These days, it’s easy to create a website for a relatively low cost. That means all businesses, from startups to well-established organizations, are up against an ever-increasing amount of competitors when selling products and services online. So how do you set yours apart? You have to build it right and market it correctly.

This crowded marketplace combined with search engines pushing organic search results farther down the page makes it tough for businesses to get noticed online without paying for it. So what would an Internet marketing company suggest for how to get traffic to your website? A lot! Here’s the skinny on some easy steps you can take right now to improve your search engine ranking—and your bottom line.

Easy Online Marketing

Begin with the right action.

Regardless of the type of website you’re building or already launched, you probably have a goal in mind for the visitors who land on your pages. Do you want them to contact you for a quote?  Should they buy your products?  Or share the information they find? Your website needs a clear and effective call to action in order to convert traffic.

Choose the one most important thing you want every visitor to do, and make this the focus of your call to action. Cluttering up your page with multiple requests could end up confusing visitors. But don’t limit your effective call to action to just the landing page. You have the opportunity to inspire action on EVERY page, so use that to your advantage. This way, you can make different requests depending on the page, but again, make sure it’s only one request per page. Repetition is an excellent way to reinforce your message and boost conversions.

Choose your keywords wisely.

What’s the key to improving search engine ranking? Keywords! Think about your target audience and build an understanding of the words they might use to look for a business like yours. Then, be sure to pepper them throughout the copy on your website or blog. The optimum keyword density should be 1 to 3 percent. Using a keyword more than that could be considered search spam. So for a page of about 550 words, your key phrases of four words would be repeated two to four times. Try not to jam your keywords and phrases into the copy in an unnatural way. And remember that search engines evaluate all text on your pages, so be sure to include your keywords in headers, footers, meta data, advertisements, and content. This will greatly improve your search engine ranking and increase website traffic.

Develop more content.

One of the simplest things to do when considering how to get traffic to your website is to create fresh content for your website or blog regularly. Doing this will attract more visitors and give you the chance to utilize your keywords more frequently. Most search engines pay more attention to sites that are rich in content and updated consistently.

Get social.

Everyone’s on social media these days—and that includes businesses. Not only is it a great way to connect with your consumers, but as any local Internet marketing company will tell you, having profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ can help you attract new ones. Real-time communication helps make happy customers, which in turn builds brands. It helps establish your business’ personality and give your brand a human voice that people can relate to. You can also answer questions promptly, manage or build your reputation and positively influence sales. Make sure your profile is listed as a local business.

Get responsive.

Everyone knows that mobile communication is here to stay. And when it comes to Internet marketing, your business has to be there when your customers are on the move. You also have to provide the right information when they’re looking for you on their devices. The best way to do this is to make your website responsive—so that your customers have the right viewing experience no matter what device they’re on. Pay even closer attention to important sections like your contact page, your product or services page, or your restaurant menu and how they appear on mobile devices. Be careful about technologies like PDFs or Flash, which can complicate the process.

Invite reviews.

Reviews can go a long way for your reputation—and your search engine ranking. The best way to encourage your customers to write you good reviews is to engage them from the start through email, be responsive to their feedback and stay on top of comments on social media. This will give the impression that you’re worthy of praise, and that consumers stand behind your product or service. It’s really about being visible at all times.

Create local listings.

Create listings on local directories or review websites. Each listing represents a “citation” or mention of your business—a crucial element used in the search engine ranking algorithm, not only for Google, but also for Bing, Yahoo, and others. Search for your business online and you’ll see your existing citations and which listings you may be missing.

Track and analyze.

As your business grows, so does the number of people visiting your website.  Website analytics gives you valuable insight into how you can give your customers what they really want. Through the use of advanced analytics tools, a professional website design company can provide you with the information you need to make sure your website is working at an optimal level.

You need to know how users are getting to your site, what is leading them to convert (fill out a contact form or make a purchase, for example), and other specifics about how they interact with your site. Through programs such as Google Analytics and/or other tools, you’ll improve your website’s Return on Investment (ROI) by knowing what is working and what is not. Through a variety of reporting capabilities, you can have:

• Full Traffic Metric Tracking – knowing how many people are coming to your website, from where, how long they are spending, and more
• Goal Tracking – how many people are filling out your forms and where are they coming from
• Custom Reporting – most popular pages, pages people leave the most, keywords people are finding you for, top geo-targeted locations, mobile usage, and more

With these tools, you can create a benchmark for how your website is performing before and then begin a search engine marketing campaign. Then, on an ongoing basis, you can measure and analyze the data to help improve the results. You’ll have the very latest information, making your website run at its optimal level, and ultimately, helping you achieve a higher return on your investment.

Get Started Today

What are you waiting for? Now that you know how to get traffic to your website, you can start today! It might look like a huge task now, but you don’t have to get it done in one sitting. Schedule some time each day, or even each week, to focus on your search engine ranking, and you’ll increase website traffic in no time!