Top reasons why my website isn’t getting traffic

Start Performing SEO

Search engine optimisation is optimising your website and creating content to rank it high in search engines such as Google and Bing. Your goal is to create content that is optimised so search engines understand which keywords you should rank for and also, so the user gets exactly what they are looking for (satisfying search intent). 

SEO is a way of getting organic traffic to your site, meaning people will find you naturally in Google search results. This often results in people trusting you more than something like paid ads, and therefore providing your page is what they are looking for means higher conversion rates. 

In its simplest form, your primary focus is providing a good user experience, providing content people are searching for and then promoting that content by building backlinks to that content. With every backlink you get providing it’s from a relevant trusted site, it’s giving your website a vote of confidence and therefore Google will rank you higher. 

SEO takes time, at the minimum for some sites you can gain some good traction at around the 6-month mark. However, it does depend on how competitive your niche is as to how long it takes. SEO is a long game but generally yields long term results. 

Run Paid Ads

Paid ads are as the name suggests paying to advertise your content, website, promotions etc. Unlike SEO this is instant as soon as you start paying for your content to be displayed on your chosen channel. This could be on social media such as Facebook or LinkedIn. Alternatively, it could be pay per click on Google’s Google Ads.

Although your ads are running instantly, what many people do not realise is paid ads need to be optimised to be effective. It takes months of collecting data, testing and tweaking the campaigns to get you the best results. 

Lastly, paid ads are an effective way of getting highly targeted traffic to your site. The downside is once you switch them off the traffic will stop in an instant. Paid ads can be used for specific campaigns or as a long-term strategy if you’re willing to set aside a monthly budget for them for the foreseeable. 

Build a social media presence

Another way to get essentially free traffic to your website is to build a social media presence. This effectively is content marketing, however, as social media is such a large part of people’s lives now, I feel I need to expand on it.

Building an audience on any social media platform means being consistent for a long time. It’s generally for the majority of people a slow process. 

You need to show up regularly providing value to your target audience and engaging with them. You should not be constantly selling to them, instead, try to help them as much as possible without asking for anything in return. 

Don’t just post every day like it’s a chore. Aim to build a community with your audience by engaging with them and encouraging them to engage. This will lead to building a devoted following that trust you and your brand who will more likely visit your website and purchase your products and/or services.

Build an email list and start email marketing

Start building your email list as soon as you can. You’ll hear this advice over and over and it’s often overlooked. Every strategy we discussed in this article is extremely effective at generating traffic for your website. However, to make that traffic even more valuable to your business, encourage your visitors to sign up for your mailing list. 

Emails are extremely personal. It’s one of the few ways you can ensure you’re getting in front of the right people. This could be sending them stuff such as information newsletters, current offers you have on or new products and services.

To encourage people to part with their email addresses you should be trading it with something of value to them. This could be a free eBook, guide, cheat sheet, webinar, course or whatever else would be of value to your target audience. 

Are there ways to increase website traffic for free?

Absolutely. Apart from paid ads, SEO, content marketing, social media marketing and email marketing can all be done for free. However, is anything ever free? 

As discussed previously when talking about your budget, how much do you value your time or your staff’s time? Learning something takes time and money, most of the best software costs money.

You have to decide if it is worth learning and doing something yourself and sacrificing your time for it that could otherwise be spent doing what you’re best at. Or is it better to simply pay for someone to do it for you?

Lastly, other ways you can get free traffic to your site is via offline more traditional marketing activities such as word of mouth, networking, cold calling and cold emailing.

How long until my website gets traffic?

Generally, you can start getting traffic to your site within 6 months. However, much like the question “how much does it cost to get traffic to your site?”, it’s a similar answer for how long it takes to get traffic to your website. It depends. 

What are your goals, short term and long term? What’s your budget? Which strategy will at this point in your business work best for you based on your goals and budget?

SEO, social media marketing and content marketing are all long term. Whereas paid ads are instant and will start getting traffic to your site quicker, but as mentioned still need to be given time to be optimised to be as effective as possible. 

Provide Excellent Customer Service and Ask Customers to Review Your Brand

This should go without saying but one thing you can do to get traffic snowballing is simply providing excellent customer service and asking customers to review your brand. 

The more people talk about your brand and refer others the quicker it will take off! It’s one of the simplest yet most effective ways of building a business and subsequent website traffic, yet business owners get so caught up in fancy sales funnels etc they forget the basics. 

Conclusion

So, there we have it, the top reasons why my website isn’t getting traffic! Start with the foundations. Ensure your website is free of errors and there isn’t anything such as Google penalties that could be preventing your site from getting traffic.

Ensure you are providing a great user experience on your site before you start getting traffic to it or that traffic will bounce right off it!

Make sure your content is up to scratch. Is it helpful? Does it match the user’s intent? Is it written for them and not about you?

Then understand your goals and your budget to start getting an idea of which strategy would be best for you. Look at what your competitors are doing to gain an insight into what might also work for you.

Choose a strategy that works for your business at this current stage of your business. Do not try to implement a myriad of strategies, try to only focus on one or two at a time. Get good at those and as your business expands then maybe it’s time to add another strategy. 

Whichever strategy you go for, start building your email list as soon as you can so you can make quality traffic even better. Understand that although you can do things for free nothing is free when you factor in your time, learning, mistakes, software etc. 

Understand that every strategy takes time. Some are quicker than others but they both have their pros and cons. However, one thing you can always focus on no matter which strategy is ensuring you’re providing excellent customer service and asking customers to review your brand.

If you decide SEO is potentially viable for your business and want to find out more about SEO, please get in touch today.