RocketTheme Blog

You have built a brand new website and it’s ready and waiting for visitors. You may be offering a product, service, or information that the world needs, but traffic isn’t coming at a pace that you were expecting.

There is also a difference between passive traffic that stumbles into your site searching for something specific and active traffic that is aware of your brand and are visiting for the purpose of interacting with your content, buying your products, or taking advantage of your services.

Increasing the active traffic of your site is important, and while there is no magic bullet that works for everyone (if there was one we wouldn’t have thousands of SEO experts out there that all disagree on how to do it) there are a handful of useful things you can do to better position yourself for success.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This is a big one, and professionals that work specifically with SEO will tell you that good SEO practices involve just about every other item in this article.

For the purpose of this point, however, we will focus on a few of the things you can do to make your site more likely to achieve a higher search ranking.

Search rank is important because it determines where your site will appear when someone searches for something you provide. If your site is for a local plumbing service, you want it to appear near the top of the list of results when someone searches for plumbers in your city.

Doing this is tricky, but there are some very basic things you can do to start:

• Improve page load time.
• Put the most important keyword in the title of the page.
• Provide a clear, descriptive opening paragraph that includes keywords that people would search for when looking for something your site provides.
• Ensure that your site is compliant with the latest W3C standards.
• Ensure that your site is as mobile friendly as possible.

If you’re interested in finding out more, we have a guide to help you get started with SEO.

Create Community Around Your Brand

The difference between an active and passive visitor comes down to how they interact with your brand. Are they consciously aware of who your company is and what it does, or are they chasing seemingly random results that come up when they search for something?

A good long-term business strategy depends on customer retention as much as it does on new traffic generation. This means finding a way to hold on to that customer, keep their interest levels up, and provide them a service that exceeds the initial sale.

Your company isn’t just a logo and a bank account. It’s an entity that has its own story, reputation, and personality. You can only get so far by telling your brand’s story through one-way communication.

By enabling your customers to become part of that, you will be much better positioned for success in the long term.

Add a Forum

Having user forums on your site is an excellent start. It not only offers your visitors a place to communicate their experiences with one-another, but to find additional support and help with your product and/or service.

You will be surprised at how quickly a well-run forum can turn into an invaluable resource for both you and your customers.

Social Media

Social media is another great place to generate active participation in your brand. Networks like Twitter and Facebook give you the ability to communite directly with your audience, and built a rapport that exceeds anything reading your website can offer them.

If you haven’t already, consider creating a brand page on Facebook and use it to provide useful information for anyone that might be interested in what you have to offer.

Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and even Snapchat have become popular places for brands to spread awareness.

If you’re interested in finding out more about using social media to increase site traffic, check out our guide.

Start a Blog

You might be wondering how a blog can help you build a long-lasting relationship with your visitors. Simply put, your blog is a service to your customers. It should be freely offered, unless your blog’s content is specifically the product you’re selling.

A company blog enables you to do the following:

• Provide important news and updates to your customers about your company, products, or services.
• Build an ongoing rapport with your community.
• Create content that offers useful information and/or tips to help them make the most out of your product(s).
• Generate additional traffic by expanding the topic footprint of your site.
• Improve your site’s authority on one or more subjects, improving search ranking.

If you don’t fancy yourself a particularly skilled writer, don’t worry. There are plenty of great freelance writers that can generate quality content at a reasonable price.

It’s important to shy away from creating a ton of content just to create it. It should provide a meaningful experience for your visitors, and not just a method by which you get new traffic. Remember, the key isn’t to get them to stumble through the door as much as to get them to come back for more.

Remember, your website is more than a few photos and a place to put your contact information. By making it a hub for information and community interaction, you can increase the likelihood that visitors will not only show up, they’ll keep coming back for more.

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