In the ever-changing digital landscape, new methods of attracting visitors to your website may be developed. However, some strategies are timeless and have been proven to be effective many times over and these are the ones we follow to help grow audiences on our client’s sites.
Remember that having a website does not mean you’ll get traffic automatically. The audience may also take several months to build up, so be patient and consistent. Many websites fail because people give up when they don’t see immediate results.
If you’re looking to grow your website audience, here are a few simple tips to follow that will always be successful:
Make your content outstanding
As they say, content is king – no matter how much you spend on promotion, if your content is weak, no one will want to visit your website. To make your content more irresistible, use a mix of different media, such as text, video, infographics and stunning photography.
For our clients we create content to offer solutions to problems, provide thoughtful insight, give insightful opinions and say why people should actually care about something. Remember to be thorough in your research but compelling in your writing so that people won’t get bored. Interview experts and get valid opinions to support your goal (note: sometimes including a conflicting opinion can actually be beneficial to your article).
If people want to read or watch your content, then they’re also likely to share it on their own social media channels. Talk to them, open up a dialogue and listen to what they have to say. Your audience is the reason for your website’s success so don’t ignore them.
Utilise SEO techniques
Having brilliant content is a great start, but on its own, it isn’t enough. You need to optimise your content for search engines so that Google can find it, index it and rank it. Include keywords in the headline, subheadings, URL and throughout the paragraphs. You can use Google AdWords to search for popular keywords and get an idea of what people are looking for.
Include long-tail keywords as these are actually searched more frequently than short-tail keywords. A long-tail keyword is a phrase that would typically be typed into Google’s search bar. People don’t search for things by typing one word, so you have a better chance of ranking higher on the list if you have a few long-tail keywords in your meta tags.
Make your content easy to read – Google’s new algorithms look at readability as a factor is assigning the page a rank. Submit your URLs to Google’s Search Console so that the engine can index the page more efficiently. Link to other articles on your site to keep the traffic internal but also build more incoming links to your own pages.
When we write content for websites, brands and clients we compile all client information we receive and utilise this to contribute to achieving these SEO goals.
Have a user-friendly website
The first impression of your business that a potential customer has will come from your website. It needs to be well-designed and user-friendly. Internet users have a notoriously short attention span and if they don’t like the look of your site, they’ll leave before reading anything.
Make your site visually appealing first, and easy to navigate. Your audience needs to find what they’re looking for quickly. Furthermore, make it easy for your audience to share your content directly from the site. Find plug-ins that make this process quick and easy.
Use all the channels available to you
Having a website and a Facebook page is not enough. More and more consumers are utilising different types of social media and apps to get their information. Upload your videos to YouTube, market your products on Instagram with beautiful photos, create podcasts and start a blog on your website.
The aim is to reach as many people as possible through their own preferred media channels. Remember that not all social media is the same – each channel has its strengths and weaknesses so harness those and direct your offerings to the right platform.
Put your unique selling point upfront
When someone visits your website, you need to tell them straight away why they should stay on the page instead of visiting any other site. Your unique selling point (USP) is something that differentiates your offering from anything else out there. Make your USP clear immediately on the landing page.
Be convincing and compelling – many websites have a high bounce rate because people can’t find what they’re looking for within the first few seconds of visiting a page. You need to capture your audience and get them to return again and again to see your content.
Get people to subscribe
Building on from the previous point, if you can get your audience to sign up for newsletters or receive notifications when you upload new content, then you’ll build a captive audience. Ask people to subscribe and tell them why it will help them.
Include your social media channels in your subscriber emails – if they want to receive your content, then chances are they’ll want to check out your other accounts. Place a few subscribe buttons on your site (one in the header, some within posts and one in the footer). Use different calls-to-action but don’t be annoying.
There are many more ways to increase traffic to your site, but these are the basic foundations that should get you off to a solid start. Once you have a fairly stable audience, you can start experimenting with other techniques. Having the cornerstones in place will always ensure that people return to your site.
If you wish to partner with someone who knows how to apply these best practices to achieve your audience growth targets, don’t hesitate to contact us at: zani@mobimeme.com.
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Mobimeme offers content marketing, SEO, analytics, social media management and expert direction in the digital sphere. Building and growing online audiences for your business is what we do best. Get in touch with us to find out more about our package offerings and how you can improve your website and following.
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