The Internet is still expanding at a rapid rate, and fierce competition among both new and established companies has many web developers asking: How do I increase traffic to my business website? Though there’s no universal way to make sure that every website receives high levels of traffic, there are some guidelines and best practices that can make it easy for search engines and social networks to advertise the existence of a new website and take advantage of the publicity that will almost immediately result. To get started, focus on a few key areas of web promotion, design, and optimization.
Embrace Search Engine Optimization for Website Publicity
There’s no better way to position a website as an authoritative source of new information and great products than to make sure that it appears on the first page of search results at Google, Yahoo, and Bing. How is this done? The answer is known as search engine optimization. This process works by, as the name implies, optimizing a website for search engine discovery.
This means that the website must feature authoritative content in blogs, a well-designed storefront, integration with social media sites, user engagement via website comments, and relevant keywords that tell search engines what the site sells and why it exists. Both long-tail and shorter keywords can help boost SEO, while regularly updated blog posts and store content can keep the site fresh enough to maintain a top ranking at Google and elsewhere.
Embrace the Reality of Social Media Proliferation
Social media was once a small, niche industry, but that is no longer the case. Websites that wish to have the widest possible reach must have their own Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest accounts. These sites must make regular posts that pertain to their products or services, that promote their authority in a given area, and that celebrate their achievements in the marketplace. These accounts must also be integrated in the business’ website so that user engagement levels are high enough to generate great SEO performance.
Contextual and Social Media Advertising Can Really Help
According to Forbes, advertising online can make a real difference when it comes to promoting a new business website. There are three types of advertising to consider, each of which will make a dent in traffic and conversion levels: Contextual advertising, search engine advertising, and social media advertising. Contextual ads will display on related third-party websites, search engine ads will display alongside contextual search results, and social media ads will pop-up in Twitter and Facebook feeds with ease. These methods will drive users to the site in rather large numbers and, if they find great products and engaging blog articles, those users will likely stick around, engage with the company in a meaningful way, and even recommend the business to their friends using the same contextual or social media ads that drove them to the site in the first place.
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Optimization, Advertising, and Social Media: The Trifecta for Publicity
The Internet requires the right combination of fresh content, authority, and interaction among users. That means a website must advertise, post engaging content on social media, create authoritative posts and online store listings on its site, and optimize for search engines on a regular basis. Those website administrators who wonder how they can increase traffic to their business website, will find these ideas produce direct, measurable results quite quickly.