Web Podcast - Episode 9: Driving Traffic To Your Website

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So everybody, episode nine, today we’re talking about how to get your website out there.
A lot of people build a website, or we build websites for people and they ask now what? Does it just sit there and start generating us new leads and making us money?

The answer to that is generally no, it doesn't. It’s not that easy. Obviously like anything, once you’ve built it you need to utilise it. What we mean by that is you have to direct people towards your website.

There’s different ways to do this. Some are free. Some cost money. Some of them are online and some are offline.
Today I’ll just be sharing a list of all the obvious routes you can go down to promote your site.

The first and one of the most commonly used methods is Google. You can get on Google in two or three different ways. You can organically list your website. This means that you do not pay to list your site, it organically gets its own ranking based on what Google's algorithms think about it in comparison to other sites in certain searches.

So if your a car dealer, Google will look at your website and when someone searches car dealer it will weigh up various different targets. The algorithms and rules will generate a rough idea of who deserves to be at the top , second, third and then it works its list down the page. There’s a lot of factors behind how that works, we won’t talk about them now because you could literally have someone talk for a whole day about it as its so complicated.

The other way of doing it, is with Google AdWords. If you’ve been on Google before and you see those little ads at the top that have a circle with ad inside it, those are paid ads. The companies that are coming up they are paying to be at the top of the list, within the top two or three results.
They pay per click. Every time someone clicks on the ad, the company pays a fee. The fees called a bid, they bid for position. The bid varies keyword to keyword. Some keywords have very low costs per click, like a matter of a few cents. Some end up paying a lot of money say $5-$10 a click. That’s where it can be a tough one as it can add up quite a bit.

The key with Google ads is that you’re trying to get as many people that click on the ad and end up at your site to enquire. You’ve got to make sure you have a really good process from the ad copy writing all the way through the landing page, like I’ve talked about in another episode. The landing page is also key in having good calls to action, telling people to enquire because if you’re paying for ten clicks at $5 each that’s $50. You want to make sure that at least one of those clicks turns into a job.

And working out that those ten clicks made you $50 You’ve got one job out of it, is it worth $50 for that job?
If you've sold a hoodie for $60 and it cost you $50 to acquire the customer then no, it’s probably not worth it. But, if you’re a new home builder and you got a new job, building a $500,000 house and it only cost you $50...then yeah, I’m guessing you won’t be unimpressed by that. That’s what you need to weigh-up with Google ads.

The third point with Google is that there is Google Business Pages. You guys can set this up yourself. Google those. They come in searches, they’re a big map and it will highlight a business and list their opening times, phone number, website and other details.
They’re important because they’re free and you can get featured up on Google with those and the best bit, they stand right out.

Moving on from Google.

Social media. Facebook, LinkedIn. Having your business listed on LinkedIn and Facebook is very important, especially if you’re dealing with consumers, if you’re dealing with the public and selling a product or a service.

The main reason for this is you can get in front of users by implementing boosted posts and posting regular content. Once your ideal audience likes your page, you can keep reposting content to them and they can keep engaging with it and in the back of their mind, they scroll through their feed every day and you’re there.

As you know a lot of people spend a lot of time on social media. I personally don’t have it on my phone because it distracts me too much. Most people don’t seem to mind, they’ll even be on it at work.

That’s a bloody good way to get in front of your audience. Use Facebook, create posts and boost them. It’s very important and relatively inexpensive too.

An insight I feel is helpful, if you’ve got a product, you can use boosted posts to help get it in front of people. But word the post in a way that gets people to engage with it. You need to get people to engage and make a viral effect on what you’re trying to promote.

If you have a product you’re trying to get out there and it’s quite cool and quirky try and make a video for it, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but just a cool DIY nicely cut video showing the product and how it’s used. Then you can do things like add captions over the Facebook video.

You’ve probably seen these before, something like “tag a friend that needs this” or “like if you think this would help you”. Things that get people to engage with it. I find the tagging thing works well, a lot of people will tag their friends. It’s usually because of comedic purposes but then again, there’s a lot of stuff that’s relevant and serious it’s not all along the lines of being funny.

So, if you can do something like that, that gets the “wow” factor and then share it with two people, then those two other people, for a start, will see your ad. I believe it doesn’t even cost you anything as it is an organic reach rather than paid. You’re getting free visibility.

If you have a very basic and boring ad, chances are you’ll only get direct people looking at it, who won’t engage with it anyway. You’re just wasting your money.

Make a post that’s engaging, one that makes people comment, and then most importantly, share.

You can also run giveaways, again, there’s a cost associated with this method because you are giving something away. But you can do things along the lines of getting people to like your page to be in with a chance of winning a prize. However, with that, you can get a lot of irrelevant people liking the page, you could end up with a lot of random people liking the page just so they can win the prize. Then it’s just a matter of saying to people to name your company. They’ll probably respond “I don’t have a clue, I just wanted to win the prize”. That’s where it can be a waste.

Then again, those people may have people that they know, who want your product. It’s a hard one to decide on. Personally I wouldn’t do it, but, it’s another way of getting people liking your page.

Once you get the likes, and people are engaging with your page, then any other content you post will generally generate more interest.
Whereas if you have a fresh page, with zero likes, you really need to get boosting your post to drive people to your page. If you’re not doing this, you’re just sending stuff out to nobody.

So that’s social media. That’s a good way to go. But, there’s also the classic way. Offline media like print, doing things like business cards, your email signature, put your website on there. Also put your business logo on your vehicle, if you’ve got product packaging, or stickers, or letterheads, chuck it all on. That’s very important too.

If your audience is the older generation, 50 plus, that's when you need to think alot about doing newspaper ads, even the old fashioned post box, do mail drops. Those can more effectively reach your audience. People that are 50 plus generally, still don’t interact with it. You’re going to miss out if you think everyone is online. I’m not saying over 50’s can’t use the internet. I know people that are friends who are in their 20s and their hopeless on the internet. Just bear in mind that you need to target your audience.

Some of the sources they’ll use are different to what you may think. They may not be on the internet, they may be an organisation so you’ll need to get networking, or they may not have a computer. You may have to reach them through T.V or radio. Just think along them lines.
T.V obviously is a bit pricey.

There’s lots of different factors you need to consider. Personally I like the old fashioned way of doing things. That can involve calling people, or when I see them I suggest they check our website. If I’m selling to them I show them and walk them through the website to show them what I have on offer.

There’s lots of different things you can do there.

Have a think about it and write down a list of you’re best places to target for your new website.

Google organic search is a given, however there’s all the above mentioned avenues too. Social media or the old fashioned newspaper can be a good way to go sometimes.

That’s Matt from RAZOR Web with the RAZOR Web Design Wire Podcast, and join us again next time, I hope you enjoyed the show. Cheers.