80% of consumers search the web for products and services first, before looking elsewhere. It is important therefore to have an effective website marketing strategy to tap into this huge market. Website marketing basically involves making your website visible to attract large numbers of visitors, who can then be converted into sales, social media shares and referrals.
This, in turn, increases business volumes, translates into profits and eventually leads to growth. It is important therefore to dedicate resources and give website marketing the seriousness it deserves as it can make the difference between success or failure of an enterprise.
After launching a website, it is vital to check if it gives potential customers a pleasant experience by ensuring the site is user-friendly, responsive and has good speeds. When this is confirmed, you can now use the following tried, tested and proven strategies to draw traffic and make your brand a household name.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When conducting searches for services and products, online users have been observed to rarely go beyond the first page of the organic results their searches produce. This means that a highly ranked website on Google increases its chances of being visible to searches. That is where good SEO practices come in handy.
To achieve high SEO rankings, a website needs to make the most effective use of related phrases and keywords that are searched often by online users. There are different strategies that can be adapted to attain the SEO objective and these are;
-Ensure that you have a vibrant website, that regularly updates the existing content while also coming up with new, creative and interesting material that is at par with the current market trends.
-Find and get rid of any restrictions that may inhibit indexing activities on search engines so that your website’s visibility prospects may bear fruit.
-To enhance your website’s ranking and popularity, increase the number of backlinks and inbound links and share widely on social media pages.
The SEO strategy’s planning and implementation can be a daunting and time-consuming task, but well worth it in the end. If you find it overwhelming, you can hire the services of an SEO expert, who will study, analyse, strategize and implement the necessary changes to your website.
Targeted Advertisements
When starting a website, the website owner usually knows the class of online users that he/she intends to target. When your website starts attracting traffic, it is imperative to note the various advertisements that users click on By doing this, you learn what interests visitors to your website, and then you can resend related advertisements individually to the online users, once they leave your website. This is in an attempt to woo repeat visitors and convert them into tangible business.
It is important to note, however, that this should be done sparingly to avoid being annoying and put them off in the process,
Email Marketing
For more frequent and lengthy engagements with online visitors to your site, it is important to encourage them to subscribe to your site, via email. This method will enable you to negotiate and close business deals easily. Email marketing also provides a private and personalized platform to deal with prospects, at their convenience, while giving them individual attention.
For those online visitors who are unable to visit your website regularly, email provides a channel to update them on what has been going on through newsletters, videos, new products, blogs, services, discounts and about future endeavours.
These efforts will, in the long run, cultivate brand loyalty and translate into actual sales.
Consistent Blogging
Blogging is an assured way of getting online users to visit your site as long as the content you generate is original, interesting and stands in a class of its own. Creative blogging content also gets shared a lot on the internet which is another way to get your website the attention it deserves.
Another strategy is to be a guest blogger on other websites.
This provides an opportunity to leave behind links to your website to new markets and territories. You should also encourage other bloggers to make guest appearances on your website and also leave their website links behind, for mutual benefit.
Advertising on Facebook
With one billion users every day, Facebook is the undisputed best social media platform to advertise on to increase website traffic. Join the 2 million advertisers who use Facebook every day and witness a major change in the online visitors to your website.
The good news is, placing an advert on Facebook is not an expensive undertaking and you can target the right people with your advert. For example, if you want your website to be advertised to Facebook users of a certain age bracket, a specific geographical area, or people with specific preferences, then it is possible. This enables your message to be narrowed down to your target market.
If you place eye-catching and interesting commercials, there is a high chance of reaching a larger audience as users can share, comment and react, giving your website more attention and visibility.
YouTube Advertisements
It is a proven fact that videos attract attention, and having a YouTube channel can greatly increase your business prospects. The best strategy is to create interesting video content, and then share the YouTube links on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and guest blogs.
Also, you can place short advertisements on popular YouTube videos that attract the most views. This will automatically create an interest in YouTube viewers who will then visit your website and in turn, boost your SEO ranking. It is also very easy for an interesting video to go viral and propel your website to higher heights.
Don’t forget to read this post, it will help you how you can customize your YouTube channel like a pro.
Promotions, Competitions, and Giveaways
If you want your website to get attention in record time, come up with occasional competitions, promotions that save online users money, and free giveaways. Your website will be the talk of the town. People love the opportunity to get free or discounted prices, and anytime a competition, promotion or giveaway is in the offing, there will always be a considerable amount of traffic increase to your website.
It is worth noting, that the above website marketing strategies require time, energy and some resources. Marketing a website is a continuous process and good planning, consistency and patience are of the utmost importance.
If you have no idea how to go about implementing the strategies, hire an SE0 expert who can run the website on your behalf until you get to learn the ropes.
An SEO expert, coach or consultant can be available on a part-time or full-time basis depending on your preference and will add immense value to your website, goals and objectives.