We often come across business owners who don’t have blogs on their website. “I don’t have time to blog” is often the excuse, and for many business owners, this is the truth. However, they just aren’t aware of the benefits of having a blog – for both their SEO and business. Hopefully, this article will convince you to make time.
Quite simply, blogging is one of the easiest, cost-effective and powerful ways to improve your search ranking on Google. Blogs assist in improving your search engine rankings by exhibiting your company’s expertise through original, to the point content full of keywords.
So, why else is there a need for a blog on your website?
Blogs provide fresh content, that keeps your audience hooked
Well, developing a website is not just “build a website, stick it on the internet and let it do its thing” – a great website is always growing, always evolving and that’s where blogging comes in. A blog enables your website to grow by providing content that otherwise wouldn’t be on your site. A constant stream of fresh, relevant content will keep your audience hooked and encourage repeat visits to your site. Not only that, when customers are seeking a product or service, a blog will allow you to establish yourself as an authoritative voice in the industry.\
And since Google tweaked their algorithm, fresh content is constantly being pushed to the top rankings for many searchings – meaning more visitors to your website and more business for you!
Blogs attract backlinks from other websites
For those of you versed in the ways of SEO (and those of you who aren’t), backlinks are incredibly important when search engines crawl your website. The number of external sites linking to your website proves that your site is providing helpful, relevant information. Having a great blog is fantastic link bait that encourages other websites to reference, creating those all-important backlinks.
For example: Let’s assume you run a landscaping company, and you write a lengthy, in-depth article about types of grass. Across the pond, there is a Nursery owner writing their own article – they stumble across your article. They find it so informative, that they include a link in their blog article to your article in order to give their article more credibility with their audience. Voila! You just gained a backlink.
Another type of link to mention is Internal links. Blogs are crucial in providing links to pages deep within your website. This helps Search engines like Google map your website. Search engines love crawling websites that have a great, coherent internal structure and a blog enables pages to reference each other by mentioning your product, service or other company pages.
Blogs have gravity
One of the most important aspects of SEO is keywords. Keywords play a huge role in assisting a website to rank better. Websites that contain keywords that are often searched, will rank higher than similar sites because it is assumed they have more relevant content relevant to a certain subject.
Websites with regularly updated, fresh and to the point blogs will undoubtedly have more related keywords to their industry than sites without a blog.
So what does this have to do with gravity? We know that the larger an object is in space, the more gravity (pull) it has. Your website is exactly the same. Imagine the internet like space, and websites are the planets. The more blog articles your website has, the larger it is, therefore the more gravity it has, increasing the chance of attracting visitors.
Blogs will increase your website visitors
If you write good quality content, then naturally people will want to share the content. The more your blogs are clicked on and shared, the more Google wants to share them, therefore moving them up in rankings. Providing quality content to your audience encourages loyalty and contributes to your website’s popularity.
It’s time to make time for blogging
In short, the more you blog, the better your search rankings will be and the more traffic you will get to your website.
On top of that, blogging will establish you as a thought leader and authority in your field, thereby making people trust you more. It is a great way to encourage and increase customer engagement, a blog builds trust in your brand and keeps visitors coming back for more.
Not sure where to start?
If you want to start blogging, but you don’t know how or where to start – schedule a discovery call with me. During this 15 – 30 minute call I will give you some free, actionable advice on how to start your blogging journey.
In this article, we will discuss the difference between Google Ads and Facebook Ads (yes there is a difference). You will discover the 2 critical factors you should consider before choosing which platform is right for you. And finally, we will show you the most common mistake most businesses make when it comes to Facebook Ads.
Pay Per Click Advertising
Before we get into the differences between these platforms and how to choose which one is right for you, let’s talk about their similarities.
Google Ads and Facebook Ads are both forms of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. This is where companies can create an advert but only pay when someone clicks on the advert. The amount you pay per click is determined by an algorithm unique to each platform. This means that you can control exactly how much you are willing to spend on PPC advertising.
The attractive thing about PPC advertising is that you can track exactly how many people saw and clicked on your advert. Both Google Ads and Facebook Ads, when done correctly, will provide you with measurable ROI. Therefore they are very popular with small to medium size businesses on a budget!
But that is where the similarities stop.
The Only Difference, That Makes a Difference
Google Ads and Facebook Ads are vastly different in how they operate and who they are intended for. I am not going to dissect each platform, but rather I will give you the defining factor that separates them:
Google helps customers find businesses.
Facebook helps businesses find customers.
It’s that simple. Let’s elaborate.
Google helps customers find businesses.
Google’s objective is to help people find exactly what they are looking for in as few clicks as possible.
There are over 2.3 million searches happening on Google every minute. Using Google Ads you can target certain keywords and create an advert to appear when a search contains those keywords.
Almost instantly you can get potential customers clicking through to your website.
So if you are a plumber in Pretoria, for example, you want to be on Google Ads since there are about 1600 searches for “plumber Pretoria” a month on Google. That’s a lot of business.
Facebook helps businesses find customers.
Facebook knows you better than you know yourself. It knows everything from your age to what sports team you support. It collects behavioural data from customers and basically sells it to businesses.
Using Facebook Ads, a Business can target a specific “audience” based on their likes and behaviours.
So, for example, if you own a Mobile Dog Grooming truck in Sandton, you can create an advert that targets people on Facebook that match the following criteria:
Behaviour: Pet Owners
Location: Bryanston
Age: 24 – 44
Likes: Dogs
Yes, Facebook actually knows whether you own a pet or not. The legality of how it knows that is up for debate but it does, and you can be targeted by a business.
We use more complex targeting strategies than that, but the fact is that you can target almost anyone on Facebook.
So as you can see, Facebook and Google serve two very different purposes – do you want to target people looking for your service, or do you want to create a demand for your service? This brings me to our final point.
Two Factors to Consider When Choosing Between Google or Facebook Ads.
As with any successful marketing strategy you have to know what your objectives are and who you are marketing to. It’s no different when it comes to choosing between Facebook Ads and Google Ads.
Who is your target audience?
There is no point in spending time and money setting up Facebook Ads when your target audience is high-level executives who prefer to mountain bike while their wives use Facebook.
And there is no point in spending time and money setting up Google Ads if your target audience is 50-year-old farmers from Springbok who prefer to do business in person at trade shows.
So, really the first thing you need to do is identify who it is you are targeting, where are they spending time online, and how are they looking for services.
What is your objective?
The next thing you need to consider is what your digital marketing objectives are? Do you want instant sales? Or do you want to fill your pipeline with leads?
If your objective is direct sales, then Google Ads is your guy. In other words, if you have a product or service that people know and look for online then you can target them with Google Ads to generate almost instant sales (depending on how good your adverts and landing pages are).
By comparison, if your objective is to create brand awareness, by getting your service in front of a specific group of people, then Facebook Ads is your guy. Facebook is a great way to generate leads for your business which down the line might become customers.
For example, let’s say you own a roofing business. You can create a Facebook advert offering a “Free Leak Inspection” before the rainy season and target-rich suburbs like Hyde Park and Bryanston. You will get a ton of sign-ups – filling your pipeline with leads, i.e. prospective customers.
Avoid This Mistake.
If you have chosen Facebook Ads as your medium, the single biggest mistake you can make is trying to use Facebook to generate direct sales. Why? Because people on Facebook are not there with the intention of spending money.
The ability to be able to pinpoint a specific audience tempts businesses into creating sales-based ads. But they are wasting their time and money on people looking for updates from their friends and cute cat pictures to post on WhatsApp groups.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying it is impossible to sell on Facebook – you just have to go about it differently. We use Facebook to generate sales in two ways:
Retargeting – Facebook Retargeting Ads are perfect for reaching your website visitors on Facebook. If someone viewed your products or services but did not convert on your website, then your can use Facebook Retargeting Ads to give that person a discount or perhaps some additional info to help them make the purchase.
Brand Awareness – If you are an unknown brand, you can use Facebook Ads to promote your content (blogs, videos etc.) in order to build credibility with an audience. This strategy is not meant to generate out-and-out sales, but rather a website traffic and brand awareness. (Which you can retarget with an offer later on Facebook)
If You Just Skipped To The End of The Article
To give you the answer you would expect from a digital marketing company – it shouldn’t be a question of either or – both Facebook Ads and Google Ads should form a part of your digital marketing strategy.
Google helps customers find businesses. Facebook helps businesses find customers.
Google Ads allows you to generate almost instant leads and sales from people already looking for your service. Facebook Ads allow you to market your products and services to new audiences and build brand awareness.
Bonus tip: You should never use Facebook Ads for direct selling – instead use Facebook Ads to promote your content, in order to get your services in front of new audiences.
Getting more website traffic for free is easier than you think. And why is more website traffic so important? Because it means more leads and sales for your business.
In this article, I will show you how to get more visibility online to get more website visitors.
Disclaimer: This is a long-term strategy, that will take some time before it starts taking effect. So if you are looking for a quick fix to increase website visitors, then this article is not for you.
How to get more website traffic
I will show you a simple 3 step process to creating a Content Marketing Strategy, that if followed correctly will undoubtedly boost your website traffic. If you are willing to invest some time and implement the strategy properly and consistently, then you can say goodbye to paid advertising!
There are no complicated methods or intricate strategies involved in this process. Everything I discuss can be easily implemented by yourself. Are you ready for the 3 simple steps to getting more website visitors for free? Here they are:
Set up a blog
Create content
Share content
That’s it. I apologise if you were looking for something a bit more exciting or elaborate than that. But the truth is, that this is all you need. And if you implement those 3 steps, as I am about to demonstrate, then you can create a predictable traffic generating machine!
Let me ask you this – if you are looking for a solution to a problem, where do you go? Probably Google, or other search engines like Bing. You type your query or problem into Google, and within seconds you are provided with a million potential answers. Magic!
Those answers come in the form of blog articles and content, not created by Google, but by hundreds of thousands of people and businesses like you. Google’s one and only job is to decide which of those million answers are most relevant to your search query (here’s an article on how Google ranks websites.
People read blog articles and content to educate themselves on a certain topic, service or even company. Who better to educate potential customers on your services than you? Or would you rather let them read about it on a competitors website?
In summary, a blog will help you to do 3 things:
Establish yourself as an authority in the field (which means more people will want to read & share your articles)
Build trust with your readers (making it easier for you to convert them into leads & sales)
Boost your search engine rankings (badda bing, badda boom, more website traffic)
This is categorically where 99% of businesses go wrong when they want to get more website traffic.
Chances are that you already have a blog, but you are posting infrequently and even then you aren’t sure what you should be posting. The problem is not the “doing” but the “strategy”. The trick with creating good content is knowing where to start.
You should start with a content strategy. For our clients, we use a two-phased approach:
Phase 1 – Foundation Content:
Foundation content is what we use to populate empty blogs for our clients. Generally, it’s content about their business, services and products. The fastest way to come up with foundation content for your business is ‘frequently asked questions’:
Write down as many of the questions your clients ask about your products or services.
Write the answer to those questions in 500 words or more.
Voila, you have foundation content. Within no time at all, you could have 5, 10 or even 20 quality blog articles that help visitors educate themselves on your products, services or even industry.
Phase 2 – Marketing Content:
Marketing content is less about your own business and more about providing valuable insight to your readers, and helping them make a better buying decision.
Create a customer avatar – who is your ideal client, what’s their name, how old are they, what are their hobbies, where do they spend time online?
Write down their pain points – what are the problems you solve for them? I.e. what would cause someone to look for your services.
Brainstorm some articles & content ideas – come up with content ideas for each pain point.
Following this strategy for each of your services and buyer personas will give you a solid content strategy, with a ton of content ideas. The best part is that you will no longer be thumb sucking your content – each article you write will be relevant to a particular type of customer and the problems they have.
But, if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. So, the next step would be to create a Content Calendar. Schedule 1 article or content piece per week, until you have used up all of the ideas from your brainstorming session. Set reminders in your Outlook, Apple or Gmail calendars and stick to the damn schedule!
The last thing to remember when creating content is to create valuable, share-worthy content! Do not just write articles for the sake of writing articles – this leads to poor content that no one will want to read or share. Put some effort in, do research, draw diagrams – remember you aren’t just creating content, you are creating value!
Bonus Tip: You will need to optimise each blog article for search engines once you have written it, here’s an article on how to do SEO for blogs.
In summary, the 3 golden rules for creating content are:
Relevancy – using this content strategy will allow you to create content that is relevant to your customers.
Consistency – stick to your schedule! Google loves blogs that are constantly being updated.
Quality – when you write an article ask yourself a) Would my customers find this article useful b) would they share it with their friends.
3. Share Content
It’s going to take a while before these articles start generating more website traffic by themselves. And speeding up this process is a catch-22 situation to be honest – because you need the traffic to get traffic. I know… but bear with me.
Using blog articles as an example; it can take months before Google starts ranking your articles. And even then, Google’s algorithm will determine how well the article will rank (i.e. whether it’s page 1 material, or page 592). So to get Google to index your article more quickly, you have to generate some traffic yourself.
Luckily, today it is very easy to get your content in front of people. Here are some tactics you can use:
Email – every time we write a new article, we send an email out to our database with a link. This gets us a few hundred hits on an article almost instantly.
Facebook – Facebook is the king of content – people are reading and sharing images, videos and articles all the time. So share your content on your company page, groups and your own personal page. Encourage people to like and share.
Twitter – every day there are trending tags (topics) on Twitter, if you have a piece of content that can leverage off a trending tag, then post a link and hashtag it! This does involve checking Twitter every day, but the results are worth the effort.
Linkedin – if you’re a B2B company, then LinkedIn is the place to be. Post your articles on your feed, company feed and on any groups, you follow. A popular form of content on LinkedIn is SlideShare – which is essentially a PowerPoint presentation.
However you choose to share your content, just make sure that you do! The goal, of course, is to get people to share your content for you. And how do you do that? By creating content that is worth sharing!
Bonus: Not-so-free website traffic
The strategy we have discussed above will increase your “organic traffic” – which is traffic from search engine results that is earned, not paid for. But if you are like me, then you want results now. Therefore you can look at driving some “paid traffic” to your website through PPC (pay per click) methods:
Facebook Ads – when you write a new article, post it to your company page and boost the post for a few hundred Rand. This will show your post to thousands of people within a few hours. Facebook also allows you to really pinpoint specific target audiences.
LinkedIn Ads – very similar to Facebook in that you can share your article with a highly targeted audience. The main difference is that LinkedIn is more suited for B2B.
Google Ads – drive traffic directly to landing pages on your website. A landing page is like a sales page for a specific product or service. Don’t just send people to your home page – create ads for each of your services, and link those ads to the service pages on your site.
Bonus Bonus: Paid Traffic vs Organic Traffic
Paid traffic should definitely be a part of your online marketing strategy, but it should not be the entire strategy. To produce a consistent amount of website traffic that provides consistent leads, you need a paid traffic strategy and a content marketing (free traffic) strategy. It’s important you know the benefits of both methods:
Pros
Cons
Paid Traffic Strategy
Instant
Targeted
Costs money
Organic Traffic Strategy
Better lead quality
More sustainable
Free
Takes time
The biggest takeaway should be that a Content Marketing strategy (free traffic) will yield better, more consistent results in the long run. All the content you create (articles, infographics, videos, eBooks) will not only boost your website rankings but will build trust with your audience making it more likely that they will do business with you.
? People are going onto Google every day and searching for products, services & companies. If your company is not on Google in some form or another, you are losing out on business. In this article, we will show you the 3 ways you can get onto the first page of Google.
A Journey of 1000 Clicks Starts With a Google Search
Think about the last time you purchased something significant. How did you go about it? Chances are your “purchasing journey” started online, probably with a Google search from your phone.
The bottom line is that if your business is to be successful in 2019 then:
Your website has to be on page 1 of Google
Your website has to be mobile-friendly
Get those two things right, and the leads will flow like single malt whisky at a Saxonwold shebeen!
Why Google?
There are 5.5 billion searches made on Google every single day (source). That’s a lot of people asking a lot of questions!
That being said – Google is not the internet. We know that. There are other search engines like Bing and Yahoo.
But we aren’t going to focus on those other wannabe search engines, because in South Africa Google has a 95% market share!
So it is safe to say that 95% of consumers in South Africa will turn to Google as their primary search engine when they want to purchase something.
The question is, are you appearing in those searches?
Anatomy of a SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
Depending on what a person searched on Google, the SERP will look slightly different. Google displays the information in what are known as “cards” – and there are many different types of cards.
I am not going to go into the details of each card, so for the purposes of this article we are going to focus on the main 3 sections of a SERP:
Paid Ads
Local Pack (Map Listings)
Organic Listings
? Paid Ads (Google Ads)
The fastest & easiest way to get on the first page of Google is to pay for it. The crowd gasps. Google Ads, when done right, will get your business to the no. 1 spot on Google instantly.
It’s pretty simple – you choose the keywords that you want your advert to show for and you only pay when someone actually clicks on your advert. You can set limits on what you spend per day to ensure that you don’t blow a hole in your credit card.
How much does it cost I hear you ask. It depends on your industry and what search terms you are targeting, but we have achieved costs as low as R2.87 per click. For very competitive markets we have paid as much as R28.76 per click.
? Local Pack (Google My Business)
Creating a Google My Business page is the fastest free way to get onto the first page of Google. However, your business will only appear for people who are searching in your area.
If you are a local business like a plumber, electrician or pet store then you need a Google My Business page. If you do not have one, or it is not set up properly then you are losing business. Simple.
“Pet shops near me” gets a whopping 8100 searches on Google per month. Google auto-completes certain searches with “near me”.
Go to Google and type in “restaurants” followed by a space, you will see that the next suggested search is “restaurants near me”.
A Google My Business listing is not only necessary for local business – ANY business that wants to generate more leads and sales online needs a listing.
? Organic Listings (Search Engine Optimisation)
Getting to the number 1 spot in Google’s organic listings is the holy grail of online marketing. Once your website is here, the leads will pour in!
The top spot in Google will get almost 35% of the clicks (source). That is a big chunk of people that will visit your website instead of going to your competitor.
But getting to your website to the first page of Google’s organic listings is not easy. I could write an entire tutorial just on SEO – so let me try to explain it simply:
Ranking your website on page 1 of Google requires two forms of SEO:
On-page SEO Firstly, your website has to be optimised with the right keywords so that Google knows what your site is about. This is known as On-page SEO – this is the technical process of optimising your website to make it easy for search engines to index it.
Off-page SEO Even if your website has the right keywords, Google still needs to determine whether it is relevant to a user. Amongst other things Google uses “backlinks” as a yardstick. Backlinks are links on other sites that point back to your website. Lots of backlinks tell Google that your website is trustworthy, authoritative and relevant.
Generally, it requires months of active On-page and Off-page SEO to rank your website on page 1 of Google.
Bonus tip: Write blog articles! Putting out weekly content onto your blog is a tried and tested strategy for more website traffic. But don’t just write spammy articles stuffed with keywords, no one will want to read that. Write articles that will truly help your customers – this means they spend more time reading your content on your website. And the more time people spend on your website, the better rankings you will get. Fact.
Which One Is The Best for You?
There is an ongoing debate amongst SEO and PPC specialists as to which one is the best.
For us, it comes down to quantity vs quality.
Google Ads allows you to generate a lot of leads for your business very quickly. The downside is that it costs money and the quality of these leads can be inconsistent.
Organic listings are considered “trustworthy” by consumers because they understand that companies aren’t paying to be there. Therefore the leads that come from SEO are generally speaking better quality. The downside is that it takes time to get your website onto page 1.
Oh, but you definitely need to have a Google My Business page. That is non-negotiable ?
We can all agree that there is nothing worse than coming across a website with a bunch of outdated information on it. Not only is it inconvenient for your potential client, but it shows a general lack of website maintenance. Finding a company that provides website maintenance services will ensure your website is kept safe, secure and will prevent you from ever having to suffer the embarrassment of having outdated information on your website again.
LaunchWeb has created a list of the top 7 reasons why you need website maintenance services:
SEO:
Google penalizes websites that aren’t regularly maintained by pushing them down in rankings. Having a meticulously optimised website that’s always kept up-to-date means better rankings. And better rankings on Search Engines means more business for you!
Security:
Time and time again we come across WordPress websites that haven’t been regularly updated and have fallen victim to hacking. Google takes note when a website gets hacked and places a disclaimer next to your site, warning visitors that your site is insecure which is a sure way to lose business. Having your website hacked is not a fun experience and can result in irreparable damage to your brand.
Your Copyright:
We can see it hasn’t been updated in ages. Too often we come across websites that have a “Copyright 2012” in their footer. It would make for a pretty awkward conversation if one of your prospective clients had to point it out.
Latest News:
It’s a few years late. The last post on your “Latest News” feed was from your Christmas party 3 years ago. Ensuring your existing clients and prospectives are kept up to date with your latest goings-on will keep them connected to your brand.
About Page:
If your “About Page” still displays photos of people who haven’t been a part of your team for the last 2 years then you most definitely need to update that. Don’t have the time? Then employing a company that provides website maintenance services is exactly what you need!
Products:
Your website displays products that you no longer sell. Having to explain to a prospective client why you still have products on your website that no longer exist would not only be embarrassing for you but would create a sense of distrust in your brand.
Contact Details:
Your contact details are no longer valid and your prospective clients can’t get in touch with you. There’s no quicker way to direct them straight to your competition. Not only will they lose confidence in your brand, but you’ll lose business too!
Employing an agency that provides website maintenance services will not only ensure your website stays up to date, safe & secure, but will maintain customer confidence in your brand and keep you ranking well too. LaunchWeb offers a variety of website maintenance packages, tailored to your needs and of course, your budget!
Here’s the scenario: Month-end is creeping closer and you realise that your leads have dried up. So in a panic, you check your website states which shows that you are only getting 37 visitors a month. That’s only 3 visitors a day! Slumping back in your chair you ask yourself “Why is no one coming to my website?”?
The answer is fairly simple:
People can’t find your website or,
You aren’t promoting your website
For the purpose of this article, we are going to assume that your website is live and working, but it is just not getting website traffic.
1. People Can’t Find Your Website
Before we address why people can’t find your site, let’s first talk about how they find websites. And the answer is “Search Engines”. A recent report by Smart Insights shows that there are over 6.5 billion searches made every day! It is safe to say that no one uses a phone book anymore. So if people can’t find you, it is because your website is not ranking high enough on search engines for people to find it.
This is because of that dreaded SEO you hear about. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase website traffic by obtaining a high-ranking placement on search engines like Google and Bing. So without further adieu let’s dive into some rudimentary SEO in order for you to increase website traffic:
1.1 You are not allowing Google to index/crawl your site.
Before we get into the spiel about off-page and on-page SEO, let’s start with the basics. First, check that your website is allowing itself to be shown on search engines. If you have a WordPress website check that the “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” box unchecked in the Settings >> Reading >> Search Engine Visibility tab.
The next thing you would have to check is that your robots.txt file is not disallowing search engines to crawl your site. (Robots.txt is a text file webmasters create to instruct web robots (typically search engine robots) how to crawl pages on their website). Here is a guide from Google on how to Test your robots.txt.
OK, so we have established that your website is not blocking search engines.
1.2 Your website does not have On-page SEO
On-page SEO is the practice of optimising elements ON your website in order to rank higher in search engines. Back in the day, it was all about on-page SEO and keywords! The more your site had of a certain keyword the better it would rank. Naturally, people abused this technique (and others) by ‘stuffing’ their website with keywords and as a result, Google had to change the way it ranks websites. Today it’s about a lot more than just keywords, here are some of the more important on-page SEO techniques you can implement:
Page Titles – Page titles are the most important, as these describe to Google what the page or article is about.
Meta Descriptions – The description is just as important as this can contain keywords relevant to your content.
URL Structure – Google likes simple and concise URL structures. Think of your URL’s like a map, the simpler they are, the easier bots can crawl them.
Body Tags (H1, H2, H3, H4, etc.) – Using these tags to break up content on your website makes reading easier – for bots and visitors.
Keyword Density – Spamming your page with keywords won’t improve your ranking – the quality of content does! So use them sparingly.
Image SEO – Using images in your content is very important. Be sure to add “Alt Tags” to your images so as to tell Google what the image is and how it is relevant to your content.
Internal Linking – Linking pages within your website is a very powerful SEO tool as people could potentially spend more time on your site bouncing between content.
2. You Aren’t Promoting Your Website
The better your on-page SEO is, the easier it is for Google to rank your website, but it does not mean your website will rank high. This is where “off-page SEO” plays a very important role.
1.3 You are not implementing off-page SEO
Off-page SEO is defined as a set of practices and techniques implemented off-page (i.e. not on your website) to improve your ranking on search engines. The two main building blocks of off-page SEO is “link building” and exposure of your brand/products/services to relevant audiences.
Link building is about creating quality links (also known as backlinks), on relevant websites that point back to your page. Some of these off-page SEO link building techniques include:
Social Bookmarking
Forum Submissions
Guest Blogging
Business Directory Listings
I mentioned earlier that Google had to change the way it ranks websites because people were finding ways to exploit on-page SEO techniques. Well, people would exploit off-page SEO techniques just as much. They would create thousands of backlinks on any website they could find. So once again Google had to change the way it ranks websites and in 2003 the algorithm was updated to give more weight to links from reputable sites. And this is where the second building block of off-page SEO comes in.
Exposure to relevant audiences is about making sure you are creating those links in the right places; on websites that are relevant and popular in your industry. Knowing where your target audience spends most of their time online is very valuable.
In the end, it all comes down to the quality and relevance of your content. If you create high-quality, shareable content (articles, how-to’s, videos, infographics etc.) that is relevant to your industry then people will share it and link to it. Boom! Links and exposure!
BONUS: End the drought!
If you implement a sound SEO strategy you will be promoting your website, but SEO is a long-term game and you need something to fix the traffic drought now and to increase website traffic! The answer is “Paid Advertising”. Our preferred form of paid advertising is a combination of Facebook Ads and Google Ads. Why both? Because each of those mediums caters for Demand Generation & Demand Fulfilment respectively.
What is ‘Demand Generation’?
This means creating a demand where there was none before. Traditional marketing and advertising have done this for over 100 years – TV, Radio and billboard ads make people buy things they didn’t know they needed. Facebook Ads (and other Social media advertising) is the best medium for creating a demand for your service or product. It gives you the opportunity to get your business in front of millions of people.
What is ‘Demand Fulfilment’?
This means satisfying a demand that is already there. As we saw earlier there are over 6 billion searches made every day – hundreds, if not thousands, of people searching for your product or service! Google Adwords is the epitome of demand fulfilment because it puts your business in front of the people that are looking for the service you offer.
So how do you Increase Website Traffic?
The real answer to “Why is no one visiting my website?” is “Because you aren’t trying!”. Ok, maybe that is a bit harsh but the reality is that most people think just having a website is good enough. Yes, having a great website is necessary but it is only the first step, after that you need to “get it out there” through advertising and/or SEO. The ideal situation is to have a balance between people finding you organically (search engines, social media, blogs etc.) and people finding you through advertising. We have found that leads who found us organically convert (into clients) more often than those who found us through advertising. Just something to think about 🙂
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