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There are many factors to consider on the best strategy for an individual website to gain traffic depending on the audience they are targeting. I’m going to list 4 free ways to attract traffic to your website that is relevant for most businesses. Before you attempt any of the below, you need decide on what keywords you want to rank for.
You must have a list of keywords that you want to rank for in Google’s and Bing’s search engines. Make sure that you are targeting these keywords consistently in all parts of your online advertising.
1. Improve Your Website Content
One of the most effective ways of how to increase traffic to your website is through creating content. Content creation can consist of articles, videos, podcasts, eBooks, or blogs. The most successful content creators will include original content that is has significant search volume across Google and Bing.
Do not create content to rank for keywords only, content is for your audience. That said, your content should be written around topics relevant to the keywords you want to target, Research the keywords you wish your website to rank for that would bring in qualified traffic. Then, do further research into the long tailed connected keywords, which are often questions. Easiest way to find these without using SEO tools, is to simply do a Google search on the keyword. Google offers up the other search terms people search for.
2. Social Media Presence
Social Media posting is a great way of improving your search engine rankings and improving your website traffic. Social Media Marketing should include using keywords in your hashtags on your posts and sharing your content on various social media sites. Make a realistic plan on how often you can post whether it is a couple of times a week or a month, it all counts.
B2B businesses should choose to post across LinkedIn and Facebook as a minimum and B2C clients should choose Facebook and Instagram at least. Before deciding on the Social Media platforms investigate where your competitors and your ideal client base are most active.
3. Maximise Your Google My Business
Your Google My Business page is your gateway to being found in Google Maps search results. Physical location searches almost always have a snippet of 3 businesses from Google Maps on the first page of results. This is also known as the Map snack pack. This is your target – to rank in the top 3 of map results for a given search term.
If you haven’t claimed your page already, this is your first step. Then it is really simple. Fill out all the information including description, opening date, etc. Add photos and always reply to reviews (good and bad).
4. Get Local Citations
Brightlocal, one of the leading local search tools, they are the go-to for what local citations to target. They have a free list of the top 50 recommended citations.
It is a time-consuming process to submit your business details to all these citations but one a day will take you 5 minutes. Depending on your business, some of these citations may even generate business leads. A good example of this is Trip Advisor, users often go directly there to find a restaurant or place to stay.
Important to note that when creating your local citations, you must keep a consistent NAP (business name, phone number and address).