Getting your e-commerce website off the ground is no mean feat. Take a bow. Pat yourself on the back. Your online store is open for business. There may have been some sleepless nights along the road to make your site everything you had imagined it to be, and it was worth every minute. Best of all, the site is user-friendly. It is functional on every browser and every device.
At last, you are a member of the lucrative digital community. You know how great your new site is but how do you attract shoppers to your site? How do you let the world know that you are open for online business? Crossing your fingers and doing a rain dance won’t generate quality web traffic. Thankfully, there are proven methods for creating an outstanding online presence. We have put together a list of 7 of the best ways to generate traffic to your site. It is worth the effort to concentrate on all of them, every day.
1) SEO: Of course your site has been designed so that it is easily picked up by search engines. You have great copy and magnificent images. Word of mouth has always been the best advertising, and the least expensive. Organic search results are digital word of mouth. Optimizing search engine results and ranking takes time and includes features both on and off-page. Solid SEO improves your site’s quality score which allows all of your other digital marketing efforts that much more effective.
2) Social Media: Usually the first and best way to optimize your organic search ranking and drive traffic to your online store is with social media. This is where people hang out. People share links to your content on social media. It is one of the most cost-effective ways to drive traffic to your site. There are so many social media platforms competing for ad dollars. Know your audience. Know your content. Make a footprint on the platforms where your customers are. They will like and share your link.
3) Paid Search Advertising on Google: Also known as pay-per-click advertising, paid search can be a great way to drive new traffic to your online store while improving your quality score. Paid search can be tricky. Pay-per-click ads are always at the top of the search results page. It is a very competitive marketplace as with all things digital. It is worth the effort to carefully research keywords while producing trustworthy ads that not only drive traffic but also drive sales.
4) Paid Social Media Advertising: This where you really need to have intimate knowledge of your target audience. Social media advertising is relatively inexpensive but it needs to reach the right eyeballs to be impactful. Social media ads allow you to customize your audience thereby reducing costs.
5) Content Marketing: This is a lot like paid search advertising. Your site content is presented on the page of a relevant news site. Unlike paid search, you are not limited to a few lines of text on an organic search. Your ad is a graphic with a headline designed to entice the reader to seek similar information on your site. Outbrain is one such platform for hosting promoted links to your online store.
6) Q&A: Question and answer sites lend authority to your brand while driving quality traffic. One of the most popular and authoritative Q&A sites is Quora. Odds are that your customers are asking questions about your product or service on Quora. Answer their questions with authority. As a bonus, your answer also appears in organic search results.
7) Guest Blogging: This like Q&A is a way to build authority in your niche. The basic premise is that you are already familiar with the best blogs in your target market so you contact those blog and pitch a blog post idea that links back to your own blog.
As with all SEO and digital marketing you should focus on the long-term rather than quick results. Quick results are not generally good results. You want your brand to stand out while not appearing “spammy”. It takes time and effort to generate quality traffic to your online store. You can easily become mired in social media accounts, content creation, and pay-per-click ads while you could be focusing on your product or service–in other words, you could be focusing on what you do best.
Internet marketing strategies are what we do best. Once you have gotten your e-commerce site ready for action, contact us to create and manage the best digital marketing solutions for your brand. No more sleepless nights!
