How Can I Get More Traffic To My Website?

The most commonly asked question of me is “How can I get more traffic to my website?“…

After which I immediately follow with “What are you going to do with it?“…

At this point I generally receive blank stares followed by a request to elaborate.

Here’s the thing – most website owners think that getting “hits” to their website is the most important thing in a web strategy. They don’t care what they are going to do with new visitors – just that they come.

This is a fundamental flaw in your web strategy. Granted – traffic is important but the most critical aspect in your web strategy is doing something with the traffic you get. By “doing something” – we mean accomplishing and executing on your website’s goals (you do have goals for your website, right?).

What’s the point of getting an extra thousand visitors to your site if you aren’t doing anything with them? If they aren’t signing up for your email list, buying your widget, leaving a comment, subscribing to your RSS feed, or whatever – than what’s the point?

Why do you need to generate more traffic when are doing nothing with the traffic you are getting now?

Our colleague Brian Kaldenberg maintains the idea of “It’s easier to double your conversion rate than to double your website’s traffic”. What he means is that it’s easier to optimize your website to meet your goals than it is to get more people to come to your site. It could also be more profitable…

Lets get technical…

All of this data can be found inside your web analytics.

Let’s assume your business, Acme INC, sells a single widget for $97. Currently, your conversion rate – percentage of website visitors who end up buying your widget – is 3%. And let’s say you get 2,000 visitors to your website every month. If we do the math…

• 2,000 visitors * .03 conversion rate = 60 widgets/mo sold on your website
• 60 widgets * $97/ea = $5,820/mo revenue generate by your website

So what Brian is saying above is that it will be easier to increase your conversion rate to 6% than it is to increase your website’s traffic to 4,000 visitors per month. Here comes more math

If you Acme INC doubles their conversion rate to 6%…

• 2,000 visitors * .06 conversion rate = 120 widgets/mo sold
• 120 widgets * $97/ea = $11,640/mo

But guess what – you can optimize your website RIGHT NOW and increase your conversion rate. Doubling the traffic to your website will take a lot of hard work, great content, advertising, and patience (like years). Both are important – but don’t you think Acme INC would like a 6% conversion rate BEFORE they double their traffic?

• 4,000 visitors * .03 = 120 => $11,640/mo
• 4,000 visitors * .06 = 240 => $23,280/mo

For Acme INC doubling their conversion rate before they generate more traffic is a difference of 12,000/mo … doubling their revenue.

Wrapping Up

Back to our main point… Instead of asking “How can I get more traffic to my website”, you should be asking “How can I convert more of my website traffic into my goals”.

Once you’ve optimized for conversion – than you should start generating more traffic. Look at the numbers and make data driven decisions.

If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments or jump into the forums!

A Sample Local Web Strategy

Here are six things I would include in the foundation of a good local web strategy. You have a local internet marketing strategy – right?

Targeted Advertising - You can set up geographically targeted advertising campaigns very easily and they are relatively inexpensive

Local Listing – An optimized Google Local listing could do wonders for your businesses. People search for local products and services they want to buy every day. If you aren’t showing up in those results you could be missing out. It’s free and easy to get started.

Location Services - Location is getting big. Services like FourSquare and others have force the big players into the game like Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Google has already integrated Buzz into the mobile experience – making that Google Local Listing we mentioned above even more important.

Social - It’s free and easy to set up profiles on social websites. Set them up and use them as a content outposts while building relationships and having conversations – you know how that goes. The point is to be active on these networks and talk to people who are local – because when people need that plumber, for example, they know to contact you. (if you are a plumber, of course)

Monitor Local Opportunities – People on Twitter are talking about how they are going tile shopping and need their driveway cleared of snow. If you are listening – those become sales opportunities. Keep your ears to the ground where your customers live online. They’ll tell you what they want and when they want it.

Craigslist – I hired a guy of Craigslist to come plow my driveway during one of the many winter storms we have had in Iowa this year. He had a listing with an email address and a phone number. Oh – and he answered the email right away. That was a conversion from Craigslist for him. Sometimes during events like storms it’s a great place to be found for the casual browser or intent searcher.

Do you have any questions on our local web strategy sample? Is there something we should add that we missed? Let us know in the comments or jump into the forums!

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