14 ways to drive more visitors to your website

Do you want to see your traffic skyrocket? Do you want to drive more people to your website who are likely to buy? Do you want to not spend a ton of money on ads? Well, my friend, this is the article for you!

I had someone come to me today and tell me that blogging is pointless for businesses, it should only be used for people with recipe blogs and such. Well, I couldn’t be happier to tell them how wrong they are!

Words are a marketer’s best friend. Whether it’s for ranking on search engines or for convincing customers to make a purchase, our words tell people who we are.

Blogs are still fantastic ways to generate traffic to websites and help businesses rank well on Google. Yes, they may not generate results instantly, but that isn’t what digital marketing is about. It’s about building a brand online that takes the test of time, and passes with an A* (or a 1 if you’re going with the new British grading system…!)

In this article, I’m going to discuss why blogging is worth it for your business, how it will drive more visitors to your website and how you can get started.

Why should you blog?

Blogging helps to position your brand as a leader in it’s field. It does this by providing valuable content that tells a story about your brand. Whether this is demonstrating knowledge, which can be useful if you’re in a competitive market like I am, or by telling the story of a problem you have solved for a customer.

Blogging is also inherent for ranking well on search engines for various terms which makes it brilliant at driving traffic to your website.

For example – I wrote an article for Smye-Rumsby, who provide two way radios to businesses and consumers, which goes through the most popular VHF radios this year. I pulled from our sales statistics and from the level of reviews I could find online. This is one of their most popular drivers of organic traffic which also leads visitors to their web store – currently ranking number 10 for specific keywords.

Another I wrote for them was about body worn camera hire and I later turned it into a permanent page, this is now (at the time of writing) number 1 on Google for body worn camera hire and generates enquiries almost every day. It also doesn’t cost a thing.

How do I blog?

You just write. Nah, I’m just kidding, there’s a little more to it than that.

When writing, you must always choose your words well and keep the readers in mind. What is it they want to see from you? How can you write this in an easy to understand way?

I always see blogs where they are just words, it’s hard to focus on what’s being written and the message they are trying to portray. You need to draw attention and keep it. Writing can be informative and be something people want to read, but you need to draw people in and keep them wanting to read. You draw people in by creating an interesting headline.

Some think it’s a little late in the game to start blogging, but I completely disagree. It’s never too late to create a better piece of content than your competitors.

Online apps like BuzzSumo, UberSuggest and Googles Ads Keyword Research tool are inherently useful for finding content ideas that are going to generate a significant amount of traffic.

• What are popular search terms in your industry?
• What’s a hot topic right now relevant to your business?
• What are questions you get asked on a regular basis?
• These are great ways to generate content ideas without having to think much.
• Find out who the top business writers on your topic are and take notes.
• How do they write?
• What topics are popular?
• What style is the whole website?

Find out this information and create accordingly.

It’s helpful to write about what you’re interested in. Research and make sure you get your facts right. Make sure you have the necessary rights or put the correct attributions to the original owners of photos you use.

Keep your titles interesting and relevant to the content, it helps with navigation on Search Engines and on the blog itself.

Connect with other people in your industry and invite them to guest blog, this can increase your website traffic.

Here are 14 different ideas you can use for your business today:

List Posts – Create a list post like 7 different styles for your bedroom or 25 ways to reduce your water usage. This puts information into easy-to-digest pieces. What do your audience want to know and what would be useful for them?

Case studies – Create a case study revealing what you’ve done and how you’ve done it. By putting context to a tutorial, you’re more likely to get readers. But more importantly, by demonstrating success – you’re more likely to get customers.

Pro’s & Con’s – Write about the pro’s and con’s of something in your industry (ie, Pro’s and Con’s about social media marketing)

Checklists – For example, I would write a social media checklist or a business marketing checklist.

Transcript – Are you creating videos? Embed the video into a post and then write up a transcript.

Behind the scenes – show your audience what goes on in the office and write a behind the scenes post. Let your audience get to know different team members by featuring them once a month – even as an employee of the month kind of thing!

Myths or common misconceptions – Do people regularly mistake something in your industry or business? Let people know the real story! Common misconceptions about smart technology, common misconceptions about plant-based diets… This is really a one size fits all approach. Hmm, I think I’ll have to create one about the common misconceptions of digital marketing!

Performance results – Transparency goes a long way in business, and is something that I recommend my clients display more of. Each year, review your performance at work and compare it to your goals for that time period. If you didn’t meet your goal, write about out what went wrong and what you’re going to improve going forward.

Respond to recent news – Has something big happened in the world that’s relevant to your business? Write a post about it revealing your thoughts and opinions. Being personal can go a long way, but do not get political.

Guides/Tutorials – Buzzfeed built their audience on snappy tutorial videos and guides. These make excellent blog posts that are highly shareable as most people love to know what goes on in the background. If you own a company that sells coffee beans, write a guide on how to make the perfect latte. If you own a pottery business, a timelapse of you creating a pot can be mesmerising.

Survey Results – Have you recently conducted a survey with your audience? Post the results! Always ask permission and make the data anonymous.

Product tips – Using your product as a basis for a blog is a great idea as it’s a good way to cross-promote. Write helpful tips and tutorials about using your product and how your audience can get the most out of it. Perhaps there are hidden features that some don’t know about?

Interviews – Interview relevant people in your industry for your blog! This is a great way to bring new traffic to your website as you can tap into their audience too – as they will most likely share the post afterwards.

Questions that a prospect has asked – This is one of the easiest blogs to write. If you find yourself getting asked the same questions often, write a blog on them and create an FAQ page with all of the frequently asked questions. This can be fantastic for ranking on search engines as people often search questions as opposed to specific phrases.

This can be a lot to take in if you’re the owner of a business, and it can be difficult to find the time. This is why more and more are choosing to outsource this kind of work to freelancers. If you’re looking to grow the traffic coming onto your website, get in touch with me on [email protected] and we can talk!