7 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your New Website

Posted on April 16, 2020 in Marketing

So you just built a brand new website and you can’t wait to show it off to the world. You announce it on social media and tell all your friends, clients and colleagues.

You’re waiting for the phone to ring, the leads to start rolling in, and yet…nothing happens. You can almost hear the tumbleweeds rolling across your computer screen.

Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that you have to work to drive traffic to your site! In today’s busy, noisy world, you need to hustle to get audiences to give your site the time of day.

The good news is that there are tangible steps you can take today to get more traffic. Below are seven steps you can put into action immediately. Better yet, most of these steps are completely free.

1. Set up a Free Google My Business Account

One of the first things you should do to boost traffic is to set up a Google My Business (GMB) account. It’s free, provides a new way for customers to learn about your business, and quite literally “puts you on the map.” An account here will display your business on Google Search and Maps, which people use all the time to find products and services.

Don’t take any shortcuts here, either. Complete the profile with everything you can as recommended by Google. Add your location, hours, phone number, services, and photos of your business to start. Having a complete account here will work wonders for your SEO (search engine optimization), especially locally.

2. Start Blogging

An easy way to draw in some traffic is to get a blog up on your site. If you don’t know what to write about or where to get started, try searching for blogs in your industry for inspiration. Ask yourself what advice you can offer to your audience.

What are you an expert on? What are your most frequently asked questions from customers? Write blogs that offer some of that expertise to readers.

Having a blog relevant to your industry and audience will punch up your SEO and help pull in traffic. It gives visitors and audiences one more reason to visit your site. It should offer a steady stream of content, meaning you should try to publish a new blog post weekly or at least monthly. For each blog, think about the topic and put yourself in the shoes of your audience. Would you find the topic and content interesting and valuable?

3. Create Videos

Video is getting more and more popular every day. Given that everyone has a smartphone with a camera these days, there’s really no excuse for not creating videos. It can seem daunting if you’ve never done it before, but it’s as easy as asking a friend to film you for a minute while you offer a tip or word of wisdom for customers.

LinkedIn is filled with casual, bite-sized videos of someone offering their 2 cents or explaining a concept while in their office, car, or walking down the street. Our very own Corey Barkach offers a great example of this right here. If you have the time and feel comfortable making longer, more in-depth videos, those are great too, but even short videos go a long way to getting traffic.

4. Get Smart on Social

If your business isn’t on social media already, then set up some accounts as soon as possible. Much like a GMB account, be sure to embellish your social media accounts with pictures, details about your services, contact information and more.

Make sure you’re posting consistently. Keep your audience at the top of your mind with every post…will the content add value to their life somehow? Is it entertaining, informative, or thought-provoking? If you’re writing blogs or creating videos, this is the place to share them! Engage with your audience by responding to comments, asking questions, and taking their input to heart.

Focus your efforts on the platform that best fits your business and audience. If you’re B2B, you may want to focus on LinkedIn first and foremost. In contrast, B2C businesses can do well on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, depending on the nature of your product.

5. Get Some Backlinks on Other Sites

If you’re new to digital marketing and SEO, you might not be too familiar with the concept of “link-building.” In a nutshell, it means getting links to your site on other sites. This is important because Google ranks sites and pages partially based on the amount of times they find other sites linking to them.

Put simply, the more times someone links to your page or site, the more Google rates it as a credible, valuable site. As a result, they will give it a higher rank in search results, netting you more traffic.

Of course, the trick is getting another website to agree to add a link to your site on theirs. One of the best ways to do this is to guest post. Ask bloggers in your industry if they would be interested in including one of your articles as a “guest post” with a link to your site included. If you are focusing more on video content, you can offer to create a quick video for them. This not only helps your SEO, but can draw in more traffic via referrals.

6. Email Marketing

If you have an email list (or are willing to purchase one), this is a relatively straightforward way to draw in some traffic. Like with social media, try to send emails that offer some sort of value to your audience. Whether it’s a promotion, special offer, or just sharing your content, you’ll get more engagement if you’re providing a bit of value with each email.

Send emails regularly, but not too often. Blowing up your audience’s inbox with daily emails is a quick way to get opt-outs. On the flip side of the coin, if you send emails weekly or bi-weekly, your audience will get more familiar with them and engage with them more often.

7. Paid Advertising

Of course, if you have the budget, paid advertising is a great way to get results fast. You can run pay-per-click or retargeting ads through Google to draw in audiences searching for products like yours. Likewise, you can run paid ads on social media to drive additional traffic.

We won’t get into the nuances of using each paid advertising service here, but it’s worth noting that they are options. PPC can be a great way to kickstart traffic to your site, especially since it can take some time to start seeing results with organic SEO.

Experiment, Experiment, Experiment

There’s really no one-size-fits-all approach to digital marketing. What works great for one company might fall flat for another. If you’re just getting started or struggling to get results, be sure to experiment with new approaches, platforms, and tools. It pays to be patient until you find the right approach.

Just keep trying new things until you find what works for your organization. Test your results with each new initiative and double down on the efforts that are delivering a solid ROI.

This should be plenty to get you started…but if you have any questions or want to learn more, please feel free to give us a call at (248) 579-9972. Our passion is helping businesses bring their story to the masses and we’d love to help you get a leg up on the competition.