“If I build it they will come, won’t they?”
This has been one of the biggest misconceptions among small business owners in my time of teaching and working with them. “I have a website, but I’m not getting traffic to it. What’s wrong?”, I have heard over and over.
Think of this analogy…
You can build your dream business in the middle of the Sahara Desert, with all the bells and whistles… stocked full of ALL of your best company products… ready to take on a boatload of business and make a flood of sales. But if no one can find you, it won’t do any good.
In the classes I teach, I tell the business owners to think of their websites as if they were built in the middle of “nowhere”. In the middle of the “Sahara Desert” of the internet. You can hire a web designer to create the most BEAUTIFUL website that you’ve ever seen… pay thousands of dollars for it, and still not get the results that you were hoping. I have seen it happen time and time again!
Now, it is YOUR job to make sure there are “road signs” and information that point people straight to your website. And this is where I come in at! 😉 Today I’m going to show you ‘4’ things that you SHOULD be doing to point the way for your potential customers to find your site! Trust me, these work!
1. Lay The Proper Foundation “ON” Your Website.
When you or your web designer builds a beautiful new website to get your message out there to bring customers to you, your work is only partially done. Ideally, you will create an online marketing plan BEFORE your website is built to make this process easier and save yourself a ton of work “after the fact”.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is basically optimizing your website so that the search engines can find you and know what your website is about so that they serve you up when someone types in a keyword related to the products or services that you offer in their search bar.
Google is the largest of these, followed by Yahoo, Bing, and smaller ones that you don’t need to worry about right now. I’m sure most of you are very familiar with Google and probably use it on a daily basis. That is the Search Engine that we will concern ourselves with the most because when you optimize your website for Google, the other search engines pretty much fall into place with finding you and indexing your website.
There are several parts to optimizing your website for Search Engines. There are things that you will need to do “ON” your website, and things that you will need to do around the web to help you get noticed by Google.
You can read my more in-depth guide to Optimizing Your Website for the search engines here. I go in to the things a DIY marketer needs to know, and also additional things you need to do around the internet that will help your Search Engine Optimization tremendously!
2. Make Sure That All Of Your “Offline” Marketing Points To Your Website.
Any marketing material should have your web address on it. All of your business cards, print advertising, catalogs, fliers, handouts, newsletters, etc. If you have a brick and mortar business, make sure that your website is displayed inside your business at prominent areas where your customers can see at.
If you attend any events, or do booths or trade shows, one of your number one objectives should be to CONTINUE that relationship with your contact ONLINE. In addition to telling them about your website and where they can find you on social media, you could also offer an incentive to them to sign up for your email list or newsletter. Possibly a coupon, FREE tips, or information that compliments the information that they received from you at the show or event.
There are so many ways to do this, but the most important thing is that you take the business that you are doing “Offline” and allow your “Online” marketing machines continue to work for you 24/7 with your customers and prospects.
3. Build A Presence On Social Media
If you don’t have a presence on Social Media, build one NOW! If you do, are you building a following? A brand? Are you letting people see your personality? Are you letting people see the “behind the scenes” of what you do?
Are you engaging your audience? Are people sharing your content and post with “their” friends? (That’s something that you definitely want them to do!)
If your answer is “No” to any of these, then you’re doing it wrong.
I know it seems scary, and hard! But remember, It doesn’t have to be perfect! If you want results, you really need to take the time to understand how to get results. I will hold your hand all the way! 🙂
Here is a great post on building your Social Media presence that will help break things down and make it easy for you! Let’s take this journey together!
4. Where “Else” Are You Online?
If you build your website and do all of the things above that I just mentioned, but never do anything else online, you are still leaving a lot of money and potential for your business on the table! And I don’t want that to happen for you! Let’s look at some of the other places you need to be online.
Online Directories
There are TONS of directories online, and no matter how much you think these don’t matter… well, they do. Not only for your potential customers and visitors, but they also matter to Google! I’m amazed at how many businesses turn a blind eye to these FREE goldmines!
Fair warning, most of these online directories will try to sell you a “package”, upgrade you to their PREMIUM listing, or maybe even offer you services for your marketing. You DON’T need that. Do the FREE version of these. That’s all you need.
There may be a few exceptions such as “Angie’s List”, or specific Trade directories that are related to your field of business. Those you should judge on your own if they will add value to your business if you pay for an “up-sell”. A great way that I suggest finding out if these are worth it if you are considering spending your money with one is to find some other businesses who do premium listings with that particular directory and reach out to them to see if their advertising has brought them visitors, customers and results. If you want to know something, go straight to the horse’s mouth, lol.
Rather than guiding you in ways that are going to needlessly and frivolously nickle and dime you to death, I want you to use any money you have for marketing and advertising for things that are TRULY going to bring you results! You can count on me to try to help SAVE your money and help you to MAKE money,
Which Directories Should You List Your Business In?
Definitely Google Business Pages… DEFINITELY! And it’s Free! The only cost on your part will be the time that you put into creating your listing. It may not be all that simple, but if you’ve figured out how to create a business, then you will definitely be able to get your listing up and running.
To find out other directories that you need to list on, go to Google and do a search for the products or services keywords that you offer. For example, if you had a lawn care business you would do a search for “Lawn Care Services (your city)” . Next, take a look at the listings that are served up on the first 2 pages of Google. Make a list of all of the directories that offer listings for businesses that you see there. You can repeat this for multiple products or services that you offer. THOSE are the directories that you should list in. Different directories may be listied for different types businesses, depending on your niche. You may even see specific trade directories depending on the industry your business is in.
Here’s How You Fill These Out…
Make sure that you fill out your complete company profile, including your actual address, your website address (VERY important, and a lot of people leave this out), pictures of the work you do or products you have, your business or store, etc. (if there is a place for pictures), a description RICH in keywords that describes your business, products and services, keywords, and the locations that you serve.
Whew, I know that is a lot, but don’t underestimate that value of this! I call it “piggy-backing”, because you are basically “piggy-backing” on other websites (directories) that have already achieved page 1 or 2 rankings in the search engines for the keywords that you are wanting to get noticed for. So when your potential customers are searching for your service and can’t find you in one of these directories, guess what happens? They choose someone else!
Get Customer Reviews!
For the directories that allow customers to review your site, I highly recommend that you take the time to ask customers to do that for you. Especially on your Google business listing!! This is VERY important!
How do you get people to review you online? Simply ASK them! That is the simplest way! Just ask your already existing “Happy” customers to go on and do a review for you, and you will be surprised at how many will do that for you, and how it will increase your results! Ask each new customer also. Make this an ongoing habit for your business.
Streams Of Traffic
Bottom line, when thinking about getting traffic to your website, think of it as little streams of traffic coming from multiple directions all flowing in to you, your website and your business! No single traffic stream is going to be your “home-run” (unless you have a post of video go viral). But 10’s or 100’s of tiny streams all bringing traffic to you can build up to something great for your business!
I know I have only tipped the iceberg of helping you to get traffic to your website in this post, but I feel that these tips will help give you a great start! Please leave me a message down below if you feel like these tips helped you. If you have questions, or things that you are struggling with in your marketing that you would like for me to talk about, please leave it in the post below or send me a message directly! I would love to hear from you! Helping you make sense of all this online marketing stuff is my goal!
I hope you have a wonderful and prosperous day!
~ Teresa