subject: Why Does My Site Have Low Traffic [print this page] Why Does My Site Have Low Traffic Why Does My Site Have Low Traffic
If you build it, they will come right? Not on the internet. Online, for people to visit a website it takes a little more effort nowadays. The two main causes of low traffic on a website are poor advertising / promotion and poor site design. The former prevents people from finding you, while the latter prevents people from returning. Both end in unfortunate site statistics. Thankfully, troubleshooting is not impossible.
Not advertising falls under the poor advertising banner. Promoting your website is a fundamental activity that should be performed comprehensively and properly. You need to truly announce yourself. After all, if you don't, how do you expect people to find you?
For starters, if you already have an offline audience, alert them to your website. Place the website URL on any business paraphernalia customers will see (e.g., business cards, memos, menus, flyers). Send out a marketing e-mail to your customers as well. A simple e-mail telling your customers about the site and how it can benefit them should bring in more traffic.
To draw in customers who aren't yet familiar with your business, you need to improve your ranking in the search engines since they're the top referrer for new visitors and few people bother clicking past the first page of results. Submitting your site to all the major search engines and directories for indexing is a good start. You may also want to consider paid search. Most search engines offer a pay per click (PPC) advertising program where you can bid for your advertisement to appear in the sponsored links section of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for a specified keyword. This will quickly land you a prominent place in the search results. Organically arriving on the front page is done through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). While PPC can provide immediate results since they are ads, SEO takes significant commitments including patience; SEO can take several months and even longer depending on the competitive atmosphere keyword by keyword.
When using SEO, too many people target the wrong audience. The world of SEO is dominated by keywords. This is important because it's easier to appear on the first page results for more specialized keywords like "caramel cucumber cookies" than those for broad keywords like "food." Do some research and creative thinking to verify that the keywords you're targeting are the best for your market niche. Use tools like the Google Keyword Tool and WordTracker. Also, always refer to the Google Webmaster Tools when implementing SEO processes.
Poor site design means a website is difficult for search engines and/or users to navigate. For search engines to properly analyze your page, it needs to be able to read it. If it can't do this, your page is at an immediate (and obvious) disadvantage. For this reason, make sure that your site offers (in HTML) site navigation, sitemap and appropriate meta tags.
For users to navigate your page, the design and interface should be straightforward. More importantly, for your benefit, the site should encourage customer interaction. Avoid any dead links and empty pages. High-traffic websites are successful because they offer users competitive content, contact forms, and smooth transactions; they give both the customer and business owner a reason for further contact.
Generally, sites have low traffic because they follow the Field of Dreams mantra, "If you build it, they will come." They build, but forget to put the extra effort into drawing the crowds. Maybe the internet mantra should be "If you SEO it, they will come."
Do you seek to improve your site traffic with eager visitors? Contact us for a no-obligation initial consultation.
