How to Get More Traffic to Your Website

So you want to increase traffic to your website. Don’t worry! I am here to help you. In this article you will learn some budget-friendly ways to increase traffic to your website.

1) Blogging!

Yes, it sounds so cliche but it is is true! Blogging can help you increase traffic to your website. Ya I know. Eye roll. But hear me out! You should want your website to be the answer to your Ideal Client’s online inquiries and one way to do that is by blogging! I’m not talking about a diary of the food you ate for the day, but actual articles that are helpful to your Ideal Client.

Think about it! If you are a mindset coach who helps women deal with overcoming imposter-syndrome and your Ideal Client searches the web for “overcoming imposter-syndrome” or “ways to deal with feeling like a fake” wouldn’t you love for your website’s article to be the answer to their inquiry? That’s called organic traffic and the best part is it costs no more extra than then the time you take to write your article and the cost of maintaining the website you post it on. Plus! Think about how many lives you are going to impact with your articles? It’s so exciting!

2) SEO

Search Engine Optimization. What is it and why? Ok! This topic can be a tad of a snooze-fest for some readers. But again, hear me out!

SEO is a way to increase organic traffic to your website based on using keywords, or the search terms you know your Ideal Client would be searching for. There are ways to improve your website’s SEO ranking in the search engines. For example when a person searches the internet for a keyword, let’s say they are looking for pet supplies so they type “pet supplies” and click “search”. The search engines use algorithms to find the websites that are most relevant to their search. You can help increase your chances of being found by using specific keywords within the content, descriptions, tags, and titles on your website. You can also pay for ads, write articles to show your authority on various topics, and many other SEO strategies!

Here’s a very helpful SEO Checklist for you to reference. I recommend doing a Google search on each of these items so you can learn how to complete each task. They all play an important role in your website’s SEO ranking.

• Site Title - This is what will show up on page tabs or in search results for your website. Make it relevant and make it stand out.

• Site Description- This is a short description that describes what your site is about and I recommend using it to speak to your Ideal Client to let them know who the site is for, aka THEM!

• Your Location- Adding your location will help Google recommend your site for local customers. This is still recommended even if you have an online business.

• Custom Domain- You want your site to look professional and having a custom domain is a must. You can purchase one from GoDaddy for a reasonable price or do a Google search and find other providers.

• Browser Icon- This is also called a favicon. It is the tiny icon visitors will see on the tab of your pages, or when they save it to their desktop or bookmark bar. This should be a sized down, cleaner version of your logo.

• SEO Descriptions- These descriptions show as previews in search results and tell customers what that page is about in a short summary. You should do this for each page of your website and add keywords that your ideal client is searching for in regards to the content on that page.

• Page Titles- These are the titles of the pages. They should be simple, as in BLOG instead of Exclusive Offers & Updates. Don’t over-complicate the page titles or try to make them sound fancy or trendy. You will confuse your audience.

• URL Slugs- This is what shows in the url bar of the web address for each page. For example a blog page url could read www.yourwebsite.com-blog. Again, keep it simple. Make sure the slugs are not a random string of characters.

• Blog Post URLs- This is similar to the slugs. I recommend to keep it simple and set your blog to automatically use the title of the blog. Blog post titles should be what your Ideal Client is searching online. Use their language and search keywords.

• SSL Security- Your site needs to be secure or Google won’t be likely to recommend it and your audience will not want to stick around.

• 404 Page- This is the page that your audience lands on when they type in a non-existent or broken link related to your site. You can redirect them to the home page or create a custom page that provides helpful information to help them navigate to pages they are looking for.

• Google Analytics- Connect your site to Google Analytics so you can gain insight and monitor your site traffic.

• Content- This is the copy on the website pages or within your blog. Make it helpful and relevant and use the keywords your Ideal Client is searching for online.

• Redirect Links- If you change the url of a page or a post, you should set up a redirect link, meaning a way to forward the old link to the new link. That way if someone has the old link they can still access the new one.

• Google Search Console- Verify your website with Google then monitor how your site is coming up in search results.

• Google Index- Ask Google to Index your site.

• Bing Webmaster Tools- Verify your site on Bing and monitor your search results there as well.

• AMP- Accelerated Mobile Pages, works with Google to prioritize results in Google on mobile devices. It helps make mobile versions load faster.

• Blogging- We already discussed blogging, but it’s worth mentioning again! Blogging, if done strategically, can increase traffic to your website from your Ideal Client audience!

As you can see, SEO is quite the task and it is something that requires constant review and upkeep. You can definitely DIY your website’s to increase traffic. However, many businesses will outsource SEO because of its tedious and complex nature. The same goes for blogging. Writing articles takes time and there is a strategy to it if you want to increase traffic to your website from your Ideal Client. We provide SEO and blogging services at Hey Girl Marketing (the parent company to Love it Design Co).

3) Social Media

Engaging with your Ideal Clients on social media can also increase traffic to your website! You can follow your Ideal Client and interact with them and establish rapport and build relationships. Make sure to have a link to your website in your social media profiles so your Ideal Client can direct themselves to your website. In some cases you can share your website link when it seems appropriate. Whatever you do, do not spam people with your link! Only share when you know they are interested or when asked.

4) Facebook Groups

Join Facebook groups that your Ideal Client hangs out in. The same rules apply as the social media advice. Do not spam. Make connections. Only share the link to your website when someone asks for it or every so often. Engage with others more than promoting yourself.

5) Social Media Ads

You can run Facebook or Instagram ads to drive more traffic to your website. You will need some training on this as it can be a tad complex. The ads are easy to set up but you need to know about targeting your Ideal Clients. You also need to know how to analyze results and I recommend learning about A/B testing and re-targeting. This can be a great way to increase the traffic to your website, but you need to make sure you are being strategic about it.

6) Guest Blogging

Have guests write content for your site and you do the same for other sites. This will help you become more visible to other audiences and can greatly increase the traffic to your website, depending on the size of the guest’s audience. Obviously, this makes sense to do with complimentary businesses. Like a tax accountant and a financial advisor. Both are in the finance industry but offer different, yet complimentary services.

7) Content

We spoke about this earlier, in the SEO section. Creating quality content is one of the BEST ways to increase organic traffic to your website. But just writing a blog or just running a social media profile or ad is not good enough. You want to make sure the content that you provide is relevant and helpful for your Ideal Client. Pay attention to the analytics and what content of yours is most popular and create content with the same quality. Address the problems that your Ideal Client faces and find ways to make their lives easier just by following you!

8) Authority

Your website should be seen as an authority in your industry. Make sure your website navigation is easy and helpful, while also being attractive to your Ideal Client. This goes along with content. Creating and posting helpful and relevant content regularly can help you be seen as an authority. Being seen as an authority will help you increase traffic to your website because Google will be more likely to recommend you in searches and your audience will likely subscribe to your updates and recommend you to others.

9) Website Security

You want your website to be trusted and secure. Also, this will help with your SEO ranking. Google, for example, is not going to recommend a risky site with poor security. If you want to increase traffic to your website you want Google on your side and you want your visitors to trust you.

10) Speed & Responsiveness

Visitors (as well as Google) want to see sites that are responsive across all devices and load quickly! When your Ideal Client visits your website they are not going to wait for your site to load. If it doesn’t load quickly they are going to bounce and search for other, faster resources.

I hope this article was helpful to you and taught you new ways that you can increase traffic to your website. Master these tips and be sure to share your results with us in the comments below! If you have any questions or suggestions, I would love to hear those as well.