Increasing Website Traffic

Most of the calls we get from prospective clients are interested in increasing their website traffic. Perhaps they’ve heard about search engine optimization or pay-per-click advertising, but they have no idea where to begin, how much it should cost, and most importantly, why they need more people going to their website.

There are two ways to approach this subject. The right approach is the same way you should tackle every marketing problem, by setting your online marketing goals, defining your target market, differentiating your offer, etc. More on that later…

The wrong approach, which is the way most people go about solving this problem, is searching for your product or service, realizing that your website is no where near page one, and deciding to spend a few hundred dollars to fix the problem. I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t work that way, and anyone who says they guarantee page one results is stealing your money.

When it comes to promoting your business on the Internet, the first thing you have to do is figure out why. In other words, what do you want people to do when the find your website? For most businesses the answer is one or more of the following three options; provide information, generate leads, or sell something.

If the primary goal of your website is to provide more information, then accurate, up-to-date content is paramount. A good example is a portfolio website where the objective is to show prospective clients samples of your work. In this case most of your business probably comes through word-of-mouth and referrals.

Once you have someone who is interested in your service, then you direct them to your website to see what you’ve done for other clients. I would argue in this case that spending your limited marketing dollars trying to increase website traffic is probably a waste of money. You’re far better off focusing on your networking efforts, keeping your clients happy, and perhaps introducing a referral program.

If the most important reason why you have a website is to generate qualified sales leads, then increasing website traffic becomes far more important. But the key word here is “qualified.” That means what you really want is “qualified” website traffic. In this case you want your website content to not only be accurate and up-to-date, but you also want it to be relevant to the search terms people are using to find your products and services.

And finally, if selling products or services through your website is your primary online marketing objective, then increasing traffic MIGHT be even more important. I say might, because it really depends on what you’re selling, and to whom.

For example if all you’re selling online is more stuff to your existing customers, then an email marketing campaign or some other type of direct marketing strategy would probably make more sense.

The bottom line when it comes to increasing website traffic is you had better know the reasons why you want more traffic, and those reasons need to justify a substantial marketing investment because there is no quick-and-easy cheap fix. We’re talking about spending thousands of dollars every month for many months before you can even determine whether or not it’s making a difference to your bottom line.

Until next week,

Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.