Best ways to increase traffic to your website in 2018

If you are running a small or medium business, then you will attest to the fact that getting offline and online visibility can be easier said than done. The big guns have the firepower to reach a wide audience but you don’t. So, what you do? How do you increase the traffic to your website? Well, we have compiled some of the things you need to adopt in 2018, not just for the sake of traffic but to get more conversions. Let’s get into detailed knowledge.

Create Content with LSI keywords

Of course, the first place to start is to get your business on the first page of Google. It has been proven to work as over 90% of sites on the first page get good organic traffic. The question though, is how do you improve your SEO in 2018? For starters, you will need to create content using words and phrases related to target keywords. Talking about content, you should also make sure you have more to quench the escalating thirst for digital content.

Secure your site with HTTPS

Google is one of the major supports of HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) enabled sites. HTTPS is one of the important factors to increase trust in your online visitors. So, it requires running your site over HTTPS strong 256-bit SSL/TLS encrypted connection to protect user’s data. You can buy SSL certificate issued by a highly trusted certificate authority and install it on your server to enable HTTPS at the beginning of site’s URL in browser’s address bar by installing Certificate Authority trusted SSL/TLS certificate on your server. Even Chrome 68 will show all HTTP sites as “Not Secure” in the address bar from July 2018. Currently, Chrome marks HTTPS-enabled sites with a “Secure” sign.

Content is the Key

Yes, content still remains key meaning that you will have to craft a content strategy that works if you want to attract potential and returning customers to your site. It’s not just about creating blog posts, you should also work to create some amazing image and video content. Perhaps you might have noticed that desktop computers and laptops have been fading ushering in mobile devices in the past decade. The result is more users looking for content online from their phones at all times, no wonder you see the likes of Twitter and Facebook innovating for more video content in a bid to quench the mobile evolution. You should also join in the bandwagon if you are to get more users coming back for more, right?

Go Social

Facebook may have revamped their algorithm against businesses but social networks are still one of the best places to share content to more users. After all, this is where most consumers spend most of their time online. The key though is to have a smart social media strategy that is continually tweaked to meet your set of targets.  You should be active in social media profiles and engage in conversations with your followers and potential or existing customers.

Do Online Advertising

Apart from organic posts on social media and Google, you can also go for paid ads on digital platforms depending on how much you can afford for this. The beauty is that online advertising is way cheaper than traditional advertising thus you can always work on a flexible budget. A good way to do online advertising is to go for pay-per-click advertising which will display your ad on top of relevant search engine results. You can also go for banners and sponsored posts on social networks and partner blogs.

Email Your Customer

You can also keep a list of customers who have expressed interest in your business then you can run an email campaign targeted at these group. Remember, it’s not just about sending out emails in the campaign but ensure the content is engaging enough to convert a good percentage of the audience. This is why the emails should have links that encourage the target user to undertake a given call to action. The hurdle is to start building your own but you can do so by giving out something like a newsletter whilst capturing contact info.

Guest Posting

No man is an island and you are always encouraged to work with other sites in a bid to link build and extend your audience reach. In other words, if you are a big fan of writing then you can find guest posting opportunities to grow your traffic. Finding guest posting opportunities is easy these days depending on the niche of your business.

Improve Sites Usability

Everyone loves having a good experience meaning that you can’t underestimate the power of having a site that new users fall in love with. Optimizing the usability of your site entails improving the way users interact with your site but how do you improve this? One of the first places to start would be to remove extra chatter on your website. Keep the number of words used on your web pages in check given that just about 1/3 of the words in pages are read by users. You should also put vital information where most of the users’ eyes focus on. Research has found that users spend most of their time looking at information placed above the page fold and on the left side of the site. To maximize how your visitors interact with your web pages keep in mind that:

• Users scan content in F-Pattern i.e two horizontal stripes and one vertical one
• Your CTAs should be in shorter vertical stripes
• Your navigation bars should be in a longer vertical stripe
• Your headlines should be placed in a horizontal stripe

Moreover, the layout and the typography should be well crafted to suit your audience while the site’s load speeds should be good enough to encourage more people to visit your site.

CONCLUSION

There are many other ways to increase traffic to your website but the 7 ways discussed in this article are certainly the core ways to get the ball rolling. Remember, it’s all about being creative with the resources at your disposal thus you should go for organic ways in as much as you can. Then you can supplement these techniques with a few paid options provided that they aren’t illegal in any way. Just a word of caution though, don’t neglect offline activities or rather, blend them with digital methods and you are bound to see improved traffic to your website and brand growth in 2018!