Increase online traffic to your small business website
Most small businesses now have websites. This is great, but what often happens is that a small business will hire a web developer to create an awesome website without considering search engine optimization or SEO strategies. There is no use developing an awesome website if no one can find it. This article will show you how to increase traffic to your small business website.
It is essential for a small business that their website be easily found. So how can a small business increase online traffic to their website? There are some essential ingredients that you can and should do even if you have a low budget online marketing plan.
1. Education
It’s important for a small business owner to educate themselves on what search engine optimization (SEO) is. This means knowing how Google and the other search engines work so you can play their game by their rules. There are plenty of websites out there that will help you understand SEO and how to achieve it.
2. Get on the campaign trail
Just like a business plan, your small business needs an online marketing campaign plan. This establishes what you are going to use to increase traffic to your website. There is so much available from keywords, Facebook optimization, online article writing, social bookmarking, video for SEO and more. The evolution of online marketing has come a long way from banner ads and email newsletters. Make sure you have a clear plan for what online tools you are going to use and how you are going to use them.
3. Marketing on the site
Once you know what SEO is and how it works, it’s time for your small business to do some on-site online marketing. This means tweaking your website with profitable keywords that are in high demand and low supply (just like real estate). You can use Google Keyword Tool for this or Wordtracker which is a paid service.
Then you need to strategically place your keywords and know the difference between head keywords and long tail keywords. An often underrated but effective technique for on-site marketing is the use of images for SEO.
4. External marketing
This means getting online traffic to your website by using websites and tools outside of your website. It’s all about social media marketing for small businesses. Confused? Let me explain. Many small businesses now have a Facebook page for their business. There are plenty of Facebook marketing tips out there, but this and Twitter, being the two main social media sites, is where you should be doing most of your external marketing if people are drawn to visit your website and see what you have. to offer.
5. Trusted Marketing
Do you use social media to blog about your product or service? FAIL! This is a massive mistake many small businesses make and it really amounts to spam. As a small business, you should use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+ to build relationships through Trust Marketing.
6. Synergy
I mentioned at the beginning about having a good clear online marketing campaign plan. It is very important that your strategy is synergized. Make sure your message is consistent across the different sites and tools you’re using.
7. Measurement
It’s no good having a great website for a small business, an unreal Facebook home page, a regularly updated Twitter account, or thousands of online articles going to your website. You MUST also measure how each marketing channel is performing. Just like asking a customer or customer who calls your business or walks in “How did you find us?” Well, the great news about online marketing is that you don’t have to ask the customer that, you can easily find that information using various internet marketing analytics programs available. Facebook has insights, Google has Adwords, and there are plenty of companies that offer similar but more sophisticated metrics.
Measuring what your best keywords are, where your customers are from, what they are clicking on, etc. will go a long way in helping you tailor your online marketing strategy and fine-tune it for massive results.
These are just the essential internet considerations that a small business should have in their online marketing. There are of course many others and these should not be ignored. Online marketing takes time, patience and perseverance. It’s worth it?
Absolutely. Can you do it easily? If you can.