Five digital marketing strategies to drive website traffic

As business becomes increasingly reliant on all things digital, your website is one of your most important assets. The more website visitors you receive, the more opportunities you have to gain new leads. So, what are some of the best ways to increase website traffic? 1) Advertising Although organic traffic is more cost effective, paid advertising is definitely worth the payoff – it’s a great way of making more people aware of your website and increasing your web traffic. There are several ways to advertise your business online, including: • PPC (Pay-per-click) allows you to bid on keywords that are relevant to your business, and the winner’s site appears in the results page on search engines like Google and Bing. This means that you’ll be advertising to people who are actively searching for your product or service. • Display ads appear in various places on a website when you’re browsing, meaning they tend to get a lot of impressions which can be effective at increasing site traffic. You can also use a mix of graphics and text to make them more engaging. • Social media ads are the fastest growing type of paid advertising. Because sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have plenty of information about their users, their ads can be used to target specific demographics. This can lead to an increase in website views from a highly targeted audience group. 2) Create an SEO/content strategy In order to drive traffic to your website, you need to rank highly in search engines. Nowadays, it’s almost impossible for a business to achieve results without any sort of Search Engine Optimisation. However, rather than muddling through, it’s important to have a strategy in place so that you know what you want to achieve and how to do so. You may want to research competitors’ strategies to give you an idea of what you should be aiming for. Remember: • Content is king – informative blog posts are one of the main drivers of web traffic. Look at the target audience personas you have created for your business and think about the kinds of questions they are asking – then answer them! You may also want to consider guest blogging on relevant websites – this will help you get website traffic and backlinks. • Aim for a mixture of high and low-value keywords – the former will have a high search volume and can drive more visitors to your website, whilst the latter are easier to rank highly for, are more targeted and have more chance of being clicked (presuming they are relevant to your business). • Don’t neglect the technical stuff – terms like crawling, indexing and metadata don’t exactly conjure up a sense of excitement, but simple tweaks to your technical SEO can make a difference. 3) Improve your existing content Whilst it’s tempting only to look forward, it’s important to go back to your existing content and ensure that it’s working as hard as possible for your website. • Audit your current blog posts and webpages to make sure they’re exactly what your ideal customer is looking for – it’s worth going back over old content and keeping it updated, so it stays relevant • Webpages should contain 300-600 words • Blog posts should be at least 500 words but ideally longer • The above guidelines are irrelevant if the content is not helpful – search engines value quality content that’s engaging and provides something of use. 4) Refine your web design and user experience Google rewards sites that load fast, are easy to navigate, and can be accessed from any device: • Usability is key – simple things like making sure your site is optimised for mobile and tablet devices, fonts are large enough and pages are clearly mapped out, are all important to search algorithms • Simplicity over complexity – make sure your website is clear and concise, without too much technical jargon Whilst this may not be the most obvious way to increase web traffic quickly, thoughtful design will result in a positive reaction from users who will engage with your site for longer, share your content and become return visitors, all of which contributes to higher SERP rankings and better visibility. 5) Be active on social media When it comes to organic social media, you need to know your audience and create content of value that they won’t just scroll past. It’s easier said than done, but if you can execute it effectively, you’ll reap the rewards: • Post regularly – this doesn’t mean you have to post several times a day. In fact, that can often have the opposite of the desired effect. Rather than trying to do everything, carefully select the platforms that best suit your business and audience, and post 2-5 times a week to show consistency. • It’s all about engagement – try to create content that your followers can engage with and that will bring visitors to your website. This could be links to your blog posts or landing pages – most importantly, useful content. Digital marketing agency Nottingham There are countless ways to boost traffic to your website, and this is just a selection. m360 is a full-service digital marketing agency based in Nottingham – if you’d like to know more about the services we offer, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.