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 Why
doesn't my website get more traffic?
The most beautiful website is useless if no one ever visits.
This can be very frustrating, especially if you paid a good
sum of money to have your site built and it doesn't get the
traffic you expected. You may also find that you get a lot
of visitors, but they don't convert into sales. Read on to
learn more about increasing site traffic and quality.
A Number Of Ways To Improve Site Traffic
- Move up in the search engine rankings. This is
probably the most important thing you can do to increase
the number of visitors to your site. The most important
search engine is Google because it is by far the most often
used search engine on the net. The process of improving
your ranking is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO),
which is an art, not a science. Depending on your site's
design, there may be some very simple things we can do to
get more traffic.
- Get more of the right kind of visitors. Increasing
your site traffic is important, but it is equally important
to improve the quality of your traffic. If you can
get 10 visitors per day and make two sales each day, that
is far better than getting 100 visitors per day and making
one sale per month. You want the visitors to your site to
be looking for whatever you sell and motivated to buy.
- Submit your site to get included in website directories.
A directory is not a search engine. It is a list of
sites sorted by category. One of the best is the Open Directory
Project (www.dmoz.com),
which is run by volunteers. It may take a while to get listed,
but be patient. Placement there may increase your site traffic.
- Get links to your site from other businesses. Getting
other websites to put up a link to your site is a great
way to increase traffic. Not only will you get visitors
directly from the other site, but Google may up your ranking
if it finds other sites linked to you. It's probably not
a great idea to exchange links with your direct competitors,
but rather try to find businesses that are in your general
area. For instance, an electrical supply store might exchange
links with a lighting store.
- Send out a monthly e-mail newsletter. Creating
a monthly e-mail publication can be a very effective way
to increase your website's traffic. It does take some time
to do, but the payoff to your business can be very gratifying.
If you are very busy, it could be done once every couple
of months. This is a great way to keep in touch with your
customers, develop brand awareness, and build future business.
- Include your website address (URL) on business cards,
brochures, newsletters, invoices, etc. This should be
done no matter what type of business you have. More and
more people expect you to be online and have a website.
They will be looking for your website and e-mail address
on everything they get from you.
- Advertise in traditional media. They may seem old
fashioned, but ads in Yellow Pages, newspapers, and magazines
may still be a useful method to publicize your site. Don't
forget to include all your online information.
- Include some useful information for your visitors.
Writing some pages that explain more about what you do is
another way to encourage people to spend longer on your
site. For instance, if you are a plumbing company, you could
have some informational pages on simple home plumbing jobs.
- Add a free service. If you can think of a useful
tool that your visitors can use on your site, people may
return to use it over and over. For instance, a real estate
agent might include a mortgage calculator.
- Add a signature to your e-mails. Your e-mail program
allows you to have a signature at the end of each message
you send. This can include anything you want, so why not
included your website address?
This All Looks Way Too Complicated!
There is a lot of information on this page, but you
don't need to do it all - and you don't need to do it yourself.
Let's get together and discuss what your needs are and how
we might be able to help you. Email support@websitehelper.ca
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