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Running a small business website is challenging. You must have a good design<\/span><\/a>, create engaging content<\/span><\/a>, optimize<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and maintain it, and more.<\/p>\n But driving traffic is the most important aspect of your website\u2019s success. It can be difficult, especially if you don\u2019t have the budget<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to run large marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s natural to expect a good return on investment from your website. After all, you have spent resources to establish it<\/span><\/a> to make your business more successful.<\/p>\n Thankfully, the web is a vast land of possibilities. If you know how to navigate it, create and find opportunities, and leverage available resources, you can drive organic traffic to your website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Over the past fifteen years, our team has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses build and optimize their small business websites. We\u2019ve keynoted numerous conferences and webinars on optimization and frequently write and talk about optimization and conversion strategies on our blog and at conferences. This guide shares the actionable insights, tips, best practices, and expertise we\u2019ve developed after helping over one hundred thousand brands.<\/p>\n <\/div> Offer more than just your products or services \u2013 invest in creating high-quality content<\/span><\/a> that adds value to people\u2019s lives. Engaging content helps you rank higher on search engines like Google and Bing.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t want to be just any other small business looking to make a sale. You need to give people another reason to keep returning to your website.<\/p>\n One way is to offer resources that can educate, such as:<\/p>\n Providing engaging content also allows you to show off your expertise on subjects belonging to your niche. This can help you build credibility and foster long-term relationships with your audience.<\/p>\n Build a stronger brand with our free guides. Get actionable insights to define your brand\u2019s unique voice, understand your market, and stand out to customers. The guides are concise, actionable, practical, and tailored for the busy entrepreneur.<\/p> Build a stronger brand with our free guides. Get actionable insights to define your brand\u2019s unique voice, understand your market, and stand out to customers. The guides are concise, actionable, practical, and tailored for the busy entrepreneur.<\/p> Build a stronger brand with our free guides. Get actionable insights to define your brand\u2019s unique voice, understand your market, and stand out to customers. The guides are concise, actionable, practical, and tailored for the busy entrepreneur.<\/p> Becoming a guest blogger is an effective way to drive more traffic and build brand awareness<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for your small business website.<\/p>\n The web is constantly evolving, and fresh content is always appreciated. And writing guest posts allows you to reach a new audience and potentially increase your website traffic.<\/p>\n Search online for a list of guest posting sites<\/a> or websites that are looking for guest postings<\/a>. For example, use keywords such as:<\/p>\n Remember only to create high-quality content to enjoy the fruits of your guest blogs. Your guest blogs should be the hook that drives people toward you.\u00a0 Make sure to follow the guidelines set by the site, pitch and write articles using a conversational, keep it simple and easy to understand, and do your research properly. <\/span><\/p>\n Gone are the days when single-word keywords rank best on search engines. Long-tail keywords can help you rank better on Google, Bing, etc.<\/p>\n Search engines now focus more on key phrases people use to search for something online. So, using specific phrases as keywords only makes sense to help your small business website rank better.<\/p>\n For example, when writing a blog post, make sure to include phrases related to your main keyword, such as \u201cHow social media marketing<\/span>\u00a0works,<\/a>\u201d \u201cTikTok <\/span>marketing<\/span>\u00a0tips and tricks<\/a>,\u201d and \u201cFood packaging design trends.<\/a>\u201d For products, include the main keyword and a short description of the product, such as \u201cvintage Prada shoes,\u201d \u201cVans skater shoes\u201d, and \u201cWedding flower arrangements<\/a>.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Running a pay-per-click campaign (PPC) lets you advertise your website as a top user search result. This can lead people to click on your website and drive more traffic.<\/p>\n A PPC advertisement is one effective way to reach your target audience since it specifically targets keywords that help are related to the content you put out on your website.<\/p>\n And since people mostly use Google to search online, you can use the Google Adwords<\/span><\/a>\u00a0tool to run your PPC campaigns. Other options include\u00a0Bing Ads Editor<\/a>,\u00a0SpyFu<\/a>, and\u00a0PPC Entourage<\/a>.<\/p>\n It can be pricey to run a PPC campaign, so it\u2019s important to set an appropriate budget and only use PPC for strong keywords useful to your small business. <\/span><\/p>\n People tend to trust the opinions and reviews of others, so take advantage of online reviews and show them on your website, especially your Google My Business<\/span><\/a>\u00a0page reviews.<\/p>\n Customers tend to stay away from businesses that have zero reviews. No reviews lessen the trustworthiness of your website. Hence, it\u2019s vital to encourage your customers to leave reviews about your business.<\/p>\n Remember to engage with your reviewers. If customers leave complaints or state issues, address them right away. Doing so can help show people you care about them and are eager to hear their feedback.<\/p>\n For example, consumer and business review websites such as Yellowpages<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and Foursquare<\/span><\/a>\u00a0are third-party tools that allow customers to leave reviews easily. The opinions left on these sites are valuable to other customers. Take advantage of customer reviews left on these sites and harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing to elevate your business. <\/span><\/p>\n In business, partnerships are necessary to thrive<\/a>. Embrace affiliate marketing<\/a> and work with other people to help promote your small business.<\/p>\n Take advantage of other businesses in your niche and make them affiliates. Affiliate marketing allows you to foster partnerships with other businesses or individuals to help promote your business in exchange for a fee.<\/p>\n Search for websites or individuals with an established audience you can leverage. Communicate with them to build a partnership and state how much they will be paid as affiliates. To streamline this process, consider using affiliate tracking software<\/a> to help manage and optimize your affiliate relationships. Experiment\u00a0with several affiliate programs<\/a>, such as Amazon affiliate<\/a>, to pick one that balances cost and return on investment.<\/p>\n You can use affiliate marketing tools like ShareASale<\/span><\/a>, SEMRush<\/span><\/a>, and Ahrefs<\/span><\/a> to help manage your affiliate marketing strategy. For example, Ahrefs allows you to search a website\u2019s domain rating (DR). This helps you know if a website is worthy of partnering with.<\/p>\n As other partnership opportunities might arise, nurture your relationship with your affiliates. <\/span><\/p>\n In today\u2019s world, business and social media go together. Social media<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is essential to your business\u2019s success as this is the space that allows you to showcase other sides of your small business.<\/p>\n Most of your customers are already on social media, so you must connect with them on social media. Don\u2019t forget to link your website to all your social media profiles to easily direct customers to your business.<\/p>\n Share announcements, holiday greetings, memes, and other relatable posts to appear more relatable to people. You can also post photos of your team members on Instagram<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to show the people behind the business or go to TikTok<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and join trends to increase social visibility.<\/p>\n You can also post positive business feedback or reviews of customers online. This can help you establish social proof essential to your business\u2019s success. <\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason why email marketing<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is never going away \u2013 it\u2019s effective. Email marketing is one of the most cost-efficient marketing methods that help you get the best results.<\/p>\n Budget can be tight for a small business, especially if you need to implement strategies to help drive traffic, and these can be costly.<\/p>\n Email marketing is a good strategy for increasing website traffic. You can freely promote new products or services, store promotions, and other useful deals to your customers. But be careful not to bombard your recipients with too many messages, as this can be spammy. Sending out weekly emails will do just fine.<\/p>\n You can also leverage email marketing to provide education. For example, blog promotions help provide useful resources to people. This shows your willingness to make a sale or drive traffic and that you want to add more value to your customers\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n If you plan to\u00a0excel at email marketing, having a list of real,\u00a0valid email addresses<\/a> is crucial. This ensures your messages reach the right people and that you don’t waste resources. By keeping your database updated with valid emails, your email marketing will become<\/span>\u00a0more effective, driving more traffic and boosting customer engagement.<\/p>\n People love to spend time on their smartphones all day, so it\u2019s only natural to optimize your website for mobile use.<\/p>\n Non-mobile-friendly websites get higher bounce rates and lose traffic<\/span><\/a>. Make it easy for people to browse and look around your website. Ensure that your small business website is consistent with its functions and designs when accessed on a mobile phone or on any other device.<\/p>\n For example, Shutterfly<\/span><\/a> is known for its easy-to-navigate, minimalistic, simple, mobile-friendly web design. Customers can easily scroll and find the company’s products and other services on the homepage alone.<\/p>\n Ensure that you display main functionalities, such as product categories, sale announcements, customer service assistance, etc., that help ease the user experience on your website. <\/span><\/p>\n As a small business owner, learning never stops. You must keep pushing yourself to study and research various ways to improve your business, including tips and tricks for improving your website.<\/p>\n And what better way to learn than from other business owners themselves?<\/p>\n Go to small business communities such as Small Business Forum<\/span><\/a>, BizWarriors<\/span><\/a>, and Business Advice Forum<\/span><\/a>, or join Facebook small business groups. You can look up the latest small business trends there, take tips and advice, and engage with other business owners.<\/p>\n Additionally, small business communities serve as a great networking space to help promote your small business, develop beneficial partnerships, and educate yourself. So, you must take advantage of every opportunity to grow as a business owner and individual.<\/p>\n There are many ways to increase website traffic to your small business if you continue researching, adapting, and leveraging opportunities.<\/p>\n Driving website traffic is only one key step to thriving as a business. The meaning of success can vary for different people. But we can\u2019t deny that to succeed, you need people to keep coming back to your business. You can start taking the first step to achieve this by optimizing your small business website.<\/p>\nHow to optimize your small business website:<\/h2>
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<\/div>\n1. \u00a0 Create quality content<\/h2>\n
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Essential Branding Toolkit for Entrepreneurs<\/h2>
Get your free branding toolkit<\/i><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>Essential Branding Toolkit for Entrepreneurs<\/h2>
Get your free branding toolkit<\/i><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>Essential Branding Toolkit for Entrepreneurs<\/h2>
Get your free branding toolkit<\/i><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n2. \u00a0 Write guest posts<\/h2>\n
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3. \u00a0 Use specific phrases as keywords<\/h2>\n
4. \u00a0 Run a pay-per-click campaign<\/h2>\n
5. \u00a0 Leverage online reviews<\/h2>\n
6. \u00a0 Utilize affiliate marketing<\/h2>\n
7. \u00a0 Promote on social media<\/h2>\n
8. \u00a0 Practice email marketing<\/h2>\n
9. \u00a0 Make your website mobile-friendly<\/h2>\n
10. Learn from online small business communities<\/h2>\n
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