It is all very well investing money into a beautiful looking website, but if nobody knows about it and you don’t have any visitors then your online business will not be very successful.
We want all small businesses to succeed online so have made a list of 12 top tips that will help you to get your site noticed on the Internet without breaking the bank.
1. Optimise your website for search
Search engine optimisation (SEO), is the process by which you can improve rankings for your website in the top search engines such as Google and Bing, so that your site appears on the first few pages of results rather than on page 55. Google uses software known as ‘spiders’ to crawl the web on a regular basis and find sites to add to its index. There are many steps you can take to make it easier for the spiders to find and add your site. We will happy to explain these if you contact us.
2. Improve your homepage sales copy
It is essential to have high-quality, text-based content on your pages. It is even more important on your homepage. If your homepage has useful information and good quality, relevant text, it is much more likely to be picked up by the search engines spiders. Your site needs content that clearly describes your topic, product or service. Think about the keywords users would type in the search box to find your pages and include them on your site.
3. Ask friends, family members and employees to get the word out…and reward referrals
You might not have many (or any) followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. However, the chances are, your friends, family and employees do. If that is the case, ask them to follow your and your business on social media sites and spread the word. You can even reward people for sharing links to your website or products by offering them referral discounts or a freebie.
4. Offer other bloggers and influencers free products in exchange for a mention or a review
It can be hard to direct visitors and traffic to your website particularly if you have just started your online business. A simple way to start a buzz around your product and website is to send free samples to influential bloggers. Most bloggers will be happy to take your free sample and review it on their blog. Once the review is posted there will be a direct link back to your site. That link will give you a nice SEO boost on search engines and will drive a lot of traffic to your site from people interested in your product or service.
5. Give stuff away
Create a buzz by running competitions. This could be simply to win one of your products or services. You could even make it interactive by getting customers to submit photographs of how they have used and benefited from your product or service. You could do this via Instagram using as a hashtag or on your company blog. Alternatively you could get them to comment on your Facebook page, blog or other social media platform in order to create a buzz and spread the word.
6. Launch a Pay Per Click Advertising campaign
The results from your efforts in SEO will appear on the main search engines in the central column of the natural or ‘organic’ search results. However, you might have noticed some search results on the right hand column of the results page when you have made a search yourself. These are ‘paid-for’ results otherwise known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. PPC is where you pay to have your ads displayed when people type in certain words relating to your business. Google Adwords is the most widely used form of PPC advertising. Think of the most likely keywords or phrases that you think your customers will be searching for and apply them in your PPC campaign. You don’t just have to link to your homepage. You can send people who click on your ads to other pages on your site such as special promotions and information. You are in full control of the budget and how long the campaign should run.
7. Create fresh, shareable content
Google loves original and informative content. By creating helpful information, Google will not only reward your site but people will want to start and share your posts and content with their friends, family and colleagues (see tip number 8). It is important to write for your target audience and NOT for Google. Offer something fresh and unique that tells people about your company, product or service without sounding like an ad.
8. Encourage visitors to share your content
Make it easy for your visitors to spread the word about your site and content through social sharing. You can allow people to pin your content and images on Pinterest or Facebook or have articles tweeted about. You can easily add these social book-marking tools to your site and blog.
9. Be active on the major social media platforms
You don’t need to be active on all of them. Take the time to figure out which ones are more suitable for your target audience and decide which ones your idea customers is typically going to be active on. Once you have decided on the social media sites you want to be active on, set up pages and profiles on those sites and post regularly. There are lots of tools that you can use and companies like ours who can help you to set up a very successful marketing campaign.
10. Follow and engage with industry influencers on Twitter
Use Twitters advanced search to find people within your specific niche market and engage with them. You can also create Twitter lists of people in the markets you are trying to reach. In most cases they will engage with you or follow you back which in turn will bring your site to the attention of their followers.
11. Create a Facebook ad
Facebook’s ad platform allows you to get very specific with the target audience that you want to reach. It is very cost effective too. You decide exactly how much you want to spend. You can choose between a daily or lifetime budget as well as bidding on a cost per thousand impressions or cost per click. You only ever pay for the clicks or impressions you receive up to the amount you set for your budget.
12. Have a professional and responsive website
It is important for your business to have a web presence. You need not only a website, but a site that consumers will want to come back to time and time again to buy from you. The functionality of your site needs to be flawless. If it is too slow to load or too difficult to navigate then you can guarantee that your visitors will leave within a few seconds, never to return. Remember too, that most people view sites on their smartphones and tablets so your site needs to be responsive, meaning that your site looks perfect whether people are viewing it on a desktop or their smartphone or tablet.
We have many other tried and tested ways to get more customers online. Whether you are a small business or a large company B2B or B2C and whatever business you are in we can help send targeted traffic and visitors to your site.
We look forward to working with you and your company to help you achieve the online success you have always wanted for your business.