How do I get traffic to my website?
Now that you have a website, you’re probably wondering, “How do I get people to my website?”.
For many small businesses, this question can be frustrating when working with a tighter budget.
After all, not everyone has thousands of dollars to throw at expensive marketing campaigns.
So where do you get the best bang for your buck?
This question isn’t that easy to answer either.
This article will talk about a few of the more popular ways to get traffic to your website.
The first thing we will talk about is search engine optimization.
This is by far one of the more cost effective approaches for the long term.
This is where you spend a bit of time and money on getting found by the search engines.
It doesn’t always mean working with SEO specialists to get all the fine tuning done.
It can be simply adding some blog posts to talk a bit about what it is you do.
However, when working with specialists like ourselves, here is what you can expect to happen.
First we will go over your site with a fine tooth comb looking at several different things.
Click Here for our SEO Checklist.
Once we have gone over this list thoroughly, we will suggest the next step to be adding more quality content.
Blog posts about your services, what sets you apart, etc.
Each page adds more content for the surfer and for the search spider.
The longer both can stay on your site the better.
This means your content is valuable and builds your authority.
A solid SEO foundation can definitely assure positive long term results.
The next avenue of traffic generation if you don’t mind a pun is PPC campaigns.
PPC stands for Pay Per Click.
A bit harder to jump into when you’re on a tight budget.
Risk is extremely high especially if setup improperly and is so complicated to setup that Google offers training certifications for it.
By now everyone has heard at least one horror story of a small business dumping thousands into campaigns with zero return.
Well I am here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be quite soo scary.
There’s obviously a right way and a wrong way of approaching this method.
Here is what we have learned along the way.
We usually start with a social media campaign.
These typically work great using a compelling story with a supporting stock image or if available a video is best.
It’s usually a Facebook ad but sometimes we may elect to use LinkedIn.
These ad networks allow you to focus on a very narrow target audience.
On the search engines (with the small exception of re-targeting ads which we will get into a little later) you’re limited to a smaller set of filters.
For instance, you may only be able to display your ad to people that are a certain age, sex, location, and obviously for the term they are actively searching.
With the social ad networks you have this ability plus the ability to narrow it even farther with things like marital status, if they’re getting married soon, employment status, where they’re employed, what their likes or interests are, if they’re a parent or expecting parents, house hunters, home owners or renters, upcoming or recent graduates, etc.
Get the idea?
The more you speak directly to your target audience, the better the results will be.
It is usually the best bang for your buck in the short term.
Once you’ve gotten some traffic and created some interest, we would now recommend setting up a retargeting campaign on Google.
Re-targeting is when someone has already been to your website.
Now that it is in their cache, when they visit other websites on Google’s ad network (you know those sites that have Google’s ads all over them) your ad will be there reminding them of you.
This creates a ‘Top of mind awareness’ in the surfer.
This is the area where Google simply rules the internet.
Their ad network is HUGE!
What’s also awesome about their network is that if you know of a popular site that has Google ads displayed and you want your ad on that website… you simply tell Google that in your campaign.
It’s really funny when you see competitors advertising on each other’s website because a ton of bigger companies use Google Adsense to offset some of their costs.
A good webmaster knows that if the traffic isn’t going to convert, why not try and make money off of the exit traffic. =)
The best raw PPC search engine traffic is on Bing.
Sure the impressions are less, the clicks are fewer, but the upside is the cost per click is always less. Plus the conversion ratios are usually a lot better.
Things don’t happen as fast but when you’re trying to play it safe with a tight budget it is the safe space.
We can help you setup these traffic funnels and offer even more ideas for marketing your business.
Feel free to give us a call if you have any questions.
So where does your traffic come from?
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