Attracting and retaining website visitors, Part II

What are some strategies to ‘push’ my website towards potential clients?

Websites present a special opportunity to market your products and services.  While a printed brochure is complete and can’t be changed, a website should never be thought of as complete. Part I of this series provided insights about how to update your website and make it better optimized to attract visitors.  Part II dives into tips and insights on how to actively push your site towards those visitors. Some of these recommendations are under your control, and others will require the assistance of your website developer.

  • Google Business Listing – a free listing on Google will add significantly to the chance that someone doing a google search will find you. In some cases, a potential client will find you through Google and even contact you before they ever click on your website. In this case, it’s important for your Google listing to be better than the competition!
    • Note that while Google is the largest search engine, it’s not the only one! So it’s worth exploring other search engine options and industry specific portals that might be a candidate to list your company.
  • Google Reviews – Having positive Google reviews can go a long way towards landing new clients. In fact, having more/better reviews than your competition is key.  Ask your clients to write a review of your company on Google. Not only will potential clients be more likely to contact you, but positive google reviews can significantly improve your site’s organic SEO performance.
  • Social Media – Facebook, Instagram and other forms of social media can be a highly effective way to reach potential clients and drive them to your website. It also represents a great way to achieve name recognition locally; and to receive referrals from past clients. If you don’t have the time to implement a social media plan, reach out to a company that can provide that service for you.
  • Email Campaign – Be proactive… build a list of email contacts and regularly reach out to them with useful emails, linking back to your website. Use an email marketing program like MailChimp or Constant Contact to manage it. Add an ‘email signup’ form on your website to make it easy for website visitors to reach out and stay connected.
  • Obtain links from other websites – business partners, industry listings, link-swaps. If others are linking to your site, that gets noticed by search engines and helps with your SEO.
  • SEO – Investing in paid SEO can produce dramatic results.  SEO companies can help with your organic search engine placement, pay-per-click campaigns, digital advertisements and more.
  • Analytics – To help gage the traffic to your site, consider adding a simple analytics tool so you can get a feel for what tactics are working.  Analytics will tell you how many visitors you have over time, where they are referred from, what devices and browsers they are using, and more.  Learn about Fathom Analytics, a privacy-respectful and useful analytics tool.

While some of these suggestions are ‘free’ and others cost a ‘fee’, they are all worth considering!  After all, what good is your website if nobody is visiting it?