Website Traffic: What You Need to Know

So many entrepreneurs think a website is going to solve all their problems. If their website is ugly, outdated, or non-existent, getting a conversion-focused website will most likely help. You could have the best conversion-focused website design, but if no one sees it, you will still struggle to get results.

Today’s post is all about what happens AFTER your website is online.

Once your website is built and online your next mission is to learn how to generate website traffic.

Generating website traffic is one of the biggest marketing challenges business owners face, but traffic generation is a skill worth mastering. It’s the gas that makes your lead generation engine (your website) run.

Website traffic falls into two main buckets: Passive and Active

If you understand and use each method, you will be able to steadily generate new leads and clients.

Passive website traffic (Search Engine Optimization – SEO)

Passive traffic is traffic you’ve earned from content you’ve created and published online. Quality content can continue to drive traffic to your site over time. Examples would be directory listings, blogs, vlogs, articles, etc. Paid advertising like banner ads or Facebook ads would fall into passive traffic as well. Passive traffic requires an investment of time or money up front which can pay off with traffic for a long time. Some content can continue to drive traffic to your site for months and years.

Active website traffic (Social Media Marketing)

Active traffic is traffic you have to continue to develop through new marketing efforts. Examples are engaging in Facebook groups, growing a social following, and sharing blog content. Social Media Marketing is usually free, costing you only your time (with the exception of paid communities). It is also great at driving quick traffic to your website. But, active website traffic fizzles out when you stop doing the activity.

Let’s Explore Social Media Marketing as a Website Traffic Tool:

Social media marketing is a great tool in your Internet marketing toolbox. It consists of any social media platform or website where you can promote a product or service. You may use it for networking purposes or for sharing content. The goal is to drive potential clients (traffic) to your site.

Active traffic generating social media marketing activities include:

• Engaging in Linked In or Facebook groups
• Sharing content like articles, videos, and images
• Periscope or Facebook Live videos

Passive traffic generating social media marketing activities include:

• Paid ads like Facebook & Instagram ads
• Facebook Messenger Bots
• Tools like MeetEdgar which will recycle content from your content library

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

The top three goals for small business social media marketing programs are:

• 74% – building brand awareness
• 53% – driving traffic to a website
• 41% –  generating leads.

(source: Simply Measured’s Report on the State of Social Media)

If you’re on a budget, creating and posting content on social is free. If you’ve got money to invest in advertising, social media is a powerful traffic driver that can give you fantastic time leverage. You can start small $5-10 per day and scale once you have an ad set that is converting. That means you can gradually build your assets. Or you can speed up your growth depending on your budget.

Tips to Succeed When Generating Website Traffic Via Social Media:

• Be consistent: Show up regularly on your favorite channels.
• Be conversational: Talk to people, ask questions, answer questions. Basically, take part in the conversation
• Be of service: Don’t pitch, preach, or pressure. Offer your expertise to others, and be willing to help
• Be human: You do want to be professional, but let your social media community get to know you as a person, not just a brand.
• Be humble: Everyone loves a “stuck to success” story. Share some of the struggles you’ve had and how you’ve overcome them.
• Be fun: Sharing all work and no play makes for a dull social profile.
• Be interested: Don’t try hard to be interesting, instead be interested in others. Ask questions, get to know individuals in your community
• Be balanced: It’s okay to share your offers occasionally, as long as you’re providing value. The 80/20 rule works well here. 80% engagement & conversation, 20% promotion.

Let’s Dive Into Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a form of Internet marketing that attracts search engine users. People find your content based on keywords they enter into Google, Yahoo, and Bing. SEO focuses on increasing visibility in search engine results page. Types of content include directories like Yelp, written blog content, videos, etc.

3 Main SEO strategies:

• Content Marketing: Written word (blog), audio (podcast) and video (YouTube).
• Link Building: Posting content on other websites that link back to your website. (Guest blogging)
• Social Sharing: Sharing your website links on social media to drive more traffic. (Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter)

Search Engine Optimization – SEO takes time. I like to describe SEO as a marathon and social media marketing as sprints one after another. The benefit to SEO is that it becomes passive over time. Each piece of optimized content you create is another potential path to drive traffic to your site.

Tips to Succeed with SEO:

• Be intentional: Do your keyword research ahead of time to know what types of information your audience is searching for.
• Be focused: Focus each piece of content on one main keyword phrase or topic
• Be consistent: Publish great content frequently to give the search engines fresh content to crawl
• Be patient: Remember SEO is something that grows over time.
• Be educational & entertaining: The Search Engines and your website visitors love content that educates & entertains.
• Be findable: List your business in all the major directories. Be sure your name, address, and phone are the same on all the channels.

Both active and passive methods of website traffic generation are important. They each serve a purpose. Use Google Analytics to collect and analyze traffic data. That way you can see which strategy or combination of strategies get you the best results.

What’s your biggest website traffic challenge? Join our free Facebook group and let’s talk about it!

Happy marketing!
🙂 Heather