Make Your Small Business Website Stand Out Online
If you’ve ever seen the movie Field of Dreams, you’ve heard the iconic line, “If you build it, they will come.” Well, that may be true for a Field of Dreams but it is NOT true for your business website.
Just creating a website isn’t enough to guarantee that you’ll rank well and attract traffic. Having an effective and professional website that represents your business in a positive way and builds trust with your potential customers can be challenging, but is worth the effort.
The Internet is a very big place. There are over 2 billions websites and over 500,000 more are added every single day. This means that your website has to be that much better to attract the customers that you want for your business.
Getting it in front of your ideal customers is the next step. Now, there are lots of ways to do that.
Make Your Small Business Website Stand Out Online
If you’ve ever seen the movie Field of Dreams, you’ve heard the iconic line, “If you build it, they will come.” Well, that may be true for a Field of Dreams but it is NOT true for your business website.
Just creating a website isn’t enough to guarantee that you’ll rank well and attract traffic. Having an effective and professional website that represents your business in a positive way and builds trust with your potential customers can be challenging, but is worth the effort.
The Internet is a very big place. There are over 2 billions websites and over 500,000 more are added every single day. This means that your website has to be that much better to attract the customers that you want for your business.
Getting it in front of your ideal customers is the next step. Now, there are lots of ways to do that.
How To Generate More Web Traffic For Your Small Business
Think of each of these things as tools in your marketing toolbox. Not all tools are right for every job and the same is true for different businesses:
- Some businesses do better by focusing on getting their website prominently displayed on the front page of Google.
- Others do better relying on social traffic from Facebook and Instagram. Maybe even Pinterest and Twitter.
- Some businesses can focus on a bunch of methods to get the right eyeballs on their site.
Digging deeper, it matters if you’re a local business that services a specific geographic area versus a national business that can help people in other areas.
How To Generate More Web Traffic For Your Small Business
Think of each of these things as tools in your marketing toolbox. Not all tools are right for every job and the same is true for different businesses:
- Some businesses do better by focusing on getting their website prominently displayed on the front page of Google.
- Others do better relying on social traffic from Facebook and Instagram. Maybe even Pinterest and Twitter.
- Some businesses can focus on a bunch of methods to get the right eyeballs on their site.
Digging deeper, it matters if you’re a local business that services a specific geographic area versus a national business that can help people in other areas.
How To Attract More Local Customers To Your Small Business
Here are our top three recommendations for a local business to show up in front of their ideal customers online and attract traffic to your small business:
1. RANK IN THE GOOGLE MAPS PACK (AKA THE 3-PACK)
97% of people start a search for a business to help solve a problem or fill a need by going to Google and typing in keywords such as “landscaper near me,” “jewelry store Concord NH,” or even “mold testing NH.”
Google will display just 3 businesses in the Maps Pack. There could be 30 plus competitors in your area and only 3 spots that will actually display on the front page.
Getting your business showing up in the Google Maps pack can help you attract very qualified traffic to your business and your website.
Google looks at a lot of information when deciding which businesses to show in the Google Maps 3-Pack. These factors include:
- Directory listing accuracy (the more accurate your business information is across the Internet is a BIG factor and a lot of businesses get this wrong all the time. (If you want to see how accurate your business listing information is across the web just reach out, we’re happy to help)
- Reviews. The number of reviews, frequency of reviews, quality of reviews, and keywords in the reviews are all factors that Google looks at.
- If you’re looking to learn more about how to get your small business showing on Google Maps, take a moment to read our Ultimate Guide To Completely Optimize Your Google My Business Listing.
Local Business Traffic Attraction Strategies:
Here are our top three recommendations for a local business to show up in front of their ideal customers online and attract traffic to your small business:
1. RANK IN THE GOOGLE MAPS PACK (aka the 3-Pack)
97% of people start a search for a business to help solve a problem or fill a need by going to Google and typing in keywords such as “landscaper near me,” “jewelry store Concord NH,” or even “mold testing NH.”
Google will display just 3 businesses in the Maps Pack. There could be 30 plus competitors in your area and only 3 spots that will actually display on the front page.
Getting your business showing up in the Google Maps pack can help you attract very qualified traffic to your business and your website.
Google looks at a lot of information when deciding which businesses to show in the Google Maps 3-Pack. These factors include:
- Directory listing accuracy (the more accurate your business information is across the Internet is a BIG factor and a lot of businesses get this wrong all the time. (If you want to see how accurate your business listing information is across the web just reach out, we’re happy to help)
- Reviews. The number of reviews, frequency of reviews, quality of reviews, and keywords in the reviews are all factors that Google looks at.
- If you’re looking to learn more about how to get your small business showing on Google Maps, take a moment to read our Ultimate Guide To Completely Optimize Your Google My Business Listing.
2. GOOGLE ADS & FACEBOOK ADS
80% of all Internet traffic comes from these two websites: Google and Facebook. Effective paid advertising campaigns are the quickest and fastest way to attract your ideal prospects to get your website found. You don’t have to have a huge budget to make this happen either.
Determining the right advertising budget for your local business really depends on the type of goods and services you offer. If you tend to sell higher ticket items or services, you can typically afford to spend a little more on advertising to get the right viewers to convert to new customers. For some businesses it makes a lot more sense to only focus on Google Ads whereas for other businesses, it may make more sense to rely on Facebook Ads to reach your ideal audience.
There’s a lot more that goes into running an effective advertising campaign, but some big points are:
- Know your ideal Customer and where they spend their time and what they search for. This is so important and many times not being clear on this can lead to failure from an ads campaign.
- Making sure your targeting is dialed in so you’re reaching the right people (most ads campaigns we evaluate for prospective clients are missing the mark and attracting the wrong people. This results in their ad campaigns “not working” and feeling like they wasted money).
- Get proper tracking in place. One of the biggest reasons most small businesses fail when running online advertising campaigns is due to the fact they’re playing “Blind Archery.” They aren’t properly tracking anything so they can’t see if they actually attract the right people. By having the appropriate tracking in place (phone tracking, web form conversion tracking etc) you can accurately “see” what’s really happening with your ads, which keywords to keep focusing on, which ones to get rid of, and more.
- A lot goes into effectively managing an advertising campaign from week to week. You need to be routinely adjusting the campaign, adjusting bids, adding negative keywords, and more. We typically see people that set up their own campaigns “set it and forget it.” As a result they don’t see the results they hope for.
2. GOOGLE ADS & FACEBOOK ADS
80% of all Internet traffic comes from these two websites: Google and Facebook. Effective paid advertising campaigns are the quickest and fastest way to attract your ideal prospects to get your website found. You don’t have to have a huge budget to make this happen either.
Determining the right advertising budget for your local business really depends on the type of goods and services you offer. If you tend to sell higher ticket items or services, you can typically afford to spend a little more on advertising to get the right viewers to convert to new customers. For some businesses it makes a lot more sense to only focus on Google Ads whereas for other businesses, it may make more sense to rely on Facebook Ads to reach your ideal audience.
There’s a lot more that goes into running an effective advertising campaign, but some big points are:
- Know your ideal Customer and where they spend their time and what they search for. This is so important and many times not being clear on this can lead to failure from an ads campaign.
- Making sure your targeting is dialed in so you’re reaching the right people (most ads campaigns we evaluate for prospective clients are missing the mark and attracting the wrong people. This results in their ad campaigns “not working” and feeling like they wasted money).
- Get proper tracking in place. One of the biggest reasons most small businesses fail when running online advertising campaigns is due to the fact they’re playing “Blind Archery.” They aren’t properly tracking anything so they can’t see if they actually attract the right people. By having the appropriate tracking in place (phone tracking, web form conversion tracking etc) you can accurately “see” what’s really happening with your ads, which keywords to keep focusing on, which ones to get rid of, and more.
- A lot goes into effectively managing an advertising campaign from week to week. You need to be routinely adjusting the campaign, adjusting bids, adding negative keywords, and more. We typically see people that set up their own campaigns “set it and forget it.” As a result they don’t see the results they hope for.
3. IMPROVE THE SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS FOR YOUR WEBSITE
Another big traffic strategy for local businesses is to get their website to rank higher in the search engines by optimizing the pages on your site for the keywords you want to rank for. The more clear it is for Google to understand who you are, what your business offers, the services and products you sell, where you are located, and the service area you serve.
Having the right technical set up “under the hood” of your website is absolutely crucial if you want your website to display prominently on the front page of Google. Additionally, you need to optimize each of the pages for specific title tags, meta descriptions, keywords, and more.
Most sites we look at don’t do this and they don’t rank well as a result.
Additionally, there are a lot of other factors that might negatively affect your website’s Google rankings. If your site is slow (slow loading times), not secure (your isn’t HTTPS secure) both of these can negatively affect your website rankings.
Having a strong Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy doesn’t have to be complicated and it really comes down to doing the right things in the right ways. If you want an audit on your current rankings, reach out to the NH Strategic Marketing team of online marketing experts and we’d be happy to take a look at your site and offer some suggestions. A lot of what we do for our clients to help them with their SEO is showing them how they rank currently, how their competitors might be beating them, and giving them a simple to follow strategy that will help them grow their SEO Rankings.
3. IMPROVE THE SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS FOR YOUR WEBSITE
Another big traffic strategy for local businesses is to get their website to rank higher in the search engines by optimizing the pages on your site for the keywords you want to rank for. The more clear it is for Google to understand who you are, what your business offers, the services and products you sell, where you are located, and the service area you serve.
Having the right technical set up “under the hood” of your website is absolutely crucial if you want your website to display prominently on the front page of Google. Additionally, you need to optimize each of the pages for specific title tags, meta descriptions, keywords, and more.
Most sites we look at don’t do this and they don’t rank well as a result.
Additionally, there are a lot of other factors that might negatively affect your website’s Google rankings. If your site is slow (slow loading times), not secure (your isn’t HTTPS secure) both of these can negatively affect your website rankings.
Having a strong Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy doesn’t have to be complicated and it really comes down to doing the right things in the right ways. If you want an audit on your current rankings, reach out to the NH Strategic Marketing team of online marketing experts and we’d be happy to take a look at your site and offer some suggestions. A lot of what we do for our clients to help them with their SEO is showing them how they rank currently, how their competitors might be beating them, and giving them a simple to follow strategy that will help them grow their SEO Rankings.
How To Attract More Website Traffic
“If you build it, they will come” is great for the Fields of Dreams but NOT for small businesses looking to improve website traffic. Just getting a website live isn’t enough. Having a “pretty” website isn’t enough. If you want to get your website found by your ideal customers you need to show up prominently on the front page of Google and show up on Facebook when they’re spending time scrolling through their newsfeed.
The right traffic strategies can help turn your website into your best salesperson but getting the right people to visit is a vitally-important. If you want some help coming up with a strategy to improve your website traffic reach out and we're happy to help.
Time To Meet With Kyle Battis
Kyle Battis has been involved in advertising and marketing since 1999. He has a background in Website Design, Direct Marketing, Online Media Buying commanding $150,000 per Month Ad budgets, Live Presentations, and he has extensive experience designing Marketing Campaigns that make money for small businesses.