You’re great! No really, you are. We know it; you know it; but if people aren’t visiting your website, how will they know it?
The internet is a big place. (About 1.8 billion websites big.) And in a big place, it’s easy for your voice to get drowned out by the constant stream of Facebook arguments, Instagram posts of people’s lunch, and banner ad, after banner ad, after banner ad.
You might have really good ideas. You might be leagues better than the competition. But no one will ever know if you can’t get your traffic up.
Well if that’s your problem, you’ve come to the right place.
Part 2 of our Web series is packed with tips for drawing more traffic to your site than a two-lane interstate during rush hour on Friday.
So sit back, relax, and prepare to turn the internet into the win-ternet.
Be Our Guest
A great way to bring traffic to your website is by writing content for other websites. This gives you a chance to get more exposure, and drive people back to your site to see more of what you have to offer.
But you can’t just pick any old site to blog on.
Ideally, you want to pick sites that are well-known within your industry. If the site you pick isn’t well trafficked, how can you expect it to help your traffic rates?
You also want to target a site whose style and tone match your company. If you’re running a family business, you probably don’t want to guest blog on a site with a more edgy outlook.
However, guest blogging isn’t a one-way street.
If you want people to host your content on their site, be prepared to reciprocate. Make sure you associate with good content creators who can offer your site something special. For example, if you’re selling barbecuing products, think about partnering with someone selling sauces and seasonings. It gives your blog a fresh perspective and serves to strengthen both marketing messages.
Most importantly, make sure your content is exceptional. Just as you don’t want people posting dull content to your site, people don’t want your dull content on theirs. Remember, your brand is at stake just as much as theirs.
LinkedIn-ternally
It’s easy to get lost on the internet. One moment you’re looking at cat pictures, and the next you’re watching a video on how to build a sculpture of Morgan Freeman out of pepper jack.
You might be asking: “How did I get here?”
Being curious is part of human nature, but this curiosity isn’t just limited to celebrity cheese sculptures.
If your company engages in content marketing, this peculiar human quirk becomes a boon, but only if you take advantage of it by linking internally to your other content.
If you’re really into a LinkedIn article or a blog post (this one, for example), and you’re reading along when you come across (wink, wink) to more content of a similar nature, chances are you’re going to read on.
Internal links mean more clickthroughs to other sections of your website and retention of the traffic you already have.
If your content is super good, there’s no telling how far down the digital rabbit hole your readers will go.
Internal linking is really a simple thing, but it often fails to click with lots of businesses.
Reposting Your Old Updated Content
These days, technology changes faster than Facebook’s privacy policy.
In that same vein, things that helped your company’s success last year may not work this year. In some cases, the shelf life of effective digital tactics is only a few months. And if your business posts content to drive traffic to your webpage, it may need to be updated.
But updating content doesn’t have to be a horrifying experience.
There’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.
If your business decides to update its old content (and if you do, good, because not many do), hopefully you aren’t just stripping out old sections that are no longer relevant or linking to newer content to explain how things have changed.
Why?
You’re missing out on a golden opportunity. Why write an entirely new post when you can re-work and re-launch an already existing post as something new?
This method saves time and resources, and will allow you to get more traffic out of a post well after it would normally have peaked.
According to HubSpot, giving your old blogs a makeover and republishing them is a great way to get back on top of your SEO game. In addition, this method allows you to double-dip into your viewer pool, generating views from people who’ve already read the blog but are interested in the new content, and views from people who’ve never read it before.
So don’t be so quick to kill your old content. All it needs is a little love to bring it back from the dead.
Search (Engine) Me!
By this point, you probably understand how search engines work. You type in some words, and the search engine spits out results based on the relevancy of the page to the keyword and a couple hundred other things.
You’re probably also aware of how to embed keywords in your content so search engines pick up on it.
But what you may not know is that using ambiguous or generic search term keywords is actually the opposite of what you want to do to drive traffic to your site – at least to start.
While it may seem like using common terms would net you the most traffic, data has shown that less than 20% of web traffic comes from these. So, if your strategy is to cast as wide a net as possible, it really isn’t helping you.
Think about your own search behavior. When you search something on Google, do you type in one or two words, or an entire phrase? If you’re like most people, you type in as much information as possible to get specific results.
When it comes to SEO, the more specific, the better to get qualified traffic to your site.
For more information on how to discover which keyword phrases to target, check out our other article on how to research keywords for your business.
If increasing traffic counts is what you’re searching for, look no further! Stealth offers SEO services, keyword research, content creation and placement. We know you have what people want, and how to get them to your site.
Want to know how we can make you internet famous? Drop us a line today, and stay tuned for more great tips from Stealth next time we go Off the Radar.
