You've worked hard to create the perfect website; you might have even hired a professional to handle your web design to ensure that it's perfect. You've probably also spent time marketing your site on the big social media sites and working on a search engine optimization campaign to help bring in organic traffic.
If you've done all of these things and have put your heart and soul into your website, you might feel as if the numbers should reflect it. Right? Sadly, after checking your statistics, you might find yourself wondering why your website isn't getting any traffic.
Digital marketing can be tricky, and though it seems easy to bring in a ton of traffic from an outside perspective, the truth is that it isn't. There are all sorts of things that you could be doing wrong without even realizing it. You might not even be doing anything wrong at all—instead, you just might not be doing enough things right.
Luckily, any website can see an increase in traffic if you take the right steps and give it a little bit of time. Explore these reasons why your website might not be getting any traffic; then, you can make the necessary changes so that you can bring in as much traffic as possible.
Search Engine Optimization: You’re Doing It Wrong
There are countless blog posts, articles, books, forums, podcasts, videos, and more out there about search engine optimization. However, many of them tell you how to do search engine optimization the wrong way.
Some of them may have had good ideas in the past, but their tactics might not work in today's world. Google and the other major search engines have made a lot of changes about how they crawl websites and how they compile their search engine rankings. If you aren't careful, you could be using old, outdated SEO tactics that worked in the past but that can actually jeopardize your website's search engine rankings now.
Basically, you should ditch any search engine optimization tactics that involve plugging in lots of keywords, buying backlinks, or spamming anywhere on the Internet. All of these tactics could actually cause your search engine rankings to plummet.
In today's world, SEO is fairly simple. Basically, you have to make things natural. If you build a website with a blog and post high-quality content, your rankings will eventually rise.
These are a few tips that you should follow in regards to SEO in today's world:
- Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Google is really cracking down on sites that aren't mobile friendly and is pushing them off of the search engine rankings. You don't want this to happen to you! Plus, you'll want your mobile readers to be able to read your content.
- Don't stuff your content with keywords. Just make sure that you write good, relevant content and you'll be fine. It is a good idea to find keywords that people are searching for, but you should use them sparingly in your content; you don't want Google to think that you're writing keyword spam.
- Never, ever buy links. When building backlinks, focus on doing it the natural way. Cultivate links on industry websites; avoid vying for links on less-than-reputable sites or sites that are not related to your industry.
You're Not Using Social Media the Right Way
The big social media sites—like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram—are all great for bringing in traffic. However, you have to use them the right way. Simply setting up profiles and posting updates isn't enough.
- Join multiple sites. You'll be able to reach a broader audience that way. Of course, don’t go overboard and join everything just for the sake of doing it—make sure the sites you join are relevant to your target audience.
- Post regularly. Many of your followers might be following hundreds or thousands of people and businesses, and you don't want to get lost in the shuffle.
- Stop advertising so much. Share your blog posts, products, and information, but encourage conversation or post unique content that you think your readers will be interested in. Remember the cocktail party rule. If you come off as being too promotional, your followers might write you off as being a spammer.
- Communicate with your followers. That is the joy of social media! Plus, regularly communicating with your fans and followers will help get people excited about your business.
Your Website Is A Snooze-Fest
If you’ve worked hard on your website, it can be disheartening to think that it might not be interesting to your audience. However, you have to think about the number of websites that your readers come across on a daily basis.
There is a lot of competition out there, and if your site won't hold interest, then it's going to lose out to the many other websites that are on the World Wide Web.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Do you have a blog? If you don't, there won't be much for people to come back for. If you post interesting blog posts on your blog once a week or so, however, readers will have a reason to stop back by so that they can read your posts.
- Is your website filled with nothing but text? Your blog posts and other written content can be some of the best content on the Internet, but it'll still look boring if it's just a big wall of text. First of all, you should make sure that you break up your posts with subheadings and bullet points; otherwise, people won't be able to scan them easily. Secondly, you should add in stock images to help brighten up the page and to add some visual interest.
- Are you too promotional? Obviously, the point of your website is probably to promote your products or services, but if people see nothing but advertising, they're sure to lose interest. Make sure that you're posting content that is interesting and informative along with your advertising. Otherwise, people probably won't want to stop back by.
You're Not Taking Advantage of an Email List
Email marketing has been popular since the Internet became so popular, and it's still relevant today. Once people sign up for your mailing list, you'll know that they are at least semi-interested in your website or what your company has to offer. This means that you have a whole list of interested individuals that you can market to.
Make sure that you send out regular emails to your subscribers. Entice them with exciting headlines and interesting content. This is your second—and third, fourth and so on—chance to pitch to people who are already interested in what you have to offer, so take advantage of it!
There are so many reasons why your website might not be doing as well as you would. But don’t panic! First, you should assess the problem, starting with looking into the elements listed above. Then you can determine the next steps to take to improve your website and improve your online traffic.