How to get quality hits and keep visitors!
Visitors to your website can come from lots of different sources such as a Google search or a Facebook post. The reasons for someone visiting your website can also be varied, from curiosity, to a need to find an answer to their question. Having lots of hits to your site might not necessarily be a good thing if the people landing on your website are not actually looking for your service or product. It would be much better to have 2 visits that result in 2 sales than 1000 hits with not even 1 enquiry. That is why we are going to look at ways to get quality traffic and ensure that the right visitors stick around.
At the start of marketing your website, you need to think about who you want to visit your website. Once you have established your target visitor, you can begin to examine how to attract them to visit your website.
Getting the right hits to your website
SEO – Keywords
Search engine optimisation is one of the most important factors when looking into promoting your site. Without good optimisation your website could go un-noticed by search engines. Google is currently the go to place when someone is looking for a product or service. This is why it is essential that you know which keywords and phrases people might use to search for the product or service that you are offering. Think about what you would type into Google if you were looking for your product or service. Careful planning and organisation around this aspect of your website will help search engines know what your website is about. These keywords and phrases should be included within your meta tags of your website. The content of your site should also be carefully planned with these keywords and phrases in mind. When search engines crawl your website they want to make sure that their search results are accurate.
As well as short term phrases consider long-tail keywords which are more likely to give you positive results. For example, if you sell handmade toiletries you could target ‘handmade lavender soap’ or ‘organic honey bath oil’. Being specific about what your website or a web page is about helps search engines point the right visitors to your site.
Writing a blog
Adding a blog to your website can be a good way to attract more quality hits to your website. Firstly, you need to think about what you could write about that would be helpful to your visitor. What relevant questions could you answer for a potential customer or client? Blog writing is also a good way to show your expertise and knowledge. This in turn can help gain visitor confidence, as well as attract more keyword clicks.
Writing blog posts is not for everyone and if this is the case for you, then you could consider hiring a professional to write regular blogs for your website.
Social Media Marketing
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are great places to promote your website. Whilst they offer paid advertising, which may be beneficial, the free option of posting and tweeting can be just as successful. Images, trending hashtags and enticing content can all help your posts be noticed and in turn can result in clicks through to your site either directly or in-directly.
Paid online advertising
There are many different avenues to go down when it comes to spending money on the internet to promote your website. One of the main ones is Google analytics. When done well, this offers many businesses a great way to gain the right clicks as well as keep within budget. Social media platforms also offer paid advertising which depending on your market could be another successful means to gain those quality clicks through to your site. There is a wealth of knowledge on the internet regarding pay per click advertising but if you have the budget then looking into hiring a professional might be the best option for you.
Great Content
Having the right text on your website is so important. Your website could look great with professional photos but without quality text your site will lose hits as search engines will struggle to know what your website is about. Thought and planning needs to go into the content to ensure your keywords and associated keywords feature throughout. Always spell check and re-read your text to ensure there are not mistakes and that it flows well. If you write quality content, then people will be happy to link back to your site.
YouTube
YouTube can be a really useful platform for some businesses if your product or service lends itself well to video content. It can be a great and easy way to share content to a large audience. In 2019 it had around 2 billion users worldwide and currently is the second most popular social media platform after Facebook. Careful planning and great video content could boost your website’s clicks as well as promote your own YouTube channel and increase subscribers.
Email Marketing
Building an email marketing address list can help you keep in contact with your customers as well as give potential customers an opportunity to keep in touch and find out about any special offers or news. Always make sure people have given their consent for you to email them and offer them the chance to opt out/un-subscribe at any time. A well planned email campaign can boost your website hits and gives you another means to promote any products or current offers. The great thing about email marketing is that you will be contacting people who have already bought from you or have at least shown an interest at some point by signing up to your emails/newslettters.
Keep your website updated
Google loves websites with fresh content! By updating your website, you are telling search engines that your site is live and current. When a search engine crawls your site it will detect new text or a change of image. This can have a positive effect on your Google ranking and the higher up your website is on a search the more chances you have of people clicking through to your site.
What are your competitors doing?
Keeping an eye on what your competitors are up to, is always a good thing. Compare how well they rank for your target keywords and phrases. Check out their social media pages and keep track of their prices and services/products they are offering. Is there a gap in the market which you could fill and highlight on your website? How does your website look in comparison to other competitor’s websites? Do your USPs (unique selling points) stand out when someone lands on your site? Imagine you were a potential customer visiting your site and your competitor’s, how does your site compare?
Promote your website on marketing material
Always remember to include your web address on any of your marketing material such as brochures or flyers. If you have any special online offers or incentives to sign up to an email newsletter, these can be great ways to entice customers to your website. Don’t forget to include your website address on any vehicle livery or branded clothing.
Get the right Domain
All too often people rush out to purchase a domain without thinking of the longer term implications. Which domain name you go for will obviously depend on your business name and what domains are still available. In most cases a .com is worth buying even if it costs a little more than a .co.uk or .net etc. Ideally your business name will lend itself to your domain being short and easy to remember. Long domains can be difficult to read and less versatile when adding onto a flyer or the side of a vehicle. Having one of your keywords or phrases feature within your domain name can improve your Google ranking but this is no longer guarantee.
Keeping visitors
Once you’ve got people coming to your website, it is obviously important to ensure they don’t immediately click away. The average time on a website has been said to be just 15 seconds, so you don’t have long to make sure that a visitor stays on your site rather than search elsewhere.
Make sure your website is Responsive
Currently mobile usage accounts for just over half of web traffic so it is essential that your website is responsive to all devices. Careful consideration needs to be made to how your site will be viewed on a mobile as well as a desktop and tablet. You may decide to remove some elements of your design for mobile to make the process easier, clearer and quicker. Include a clickable phone number so potential customers can easily get in touch with you and check your site’s navigation is easy to use on a small screen.
Check your Speed!
If you only have 15 seconds to catch a visitor’s attention, then it is vital that your site loads quickly and isn’t slowed down by large images and slow content. Keeping website’s simple can often be the best way to keeping visitors on your site and Google loves great content that loads quickly.
Clear and well structured content
Make sure to vary the length and format of your content so it appeals to different readers. Some visitors will know exactly what they are looking for and so clear headings are vital. Other people might be looking for more detail or might not be sure what they are looking for. An organised website will help potential customers to find what they are looking for and therefore they will be less likely to click away.
Irresistible headings and content that jumps of the screen will also keep your visitors engage. Make sure your photos are professional and compliment your text. Most websites benefit from a great balance of text and images.
Keep your website updated
There is nothing more off putting than reading a notice about Christmas opening times, when it’s July! Make sure your website looks fresh, as this will instil confidence in a visitor to your site. Having updated social media feeds can also help your site look alive. Google also loves sites with new content!
Easy navigation
Think about what your visitor will be looking for. Try to make sure they can access that content with as few clicks as possible. Clear navigation is so important when it comes to keeping visitors on your site. You could have the best content, service or product but if someone can’t find it, then it’s as good as it not being there.
Getting the colours right
The colour of a website can play an important part in keeping a visitor as some sources argue that around half of visitors leaving a website don’t come back because of its colour! Colours evoke feelings and visitors will make assumptions based on the colours. A green website is an obvious choice for a website promoting an environmentally friendly product, whilst a pink site suggests feminine to a visitor. Your brand will obviously play an important part in determining the colour scheme but consideration also needs to be made into visitor appeal.
Don’t forget the font!
Keep fonts don’t to a minimum as too many fonts can spoil a website! Make sure the font is easy to read and if possible use the same font on your website as you’ve used on your marketing material and other promotional items.
In Summary
Get your website right with great up to date content, that is well structured (front and back) and carefully designed, will naturally result in more clicks. Making sure your website works for your target market and you are advertising in the right places, will help ensure those clicks are coming from the right audience. Once there, the visitor needs to be able to see that your website is just what they are looking for. Get it right and your website can be one, if not the greatest asset of your business.
