As a small business owner, it might seem like your website is a needle in a haystack. Remember: Many of the most popular – and profitable – websites in the world started where you are. In fact, when you think about the goofy layouts and counter-intuitive interfaces that sites like eBay and Amazon had once upon a time, your site has a leg up.
There’s a lot of potential in that thought, now, isn’t there?
Good design is an advantage, but you need to keep building on it so your site will add real value to your small business. The total number of monthly visits to your site – also called Web traffic – is the first metric you should think about to get on the road to success.
Until you get those clicks, you can’t get the sales you really want, so everything starts there.
Let’s look at the most important steps you can take to get noticed and attract visitors.
When people are interested in products or services like yours, what do they search online for? These keywords must be represented in your site’s content or else search engines like Google and Bing won’t know which search queries to match your site with. Luckily, there are plenty of tools you can use to home in on promising keywords ... including profitable keywords used by your competitors.
Where exactly do those keywords go once you’ve got them all figured out? Somewhere on your site, of course. This is where things get a bit technical. Search Engine Optimization is the science of effectively making your site visible in search, and on-page SEO refers to things like the keyword density in your pages, page titles, and internal links, plus certain user-friendly design elements.
This is where many entrepreneurs’ eyes start to glaze over. Bear in mind, though, that no matter how well you understand your customers, you need on-page SEO to be really successful online. Every page on your site – and every future page – should be optimized according to a careful keyword strategy. If this sounds like trouble, it might be time to hire a marketing agency.
If you have a traditional “brick and mortar” store, local search is your best friend. By making a few key tweaks to your local search strategy, you may start to see customers right away. The first and most important thing you can do is claim your Google business page and make sure your company’s address, phone number, and other details are up to date.
What is content? In a nutshell, it’s everything you present to your prospective customers to build a relationship with them. That relationship typically starts when you answer a question or solve a problem that they have – and the fastest way to do that is with blog posts. Each blog post should address just one major topic: Ideally, a burning question that keeps prospects awake at night.
Here’s another place where some entrepreneurs get tripped up: Your goal is to give this content away for free. Why? Simply enough, your public-facing content is crucial to Google calculations on where to put you in search. Each time you publish a new piece of content, you boost your visibility for keywords related to your site. The private, conversion-oriented content all comes later.
Content is a never-ending journey – you came to hear about getting found, so let’s stay focused there. There are about 1.8 billion active users on Facebook every month: If your business caters to consumers, your customers are on there, too. By sharing your content consistently through social media, you extend its range and strengthen its impact without investing a penny.
What if you’re a B2B enterprise? There’s a clear option for you, too: LinkedIn. Research shows that the vast majority of B2B leads generated on social media come from LinkedIn – about 80%. Many of those happen in LinkedIn Groups. You should not only share your new content as updates, but also remember to post links to relevant Groups throughout the platform.
If you want instant traffic, there’s only one solution: Paid traffic, also known as PPC (pay-per-click.)
In Q1 2015, Google took in more than $17 billion in revenue, with the vast majority of it coming from advertisements on its AdWords network. Because of its tremendous reach, most businesses in any stage of growth will start their paid traffic efforts on Google.
Let’s face it: Paid traffic can be intimidating.
Succeeding with PPC requires not only a whole lot of specialized knowledge, but a certainty that all the other steps have been done right. Take a deep breath and remember you’re not competing against everyone on Google, but only against a handful of companies targeting the same keywords you are.
Sometimes, there may not be any!
Done right, paid traffic can be so powerful that it becomes a company’s sole revenue engine. The ability to turn traffic on and off at will and direct that traffic to whichever specific page you want is second to none in traffic generation. Still, it’s not to be done lightly, and should never be set up in an afternoon after getting a discount voucher from Google. Save money by calling the pros!
You can start at any time with the methods we’ve covered so far, and your results will only get better the more effort you invest. There’s one approach, however, that you really only get the best from once you’ve already secured some basic traffic – and that’s referral.
People are much more likely to take a product or service recommendation from someone they know than from a complete stranger. Testimonials and reviews are still helpful, but more and more people are catching on to the idea that these can be falsified by unscrupulous characters.
Referral traffic is different: It’s traffic you get by motivating satisfied customers to directly talk with other people they know and recommend your services. Of course, there’s no telling exactly when someone will actually need your services, so you have to build a long-term relationship.
In most cases, the key to referral traffic is having customers on an email list so you can send them periodic offers and incentives. This will keep your brand fresh in mind, so when they run into someone who has a problem you can solve, they’re more likely to make the referral.
Of course, offering them something special for doing it doesn’t hurt!
It might seem like there’s a lot to do to get your small business site noticed – and there is.
But, the sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll see results. And the longer you build on those results, the better they’ll get, helping you shut out upstart competitors in the future. What’s the North Star of all your efforts? Help, educate, and inform your visitors – build trust – then sell.