5 Simple Things You Can Do to Help Bring Visitors to your Website
"OK, I've got my business website. Now where are my visitors?" This is a question we hear on a regular basis from website owners. We've talked to many business owners who expected their phones to start ringing off the hook after they launched their website. Unfortunately, a business website is not one of those "build it and they will come" projects - you do have to put some effort into attracting visitors.
Website visitors can come from traditional marketing efforts such as word-of-mouth, print advertising and direct mail. They can also come from online marketing channels, such as Google searches, online directory listings, and social media. In this article, we outline five simple things we recommend you do to help bring visitors to your website.
Check and Update Your Webpage's Title Tags
As we pointed out in our article on "How to get your website to show on Google organic search", keywords are key to ensuring your website is found on search engines. So, you want to make sure each of your web pages contain the keywords that your customers will use when searching for your services. This includes not just the visible headings that is immediately seen on browsers by visitors, but also the Title Tags, which are not immediately visible when you're on the page. However, the text within title tags is what is typically shown in search engine results for each page, and is an important factor towards your page's search engine rankings.
How to Check Your Webpage's Title Tags
To check your Title Tags, go to the page from your desktop computer, right click on your mouse, and choose "View Page Source". Look for the text in between <title>This is the text you're looking for</title>. If you see "Home" or your company name, change it to a more relevant text. If you rightclick on this page, below is a snippet of what you will see:
Set up Google Analytics
As the saying goes, "You can't manage what you don't measure." If you want to know if anyone is visiting your website and where they are coming from, you want to setup Google Analytics on your website. You can also find out the average amount of time visitors stay on your website, how many pages they visit on average, and which content is most popular with your visitors. By setting up conversion tracking, you'll also learn which of your marketing efforts are more effective in bringing in qualified leads. Here are some sample reports you can track with Google Analytics. The ultimate benefit of setting up website analytics is that you can use the information to continually improve on your website and turn more of your visitors into customers.
Google Analytics is a free service and you can set up an account by going to www.google.ca/analytics. You will need to add the code on each page of your website. If you need some assistance on this, contact us and we can give you some guidance.
Set up Google Webmaster Tools (now called Google Search Console)
While Google Analytics shows you where visitors are coming from when they visit your website and what they're doing while on your website, Google Search Console (formerly called Webmaster Tool) provides you insights about your web pages' visibility on Google.
To sign up for your free Google Webmasters Tool, go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/. You will be asked to verify that you own your website through a variety of verification methods. Again, if you need assistance on doing this, you are welcome to contact us.
Claim (or create) your Google My Business Page
If you have a business that serves a specific geographic location, such as a local restaurant, plumber or dentist, we strongly advise you claim or create your Google My Business page. Previously called Google Places, Google My Business is a free business page on Google where you can enter your company name, contact info, add photos, share news and updates, and respond to customer reviews. To set up your Google My Business, go to http://www.google.com/business.
In addition to Google My Business, you can also claim your listings on Bing Places for Business, Yelp and other popular online directories for your industry. Contact us if you wish to learn which directories are relevant to your business.
Get your customers to add a review of your business on your Google My Business page, and other listings.
Many potential customers will search for and read reviews about a particular company before contacting the business, especially for service-based businesses, so you want to make an effort to request reviews from customers on your Google My Business page and other relevant directory listings. In addition, according to the experts, reviews do influence search rankings for local searches, including map searches and mobile searches.
There are a lot more things that can be done to help attract visitors to your website, but the above five items are the top tasks we recommend to anyone who has a website and is wondering what they can do to improve its visibility on search engines and attract more visitors.
If you don't have the time to do these tips yourself, feel free to contact us at [email protected] and we'll perform an assessment on how you can take your website to the next level.
