These days, it’s not enough to build a website online and leave it there. I really can’t remember a time when you could just put a website online and then it magically pops up when someone does a search. That is, unless there wasn’t much competition. There needs to be a significant amount of work done after the site is built to improve online visibility. Here I discuss 3 major channels to increase your site traffic.
First, consider how is your audience searching for you? If you are a chimney repair company, people are most likely entering search terms into Google. If you are a greeting card company, you may consider Pinterest or Instagram as well as Google. So, do you know your audience well enough to know where they are doing most of their searches?
Improve Online Visibility with Social Media
A lot of people use social media as a platform for their company news. Or, it’s a steady stream of company pictures with no focus on how to convert.
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- Your social media needs to be a combination of 3 things; entertaining posts, educational posts, and promotional posts.
- Those posts need to be engaging.
- They also should have a consistent voice. So, it’s not a good idea to have multiple people running your social media.
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All this being said, use your social media as a channel to serve your strategy. Pumping out authentic content will go far, especially when it’s coupled with an online advertising campaign and optimization of your site.
Advertise Online with PPC
PPC stands for Pay Per Click. Players in this game would be Google Adwords, Facebook Ad campaigns, Google Display Ads, Bingads and others. Advertising online definitely should be considered to help you stand out where your audience is hanging out on the web. PPC plans will bring in immediate results.
How does it work, you ask? Your ads are shown to your target audience on other sites where your audience most often ventures. There are also device specific ads just for mobile users. Or if preferred, you can display ads specific to one platform, like Facebook. You only pay when someone clicks. You can set your own budget. The results of the tests should be reviewed and analyzed. Therefore, you will know which variables work best; placement, cost, type of ad, target audience and types of calls to action.
Executing a PPC plan along with an optimizing your site organically will help you bring in immediate results.
Optimize your website
There are so many ways to improve your website’s ranking in Google or Bing with organic SEO. In other words, there are tactics that are not PPC related that improve your visibility online. Here are just a few best practices of SEO. Start to ask yourself the following questions.
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- Is your site secure? For example, do you have an HTTP or HTTPS in your browser before your domain URL? Find out more about how to tell and why it’s important.
- How’s your site speed? There are many variables that can slow a site. Image size is one variable. Do you consistently upload images that are not compressed? Try using an image optimizer like www.tinyimg.com A slow site can be the death of potential customers.
- Do you use outbound links? Linking out to relative, respected authority sites is a time-honored useful tactic. Don’t go crazy though! Too many can be a red flag to Google.
- Do you use header tags? Is your blog one long boring paragraph without any headers? Go ahead and throw your header tags in there and while you’re at it, utilize your keywords in that space.
- Have you done a keyword analysis? This will help you define what to write about in your blogs and how to tailor your pages.
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If this sounds a little overwhelming, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy a consultation with one of our staff at Loud Canvas. While you’re busy running your business and doing what you do best, we’ll be chipping away at what we do best; getting your site more visibility online.
