What’s frustrating about SEO and online marketing in general is that it often takes time to see an improvement in website traffic. However, as time goes on and the site has been optimized, a link building strategy has been created and implemented, and social media activity remains consistent there should be a gradual increase in traffic. The goal is for the traffic volume to continue to improve steadily. If you find that your website traffic has hit a wall and traffic has reached a plateau, that’s when it’s time to step out of your comfort zone and try some new strategies. Writing blog posts and press releases and sharing them in social media can really only get you so far.
Here are 4 additional ways to continue to improve traffic efforts:
Look for guest blog posting opportunities
Blogging is a great online marketing strategy for many reasons. Not only do business blog posts provide potential customers/clients with valuable information about your company and industry but they also serve an important SEO function. Blog posts provide the opportunity to inner link to other pages of the site. They are also valuable from a social media sharing perspective. In order to improve your social signals for search purposes it’s necessary to share content in social media that is worthy of sharing. A great blog post will get shared, re-tweeted, promoted, etc. Writing for your own web property is a great start, but it’s suggested to branch out and look for writing opportunities on other related industry sites. In addition to generating quality links back to your site that improve search engine trust, it can also improve visibility among target audience members and the links can generate direct traffic back to the site.
Try new content formats
While blogging is an important component of online marketing today, it is really only one content outlet. People like to consume content in various formats, so creating content in various formats is a great way to improve exposure. Don’t be afraid to try something new. Experiment with webinars, eBooks, infographics, videos, white papers, etc. Each of these pieces of content has the potential to gain attention from target audience members and get them to convert. A good strategy is to use your previous blog posts as inspiration. Repurpose blog post content and turn it into one of these different formats.
Email marketing
No matter what you’ve heard, email marketing is still an effective tactic as long as it’s implemented properly. People are always checking their email and if you can provide them with something of value, it will get opened. While it can be difficult to generate a quality opt in list of subscribers, it’s worth the effort because you know that the recipients are interested in what you have to say. If you already are active in email marketing, take a look at the data and see what the open rate is. Maybe you need to make a few minor tweaks.
Online advertising
If your website traffic has hit a wall one option to look into is online advertising. Banner advertising is usually hit or miss depending on the niche. The better option is usually to invest in PPC. PPC can be expensive depending on the keywords that you are targeting but it can generate visitors. It also helps achieve organic traffic in an indirect way. If a searcher sees your brand in both the organic and paid section of a search engine results page it qualifies that your site has what they are looking for.
About the Author:
Nick Stamoulis is the President of Brick Marketing, a B2B SEO firm. For more information call 781-999-1222 or visit http://www.brickmarketing.com.
