Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly
A website can be the lifeline of any business, and yours is no exception. The explosion of the use of smartphones, tablets and other digital devices means that viewers can look for what they want wherever they are, and the first place they go to is the search engines. You want your website to appear in the first couple of pages of results, but to achieve this you need to know how to encourage visitors to your website. No visitors will mean a lower place in the rankings, but there are ways to make sure you get the numbers you need viewing your site.
Fast and Simple
To start with, your site needs to be fast loading and simple to navigate around. Consumers are used to everything happening quickly on the internet, and they will soon move on somewhere else rather than wait for a slow-loading website. The same applies to navigation. If it is difficult for them to move from one page to another, they will soon leave the site.
The way around this is to use a good hosting company who ensure that these things don’t happen. If you are unsure where to start, you could compare WordPress hosting to find out which plan would be the most suitable for your business. There can be a huge difference in loading speeds, and a fast site will encourage more viewers.
Create Brand Awareness
You could have the best website in the world, and it would be useless unless people are aware of it. You need to create an awareness of your brand so that viewers will want to visit your website. You could do this by placing adverts in areas your target audience are likely to see, or you could head to social media.
Social media can reach many thousands of people if you are prepared to put in the time needed. You should always make positive posts and never ignore any comments. This will help to build trust in your brand and when people get used to seeing the name, they are more likely to pay a visit to your site.
A competition on social media can have amazing results. Just make part of the entry liking your site and you will be amazed by the number of new followers your brand will get. The prize does not have to be anything expensive, and the competition should be very simple to encourage people to take part and visit your website.
Recommendations
Nothing is better for a business than getting recommendations from existing customers. Create a scheme where anyone recommending a friend earns points, and the points they build can be used towards the purchase of goods from your site. Consumers love to think they are getting a good deal, and if they can get an item at a low price because they have recommended new customers who have purchased items, they will send anyone to your site that they think may have the slightest interest in your products.
Getting enough traffic to your website could be the deciding factor in the success or failure of your business. You need to do whatever is needed to get the viewers there in the first place and then to turn them into customers.
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