I live in Delhi, in a lower traffic area, but a few times a week I find myself making the drive to south Delhi and I inevitably end up totally stuck in the heavier traffic you’ve ever seen and nowhere to go. It’s times like that, when my commute time doubles because I am waiting in traffic, when I start thinking “why can’t my website traffic be like this?”
Seriously though, while the problem of navigating heavy traffic on the roads is not a concern of most businesses or entrepreneurs, the question of getting more traffic to your website, however, is on the forefront of most of our minds.
So, what can you do about that? How can you drive more traffic to your website in the over competitive digital world of 2024? There are a lot of things you could do here to get some results – run ads, spam social media posts, hire an influencer to promote you. These, however, come with a cost either to your wallet or your credibility. There are already enough ads on most social media platforms. If you promote your own website or company without contributing content that genuinely helps people then you will lose credibility and be unfollowed or unfriended by the people on your friend list.
3 Tips to Drive Website Traffic for Beginners
There are so many different things that you can do that it can be a little overwhelming for people or teams who are just starting out in this space but this is something that you really need to do. Nobody wants to go through the time and expense of publishing a website only to discover that nobody ever saw it. I’ve put together a list of three things that you and your team can start with on a small budget to get noticed online:
#1 Create & Share Useful Content
We have so much content online already. You may be asking, “do we really need one more article, book, or YouTube video?” Of course, we know that all of us already have access to more information than we could ever process in our entire lifetime, but that shouldn’t stop you from putting out more. In the fast-changing digital world, much of the information that is out there gets outdated very quickly so people are constantly looking for ideas and strategies that are adapting to our evolving marketplace.
Creating quality blog articles, publishing useful books, and creating interesting videos is a good way to build a reputation and position your organization as a subject matter expert (SME). Pick an idea and run with it. As long as you are creating quality content that is helpful then it will benefit your company in the long run. But remember, it needs to be quality, don’t post AI generated articles about how each of your new products are going to revolutionize the world; take some time to gather your thoughts and come up with ideas that are really going to help people.
Also, depending on your industry and your target audience, many times videos are better than blogs for building credibility. When we read blog articles, we mainly processes the information, but when we consume video content there is another level of connection that we instinctively feel and it helps people trust you more because they associate the useful information with the person they see and hear on the video (I understand how ironic those words are in a blog post, but I think it’s true).
When you start to build up content, it is not enough just to post it and hope that people find it. If you are posting written blogs or pages to your site you should promote it across your social media platforms and use a basic SEO tool to help people find it in online posts.
#2 Send Useful Email Newsletters
Sending newsletters can be daunting for a small team. We all are already busy and have enough to do, surely our time would be better spent on other more important tasks, but there is a reason that so many companies and organizations collect emails and send out newsletters. They really do work.
People who have entered their email addresses on your site are generally already interested in what you have to say and are far more likely to return to your site than the average person is to find your site. Sending out newsletters is a good way to keep in touch with potential future customers, get them to return to your site, and provide them with more evidence that you have what it takes to help them or their business.
I would caution against being too aggressive with your email campaigns though. We have all signed up for some email newsletter only to be bombarded with 2-3 automated emails in the next day or two and we quickly unsubscribe. A newsletter sent out once or twice a month is probably enough. The goal here is not to spam your subscribers, but to provide valuable content that will genuinely help them and also point them back to your website. Once they are back on your website, make sure that they have the opportunity to buy something, schedule an appointment, sign up for a free trial, or perform whatever other action you want them to do.
But what if you have no subscribers? How do you build a newsletter subscriber list from scratch? That leads to our next point.
#3 Utilize Good Lead Generators
A lead generator is a product or service that you give away for free in exchange for an email address or phone number. One strategy that works quite well for companies is to publish a short PDF or eBook that provides good answers to real questions that people have and email people the link to download it as soon as they sign up for your email.
If you are a personal trainer trying to promote your services, you could provide a free 5-day workout plan. If you are a small business consultant, you could provide a free study on what makes startups succeed. You get the idea. Give real answers to questions that people are genuinely asking and trade it for their contact information.
Again, spend some time on this. The goal here is not simply to get their email address, but also to provide them with proof that you really are an expert on this subject and can solve their problem or improve their lives in some way. This way, when they see your newsletter show up in their inbox, they might actually read it and be drawn back to their site where you have another chance to close the deal.
Concluding Thoughts
There are another 50 things I could add to this list, but for someone early on, this is a good start. The goal is to generate content that is useful for people that you can promote on your social media channels to drive traffic to your website. Once the traffic lands on your website, you need to guide them either to buy your product or at least leave their information so you can keep in touch with them.