Improving traffic to your website is never an easy task, with competition all targeting and trying to muscle in on your keywords, google ads and paid advertisements, there’s plenty to worry about.

But nothing’s ever impossible and with a little bit of knowledge in the right areas and the clever use of strategies, you can boost the traffic to your small business almost overnight.

Not sure where to start? We’ve got 5 strategies to improve traffic to your small business website.

1. Content, content, content

Your first step into transforming your traffic is to recognize the importance of content, a huge factor that, according to Digital Authority, approximately 93% of successful B2B content marketers know its worth.

It’s not revolutionary to adopt new attitudes in business in 2019 and when it comes to generating traffic, businesses are commonly thinking like media companies first and their primary function second.

The best way to create attention is by cranking out as much high-quality content as possible, getting as much of your message into the world, and building the rankings of your website. The higher the ranking of your website compared to competitors, the more likely that you’re going to surpass them in the search results – increasing your traffic.

Make sure the amount of content and the message behind is consistent and you’ll build at a rapid rate.

2. Design for mobile-first

The number of searches with smartphones is only increasing and the number of smartphone users is expected to reach an astonishing 4.68 billion in 2022. It’s, therefore, no surprise that 52.2% of all web traffic is generated by mobile data and with Google choosing mobile optimized sites for highest ranking search results – now is the time to go mobile-first.

Ensuring that your web designer has a mobile-responsive layout in place that works with every screen size is vital. Several tips and tricks can be employed to make sure that your site is up there with the very best:

•     Optimise page loading speeds with fast-loading visuals
•     Vertical page designs opted for over horizontal or static
•     Touch-friendly buttons and navigation

It’s potentially the most important technique on the list, so if you’ve not already got a mobile-ready site, that must be your takeaway before optimizing further.

3. Backlinks are your friends

Sticking with the themes of optimizing web pages, creating content clusters, linking each page together, and creating an easy-to-crawl site is another key strategy for traffic improvement.

A HubSpot study showed that more internal links (linking pages to one another) led to a higher placement in search engines compared with those with fewer internal links. It, therefore, is vital for plenty of links to be present throughout each piece of content that links to other pieces of content throughout your site.

Similarly, backlinks from other high-quality and high-ranking sites are of great importance. Undoubtedly the best method to secure backlinks is by creating genuinely useful, unique content in the area of expertise of the business.

The more backlinks you build, the better Google sees your site – think of it as friends you trust recommending you a restaurant – but instead, it’s sites that Google trusts recommending good sources of information. 

4. Keep an eye on the analytics

Marketing analytics is potentially the most important influencer to make your digital decisions and steer your business in different directions.

According to Combo App the more actionable data available to marketers, the better insights they will get into their customer’s likes. With more information comes the ability to tailor and customize marketing, advertising, and content for the consumer.

Using tools such as Ahref’s gives unparalleled access to information regarding keywords, page and site rankings, and more to make sure that you’re investigating and developing in the right areas. With the disregard for data and customer-rated as one of the 5 main reasons that health start-ups fail, it makes sense to focus on the data and make changes accordingly.  

5. Improve the user experience (UX)

User experience is another absolute key factor that not only makes potential customers return back to your site but has a direct impact on your rankings according to Google’s guidelines.

As I’m sure you’re aware by now, Google’s algorithms work with the user in mind, so it’s no surprise that user experience is factored into their search engine. Optimizing your site for the user, not the search engine should be your main focus with an easy-to-navigate site filled with plenty of useful content.

Speed is the primary goal, optimizing time from A-B, making information relatively available and maximizing layout for user experience. The easiest it is to find information and navigate, the better your site will perform.

To conclude

Ultimately, organically building your site with continuous high-quality content that both contain genuinely useful information and a true company message is imperative.

Although paid options do exist, for a small business, organic content production is by far the most cost-effective and valuable to a company. Google guidelines should be viewed and adopted where possible, including:

•     Design for mobile-first
•     Backlinks and internal links creating a trusted and well-linked site
•     Keywords, demographics, and data utilized
•     User experience optimized

It’s important to note that building a new site and generating a reputation is not an instantaneous process. Each page posted and developed will take approximately 3 months before new web pages begin to list on Google, however, it’s the early stages that really count with website development.

It may be a test of patience, but taking the time to build and develop a site properly is the greatest strategy to improve traffic and expand a small business. Not sure where to start? Work with a marketing company that can help you figure things out as you go.