Updated June 8, 2021 | by Jacob McKinney

Drive Traffic To Your Website

You've figured out how to Purchase a Domain Name, Plan your Website, and Pick a Designer or DIY Platform. You then developed a plan to Create that Valuable, Educational, well-formatted Content, implemented strategies to Get your website found, and started to Connect with your customers on Social Media. Now it's time to Drive traffic to your website! And while everything we've done until now has led up to this, it has also helped build a foundation that'll help drive this traffic.

There's a lot of useless, unhelpful content on this subject out there and I hope that this article provides you with a bit more confidence in what to actually do. While many articles will talk about posting to Reddit, using LinkedIn, or Instagram, these may not be options for your target market. So, I'm going to keep this article focused on the two main aspects as I see them, Free and Paid traffic.

Free Traffic

Free traffic is great, right? There are a number of sites out there that can help a lot of businesses get found. From Yelp, Angie's List, Better Business Bureau, and YellowPages, to Google My Business, Citysearch. Bing, and Yahoo Local. If you have the time, get a listing, or manage your already existing listing on all of these. They are often found first when people are searching for your business. They provide valuable links to your website that increase your Brand Awareness and can strengthen your business's reputation. You will need to spend time on managing each of these for accurate information and replying to reviews. So, start small with one or two at first. And think about hiring someone to manage them for you if they start to demand too much of your time.

Search Engine Optimization

Here I go again about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). That's because of how powerful SEO will be for your company in the long run. It is single-handedly the cheapest and most effective way to get traffic coming to your website. But remember, you'll need to create content that people are searching for that relates to their problems. Once you have several articles that answer your customers questions, make sure to update them. Don't let out-dated information stay on your website.

Another great way to increase your traffic is with a Newsletter. If you're creating content on a regular basis, you can capture your visitors email address when they visit. Then, once a week or month, you can email your content directly to your followers email addresses. This can be really powerful when matched up with paid remarketing on Google or Facebook. Make sure to follow SPAM guidelines and give people an easy and quick way to unsubscribe in the event that they no longer want to receive your emails.

Create Video

I've talked about creating video before. If you've got the basic equipment, a webcam, then, you're ready to create videos. Instead of expecting people to read walls of text, create videos that quickly go over some of the main points about your content. This'll provide you with a parallel platform to get your content out there and you can direct viewers that want more information to your website and even directly to a specific article. Don't worry about creating a super Hollywood style video, but instead go for an authentic look and feel. Bumps in footage and misstated words, show you're a real human being. Let yourself shine!

What not to do

Some articles out there will tell you do to things that you really shouldn't do. One of these things includes creating your own questions on Quora. Then answering them yourself with links to your website. You might also find articles that talk about writing Irresistible Headlines. You'll want to avoid this too. If your title doesn't actually address your content, it's just clickbait. Readers hate clickbait and you may never see them again. Personally, I'll block a news provider if I find them doing this, so I never see any article from them ever again.

Paid Traffic

Paid traffic isn't bad and if you have the budget, it can be really powerful to get the word out. Now, I'm not talking about those services that promise hundreds and thousands of daily visitors. Those are mostly bots and can actually get your website banned from advertising platforms. It isn't targeted traffic and it can hurt your reputation. The paid traffic that I am talking about includes Paid Ads on Google, Facebook, and other social networks. It also includes holding your own events, attending conferences, creating giveaways, and even getting involved with influencer marketing.

Facebook & Google Ads

Both of these platforms reach millions of users every single day. Though certain keywords and target markets can get costly, they're both great platforms to reach lots of people. What's better is that you can broadly target the market with traffic campaigns. Then retarget those users who actually visit your website with more targeted ads and even sales.

With Google Ads, you're paying for your website to show up at the top or near the top of the page. Which is great for building consumer confidence and driving traffic to your website.

With Facebook Ads, you're targeting people by their interests, online habits, and just about every type of dynamic you can think about. While over targeting can be bad, under targeting can be worse. It's best to start broadly and then drill into the types of users that you start connecting with. You can then use lookalike audiences to target people like the ones already engaging with you.

If you don't know what you're doing here, it may be best to meet with someone that can help. They can provide you insight on what to do, who to target, and how to create your ads. And of course, most of the time, they can do all of it for you as well.

Events & Conferences

While the Covid-19 pandemic might make this more difficult, it will end. Holding your own event or attending conferences can really help get the word out that you're an authority in your niche. Right now, you can look into holding webinars with a number of different platforms or even doing a Facebook or YouTube live stream. For Live Streams, a great way to get people to show up, is by offering them something for free. Or by doing a giveaway. You could even do an event that is solely for a Giveaway. If you host more of a conference or educational webinar, remember to provide viewers with a takeaway, like PDFs. This way they can reference what they don't remember at a later time. And if you attend a conference in person, ask about speaking at it to establish yourself as a leader in the industry.

Influencer Marketing

I've saved Influencer marketing for last, because it can be quite expensive. While it's great for reaching large audiences without having your own, you want to make sure they're actually an influencer. Many people these days call themselves influencers and may appear to have a large following but without the engagement. The better the engagement an influencer has, the more meaningful the relationship. Make sure to look into the influencer deeply. Do they swear? Do they target your niche? Or are they offensive to your brand ideals? Also, look at how much sponsored content the influencer already does. The smaller the ratio of sponsored content, the more trusted and authentic it'll appear. If you can get them to actually love and use your product, even better. You can read some great information over at SingleGrain , on how to grow your business with Influencer Marketing.

There isn't One Solution that fits Everyone

These are the main actionable items as I see it for driving traffic to your website. This doesn't include everything, but it's a great starting point for most businesses. Try a few different methods and pick the ones that are working for you by reading your analytic data. If this all seems too much for you, always feel free to reach out . I'll be here to answer your questions when you're ready.