Traffic is the lifeblood of any website, and it can make or break a business — this is Holy scripture in the venerable halls of DomainNetworks’s office. The sort of thing we spout from our digital pulpits to anyone who darkens our doorstep. Online traffic is not just about the number of visits to a site. It is also about the quality of those visits. How engaged they are to your content. The amount of time visitors spend on your site is essential for your SEO rankings and conversions, but so are things like bounce rates – the percentage of visitors who only visited one page on your site and decided to call it quits. A bounce rate is critical because it indicates how well you engage with your audience. A website with lots of traffic but low engagement rates will see its ranking fall quickly in Google’s search results pages – SERPS. And if it doesn’t have enough traffic to rank high in SERPS, then it’s unlikely that it will get enough visitors to convert into customers.
What does all of that mean? DomainNetworks is here to explain.
In a nutshell, it means that you should care about your website traffic. Not just whether you’re getting it, but the quality of it — and if you’re properly leveraging it. For example, let’s say you have a store in the middle of downtown Chicago. Huge store; you invested a lot of money into it. Opening day, it’s the talk of the town. For months you get many visitors. The aisles are about to burst. You THINK you made it. Then the penny drops. You realize you’re not making enough sales at the end of your first quarter. Only a tiny percentage of visitors buy anything. What’s going on?
The same thing happened to FAO Schwarz in New York — The iconic toy store from the movie Big. Full of tourists, full of window shoppers, full of people. But few made a purchase. It turns out the store wasn’t effectively converting its traffic. The shelves were crammed with too many items, and folks couldn’t find what they were looking for. The aisles were jam-packed, and moving around the store was a pain. The noise pollution was deafening. The prices were twice that of the Toys “R” Us that was just a block away. A thousand little problems. In other words, it had a HUGE bounce rate.
Let’s look at three great ways to improve your website and its bounce rate.
Optimize your site for search engines – Pay attention to keywords and use tags that communicate what your content is about.
Search engines are a vital source of traffic for most websites. This website is marketing 101 — the second thing we tell clients here at DomainNetworks. When you optimize your site for search engines, you’re making it easier for people to find your content, thus increasing the likelihood of visiting your passion project and staying on it.
When optimizing a website, there are three things to pay attention to keywords, tags, and content.
- Keywords are the words and phrases people type into search engines to find information about a topic or product.
- Tags are labels that help categorize your content, making it easier for search engine crawlers to understand what your page is about.
- Content is what you provide on the page – the text, images, videos, etc.
The first step in optimizing a website is picking up some keywords. Of all the three components described above, this is the most complex. The best way to do this is to write a list of the most important words associated with your products— and use them as keywords in your site’s titles, tags, and content.
Some of the essential keywords to consider are:
- a keyword that describes what something is — like “programming.”
- a keyword that describes your information — like “sales training.”
- a keyword that describes a site’s content — like “cooking recipes.”
- a keyword that describes your site type — like “travel blog.”
- a search term or phrase that may be relevant to your audience — like “best bang for your buck.”
- a term that describes the topic of your content — like “coding.”
- a keyword common to search engines — like “google.”
- a keyword specific to your niche— like “barcode.”
- a term that describes any particular audience you target— like “retailers.”
- a search term or phrase used for your site’s name or domain name — like “dog grooming.”
- a specific person or group of people you target — like “runners.”
- an event that may be relevant to your audience — like “Black Friday.”
- a keyword phrase that is not commonly used in the title or content of your site but is related to what you’re talking about — like “buy gold bars online.”
If properly used and linked up, all these keywords can do wonders for your website traffic. It can draw people in.
Be Social – Create profiles on sites such as Facebook or Twitter with photos of yourself, your business, and your biography.
Share links to your articles with appropriate hashtags to expand the reach of your content. A social media profile is a must for any career. It is the first thing people will see and can make or break your chances of getting an interview or an audience. Cause that’s really what you are doing. Your audience is interviewing you and your product and wondering if they have the bandwidth for it. Suppose it’s worth devoting their time to what you’re selling. In today’s world, folks want and demand a friendly website. One that is not simply a conglomerate, one with a personal touch to it. And social networks are your best chance to give them that.
Building Quality Content is the best way to Generate Diverse Web Traffic and keep your audience interested.
The best way to generate diverse web traffic is by building quality content. Quality content will attract readers from different backgrounds and demographics, increasing web traffic.
To build quality content, it is crucial to identify your target audience and the content type that interests them most. Once this has been done, it becomes easier for a company or individual to produce relevant and engaging “entertainment” that will be shared on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
It is also important to remember that quality content needs to be well-written and not just a mere compilation of keywords to succeed. It should also be regularly updated so that readers always return for more.
In other words, the Biggest tip from DomainNetworks is — hire a writer. Someone that knows how to engage emotionally with your customers. Someone with a literary background and some experience in marketing.
