When you are running a business, your Blog can play a huge role in the direction that your business takes. If you are looking to generate sales through your website then you need to be on the ball when it comes to digital marketing strategies, which may not come naturally to some.
We recommend that you spend some time doing some research on digital marketing strategies and also make sure that you keep abreast of news and trends involving digital marketing. Sites that you may wish to visit for updates include Forbes, or Moz for SEO specific content.
There are a number of different elements that are involved in generating traffic for websites and you have probably heard of PPC and SEO. Just in case it is something you are not so familiar with, we will have a quick look at what it entails:
PPC – PPC or Pay Per Click involves as the name suggests, payment for getting clicks. So you are effectively buying visits. You will probably have seen at the side of search results on Google or another search engine there is a little ‘Ad’ symbol on some of the top results, which basically means the company have bid on a keyword for an ad placement.
It is a bit like the modern day way of buying an advert in the Yellow Pages instead of appearing in the list along with everybody else. When done correctly, PPC is said to pay for itself and in many cases generates a nice profit. Google Adwords is one of the most used PPC services, so if you want to find out more, then that is a good starting point.
SEO – Search Engine Optimisation is the other available option and there is nothing to say that you shouldn’t pay attention to both. SEO basically means generating website traffic through organic methods, which involves employing a number of SEO principles. So you are not paying for the increased traffic unless you decide to pay a SEO specialist to do the work for you!
The overall aim of SEO based content is to get your website to feature as high as possible in the search rankings when a potential customer uses a relevant keyword. It is worthwhile mentioning that SEO principles change on a regular basis, so the best approach for long term SEO success is to produce high quality content that is aimed at providing the website visitor with a good experience and information that is useful.
Google doesn’t share the details of the algorithm that determines where your website sits in search rankings but it does provide you with some guidance in a Starter Guide. Within it they outline how everything about your website should be visitor centric, rather than concentrating efforts into certain tweaks to your website.
Their first piece of advice is to create unique, accurate page titles. That might sound simple but some people can get this part badly wrong with severe consequences.
They also highlight the importance of having easy navigation around your site with good organisation and descriptive categories. Most website builders will have a page layout that will ensure easy navigation. The biggest emphasis of all is to offer quality content and services and creating a highly useful site.
So SEO and PPC are two routes that you can go down to attract more visitors to your website. Another method of getting more traffic is to build up a following on various social media platforms, engaging with your followers and signposting your website for more useful information that is relevant to them.
