Do you need to attract more traffic to your website so that you can finally have the success you’ve been dreaming of in your business?

It occurred to me last week while working with a client that you may not realize your website is essentially a store front for your products and/or services. In other words, you wouldn’t open a store and expect customers to walk in. The same is applicable to a website. Time and time again, I see clients build a website and then take no further action and wonder why they are not getting any business. What actions are you taking on a consistent basis to attract people to your store? Email marketing, SEO, PPC, social media? If you have a website and want to attract more website visitors, then this article is for you.

Here are my six ways to attract more website visitors to your website:

1.  Search Engine Optimization

Organic SEO (search engine optimization) is the phrase used to describe processes to obtain a natural placement on organic search engine results page (SERP’s).  Keywords and keyword analysis, back linking, and link building all contribute to improve link popularity, as well as writing content relevant for human readers. The attractiveness of SEO is the fact that you can get your business in front of prospects that are literally searching for your specific product or service. Think of SEO like the old Yellowpages.  The only purpose anyone picked up and browsed through a Yellowpage book was because they were looking for some product or service. The same thing happens every day on search engines. With a concrete SEO approach, you’ll be able to get your business to show up on the first page of search engine results at the precise moment when your prospects need your product or service.

I’m a huge fan of search engine optimization.  Unlike pay per click advertising, you never lose the benefit of your investment to be in front of your prospects searching for your product or service.

2. Pay per Click Advertising

Forget all of your presumptions about digital advertising for a moment and consider these facts:

• With ad networks, there is no minimum investment to get started.  You can begin with as little as a few dollars per day.
• You can pay per-click, which means you’re only going to pay when a prospect shows interest in your advertisement.
• With YouTube video promotions, any company can now get a 30+ second commercial in front of their demographic for pennies per view with no minimum investment.
• When you set up proper tracking, then you can see your return on investment and determine where to allocate your marketing dollars to maximize your profits.
• Ad networks can now automatically find and target audiences online that have similar demographics and online user behavior as your customers.

3. Referral Marketing

Similarly to referral marketing off of the internet, there’s no shortcut with online referral marketing.  To generate a well-built referral network involves authentic effort to build relationships with other businesses that serve your target market. To begin, brainstorm the other types of businesses that provide products and services to your customers. Then just reach out to see if they are open to a referral partnership.  Some will not be open to reciprocal networking. However, if you’re relentless then you’ll ultimately create a good flow of traffic to your website from referral sources.

4. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is a medium to create your IDEAL culture, increase engagement, as well as reach potential website visitors and convert them. Additionally, social media increases your brand awareness and legitimizes your brand. Ultimately, this effective approach reaches your target audience and drives them to your website to make a purchase or create credibility.

5. Online Publicity

Like recommendations, every business wants exposure.  If your business is featured in the news then you’ll immediately be top of mind and the influencer in your industry.

But also like recommendations there is no shortcut.  To obtain publicity you’ll need to create press releases announcing accomplishments and business events.  If you haven’t began already then get started writing press releases today. This will get you into the habit of creating news worthy content that you may get you invited to write for a column in an industry news site or online magazine.

6. Marketing Integration

If you’re already implemented any of the following: print collateral, direct mail campaign, print advertisement, radio, TV, and/or telemarketing, or currently being recognized offline, incorporate those campaigns with your digital marketing. As example, add a call-to-action in your print collateral to learn more by visiting a specific traceable page on your website.