One of the things that most small business owners have in common is that they would like to increase traffic to their website.  Many feel that they are “missing out”, overlooked or simply lost in the scrum that makes up the battleground of today’s online marketers.  But, whilst lack of traffic may be a common problem, it’s also a fixable one. So don’t despair!

The following 5 tips will help you drive relevant traffic to your website…

1. Understand who you want to attract online and where they are hanging out

Knowing who you want to reach is the cornerstone of any successful online marketing activity. Attracting traffic is one thing, but attracting the right traffic is another thing all together. Ultimately, of course, the purpose of your online marketing efforts is to increase sales, so you need to be reaching out to an audience that’s made up people who might actually buy from you. So do your research: brainstorm down to the tiniest detail who those people are, then find out where they hang out online, and put yourself in front of them there. After all, if the mountain won’t come to Muhammad…

2. Create great content that will connect with your target audience

One you know who your ideal audience is, you’ll have a fairly good idea about what sort of content will float their boats, so give them what they want. Think about any problems, concerns and questions they might have and provide helpful information which will add real value and make things easier for them. Mix it up: include images, infographics and video as well as text, vary the length and format of your content to grab – and hold – your reader’s attention and boost traffic to your website.

3. Get on with Google

If you haven’t already done so, submit your site to Google and other popular search engines, and then focus on making your site look as good as possible for the “spiders”–automated programs that crawl the web indexing sites for the search engines. Spending time on your site’s SEO optimization is always time well spent, so be sure to:

• Include every relevant keyword and phrase you can think of – and I don’t mean spamming, I mean focusing on topical content, and making sure you give yourself the chance of being found for all your relevant keywords, even the obscure ones!
• Optimize your existing posts by making sure they have unique and relevant title tags, URLS and meta descriptions.
• Keep posting – updating your website often with high quality content keeps it up there as a healthy, attractive, living, breathing entity and Google will love you for it. Don’t abandon it to a fate of fizzling out, unloved and ignored by Google!

4. Get Social

It’s not enough to produce great content and hope that people find it – you have to be proactive. You’ve already figured out where on social media your crowd is hanging out, so get out there, get in front of them, provide valuable content to them and they will, in turn, be encouraged to visit your site. It’s not about barging into conversations on social media shouting “Hey guys, take a look at my website!” it’s about developing relationships, building goodwill and generating interest. And the best way to do this is by sharing great, relevant content and following it up by actively participating in the community. Join in Twitter group discussions with relevant hashtags, respond to comments and answer questions on your Facebook posts…whatever platform you’re using, use it to ENGAGE with your fans.

5. Monitor and analyse what’s working – try, test and tweak!

Not everything you post or do is going to work: some efforts might fall flat on their faces like big fat damp squibs, whereas others might have visitors racing to your website clutching their credit cards. But the only way you’ll be able to focus your energy on strategies that ARE working is by examining your analytics data.

Google analytics is an invaluable source of data on just about every conceivable aspect of your site, from your most popular pages and posts to how, where and when your visitors came from. Keep a close eye on this feedback, and use the information to inform your promotional and content strategies. Remember, you don’t have to do what everyone else is doing, and studying YOUR analytics will enable you to identify YOUR main traffic drivers, and focus on your energy on these areas.

Of course, your website is unique to your business, and your crowd is your own, but following the tips above will help any small business bring them both together, increasing traffic to your website, ensuring that it’s relevant traffic, and, ultimately, helping your business to grow online.