Every year, a lot of people make the important decision to start their own businesses. However, entrepreneurship is not the easiest path to success. One of the biggest problems involves getting patronage. The process of getting customers or people to patronize your business can present a major problem when it comes to successfully running your business. One of the first things you will try to raise sales and create awareness about your business is to create a business website. However, once you do that, another problem presents itself; you need to drive traffic to your website for your business.
WHY SHOULD YOU DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
In this new age of information technology, creating a website for your business is just not enough to increase your sales. This is because a business website can only be effective as a form of advertisement if many people see it.
The purpose of a business website varies. It may not only serve as a form of advertisement for the business but it may also serve as a portal or medium through which the services provided by the business can be secured, or a means by which your products can be sold to customers. Some business websites even go as far as offering services that help customers processing the delivery of their purchase. But ultimately, good websites serve the purpose of helping businesses out by providing their contact information to the general public, along with descriptions of who they are and what they stand for or what they do in terms of the products and services they provide. A good business website also helps the business out by offering descriptions of their products and services; taking care to highlight the unique features of these items and the specific qualities that set apart the products and services of the business apart from those of other businesses in the same field. It then follows that if a huge amount of people visit a business’s website regularly – i.e. if the business website has good traffic – a lot of people will be aware of all those information, and a sizable percentage of them will be encouraged to patronize the business.
Basically, having a business website with a lot of traffic is one of the first steps to securing an initial wave of customers who may continue to patronize your business after having good experiences.
HOW TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO BUSINESS WEBSITES
As a business owner, there are many ways by which you can drive traffic to your website for your business, thereby increasing your sales or patronage. However, some of these methods have tendencies to be a lot more effective compared to others. They include the following:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your business website. It works by using keywords. By matching keywords in people’s internet searches – through their search engines – to the content of your website, potential customers can be immediately directed to your website; as it (your website) will then show up as one of the first results of their search. For instance, if you own a pastry shop that sells and delivers donuts, cakes and other pastries within a particular state and you promote your website using SEO, the instant someone searches for keywords like “pastries”, “donuts” or “cakes”, your website will pop up within their first few search results.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most effective ways of increasing the traffic to the website of your business, because it fine-tunes the results of peoples internet searches; such that whenever a keyword related to your business website is encountered in other peoples internet searches, your business website immediately becomes included in the first few results of those individuals’ searches. Such improvement in your business website’s listings (in people’s search engine results) will no doubt help to drive traffic to the website.
- Social media
Social media is yet another way of driving traffic to your website for your business. In recent time, the power and range of social media has increased astronomically. As such, promoting your business website through social media could be very effective in driving traffic to it (your business website).
Social media promotions can be done in a myriad of ways but one of the most common methods is to employ the services of social media influencers (i.e. people who have a large and significant amount of followings/followers on major social media platforms such as Facebook (now Meta), Instagram, Twitter and even YouTube). Upon employing their services – usually through payment or through one form of sponsorship or the other – these social media influencers will then begin to post details of the website such as links. Other information, which you may require them to provide to their large followership, includes the contact information of your business, descriptions of your services and products, and basically any other thing you feel the public should know. You may have to give a discount on some of your products, for a limited amount of time, if you use this method; as many followers of social media influencers may be more inclined to purchase units of the product if they see that there is a discount rate for them. This can be put into effect by providing a particular code or a particular link for them, which will provide them with a discount upon purchase on your website. However, the provision of a discount may not be necessary.
- Advertisements
Advertisements are another great way to drive traffic to your website for your business. You can place advertisements to your business website on other popular websites or blogs for a set fee. Well placed advertisements online can help in creating awareness about the business, even as it helps to drive traffic to your website. However, as with using SEO and social media, placing advertisements involves some capital investment. Yet, it can be very effective.