You hired the best developer you could find, covered all of the essential basics in building your new site, and your firm is ready to launch the site except there is one critical question you must solve before launch: How do we drive traffic to the site? I suggest you consider these website marketing strategies as a starting point.
Website Marketing Strategies: Online Directory Listings
Google’s algorithm is sophisticated and changes frequently. In the past, developers could game the system to artificially drive traffic to new websites, but those days are gone. Back in the day, site owners could list their new site on multiple online directories. The accumulated links increased the new site’s authority. But Google caught on to these link building schemes and changed their algorithm to penalize those website owners.
Today links are weighted differently depending upon where they originated.
Don’t get discouraged. There is still real value in listing your new website in the right online directories. According to Search Engine Journal “The real returns will be from the credibility and traffic they drive to your business site.”
The most important factor is to uncover online directories that not only provide a citation but more importantly have large traffic numbers. A directory that has hundreds, thousands, or even millions of visitors each month means your site has an opportunity to attract lots of new traffic.
Search Engine Journal has compiled a list of the Top 21 online directories:
- Best of the Web (BOTW)
- About Us
- Spoke.com
- Blogarama
- Google My Business
- Bing Places
- Yahoo
- Yelp
- Foursquare
- Yellow Pages
- Chamber of Commerce
- Hot Frog
- Super Pages
- Merchant Circle
- Better Business Bureau
- B2B Yellow Pages
- Next Door
- eLocal
- DexKnows
- Alignable
- Local.com
If you own a law firm, the best directory listings and review sites include:
- Google Lawyer Reviews
- AVVO
- Martindale-Hubbell
- Lawyers.com
- NOLO
One of the Most Effective Website Marketing Strategies is Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
If you are in an extremely competitive business, with your competitors dominating organic search results for your keywords, your greatest weapon is Google Ads.
Why? Two big reasons: Time and Speed
That beautiful website you just built could take up to a year (or more) to begin to rank organically and land on page one in Google SERPs for your coveted keywords. The time it takes to build an organic presence will cost you potential clients and money. If it takes a year or more for your website to rank on page one that means you are essentially relegated to Page 2 or lower which according to Banklinko:
- Less than 1% (0.78%) of Google searchers clicked on something from Page 2 or below
Speed to market is the other reason. One of the fastest, if not the fastest, strategies to drive traffic to a new website is through Google Ads.
Using Google Ads can instantly provide a place on Google’s Page 1 of the SERPs for the keywords you choose in the ad auction. It provides brand awareness and lead generation opportunities you would not generate in your organic rankings.
Google ads run at the top of most Google pages above the organic (free) search results where your competitors may be positioned today. According to Google, “When people search on Google, text ads can appear above or below the search results. Only up to four (4) ads are eligible to show above the search results.” Stake your claim now.
Email Marketing
What would you do if you knew that within three years the number of people using email would grow to 4+ billion? That’s where things are heading because as of 2019, there were 3.9B global email users with expected growth to put the number at 4.3B users – equal to 50% of the world’s population by 2023.
Email marketing is one of the most effective channels to build brand awareness and sell your products or services.
What is most amazing and encouraging is that email marketing return-on-investment (ROI) has been reported by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) in 2019 as the following – for every $1 you spend on email marketing the average ROI is $42!
If you’re not sure where to begin, this article outlines 3 must know tips for email marketing beginners.
Social Media
Choosing which social media platforms are best to build new website traffic and which ones you should adopt depends upon the answers to these questions:
- What industry is your business within?
- Are your prospective customers online?
- What percentage of your prospective customer audience is online and what percentage doesn’t participate?
- Where is your audience? Which social networks does your target audience frequent?
- What demographic is your target audience – Baby Boomer, Millennial, Gen X-Y-Z or all?
- What is your firm’s current level of involvement on social media sites?
- Is your company restricted by industry laws?
- Are there industry laws that restrict direct conversations with prospective clients in an attempt to sell them services?
- Do you have a video library or photo library of content or is your content primarily in written format?
Once you understand where your target audience is spending their time online and the mix of marketing messaging and posts you want to support, then choose your networks.
Don’t try to be everything to everyone everywhere! Trying to be present on too many social networks is a recipe for disaster.
Instead, include the mainstays, for your needs, and consistently share content, post helpful how-to guides, and participate with your audience. Brands that automate/schedule all of their updates do not receive the full positive impact that brands that communicate directly, with their prospects, experience.
The only thing worse than a brand not being on a social network, where their audience is very actively involved, is establishing a profile, and then abandoning the network. Leaving an outdated profile for potential consumers to see reflects badly on your brand
You’ve seen them but here is a quick list of just a few social networks you may consider:
- Google My Business
- YouTube
Blogging
Blogging is the publishing platform that allows your company to share great ideas, give helpful information that answers questions, and showcases your company’s goals, ideals, employees, and news. Blogging is one of the major strategies to build new website traffic. Yet even today, many firms do not support blogging.
Here are 7 reasons your company should blog:
- 77% of internet users read blogs
- U.S. internet users spend 3x more time on blogs than they do on email
- Nearly 409 million people view more than 20 billion pages every month
- Businesses that blog receive 2x more emails than those that don’t blog
- Blogging SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate
- Websites that also have a blog are shown to have 434% more indexed pages.
- Companies who blog get 97% more links to their websites
Video
Why do you need to create video to build new website traffic? Here are some very good reasons:
- 82%+ of all internet traffic by 2022 will be video content– more than 8 out of every 10 pieces of content shared will contain a video or link to a video.
- YouTube has 2 billion active monthly users – it is the second largest search engine to Google
- 1 billion hours of video are consumed each day by YouTube users
- 90% of YouTube users say they discover new brands, services, and products on YouTube.
Even more important is the fact that internet users have reached a saturation point to the amount of new information they can read.
Not only do they prefer watching rather than reading, but watching video has an important added benefit – retention.
Wordstream’s research shows that viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text. This is a staggering difference in comprehension and something that should drive even more video creation.
Professional Video Production
If your company’s budget is large enough then you should hire a professional video production company. The expertise, equipment, production savvy, and experience a professional brings to a project is worth the expense.
If your firm’s budget does not include funding for a professional video production company then consider the following tips on video production from Visme.
Other Website Marketing Strategies
There are other forms of marketing, depending upon your budget, that can drive traffic to your new website. These strategies include, but are not limited to, retargeting programs, geo-fencing campaigns, radio advertising, television advertising, direct mail campaigns, call center campaigns, automated dialer campaigns, and print ads in top publications.
If you don’t have the time, expertise, or desire to do-it-yourself, contact Inner Architect (415) 485.6961 for a free consultation on the steps we can take together to achieve your goals.
