How to drive traffic to your website?

You just started, you created your website, and you now have an online showcase of your activity! It feels good to finally achieve this step, and you are feeling able to take on the world (well, or at least you marker) thanks to your new e-commerce.

But after few weeks, DRAMA! You realize results are much less than what you expected. You were already envisioning yourself working full time for your company to handle the order activity… but for now the only movement you could see may be from a couple of spiders moving on to you website. To put it in a nutshell, nobody is visiting your web (not even spiders), a real desolate spot.

Angrily cursing all the market studies and statistics you made before launching your online activity, you try to understand why your website doesn’t register any visit… and you come to realize that having a website is just the beginning of a project, and is not the end of a process. So roll up your sleeves and do the hard work, because generating traffic is no magic but an outgrowth of long and very dedicated work.

So how do you do to generate more traffic to your website? The expert in website creation (but not only) Subforce gives you 5 ideas to boost your visits (either paid or free of charge).

 

1st IDEA - SEO - Free indexing

Little reminder: SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it consists in improving its positioning by increasing its visibility in search engines as Google. And the nº1 lever to improve your SEO free of charge, is to take care of your organic referencing, that is to say to make sure each page has the right keywords (the ones that your target will search for).

You can begin to search with the free tools of Google such as autocomplete or linked search. It is really easy to use, and is really efficient! It will provide you a clear idea of what your customer is writing.

For instance: you have a restaurant in the center of Paris named Fine Bouche, in Montmartre and you just launch your website. You’ll have to reference your home page for example with those words: “Come to the restaurant Fine Bouche, at the heart of Montmartre in Paris, you’ll enjoy a french cuisine, modern and innovative, open all days noon and evenings”. In a few words, you answer most of your customers questions and give them relevant information (place, time, type of cuisine).

Warning! We stated that it was free? It's like the old saying goes, time is money, and for sure you are going to spend time analysing relevant keywords for your business. So one must have patience to improve gradually its positioning, and that’s do not even ensures you to be in the firsts results of Google. Referencing is quite versatile, so be patient and persistent.

For more information about SEO, you can read our article to become Expert in SEO.

 

2cd IDEA - SEM - Paying your positioning

SEM, which stands for Search Engine Marketing, consists in paying Google Adwords to position itself on search engines with predefined relevant keywords. For instance if you pay for the words “coworking in Barcelona” your website will appear in one of the first results, with a green little insert to differentiate it from the other results. Paying to be well reference is eventually advertisement, because it doesn't take into account the content of each of your pages, but the amount paid to Google Adwords.

 

3rd IDEA - Manage contests on your social medias

By now, we could say nearly everyone on social media has ever participated in a contest to win a weekend or something else, by giving a like and sharing a publication. This is a classic marketing method to drive traffic easily and efficiently to your web. You must propose something that really has value to your customer, and encourage them to share massively your campaign to gain audience and have the maximum impact.

If you are a specialized shop of french crepes from the Brittany region, you could for example organize a contest to win a Brittany box with your best-sellers. Publish in your social medias and explain you will sort the winner among people who liked the page and shared the post. Know with facebook you can also identify your products on your publications, it enables your client to have direct access to the product page… Quite practical right?

 

4th IDEA - Write articles about specialized topics that your customers are interested in, and share it on your social media accounts

It is a pretty good idea to improve its organic positioning (SEO), simply because a well written article with good keywords is helpful for your positioning, and attracts a larger audience. And if you share your content on your social medias you are showing not only that you are widely active on the web, but also that you are an expert on your field.

Imagine you as the owner of a business providing nutritional advice to people willing to change they diet, to lose weight, gain muscular strength or simply to change of lifestyle. You just launch your website, that came with a blog. I suggest you to write an article about current trends: food to eat during this spring season, to prevent you from getting sick, and stay healthy for instance! You are delighting your customers with fresh advice, especially since they are interested in a more balanced diet and life. Publish your article in a post in your social medias, and why not set aside a small budget to promote this kind of content, after all if your content is relevant and provide real value to your customer it worth it!

 

5th IDEA - Build backlinks for your website

Be creative, and offer to a blogger to co-write an article, or else to simply write on a website in connection with your business, and that could help you to attract a wider audience. You are offering to produce quality content for their website, that means to help them be well referenced and drive traffic to their website. You must bear in mind that you have the opportunity to be cited in your article, as (co-)author, that is to say to generate also traffic to your web.

Imagine this time you are renting bikes in the center of Barcelona, and offering guided tours in the Catalan city. You obviously know the city like the back of your hand, so why not offering to write an article to a local web magazine, enhancing good plans and tips. You could even dare to include yourself in the article… Good contacts on your local web magazine, and a valuable backlink for your website are at stake.