When you set up a website online, the theory
“build it and they will come” certainly does not apply. There is no doubt that
there are far fewer costs involved in creating an online store compared to
setting up a traditional brick and mortar business. However, you are usually
trading significantly smaller set-up costs for zero initial traffic. If you
open a brick-and-mortar store, at least some people will walk by. This isn’t the
case with an online store. You have to establish your website and give it
visibility and presence online; that way you will get visitors.
It is important to realise that you
shouldn’t rely on one strategy for generating traffic to your website, you should
rely on several. This way, if you encounter a problem with one of your traffic
sources (which is likely to happen from time-to-time on the internet), your
traffic is not wiped out overnight. Here are seven top tips to help you get
customers to your website:
1. SEO
SEO, or Search
Engine Optimization, is probably the best-known tactic for attracting customers
to your website. It involves using keyword phrases and back links to give your
website a high ranking in the major search engines. Keyword phrases are the
phrases that people type into a search engine, and back linking is when other
websites have links pointing to your site.
SEO is certainly a
long-term strategy, but if you focus on high quality content and are realistic
with your goals, you should find that your site starts to get ranked higher
over time. A major advantage of high rankings in the search engines is that
people are actively looking for your product. If your online store sells dog
kennels and someone searches “Dog Kennels” on Google and finds your site, there
is a possibility that they may buy something on your site. If you can get your
site into the top three results for a good keyword, you may consistently get a
number of customers buying from your site each day.
2. HubPages and Squidoo Lenses
Hubpages and
Squidoo Lenses are a way of getting backlinks to your site (external links
pointing to your site). This helps your site to rank well in the major search
engines. You basically create an information page on a certain niche, and
within this information page you put a link to your site. You must add value on
these pages, spend an hour writing a real high quality page that HubPages or
Squidoo will like. Remember, the more people visit your HubPage or Squidoo
Lens, the more likely they are to click on the link to your site. For example,
if you sold herbal tea on your website, you could write a Hubpage on the
history of herbal tea, and put a link to your site at the bottom of the page.
3. Social Media
There’s no doubt
that Social Media has taken over the internet, and is where many people spend
the vast majority of their time online. The only problem is that people are not
there to be sold to, they are there to socialise. You have to tread very
carefully if you want to advertise your site on Social Media; but if you do it
right, the rewards are tremendous. For example, you can set up a Twitter
profile and have a link to your website on your public profile. If you operate
in a niche, start talking to and engaging with people who show an interest in
that niche, and establish yourself as an expert. Remember, people are not there
to be sold to, talk to them about the products that you sell. If you display a
level of expertise, they will be interested in discovering more about what you
do and what you sell.
4. Paid Advertising (Cost per
click)
There are many
paid advertising platforms online. One of the most widely-used advertising
platforms is Google Adwords. This can be expensive, but cuts out the hard work
involved in SEO. You basically choose keywords related to your site, and then
set the maximum price you are willing to pay for someone to click your link.
Remember, you are paying for clicks, there is no guarantee that the person will
buy. However, if you are willing to pay high prices for clicks, your link will
be one of the first that is seen by someone searching for that keyword. This
can be a good short-term strategy, unless you have a monthly advertising budget
which you want to spend on these ads.
5. Free Advertising (Ad Swaps)
The internet is a
strange place. Competition is not always seen as a bad thing. Many people help
each other out by advertising each other’s sites. For example, if you’re
selling herbal tea, you may come across a site that sells green tea. You put a
link to the green tea website on your homepage, and the owner of the green tea
site puts a link to your site on their homepage. This can be a very effective
way to ethically leverage someone else’s website traffic. This is all done for
free, but is mutually beneficial. This works if you both operate in slightly
different niches, as it is unlikely that someone in the same niche will be
happy to advertise your site.
6. Video Marketing
There is massive
potential in this area. Youtube alone gets over two BILLION views per day. If
you sell dog kennels, you could make a video where you review one of the
kennels that you sell. You can place a link within the video and underneath the
video, so that a person can click the link and visit your site when they have
finished watching your video review. It is very important that you make your
videos interesting and interactive. With billions of videos online, you need to
make yours stand out.
7. Submitting Articles to
Article Directories
Submitting
articles is another way to get backlinks to your site. As you have probably
gathered by now, backlinks are an extremely important way to increase your
rankings in the search engines. Additionally, some major article directories
like Ezine Articles get millions of visitors per month, so a good article may
bring hundreds of extra visitors to your site. Like with HubPages and Squidoo
Lenses, take time to write a quality, engaging and informative article that is
500 words or more; it will be worth the time for the extra traffic this can
bring. You can submit as many different articles as you like.
Add more
strategies like
Participate in
forum and communities
Monitor traffic
and rebuild your strategy around it
Offer promotional
items and learning courses
These seven strategies will help you to get
customers visiting your site. It is advisable to use at least three or four of
these strategies at one time. It will take patience and hard work, but these
strategies are tried and tested, and you will see results. In addition to the
several strategies, be sure to keep your visitors coming back! By making your
site interesting, easy to navigate and informative, you will get return
visitors. If people are visiting your site more than once, it shows that you
are providing value to your visitors, making it much more likely that they will
become customers.
