3 Ways of Getting Local Traffic to Your Website
Are you interested in getting local traffic to your website? There is no point in having a website designed for you if you do not have a plan for getting potential customers to visit it.
We recommend using 3 core strategies to get more traffic to your website. Strategies are broad approaches, with each strategy having a number of specific tactics. You can do some of these strategies yourself, or you can pay us to do them for you. The 3 core strategies are:
Directory listings
Content marketing
Technical tweaks
Understanding the options and what is involved takes a lot of explanation, but the information below should help you see what is possible. Alternatively, you can simply book a no-obligation consultation right now and then talk about options.
getting local traffic strategy 1
Directory Listings
The first strategy for getting local traffic to your website involves adding it relevant directories.
The most prominent directory is Google My Business and it is a must for local businesses. It allows local businesses to show up in Google when someone searches for ‘plumber in Noosa’ or ‘accountant near me’.
You can set up Google My Business yourself if you either have a physical business address or you service a set area (e.g. Coffs Harbour).
Bing Business Places is Microsoft’s version of Google My Business. It’s very similar, showing results when someone searches for a local service. Less people use Bing, but it still accounts for 16% of the search market in Australia.
Again, you can set up Bing Business Places yourself. Yet, if you want to avoid the hassle, we can do it for you.
Many people use their phone to search for local businesses. And, many of those people use iPhones. The standard setting on iPhones is to search using Safari and Apple Maps.
So, it makes sense to list your business with Apple Maps. However, unlike Google and Bing, you must list a physical address for Apple Maps. Again, we are happy to help you.
While Google, Bing and Apple are the biggest players, there are other directories where you can list your business.
These include having a Facebook business page and listing your business in directories such as True Local, Hot Frog and Local Search.
Once again we are happy to help!
getting more local traffic strategy 2
Content Marketing
The second strategy for getting more traffic is content marketing. Content marketing involves creating useful content that your ideal audience finds extremely helpful. This content can include articles (blogs), voice recordings (podcasts), videos (vlogs), slides (online PowerPoint presentations) and infographics.
Such content helps your business in 3 ways:
Sharing such content on social media helps in getting local traffic to your site
Visitors who find your content valuable are likely to link to your site
Link increase your search engine rankings, which then brings more traffic to your site
Topic Research
Before creating any content, you need to research topics your ideal customer is interested in, the keywords associated with those topics, and how hard it will be to rank well for those topics.
This allows you to focus on topics people are interested in and for which you have a chance of ranking well.
Topic research is hard to do without access to expensive digital tools. So, this is something we are happy to help you with.
Content Creation
Once you know what your ideal customer is interested in, you create content to help them. You can do this yourself, but it is something many small business owners find daunting.
So, we can help you. We specialise in copywriting (writing articles), creating visuals and infographics, and video production.
Let our expertise help your small business!
Content curation is a useful addition to content marketing. It involves finding and sharing useful content that others have shared on the internet.
In its simplest form, you may find a single piece of content, e.g. 10 Tips for Starting a Small Business and share it on a Facebook group for small business owners.
Yet, you can do an even better job by finding 4 pieces of content. Once found, you add one of your own pieces of content, write a short blurb on each and send out a weekly newsletter.
Great content helps establish your credibility with potential customers and with Google. In turn, this can help your search engine rankings.
Content Sharing
Once you have created content, you need to share it in places your ideal customers hang out.
This can include big players in social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Yet, you need to focus on the platform which your ideal customers use most.
Yet, it can also include less obvious places such as Reddit and Quora.
When you have a brand new site, you may wish to boost posts you share (paid boost).
Again, we are happy to help, but you can also do it yourself.
getting local traffic strategy 3
Technical Tweaks
The third strategy for getting local traffic to your website involves making behind the scenes, technical tweaks.
Site Speed
Site speed refers to how fast each page of your website loads when a visitor clicks on it. Slow site speeds annoy visitors and therefore Google.
Google checks your site speed and the result can either help or hurt your rankings in search results. Google pays particular attention to how fast your website loads on mobile devices.
You can check your site speed with Google’s free tool here.
GOOD
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
BAD
There are 2 ways that we can help improve the speed of your website.
The first is less expensive ($300) and involves using plugins to address common speed issues. We can improve your site’s speed, but it may not be enough to get a 90+ score on Google.
The second costs more but is more effective. We diagnose exactly what is causing your slow speed, and if you choose proceed, we fix it. Diagnosis costs $200 and we give you a quote for fixing those issues.
One common cause of slow speed is poor hosting. If you agree to upgrade your hosting and to let us fix your site, we guarantee 90+ ratings.
Cumulative Layout Shift
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is geeky term for when things move on your screen as a page loads. It affects your rankings on Google.
At best, such movement is annoying. Yet, it can really bad when you think your clicking on a ‘no’ button and it shifts so you click on ‘yes’.
To the right (desktops) or below (mobiles) you can see examples of good and bad CLS. These were created by GTmetrix.
You can test whether you have CLS issues using either a Chrome extension or through your Google Search Console.
If you have CLS issues, we can help you fix them! They are likely caused by:
Lack of image, iframe or video dimensions
Ads running on your site
Web font issues
We can help resolve any CLS issues you have. Assessment costs $90.
EXAMPLE OF BAD CLS
EXAMPLE OF NO CLS
Mobile-Responsive Websites
Mobile-responsive websites are designed to look good, but slightly different on a mobile phone than they do on a computer. This is due to phones being both smaller, but also tall and narrow.
Google is very keen to show people who search for things using it, websites that are mobile-responsive. So, it is not only good for users, it may be good for your Google rankings.
Sometimes it is fairly quick and easy to make a site mobile-responsive. Yet, on other occasions it requires an entire site rebuild.
Assessment and quote costs $90
Schema Markup
Schema markup is simply the coding behind your content that tells Google what type of content it is.
For example, you can add your contact details and address to your website. Yet, if it is entered as plain text, Google doesn’t index it as your address. Fixing this improves your ranking in local searches.
There is other markup that can be very helpful for improving your Google rankings. These include Articles, FAQs, How To …, Local Business, Products and Reviews.
Assessment and quote costs $90
