Website Expert: RuthAnn Bowen
Getting more traffic to your website can be one of the more frustrating aspects of being a small business owner.
You spend hours creating a website and after much hair pulling and a few choice words, you finally launch. You post it on social media, do an email blast, get friends and family visits, and then….crickets. No more traffic to your website!
And when there’s no traffic, there are no sales.
What can you do to drive more traffic to your website?
Here are some important things you need to know when it comes to driving more traffic to your website.
“It’s important to know what words your audience uses to find you.”
1. Know Your Keywords:
Keywords are the words your customer or client are typing in the search bar of Google to find you. It’s important to know what words your audience uses to find you because those words act as a type of filter for Google to bring you up in the search results.
For example, if you’re a yoga instructor, you may run yoga classes, workshops, and retreats. The words “yoga instructor”, “yoga retreats,” etc. would be keywords for you to use on your website. These would be common keywords that many yoga instructors would use, so the more niche you can get in your market, the better chance you have of ranking for those niche keywords.
2. Page Titles:
Your page title is frequently the primary piece of information used when someone is deciding whether or not they’re going to click on your page or someone else’s.
To get clicks to your website through your page titles keep them short (no more than 60 characters), use descriptive and concise language, and incorporate your keywords (see number one above).
“Google can’t ‘read’ the images on your website so you need to let the search engine know what’s in the images.”
3. Alt Tag Your Images:
Google can’t ‘read’ the images on your website so you need to let the search engine know what’s in the images. Alt tagging your images is often forgotten about but is a great place where small business owners can incorporate their keywords.
Just make sure the words are relevant to the image. This is also helpful for accessibility reasons because people with vision disabilities often have a reader that reads websites to them so they are able to understand more clearly what’s in the images as well.
Optimizing your website to gain more traffic is an ongoing process. It takes time and patience. But the rewards are so worth it when you start seeing more leads and sales come as a direct result of your effort.
Need a little help getting your website found online? Download the FREE SEO checklist with 20 action items you can take today to get more visible here.
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About the Author:
Ruthann Bowen, founder and owner of WIX DesignHer, is a creative and business-minded web designer located in the greater Pittsburgh, PA area. She is also the author of “The Female Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating a Website in a Weekend.” She works with small businesses and female entrepreneurs building beautiful, modern websites which accurately represent clients’ brands. As a WIX expert, she teaches business-related classes showing people how to design using the easy drag-n-drop website building platform. Exercising the experience gained from her background in PR, she also holds workshop
