How to make the most of your new website!
So you’ve got a fancy new website, and you’re ready for loads of new leads and inquiries to flood your inbox! You sit at your table, admiring your gorgeous new site, sipping your coffee, waiting patiently for the phone to ring.
But instead, it’s just crickets.
Nobody seems to know your new site even exists. What happened to ranking on Google and standing out as an expert online?
While a modern, strategic website is a crucial part of your digital marketing strategy, having a fantastic new website is not a “build it and they will come” situation. Even the highest converting sites can’t convert unless people actually visit the website.
So what do you do?
How do you make your website work for you, rather than just take up space on the internet?
Don't worry, we will talk about some easy ways to boost traffic to your site, and increase the number of new leads coming into your sales funnel. Just a note here: you can have all the traffic in the world, but unless you’re getting the right people onto your website, you’ll continue to hear those crickets. So make sure you’re keeping your ideal client in mind when implementing these strategies.
Here are some strategies to get your site hopping with traffic from your ideal audience:
Get blogging!
Share your website!
Get backlinks from business directories.
Utilize your analytics.
Update your website frequently.
Get blogging!
Blogging boosts your SEO, which might seem like a crazy technical thing, but it doesn’t have to be. Without getting bogged down in the details, this is what’s going to help you get found in search results. While there are other things to keep in mind when you’re thinking about your site’s SEO (correct use of headings and subheadings, file names for your images, short URLs, etc.), blogging is a great way to utilize relevant keywords, include internal links, insert your call to action, and keep readers on your website. All of these things show Google that your site deserves to rank higher in search engine results.
Google prioritizes wesites that provide value to people. Their goal, like any other platform, is to have people stay on the platform as long as possible. When viewers realize a website isn’t actually providing any answers to their questions, they “bounce” off the site and go somewhere else.
But when you focus on providing information your ideal audience is actually searching for, they will not only stay on your site and consume that information, but chances are they will click through to other posts, and even return to your site the next time they have a question!
Bonus tip: You can also repurpose other forms of content to harness the power of a blog! If you have a YouTube channel or podcast, you can have the transcripts of those videos or episodes on your blog! This helps you reach more people, while also helping you rank for keywords (plus you gain backlinks from your podcast platform or from YouTube, which Google loves to see)!
Your blog will also keep working for you months and even years down the road! It takes a while for search engines to crawl and rank your website, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on blogging just because you don’t see an immediate result. Consistency is going to be your best friend here. If you were to stay consistent and publish just one valuable blog post per week for the next few months, you would start to see a major change in your website traffic. Make sure you keep your ideal audience, keywords, and optimal blog length in mind. Blogging is a long game, but it’s definitely worth it!
Share your website!
Who says you have to wait months for the internet to crawl your site before getting eyes on it?
This is where social media can play a massive role in your online marketing strategy!
When you share the valuable content from your website, it not only tells Google that you create information people like to see, but it draws more people into your sales funnel!
Not everyone who sees your post will click through to your link, and that’s ok. You’re not creating content for everyone. You’re creating content for your ideal audience, and when those people click through to your site, they are much more likely to do things like sign up for your email list, share your content with their circle, or contact you about your services!
Google also likes to see that people share your content, because those shares and clicks signal the algorithm that your website provides value to people and keeps them on the platform longer. By doing this, your website will get pushed to the top of the results in search engines, which will lead to more people finding your site organically!
When sharing content on social media platforms, it's important to remember that if you want people to interact with your posts, you should focus on adding to their experience, rather than interrupting it. Nobody wants to be sold to when they scroll Instagram or Facebook. They also don’t want to constantly see “click on this link to learn more” when they see your posts. If you want people to keep reading your content, make sure it is engaging, entertaining, and educational. Instead of selling your services, focus on providing value.
Get backlinks from business directories
This is a super easy way to get quality backlinks to your website especially if your business is location based.
All you need to do is find your local business directory, register your business, and link your website!
As we’ve already established, the more backlinks from reputable sites, the better.
Use Analytics
This is the best way to track your efforts when it comes to using your website as part of your sales funnel. When you understand where the majority of your traffic comes from (organic search, social sharing, etc.) you’ll know where to direct your efforts.
If you notice that most of your traffic comes from your blog, while you’re getting virtually nothing from TikTok or Instagram, then you know it’s time to spend a bit more quality time with your keyboard and crank out some more valuable blog posts. This doesn’t mean you need to delete your social media channels, but it does mean you might want to focus your efforts on repurposing and sharing your long-form content, rather than spending hours creating fresh content for those platforms.
Alternatively, if you find you’re getting most of your visitors from the helpful posts on your Facebook account, you’ll want to invest your time into making connections and creating engaging social media content that leads people back to your website!
You can also use analytics to track behavior on your website itself. This means taking a look to see which pages got the most views, how long people remained on the site, did they click through any buttons or links, and at which point did they leave your site. This allows you to identify if there are any small changes such as copy, layout, your CTA, or your images that could help increase conversion.
With targeted information, you can make educated decisions when it comes your marketing and future website updates.
Update your website frequently.
You should regularly update your website for a few reasons.
First of all, keeping your website up to date provides the best experience for your customers.
If you have inventory, events, or other sales, then you need to make sure the information regarding those things is accurate. This will help you direct people to your site for information, but it will also help keep your customers happy when they decide to act on the details they see on your website. Nobody likes to come to a decision, only to realize that the time they spent researching a business was a waste because the business’s information was outdated or inaccurate.
Updating your website frequently tells Google that your site is active and it needs to keep checking on you! Each time you update your site, the internet gods crawl it again! If you only update your site once a year, or every few months, the algorithm will decide to wait and check on you in a few months. That’s doing you no favors when it comes to organic traffic.
One easy way to ensure you’re making regular updates to your site? You guessed, it—blogging! If you can keep that pace of one blog post a week, then you’re automatically ensuring you signal the internet gods on a weekly basis!
Hopefully this gives you a starting point to increase your website traffic and organic leads! By implementing these simple strategies, you will not only make the Google algorithms happy, you will also show your potential clients that you understand their needs and pain points.
