Friday 23 June 2017

Driving Traffic to Small Websites


Getting people to visit website en mass is not exclusive to organizations with massive budgets or huge sites, any individual or organization can achieve it. It may look slow as you move up traffic; you will eventually level up with the best if you do not back down.

The following four steps are sure to drive up traffic to your site—content strategy, sharing contents on social media, building links and PPC marketing. They look simple, but are highly effective.

Content Strategy
If you are having issues driving traffic to your website, then you should consider putting in place a solid content plan. However, the emphasis must be on quality, not quantity. If you only have the capacity for one high-quality article per week, settle for that. Visitors to sites only have eyes for useful, powerful contents that will soothe their pain points and resolve their problems.
Do not overdo things in the name of turning in large amount of poor-quality content that appeal to no one. You will be doing your website unquantifiable good when you post high-quality articles, videos, info-graphics, and e-books.



Crafting a comprehensive content strategy and churning out contents that command attention is simple with these principles in mind:

1. Create contents on fields you are good at. If you must write on others, let experts do them for you.
2. Know the strong and weak points of your competitors.
3. Find out the tastes and preferences of your would-be visitors.
4. Move swiftly into writing. Do not be afraid to start.

Sharing Contents on Social Media
Publishing your content is great, but not sharing it on notable platforms like social media will grossly undermine your efforts. Social media provides the much needed avenue to drive traffic, increase conversions and improves engagements. It remains one of the best places to share content and nurture loyal following.
The whole essence of social media marketing is to lay a solid foundation for the growth of brand advocates. It goes beyond simply sharing blog posts on Twitter and Facebook. Here are tested and proven ways to go about it.

1. Take time out to study your target audience.
2. Do all that is necessary to earn their trust. It is also important you portray yourself as an authority on in that field.
3. Be guided by the size of your budget when choosing the number of social networks to share your content. Facebook is a good place to start.
4. Target smaller social networks like Quora and Medium. They can help set you up as an authority.

Building Links
Links building will boost traffic for any site, and it does not cost much to set up. Smaller companies with minimal budget will definitely be better off by incorporating backlinks to contents they share. It will help direct visitors to the company’s website. Here is how to make the most of backlinks:

• Take advantage of directories and listings. Many of them allow websites to register with them.
• Influencers, bloggers and pitch media will help. Reach out to them.
• Write as many guest posts as possible.
• Promote scholarships on your site (.gov and .edu backlinks).

In all of this, do not exchange quality for quantity because most helpful links has their root in trustworthy and relevant contents.



PPC Campaign
The pay-per-click campaign is a helpful traffic generating strategy but not suitable for companies with small budgets. These companies should suspend it for the future. It also requires some technical know-how. When poorly executed, it eats up budgets and returns a disappointing result.
For individuals or companies with the abilities to set up a PPC campaign, the following 11 ideas will prove helpful:

• Write down your goals in black and white.
• Always keep in mind the size of your budget.
• Watch out for relevant keywords.
• Take a close look at keywords to know which to discard
• Bid on preferred keywords.
• Maximize your chances with one keyword per ad.
• Write catchy headlines for your ads.
• Incorporate appealing and attention catching informative copy.
• Monitor and analyze your ad performance.
• Upgrade the ads and put in new bids when necessary.

Conclusion
Generating traffic to small website can be tricky when budget is limited. This does not mean companies with such constrains cannot generate enough traffic to compete with the highest ranking websites. It only requires doubling marketing efforts through appropriate content strategies, sharing great content on social networks, building links to websites, and launching great PPC campaign.