HELP! NO ONE’S VISITING MY WEBSITE!
I use to hear this all the time in previous roles – people have spent thousands of dollars (sometimes tens of thousands) building their dream website and then weeks, or months, would go by and…. crickets. Not only are they not getting sales, or calls or enquiries- they’re not even getting visitors. That one visitor a few days ago was probably just their mum. And they’re freaking out! Why isn’t this thing working?!
Firstly, be sure that you understand what a website is. It’s a store front. It’s an address and a ‘building’ on the internet. Think of the internet as the information highway, with millions of people zooming along it and you’ve come along and created your own building in this giant online city. You’ve paid your rates for a url (domain registration) and set up a road leading from the main highway to your building (hosting) but no ones travelling down it to visit.
That’s because there’s no road signs! They don’t know that you’re down that road, they don’t even notice that road without some decent signage. So even tho there’s people out there looking for your exact thing, the best looking and acting website in the world isn’t going to bridge the gap between the highway and your building. All that beautiful coding and content kicks in once they’re in the door. So how do we build some signposts? (I hope this analogy is making sense – it’s how I always think about it!)
First and most important – Google: the great sign maker. Google regularly indexes the internet looking for new websites and updates to old websites. New websites will rank better because one of the million algorithms that Google works off is how recent a website has been updated. So new websites are all completely new = good ranking. (This is also why blogging or updating your website regularly is so important: new content = higher ranking)
No one knows how long it takes Google to index a new url but you can submit it here to give yourself a bit of a boost.
Once it is ranking on Google there are a number of ways you can get more traffic to your website:
GET BUSY ON SOCIAL MEDIA
No time for the Facebook? You don’t fancy the twitter machine? That’s fine. You don’t have to do both, but you have to do something. Especially if your audience is your local community. Make sure you have a Facebook page set up and look into other social media platforms. There a huge number of Social Media and industry forums to promote your website on (just make sure you stay within guidelines – you don’t want to put people off)
ADVERTISING
Every business needs to advertise, particularly at the beginning. Google AdWords is a the best platform to capture people ready to buy or looking for your specific product or service while Facebook Adverts are the leading way to promote your business to people that may have no idea that they need your product or service yet. Using both these platforms in a combined marketing plan can have amazing results. (Websites Done Fast can help you with this!)
MAKE YOUR CASE CLEAR
When someone comes to your site, you have to answer the question they’ll be asking themselves: “why should I spend any time on this site instead of one of the dozens of other sites I already know and love?” You have to answer this question quickly, clearly and compellingly. Your Point Of Difference is the key to making your case. If you don’t have a P.O.D., it’s time to get one.
USE KEYWORDS
Keywords are words that are frequently used in search engine searches. Incorporating high-ranking keywords in your website content makes it more likely that Google will deliver your website high in the ranks when that combination of keywords is used. Eg. if you are a florist and you never use the phrase ‘buy rose bouquets‘ and you don’t have that one of your locations is in Melbourne, when someone searches ‘Where to buy a rose bouquet in Melbourne‘ Google doesn’t know to put you up as an option. We ensure that all Website Done Fast websites have rich keywords incorporated in them.
GIVE SOMETHING AWAY
Everybody loves a freebie and giving away something has a number of benefits for you. Exchanging information or a discount for an email address gives you a contact for a person who is likely to buy from you in the future. This is invaluable in terms of lifetime spend potential. It also makes your website visitor like you, trust you and feel grateful to you so much more likely to do business with you. Finally, Google looks at many different algorithms but interaction with a website and time on page are definitely included factors so people downloading a free item and signing up to a mailing list help with your Google ranking.
AFFILIATE LINKS
Years ago backlinks were the be all and end all for website traffic and google ranking. It’s far less relevant now in terms of search ranking however if you are selective and smart about the business that you work with you can create some mutually beneficial growth for both you and your affiliate by guest blogging, sharing special offers or promoting each other for a time. Find well respected, non competitive but similar audience businesses with high traffic for best results.
INCORPORATE ON-PAGE SEO
Optimizing your content for search engines is an important and worthwhile practice. Are you making the most of image alt text? Are you creating internal links to new content? What about meta descriptions? Optimizing for on-page SEO doesn’t have to take ages, and it could help boost your organic traffic. Our websites are built with attention to image titles, header and page keywords as well as a multitude of other built in SEO aspects.
MIXED MEDIA
Video has become a huge media type in the last few years, people love watching them, Google loves referring to them. But more than just video, make sure that your website incorporates a mix of media and your blog posts are a range of lengths. Think infographics, forms, interactive features and engaging headlines or content.