Once upon a time, about a decade ago, there were very few barriers to driving traffic to your site. That said, getting targeted traffic has never been an easy undertaking, and advances in search engine algorithms, paired with growing competition, have made the prospect even harder these days.
What can you do to drive targeted traffic to your website in 2017? Here are a few effective strategies to employ.
1. Create and promote content
Targeted traffic implies that you are targeting a specific audience, and when you understand what that audience is seeking, you can provide it in the way of content. In order to make headway with Google, you must create relevant and timely content anyway, but if you want to bring in targeted traffic AND meet Google standards, you should create and promote content, first and foremost, for your audience. This is the foundation of content marketing.
2. Get on board with mobile first
Google’s move to mobile-first indexing basically means that mobile versions of websites will get a leg up over their desktop counterparts, putting them ahead in the rankings. If you have yet to optimize for mobile, first of all, where have you been for the last few years? If you have optimized, but put little effort into mobile-specific content or marketing efforts, now is the time to ramp up and take advantage of Google’s push to support this growing search market.
3. Aim for Google’s knowledge graph
The knowledge graph, which Google added back in 2012, is a box that appears at the top of search results for certain queries and features the most relevant content. In some cases, the information provided is in simple list format. If you want to be included in the knowledge graph for searches relevant to your site, you’ll need to create a Google+ account, claim your local listing, and begin contributing to Freebase, preferably with structured data.
4. Consider social influencers
Converting social media followers to paying customers is no easy feat, and it’s something many businesses struggle with. While you can certainly pay a service to manage this aspect of lead generation and conversion for you, it may be worth exploring relationships with appropriate social influencers as a way to drive targeted traffic to your website.
It’s not necessarily easy to find social influencers that you want representing your brand, and the harder part is probably building a rapport so that the right people are willing to promote you, either for money, or preferably, because they like your brand and want to support you. However, this type of promotion can be an excellent means of turning social followers into targeted traffic.
5. Pony up the dough
It’s a pay-to-play world, and purchasing ads with Google, Facebook, and other online outlets is one way to increase visibility and generate targeted traffic. Modern tools allow you to put your ads in front of the eyeballs that count, with options to select consumer age group, gender, marital status, job position, income, and even interests and shopping/browsing history. There’s just no denying the power of these tools to deliver the targeted traffic you seek, and the results may make the upfront spend well worthwhile.
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