A guide to how to attract traffic to your website
All the owners of Internet sites have posed or still ask themselves these questions: “How to make known my website? How to generate traffic to my website? “. With the growing number of sites and blogs growing daily on the web, the competition is getting bigger and bigger and the rules are changing accordingly. We will see in this article different web strategies whose goal is to attract quality traffic to your website following a simple pattern that too few people agree to follow.
1. Do an audit of a website
An audit is “simply” an inventory of your site to identify all the factors that can be improved. You can first perform a technical SEO audit to get a list of things that reduce the performance of your site and prevent you from appearing at the top of Google search results.
The technical audit will for example control the loading speed of your pages (which has a strong impact on the ranking of your site and its number of visitors) on all media (computers, phones, tablets) and all browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Safari, Chrome, etc.).
This SEO analysis will also allow you to identify duplicate content (extremely common), broken links (404 errors), or the classification of your content (including your title tags h1, h2, h3, etc.). The technical audit will really allow you to analyze your website in the same way that a search engine can judge its quality.
Another form of audit strongly recommended is the audit “user experience”. Indeed, many SEO (Search Engine Optimization) specialists simply perform a technical audit of websites because they know that the optimization of the factors identified already shows a clear improvement in the search results. Admittedly, the site audited will receive more visits because it will be better referenced but that does not mean that visitors will stay on the site, let alone that they will perform the action you expect from them.
The user experience audit, therefore, makes sense here as it consists of putting yourself in the shoes of your visitors and identifying all the factors that can slow them down in their act of purchase or in the action you want to make them realize. In general, the people who participated in the creation of the site are often less objective than the outsiders because this work is to identify what they did “badly done”, often for lack of knowledge.
It is not uncommon to hear the owner of a site express his astonishment in the following way: “I do not understand. My site is great and yet people do not stay on it. I do not sell as much as the site of my competitor who is much less well”. If there are other sites similar to yours that customers buy, the problem is surely your site.
This first step can therefore generate traffic to your site because the technical audit will save you places in the search results and the user experience audit will help you to convert and especially to retain your visitors. Remember that the two dimensions to take into account when evaluating your website traffic are the number of new visitors (number of people who have visited your site for the first time) VS the number of visitors who have already visited your site. One measures the ability of your site to become known and develop its audience, the other measure the satisfaction of your visitors vis-à-vis the content presented.
2. Make your website popular
As you might guess, there are many ways to advertise a website. However, the methods of some may not apply to others and what worked yesterday may not be as effective today. We will therefore review some commonly used methods to generate traffic while commenting on their effectiveness.
Inbound links (backlinks in English)
As much to get right into the heart of the matter and talk directly about what is controversial. Inbound links are links placed on external sites (if possible related to your theme) and pointing to one of your pages. Long regarded as the factor that has the most influence on the positioning of websites in the search results, SEO specialists have used and even abused it to the point that Google had to implement frequent controls and an update of its algorithm to counter these artificial links (principle of link building in English). This practice, also called “Outreach”, is to use with great care. However, its effectiveness is always proven so an inbound link strategy (even basic) is to consider if you want a good SEO. On the following link, you will find more information about our SEO services.
On-page optimization
This method involves optimizing your site for search engines (SEO). The goal is to apply all the guidelines that allow robots to properly understand your content and offer it to users in a consistent manner. Indeed, a robot does not work in the same way as a human being. He cannot see or listen to media content although he is progressing in what is “listening” to content. For example, if you insert the image of a puppy playing with a ball, Google’s robots will not be able to “read” the content of the image. To help robots understand, you must describe media content in the “alt” attribute of your image or video tags for example. It is also important for Google that your pages are well structured with <hn> tags who organize your page with titles and subtitles to facilitate its understanding of the content. Each page must have a main title that must be framed by the title tags <h1> </ h1>. This shows Google the title of your page that should explain what is going to process the content presented. This practice is therefore strongly recommended and must even be the first thing to do once you have completed your SEO audit.
Publish content
Let it be known right away, any “natural” (non-paying) traffic generation strategy relies on the quality of the content you post on your site. Your visitors use search engines to find content and a content-poor website cannot get good SEO performance. To reiterate the point about inbound links, it is precise because of some sites that were based on this strategy but did not provide quality content that Google has decided to sanction such practices. You have to publish quality content on a regular basis (you can create a blog section) if you want your site to be alive and continue to be well-positioned in the search results.
Relay your content
Enable the ability for users to share your content and start the conversation by creating sharing links on social networks (or a short link to your content), which will be used to gain visibility and traffic. Your content needs to be highlighted and promoted to be visible. And the more your content will be visible, the more traffic it will attract! There are many ways to promote and share your content. You can integrate share buttons on your content, put it forward in a nice newsletter with a call to action button to your site, or ask directly to your subscribers on social media to share the content if they liked it. It also allows you to judge the quality of your content and have feedback to improve it. Any practices designed to make you known by sharing your content are strongly recommended.
Optimize content based on the right keywords
When you publish content, you create keywords that you can find on the internet. To generate more traffic, it’s important that the content you create matches the demand from your customers. You must then pay attention to the keywords on which your content is positioned and target those that meet the research of your customers. Relevant content is more likely to drive traffic and will be better positioned in search results.
We note that on Google, the first 3 search results generate more than 60% of the traffic of a query while the results that follow are more rarely consulted by Internet users. There are then 2 possible strategies for your content. You can choose highly sought -after keywords but with strong competition or acquire traffic on more specific and less sought-after keywords, but with low competition. The best is to combine the two so that your site is referenced at the same time on the much sought generic terms but also on the specific expressions and the more technical requests. Your traffic will feed on all search opportunities.
Think about local SEO
“Bike Montreal”, “hairdresser metro Prefontaine”, who has never searched for services or products nearby? Most consumers search for products or services based on their geolocation. This may seem obvious, but local SEO is not always a reflex. Investing in your local SEO means allowing your customers to find your products or services as soon as they are nearby. The traffic generated by local referencing is therefore more qualified traffic with high potential. The goal is to attract interested customers either to your site or directly to your establishment.
Google my business local SEO customer review my little big web
With local search, users have direct access to your business hours, the URL of your site, the route to your business, and your customer reviews. By displaying your information in local search results, you increase your visibility and allow the user to find you quickly. It is an element of weight that can make a difference in the choice of the user.
Social network management is becoming increasingly important in traffic generation strategies. Indeed, social media can present your content outside your site, reach more audiences,s and use the principle of word of mouth through the sharing it will generate. A presence on social networks will improve your SEO insofar as they are a source of the traffic to your site. The amount of traffic to a site being a criterion of SEO, we can say that social networks influence the notoriety of your site and therefore your SEO. However, be careful that the social networks you choose are consistent with your business. For example, a plumber will probably have less success on Facebook than a tattoo parlor. If you want more information about this, Should I advertise on Facebook? “Or even” Advertise on LinkedIn “to know the questions to ask before communicating on social networks.
Contact influencers
90% of consumers rely on the recommendations of other consumers and this is even truer for influencers. Influencers are very active on the web and are able to influence opinions and consumer habits in the manner of leaders. If influencers are so popular with brands and companies, it’s also for the size of their audience. Influencers are listened to and searched by thousands of people every day. Their ability to engage audiences and create interaction makes them the best allies for brands and businesses. Influential marketing has become an important lever for digital marketing. Indeed, working with an influencer brings conversion and notoriety to the company. Indeed, compared to conventional advertising, influence marketing generates 11 times more ROI. Be mentioned by an influencer can reach new potential customers who will be more inclined to follow the recommendations of an influencer. The partnership with an influencer can take several forms: an invitation to test and give an opinion on your products or services, co-creation of content, a new product or service … It’s up to you to build your partnership!
Publish on other websites
The “guest blogging” is to offer an article to another site than yours. The goal is to present your expertise on a given topic and enjoy the audience of the site that agrees to publish your article. If you are in good faith and your approach is natural, guest blogging is a great way to build your identity on the internet. Be careful, however, sites that offer guest articles (guest blogging) and ask you to publish on your site an article filled with external links. You can be pretty sure it’s a link building strategy.
Join focus groups
Invest in discussion groups on social networks, blogs, or forums. Discussion spaces are places where you can promote your business and your business. The goal is to show your expertise in your field. But you have to interact without falling into spam. You are not asked to comment on links to your site on all blogs and forums. Your answer should add value and should help the person reading your comment. When an issue or topic interests you, take the time to write a relevant answer and include a link to the page of your site that will be most appropriate. You must keep in mind the interest of your target. If your answer elicits the interests of readers, you can only gain traffic and new visitors!
Advertise online
SEA Ads If you are looking for a quick way to communicate with a specific target, online advertising is really the ideal solution (Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc.). The beauty of internet advertising (if it is well done) is based on the ability to accurately select the people you want to communicate with. Unlike traditional forms of advertising (television, radio, press), advertising on the internet is very precise and allows a quick return on investment (a single day can sometimes be enough!).
It is generally much cheaper than “offline” advertising and offers greater flexibility (ability to modify your ads at any time, increase or decrease your budget, change your target, etc.). Do not be swayed by specialists who will tell you that you must invest at least $ 2,000 to get results. It is better to start in a smaller area to reduce the minimum budget to invest, test the first results, and especially the skills of the one who manages your campaign.
Analyze your results
You will not be able to fully assess the impact of the steps outlined above if you do not take the time to analyze your results. Indeed, web marketing is a world of tests and results analysis that allows you to evolve your strategy by studying the behavior of your visitors. Getting visitors to your site is one thing but getting them to do what you want from them is another. It is therefore essential to build performance reports in order to follow the evolution of your results and modify your actions accordingly.
Conclusion
The advice given in this article will not allow you to reinvent the wheel (it was not the goal) but it will save you time by avoiding you getting lost in obsolete and ineffective practices. Finally, the method explained is only a series of logical reasoning that will necessarily bring you quality traffic. Be careful, however, to whom you seek advice because it is very easy to pass for an expert. Last little trick to select your provider: if you only understand half of the words that come out of his mouth, he probably tries to confuse you…