Having a beautiful, well built, and comprehensive website is only half the battle. The other half is actually getting people to come visit it!
Web traffic is crucial to any successful business, whether digital or not. Two important terms to understand regarding web traffic are:
Organic- Organic web traffic as a term, encompasses the visits your site gets that originate in search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. It does not include linking from paid search ads, or referral traffic originating from social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. Organic traffic is only traffic that comes from vistors typing into a search engine, and clicking to your site from there.
Qualified- Qualified web traffic can come in by many sources and means, but is defined by the quality of the lead. This is traffic encompassing people who are already interested in your product or service. They already know what your businss is about, and they have navigated to your site with the purpose of either completing a purchase, or getting more information.
Paid traffic is not organic or qualified. And while paid advertising absolutely helps to provide a quick increase in traffic, it is not sustainable when used alone or as your main means to drive traffic to your website.Below we have outlined 3 ways to drive more qualified organic traffic to your site. Give them a try, and let us know what you think!
1. Create Targeted Content.
This is probably the most important thing that you can do for your online brand. Creating informative content can position you as a thought leader in your industry, and help to promote the impression of quality that your brand exudes. Beyond creating good quality, informative content; your content must be targeted. That is, it should be geared to answer the questions that your customers are searching for. Literally, it should be focused around answering the questions that your users are putting into Google search.
2. Get Social.
This seems like an obvious one-- you should make a company account on the social platforms that your customers use the most. If you are selling a consumer product, Facebook and Twitter will likely be great platforms to invest your efforts. But if you offer B2B services, you will probably get more traction on LinkedIn. Whatever social platform you choose, make sure you're posting often and that you link to information on your website. Beyond just posting, make a point to interact with other tweets/posts as well. Build a community, show your thought leadership, and add some valuable information and feedback to influencers that you follow on social media. This will result in people being interested in your brand, services, and the content you're creating.
3. Network.
This one seems counter-intuitive, but hear me out. Spend time attending conferences and meet-ups, putting a face to a name and getting your brand out there. It takes an investment of time and energy to attend networking events, but it pays off royally when you actually make a personal connection with someone. By growing your network, you can create other brand advocates that will help spread awareness to their networks which in turn will lead to an increase in qualified traffic. Because this traffic is coming from word-of-mouth referrals, it is even more qualified and thus more valuable, than traffic obtained from other digital mediums.
The ideal scenario is when you can connect and engage all 3 of the above suggestions-- create high-quality targeted content, ensure you're connecting with people on social media, and promote your brand in-person at networking events. Driving qualified organic traffic to your site is crucial for the growth of your brand, and if you follow these three suggestions, you'll definitely see a difference!
