When you set out to launch your first website, everything probably seems pretty straightforward.
For example, your hosting provider likely made it easy to set up your site and get connected by either doing it for you or providing easy to follow steps.
The CMS platform you use is certainly intuitive (after all, beginners don’t use complex platforms to build websites on).
And adding pages, blog posts, and for the most adventurous, product pages with images was simple enough, even if you had to reference some external resources to help you out.
But do you know what to do once your site is up and running?
Promoting your website and driving traffic to your newly launched website is not as easy as creating the site and making it live.
You have to get people to come to your site. And then, you have convince people to read your content, subscribe to your email list, and buy what you’re selling.
If you’re just starting out in the online world and need some help with promoting your website, read on to learn some easy ways to do just that.
1. Do Your Keyword Research
You might know that blog content is an important part of promoting your business and drawing people to your website.
Good content ranks well in search results, interests people in social media feeds and gets them to click and visit, and even convinces people in email campaigns to read what you’ve published.
But you have to have a plan when it comes the content you publish on your website if you want it to promote your brand and drive the right kind of traffic your way.
More specifically, you need to target the right keywords.
If your well-written content ranks in search results for the wrong keywords, two things will happen:
- People will never click on your site because you don’t have what they’re looking for
- Those that think you have what they’re looking for will immediately abandon your site once they realize you don’t
To prevent this from happening, pick the right keywords to target in your content and add them to your blog posts, product and service descriptions, landing pages, and more.
This way when people see links to your site, they know what you’re offering and are tempted to click and visit.
If you need help finding the right keywords (or just need some alternatives), look at using Ubersuggest.
Just enter a keyword you want to target and let Ubersuggest do the rest. You’ll see the expected search volume, SEO and paid difficulty, and cost per click for the keyword you entered. In addition, you see related keywords you can use in your content too, which helps add variety to your content and helps you rank in more than one search result.
It won’t matter how great your content is if you don’t target the right keywords you won’t get the right kind of traffic on your site (if any at all).
So, take the time to focus on what you’re offering people and make sure to include that into every piece of content you publish.
2. Build a Social Media Presence
The power of social media to help your business cannot be underestimated.
In fact, it not only helps expose your brand to a broader audience, it drives people from all over straight to your website to see what you have to offer.
Here are some things to keep in mind when utilizing social media to increase your traffic numbers:
- All social media platforms are different; make sure to research the ones your target audience are more likely to be on
- Post regularly to build brand recognition and get more people to click and visit
- Include images or video content to improve click-through rates
- Always interact with your following to show them you’re real and you care
- Have a clear CTA button so people can immediately visit your shop and start buying
- Add social share and follow buttons on your website to boost your following and give people a chance to share their favorite content with others
Lastly, when you’re just starting out and need to widen your reach, get your followers involved by starting a referral program or running a contest.
Doing this will give people the chance to send friends and family your way (in exchange for a reward) or visit or revisit your site again on their own.
3. Sell Differently
One reason your website might not do well when it comes to traffic is that what you’re offering people isn’t what they’re looking for.
Or perhaps you are so overwhelmed with being a new online business owner you can’t focus all your attention on the right things.
Though starting an online business is easy enough to do, staying successful is not. There’s a lot of demand out there, and consumers have plenty of options.
And setting yourself apart from the well-established competition is tough at first.
That said, selling products online from home can be done if you approach it right and get ideas from others before you that have been successful.
For example, many trying to break into the online retail space find that dropshipping works for them.
Rather than manufacture and store physical inventory, dropshippers just sell from their website.
When someone does make a purchase, all they have to do is notify their dropshipping suppliers, who then deliver the purchases straight to your customer’s door.
This leaves you plenty of room to focus on content marketing, social media promotions, and establishing yourself as an authority in your industry.
It also gives you the flexibility to sell whatever products make you money, without having to invest a lot to make, store, and deliver what you decide to sell.
4. Secure Your Site
There’s no denying that one of the biggest reasons people won’t visit online businesses, let alone make a purchase, is because they’re worried about how their personal and financial information is being used.
Don’t let an insecure website hurt your chances of having the traffic you deserve or the sales you want.
Instead, take the following precautions:
- Always create an offsite backup of your site in case anything happens to it to prevent the amount of downtime you experience
- Use trustmarks to show people their data is safe (e.g., PayPal, BBB, McAfee, and VeriSign)
- Use a reliable hosting provider that has built-in security features to protect your site and secures their servers that store your data
- Invest in software with built-in firewalls, security scanning, and malware alerts
If you don’t feel like you can secure your site properly, you can always invest in a professional cybersecurity company instead to handle all things security related.
The more secure your site is, and the better you relay that information to your site visitors, the more likely they’ll be to buy from you, spread the word about how great you are, and encourage others to visit too.
5. Final Thoughts
And there you have it! Some of the best steps all website owners should follow when launching a new website.
Of course, this list is not exhaustive by any means. There are many other ways to promote your business and drive traffic to your website.
For instance, optimizing your content for SEO, improving your page loading speeds, and utilizing the power and reach of influencers help too.
But if you don’t want to overwhelm yourself, these steps will get you on the right path and create a solid foundation for driving traffic to your site and securing more conversions and sales.
