Creating a website is an important part of having a business. Making sure people find and visit your website is entirely another thing. Sure your website is beautiful, and has ways for people to learn about and book your services, but how are you driving people to your website? And will they stay once they get there?
You need to build an online audience that targets the right people, including leads and existing customers. In this article, we’ll discuss ways you can get more eyes on your website, plus build engagement on your website.
Where to focus your efforts
Blogging
You have to tell people about your business and what you offer in order for them to show up. Unfortunately, no one will just show up. You have to invite or tell people to show up and give them a reason to want to learn more about your business.
A blog is a great way to tell your story. You can showcase your work, celebrate successes, plus share promotions and updates. Blogs are also great content to share on social media. It gives people a place to read more about a product or service you offer.
These blog posts can serve as a gateway to encourage people to explore your website further. Each post should include links to other pages of your website and at least one clear call to action of what you want them to do after reading the blog post. This can be as simple as signing up for an email list or booking a consultation. Each click should get them one step closer to becoming a client!
Social media
In addition to showing off your work, you can use social media to share reviews, help people learn more about your products and services, and become a client. One of the challenges of social media is how quickly people can get distracted by another post and keep scrolling. If you can get people from social media to your website, you’ll have a more captive audience (with fewer distractions)! Here are a few social media tips:
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Build a following
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Showcase your work
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Be transparent and authentic
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Include calls to action to learn more and make purchases
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Encourage followers to visit your website
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Use hashtags relevant to your business
In this influencer economy, people see what friends and peers experience and it builds trust – it’s the new age of referral marketing. Social media should act as breadcrumbs to lure customers in. Share videos, testimonials, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, product and service info, and blog posts. Whatever you choose to post, it should always connect viewers back to your website!
Online advertising
Advertising platforms such as Facebook and Google connect to a LOT of people. And they offer a lot of options to create a targeted audience so you can get your ads in front of the right people.
There is risk involved with ads, of course, because there is no guaranteed return on your investment and ads are not a magic bullet. Therefore, I wouldn't recommend paid online advertising to any business just starting out. Instead, I would recommend you first build your business through referrals.
Online advertising is great for established businesses looking to grow. The ads can help you make connections outside your referral networks. They can act as fuel to complement your marketing plan and help more people learn about and interact with your business.
Before you start advertising, you should consider your goals, target audience, and budget. You can optimize your ads for clicks, calls, or conversions. You can target keywords, competitors, “look-alike” audiences, and more. And you need to decide how much you are willing to spend. The CPM (cost per million impressions) fluctuates, sometimes quarterly or weekly. On holidays you may see costs rise as well, so you not only need to plan how much you are willing to spend, but you also need to plan when not to advertise.
Paid advertising can help expand your reach and target specific audiences, just remember there is no guaranteed return.
SEO
Optimizing the pages of your website and blog posts for search can help your business get found in search engines. When done well, optimizing your blog posts can result in people finding your business via your blog posts, rather than your homepage.
When considering the topics of your blog posts and the titles of your posts, think about how people search. Organically or naturally including keywords people search for in your content can help you get found. People can’t find you if you don’t mention the things you want them to find you for. But do not, I repeat, do not stuff keywords into your content. You will get penalized by search engines.
In addition to getting people to your website through search engines, it is important to get them to stay. The more users click on your result in a search, and then stay and read your website, the more you get rewarded for that engagement with better search rankings.
Search engine optimization is never done. It is a long game that you need to continue playing. Create new targeted content, monitor your results, and keep making adjustments.
If you'd like help with your SEO, consider signing up for our SEO Go service.
Tell people about your website
Whether in person or online, tell people about your website and invite them to visit it. Your friends, existing clients, and other connections are a great resource to help more people learn about your business. Getting referrals is a wonderful way to build trust. Your website should be a resource to help with those referrals.
Tell your friends to send people to your website, encourage them to look around, and even take action.
Networking groups and events are also a great way to spread the word about your business. Sponsoring events and getting your logo on event materials can help new people learn about your business while showing your support for the community.
No matter what medium you use to promote your business look for opportunities to encourage people to visit your website to learn more.
Getting people to your website is just the start. Then you need to convince them to stay and convert to a client. Make sure your website is set up with an easy-to-follow sales funnel to encourage them to book a service or make a purchase from you. Zibster makes it easy for businesses to showcase their work, get paid, and connect with clients, all from one platform.
Ready to get your website set up to attract customers? Zibster can help! Call us at 844.353.3412, or visit zibster.com to chat with us (current customers log in to your account to chat with our support team).
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