By now, there's little mystery left in the world of digital website marketing. Long gone are the days when it was still possible to find loopholes in Google's search algorithm to exploit or to rely solely on black-hat SEO techniques to drive traffic. Instead, the field of SEO has settled into a fairly predictable and stable rhythm where content creation, keyword targeting, and old-fashioned hard work now rule.
For the internet at large, that's actually good news. After all, it helps to make sure that users can find the most relevant and useful content on the web when they want it. The problem is, though, that today's SEO tactics can be resource-intensive. That puts small businesses at a distinct disadvantage in their respective markets, since they don't have the ability to churn out content or rely on large-scale advertising campaigns to get attention.
If you're running a small business and have been left wondering how to get people to your website, fear not. There are still some simple and cost-effective ways you can do it. Here are three of the best of them.
Create Strategic Partnerships
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Small business owners often rely on partnerships with other firms to increase their presence in the market, either through driving down costs or through mutual promotion efforts. The same works quite well when it comes to increasing traffic to a website.
To make it happen, seek out strategic partnerships with other firms, ideally larger ones such as vendors and other suppliers. Then, organize cross-promotion on the respective web properties.
If possible, try to conduct an online event like a live question and answer session, or an instructional event dealing with product lines or services the two businesses have in common.
If executed well, such events might attract the attention of the larger business's audience to the smaller one's website. The result: instant, targeted traffic.
Mention Relevant Influencers
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Although content marketing is already a part of the standard SEO arsenal, small businesses often struggle to draw attention to the content they publish.
One simple way to remedy that is to use blog posts and other content to quote or mention online influencers who are relevant to the business. Then, you can contact the individual and request that they tell their followers about the mention.
In most cases, they'll be happy to do it – because every time they're mentioned their authority grows – and your business will benefit from direct exposure to their audience.
Delay Your SEO Efforts
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Although it may sound counterintuitive, one of the secrets to driving website traffic, particularly when engaging in content marketing, is to abandon SEO efforts in the short term.
That's because major search engines like Google are hardly going to notice a new post on a low-ranking website like those belonging to the average small business. That means all of the efforts that go into SEO will have little to no effect on the content's search position for at least the first month that it is online.
Instead of SEO, small businesses should focus on optimizing content to garner the most attention on social media and other outlets. Once the initial burst of traffic from that starts to fade, you can always go back and revise a post for better SEO outcomes, and by then, the search algorithms should be starting to take notice.
A Thriving Business Website
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By putting these three simple tactics into action, it's possible for just about any small business to increase the flow of traffic to their website in short order.
Better still, the traffic that comes in should be high-quality, too, having come from industry partners, relevant influencers, and targeted social media efforts. Also, most small businesses that get to that point find that keeping traffic is a whole lot less resource-intensive than driving it in the first place, and that they're not at so much of a disadvantage at that stage of the marketing cycle.
That makes these tips especially valuable, in that they aid in overcoming what's usually the biggest hurdle in small business digital marketing – making the digital space the kind of level playing field it was always meant to be. To those that employ them, enjoy your traffic spike!