How to drive traffic to your site

Posted Friday, 9 May 2008 | Category: All things web | Comments |

So you have a business site with all the right basics – beautiful design, user-friendly navigation, carefully selected meta tags – but it is just not getting the desired amount of web traffic. Well, here are a few tips to improve your site and boost your hit rate.

1. Offer Added Value

Search engines love sites with informational value – and so do people. Rarely do we stumble on a site because of its main business proposition, but rather because of an added educational benefit.

The trick is to offer quality information that updates regularly and is relevant to your target market.

Here are a few examples:

If you are a design college, post interviews with up- and coming designers. This will attract your target demographic.
If you are a gardening supplier, offer "how to" articles on plant buying, pruning and greenhouse maintenance – information that avid gardeners are likely to search for.
If you are an online furniture store, offer articles on home makeovers, interior design trends and furniture care. This will give browsers a reason to return again and again.
If you are a management consulting company, upload reviews of the latest business books.
If you are an agricultural company, offer news feeds on industry headlines...

The list is endless!

A great example is the online grocery store - freshdirect. This site offers pages and pages of themed recipes (each with a handy ingredient purchase form), detailed nutritional information on each product, taste and price comparisons on all categories, tips on how to prepare and store foods, and much more. The result? They now dominate the New York online grocery market with more than 250,000 customers and 5 million deliveries to date.

2. Make it Personal

Nobody likes to interact with a faceless entity. Let visitors get a feel for the people behind your business by adding a “meet the team” page. Include pictures of company members with short bios and a few quirky facts. If the idea of uploading personal photos makes you queasy, consider hiring an illustrator. For inspiration, visit coding monkey's team page.

3. Make it Fun – Be Creative

It’s never a bad idea to spice up your site with a bit of humour – we all like to be entertained! A great example is SMG – "full of creativity and bad jokes" – which takes a fun, light-hearted approach to business marketing. Instead of the usual home, about us and services links, they have chosen "our buzz", "behind the curtains" and "hey smg!"

Another example is Photojojo, an online photography journal with more than 60 thousand subscribers. Their email address is photojojo.loves.you@gmail.com and their response on subscription is "dude, you rule". Read their humorous site introduction here.

4. Provide Free Giveaways

People love freebies and internet users are no exception. Think about free tools and online services that mean something to your consumer:

As a design company, consider offering free wallpapers and screensavers that show off your creative abilities.
If you are a financial institution, supply online interest rate calculators and financial tools.
If you are a magazine publication, post a few free articles, with the option of paid subscription for the remaining articles.
If you are an image bank, offer a "free image of the week" for interested parties.

Freebies are not only appreciated, they have become an integral part of internet culture!

5. Keep Communicating with your Customers

The best way to strengthen relationships is by staying in touch. Find ways to communicate with your client base without being invasive and disturbing:

Once customers have made an online purchase, give them the option to subscribe to your monthly newsletter on product specials and seasonal promotions.
If you run a business blog, provide the choice of RSS subscription.
Use your customer database to send birthday greetings and seasonal coupons.
Conduct annual surveys and encourage customers to provide feedback on the site's user-friendliness.

6. Make it Interactive

Exploit the interactive qualities of the internet by offering interactive contact forms, quote forms, and the like. Here are a few examples:

People love filling out online surveys and quizzes. If you are a travel agency, upload a travel personality quiz (with questions like "your idea of a dream vacation involves…") which ends with a list of travel destinations tailoured to their needs.
If you are a fashion store, allow people to dress a mannequin and add matching accessories using an online game framework.
If you sell books and dvds, encourage customers to upload reviews (hail amazon!).
Offer live chat technical support on your online services.
Very importantly, allow readers to leave comments on your online articles (but consider moderating them).

7. Inspire Action.

Lastly, what good is web traffic if it doesn't contribute to the bottom line?

Inspire action through timed promotions – "our picks of the month" and "this month's specials".
Stimulate trial purchases by offering discounts on the first purchase, backed by quality guarantees.
Encourage people to promote your site by devising affiliate programs.
And, very importantly, create reward programs for loyal consumers.

For an obligation-free website revamp proposal, feel free to drop us a line here.

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