-blasts to promote your new content and drive additional traffic to your website.
By incorporating these tips into your website and content strategy, you should start to see an improvement in your website’s traffic. In addition to the keyword tools mentioned above, ensure that you are tracking website metrics through Google Analytics or a similar program to help measure your progress.
For more information on our SEO, content development or other digital marketing services, contact us here or email Kimberly.