One of the most prevalent reasons that companies invest in SEO is to increase their visibility. At a concrete level, this goal translates into a desire for more traffic to your website. Ultimately the goal is that the traffic converts into email subscribers, leads, and
buyers. Yet building traffic through SEO is an ongoing investment over time. There are a number of different strategies that you can take as a business owner to see more immediate returns in terms of traffic to your websites. Here’s a closer look at five suggestions that are working right now for driving traffic.
- Promote your blog posts and other content: If you have an active business blog, you’re already ahead of most of your competitors in terms of traffic generation. Get extra mileage out of each post by promoting it strategically. Share it via your email newsletter and your social media channels. It's also helpful to consider posting it on sites that are dedicated to content discovery or discussions related to your specific field. A few to consider include StumbleUpon, Reddit, Inbound.org, and BizSugar. Depending on your niche, there are numerous opportunities to connect your content to your community.
- Strategically guest post: The best guest posting strategies focus on getting your content in front of audiences that are interested in your subject. Write compelling and highly engaging content. Craft strong headlines and include a clear call to action. Spend time responding to the questions, comments, and discussion that your post generates on the site and on social media. Focus your efforts on high return sites such as the Huffington Post or LinkedIn, or on branded authority sites in your own niche.
- Participate in question sites and discussion groups: Question sites like Yahoo Answers and Quora are forums where people ask questions, and experts (or interested readers) can share their expertise. If you choose your questions well, you can use question sites to help build your authority and share your knowledge. A similar venue that can be very valuable is industry groups on networks such as LinkedIn.
- Find cross-promotion opportunities with other bloggers: Bloggers are some of the most active people online, and getting them to promote your material can help attract a lot of attention. Websites like ProBlogger have active communities where you can form relationships. Sites like Triberr are dedicated exclusively to helping bloggers cross-promote each other’s materials. Finally, reaching out to individual influencers in your field and drawing their attention to specific posts is another strategy to increase your exposure.
- Experiment with paid search: Running paid search or PPC campaigns is a very focused way to get traffic to your site around specific keywords. As you build your organic search authority on specific keywords, PPC can help you reach those interested audiences much faster. Focusing on optimizing your ad copy, aligning your keywords with your ads and landing pages, and learning the ins and outs of bidding can help skyrocket your results from PPC.
Traffic is the heart and soul of an active website, especially a blog or e-commerce store. As you build your reach through internet marketing, it’s also helpful to consider opportunities to attract short-term traffic through strategically leveraging your content, trying paid search, and being active in “online fishing holes” where your audience congregates.
Are you a small business owner that’s struggling to gain the visibility that you need to grow your business? Contact us today to learn more about how the Be Locally SEO team can help you reach your marketing and business goals.
