How to Increase Your Website Traffic and Exposure
- Ever wonder what it takes to be found by customers?
- How easy is it to find your website?
- What gives you an edge over your competitors on the web?
Before the internet came along, if a company wanted to get the word out about themselves, 
they would put an ad in the newspaper or buy a spot in the yellow pages or even put up a big sign by the road. Those methods worked fine because when people wanted to find a barber or seamstress, they looked in the yellow pages or remembered the big sign. That was then…
The bigger your advertisement, the more business you had, right? If you bought a full-page ad in the yellow pages, you expected more new customers than the competitor who just had his name listed.
The savvy businessperson today recognizes it’s a whole different ball game with the internet in play. Now if a person wants to find a barber in their area, they get on the internet and use a search engine like Google, right? They write in something like: “barber in Eau Claire” and up comes a list of names and businesses to choose from.
Sometimes the same business makes the search results list over and over. Chances are a barber will be chosen from the first few they see on the list or the name they see frequently.
If you’re looking to get your website noticed – like a huge one-page ad in the yellow pages – you’ll want to take advantage of a big influence with a simple name: SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.
SEO is a term for using various methods to increase the intentional traffic to your website. One of the best ways to increase your SEO and get your website noticed is by adding content to your site.
What kind of content? If you think of the example of a yellow page ad, content on a website essentially makes the advertising space bigger.
For instance, a website that only has a name and address has far less content than a site that has pages describing the business, comments from previous customers, or even directions to that business. Every bit of content on your site increases the odds of your site moving to the top of the list when a potential customer is browsing the web.
If content increases traffic and exposure, what are the best methods to add content? What is the best investment for the dollar? The answer is simple: articles. If your website features a series of articles pertaining to your product or service, that content provides exposure.
What might your articles be about? Anything your customers will benefit from learning or something you would like to help them with. For a dog grooming business, there might be articles about keeping pets clean after their bath or how to brush a dog’s teeth. An insurance business may provide articles about the difference between life and term insurance or how to add a teenage driver to the policy without breaking the bank. Possibilities abound!
Articles have other advantages too, least of which is serving your customers with helpful information that adds value or quality to your business. The better the quality of information, the more likely they see you as an expert in your field.
Another benefit is an article’s longevity. Investments in the yellow pages require you keep buying the ad year after year. But if you insert a series of articles into your site, they can last forever! Maybe now and then you update or revise a thing or two but there is always access to those articles – and your site – as long as you have that content there.
We welcome a chance to answer any questions you may have about SEO, content and articles. If you’d like, we could brainstorm article ideas with you or help you write them. Or, we could discuss other ways to help you increase your web exposure, because at Simple2Web, your success is what we’re all about.
Have more questions? Please give us a call at 715.456.3976.
Tim Tewalt helps small business, events and non-profits get on the web.
His customers love how he listens to their needs and finds solutions that fit.
