Whether your business is brand new and you are creating your first website, or you own an established company that needs a digital upgrade, bringing traffic to your website is essential for finding new customers. You already know that your website must be well-designed and easy to navigate, but do you know how to help people find your site in the first place? Check out these tips for driving website traffic for your business to guide you.

Research New Keywords

Your SEO strategy relies on the right combination of keywords to get your page to the top of search results pages. Before creating your content, research which keywords relate to your industry or business and rank well with search engines. However, avoid focusing on high-volume keywords too much. Many other websites do this, which could make it harder for you to rise to the top.

Widening your search is likely to produce better results. Consider all terms that are relevant to your industry to find new ideas. Remember to keep your content flexible as well. For example, a company that only offers roofing services could broaden its horizons by blogging about general home improvement or landscaping and find a way to tie it to roofing. A broader range of topics may bring in new traffic.

Create Quality Content

A high-ranking website must provide information. New business owners tend to make the mistake of creating a website that only features a brief history of the company and a bare-bones list of services. This isn’t enough content to keep search engines interested, let alone potential customers.

One of the easiest ways to add content to your website is to create a blog and update it regularly. Consider the type of audience you want to attract and what kind of information they may be looking for. Research keywords related to those topics and write your first draft.

Start your blog post with a strong title that shows what the audience is going to learn. “How-to” blogs and blogs with numbered lists are often popular. The body of your post should be easy to read. Break the content up with succinct subheaders and keep paragraphs short. Bullet points are another way to break up content. Of course, be sure to optimize the SEO of every post and to relate the topic to your company’s services.

Focus on Email Marketing

Despite being in the era of instant information and conversation, email marketing still has its place in the digital world. The key is to keep emails short, personal, relevant to your audience, and the point. Use your customers’ names in your emails and create a simple layout that makes it easy to read your information. Always include a call to action at the end of the message that invites the reader to keep interacting with your company. Avoid using email as a marketing tactic too often, though. If your audience feels inundated by your emails, they may unsubscribe.

Build Your Links

Natural link building is important for showing the internet that you’re an authority in your industry. The problem is, high-quality backlinks are hard to come by if you don’t know other experts in your industry. You’ll need to meet people first.

Building relationships is the best way to obtain natural backlinks. Follow, like, and comment on social media posts from other experts in your industry. Read their blogs and leave relevant well-written comments. You could also link directly to the other websites. When you link to another person’s blog, send a quick message to let him know you enjoyed his content and shared it on your website. Finally, consider meeting people in the real world. Attending seminars or meetups related to your industry is an excellent way to network and meet other experts.

Add Long-Tail Keywords to Your SEO

Long-tail keywords are phrases that are more specific to your industry or location and aren’t as common as traditional, high-volume words and phrases. Because long-tail words aren’t as competitive as high-volume ones, your website may climb the search engine ranks faster if you use them. This especially true if your website is brand new. Remember, long-tail keywords don’t always sound like keywords. Instead, they’re often optimized for voice searches. When someone is speaking on the phone, he is more likely to say “Where is a Chinese restaurant near me” than he is to stay at “Chinese restaurant Los Angeles.”

Highlight Your Topic Expertise

Google’s search engine algorithms favour websites owned by people or companies who are known to be experts in their industries. To gain more cloud with the results page, you need to prove yourself an expert. You can do this by creating a pillar page. If you have ever read a blog post that provided a lot of detailed information on one topic, you’ve seen a pillar page. After writing yours, you’ll need to create cluster content. These are shorter, supporting blog posts that are meant to target the long-tail keywords in your pillar. The posts will work together to help you focus on long-term traffic and eventually help you rise in Google’s ranks as an expert.

Create a Sense of Community

Bringing more traffic to your website isn’t always about figuring out how to work Google’s algorithms. Sometimes, it’s about good, old-fashioned communication. People who visit your website or social media pages are hoping to gain a sense of your brand and perhaps to communicate. You probably already know that you should answer the questions or comments you receive in private messages and posts on social media. Did you realize that fostering a community on your blog is just as necessary? Add a commenting system to your blog that allows people to interact with you or other readers on your blog posts. By encouraging communication, you encourage people to keep coming to your website.

There is no magical tool that brings your website to the top of Google’s results pages (despite what some unscrupulous SEO companies might try to have you believe). That doesn’t mean the task is impossible though. Focusing on these tips and updating your website regularly will help you to see more traffic in a matter of weeks.