6 Key Drivers Of Strong Direct Website Traffic For Startups

   When it comes to the art of traffic acquisition, building a beautiful and functional website is a great start—but that is not enough. Attracting customers to your website traffic requires a multifaceted approach and a well-planned, well-timed strategy that invokes the six key drivers of traffic outlined below:

  1. An established and active social media presence. Create multiple social network accounts for your business, including a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn account, and a YouTube account. Depending on the nature of your business, you may also benefit from having accounts on Pinterest and Tumblr (if your product is aesthetically appealing and/or culturally relevant, highly “visual” social media services like these are a wise investment; if on the other hand, your product or service is more technical in nature, you might want to invest more in the previous ones instead).

Once your accounts are up & running, update them regularly, provide useful and insightful information, and make sure to engage other users in conversation. Conveying passion for your industry and in-depth knowledge of your niche is an excellent way to appear reliable and trustworthy to potential customers while also spreading awareness of your brand.

If you don’t have time to run your business’s social media accounts yourself, don’t neglect the task—outsource social media management to an online marketing agency instead. Simply chat with us, we know how social media can best contribute to website traffic.

  1. Syndicated high-quality content. Produce quality content that offers something of value to viewers, e.g. informative blog articles and “explainer” or how-to videos, then upload it both to your website and popular content distribution channels around the web, such as YouTube. Additionally, you should establish relationships with bloggers who have authority within your industry and ask for permission to contribute content to their blogs, hence insert backlinks in your content (with permission) to create a stream of traffic back to your site.
  1. An optimized site. Work with a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist to fully optimize your site’s content so that it is easily “read” by search engines. Making sure to include relevant keywords in tags, titles, and within text content is an essential part of accruing organic traffic as it lets both search engines and potential customers easily identify the purpose of your website.
  1. A local identity. In order to prevent your website from vanishing into the vastness of the world wide web, work proactively on improving your local business ranking through the use of services like Google Business Listing. Google Business Listing is an excellent tool for those looking to promote business locally as it ensures that any registered business appears on Google Maps and within Google local search results. Likewise, Google Business Listing—which is absolutely free to use—allows businesses to manage their online reputations by viewing and responding to reviews. In fact, check out an article we wrote on how Google Business Listing helps drive website traffic through local search optimization.
  1. Enticing offers. One of the most under-used and undervalued content acquisition techniques, the “enticing offer,” is also one of the most effective: Having a sale that is simply too good to refuse or, better still, hosting a contest wherein subscribing to your newsletter or “liking” your Facebook page enters users into a prize draw, is a sure-fire way to attract customers to your website and build awareness of your brand. (Once you have gotten customers’ attention this way, be sure to use email marketing to occasionally remind them of your presence—otherwise even the most exciting contest will eventually be forgotten.)
  1. Marketing affiliates. Affiliate marketing programs—also known as “reseller” and “associate” programs—provide an invaluable opportunity for low-cost promotion. When you sign up for an affiliate program, other people (the “affiliates”) will advertise your product or service on their websites via banner ads, text links, letters of referral and so on, all at absolutely no upfront cost to you. Instead, your affiliates will only charge you a modest commission fee on a sale-by-sale basis. Just make sure to target affiliates within your niche so as to effectively lure targeted website traffic to your site.

As a final note, once you have gotten your website up, running, and converting, don’t hesitate to also invest in paid advertising services, e.g. Google AdWords, LinkedIn, and Facebook ads. One thing to keep in mind is how to optimize the different roles of these platforms in the master marketing scheme of your business. Contrary to popular belief, pay-per-click advertising genuinely does work (thanks largely to advances in ad targeting technology) and it can provide a solid, steady stream of website traffic to your business. But again, this does not imply that cost-per-impression (CPM) is not the answer!

 

 

 

 

8 Reasons To Get Your Google Business Listing Today

Today, when most of us want to go somewhere new, we turn to Google Maps to help us get there. When we have questions, Google has answers. When we want to verify that a business is legitimate and reputable, Google offers us instant customer reviews. Within the next decade, Google may even be driving our cars for us just like Tesla did with its Model X self-driving car… In short, for better or worse, Google has become a big part of how most people navigate the world around them. All of these innovations and promising technologies that Google has to deliver is the golden key to access tomorrow’s land, and that is why we believe claiming your Google Business Listing is such a smart investment.

Not only is obtaining a Google listing for your business relatively quick and easy, it confers all of the following benefits:

 

  • You’re listed on the most powerful search engine out there. It’s one of the only truly effective high-ranking search engine optimization tools available for free. That’s right—Google charges businesses nothing to claim their business listing; it’s essentially free advertising that’s perfectly targeted at local consumers. In some areas, Google even offers professional photo shoots to businesses free of charge so they can showcase their premises.

 

  • You’re one step closer to optimize your business digital visibility. Having a Google Business Listing jump-starts your search engine optimization efforts. When you claim your Google Business Listing, Google will include you on the first page of search results generated when local consumers type in a relevant keyword—even if they don’t input location information. If, for example, you own a dental clinic in San Francisco and someone in your area inputs the keyword “dentist,” your business will automatically end up included in the list of local dental clinics that pops up on page one of that person’s search results.

 

  • You are in complete control of your business’ online reputation. Not only does having your business listed with Google establish it on (and just below) Google maps, assuring consumers you are a legitimate business with a physical location, you’ll be able to reply to ratings and reviews your customers leave for your business.

 

  • You’re set to boost satisfaction levels of new and existing customers. Customers like it when you make life easier for them, and having your business show up on the first page of Google’s results when they look for you (complete with your map location, address, hours of operation, and contact information) certainly accomplishes that. Any time a customer wants to phone in with a question or check if you’ll be open on a given day, they will be able to find the information they need almost instantly.

 

  • You’re ready for one of the fastest-growing display platform. A Google Business Listing makes your business more mobile-friendly. Scrolling through a long list of search results can be cumbersome on a mobile phone and its viewing platform. Google Local listings, on the other hand, show up prominently and integrate fully with Google’s mobile apps, notably Maps.

 

  • You and your customers are better connected. A Google Business Listing makes it easy to share up-to-date information with your customers. If you have changed your hours or location, or you have a special offer on for a limited time, you can use your Google Business listing to immediately share this information with your customers. You can even offer printable coupons!

 

  • You’re taking the advantage of streamlined analytics. Claiming your Google Business Listing will permit you to see who has been searching for you and which other similar locations they have viewed online. This will help you to assess your target demographic and fine-tune your marketing efforts.

 

  • Finally, having a Google Business Listing will allow you to attract customers even before you set up your company’s website. This will get income flowing into your business even in its early stages, allowing you to invest more money into creating a truly effective and attractive website.

 

After reading all of the above, you may be wondering to yourself, “What’s the catch?” There really isn’t one where the service itself is concerned, however, if you don’t claim your listing promptly, someone else might verify your business for you. This will give them the power to edit your listing, which is, of course, the last thing you want to have happened in the digital world where online reputation is everything. If you have just started a new business, you should, therefore, claim your listing as soon as you’re up and running—there’s no reason to hesitate.