How To Get More People To Your Website

Whether your business is focused on your local area or the digital space, your website is a key marketing tool.

Your website is a great way to tell people who you are, what you offer and how to get in touch with you.

It’s also a great way to build your list of email subscribers (by promoting an enticing free opt-in gift) so that you can tell more people about your services and programs.

My guess is that you already know this, and that you’ve put a fair amount of time and money into your website.

You’re frustrated because the only people who seem to be visiting your website are your current clients, family, and friends.

You want to get more eyes on your website, but you’re not sure what steps to take.

In fact, when you created your website you may have thought you’d automatically start getting people to your site.

While I wish that were the case, the truth is that you need to promote your website if you want people to find you.

There are 7 effective strategies you can use to get more people to your site, and I’m going to break each of these down for you.

And because this is a meaty post, I’ve created a handy PDF that includes all the tips below. Click here to get your FREE GUIDE: How to Get More People to Your Website.

1. Post to Your Blog Regularly

Adding new blog posts to your site on a regular basis is the best way to keep traffic coming to your site. There are a few reasons for this:

• Your friends, clients and fans will have new content to read, giving them a reason to come back to your site over and over.
• Search engines like Google like it when you add new content. It shows that your site is active. This means that you’ll come up higher on search rankings.
• When you write blog posts on topics your ideal clients are searching on, and you use a few simple SEO tricks for your blog posts, your site will show up in more search results – which means more people will end up on your website. (If SEO feels overwhelming, don’t worry, I’m breaking this down below.)

Coming Up With Blog Ideas

Sometimes knowing what to write is the hardest part about blogging – staring at a blank screen is not fun. But there are endless things you could write about… you just need to find your focus.

An easy way to start is with a brainstorm. Grab a blank piece of paper or open a new document on your computer and use these prompts to come up with topics:

• What are the most common questions your clients ask?
• What are the underlying or “hidden” reasons your ideal clients are struggling with their main health concern?
• What do your clients love when you share? This might be a recipe, a workout program, or nutrition tips.
• What are the most common roadblocks your clients have to overcome?
• What is your story? How did you get to where you are?
• What are your favorite products, treatments, or remedies?

Once you have a list of topics you think will engage your audience, it will be much easier to regularly sit down and write…

2. Get Your Blog Found by Google

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a big, scary, complicated subject for many of us. It can seem so overwhelming that you don’t even want to attempt to learn about it!

But there are a few very simple things you can do to get your blog found by Google – and they don’t require hiring an SEO specialist.

Don’t worry about taking notes. Click here to download a handy PDF that includes all the tips below.

Step 1 – Install the WordPress plugin Yoast

This tool takes the guesswork out of how to implement some key SEO elements for your blog posts and will save you a ton of time and frustration.

Step 2 – Choose your keyword

Start by doing a little keyword research to identify what your target audience is searching for. Once you have a list of keywords, brainstorm a list of blog topics you can write about that include those keywords.

Whatever you’re writing about, think about the ways your clients might be searching for it in Google.

For example, in the post below, PCOS specialist Amy Medling wanted to write about foods her clients with PCOS could eat. She knows they may search for something like “best foods for PCOS”, so she can use that as her keyword for this blog post.

Use your keyword a few times within the text of the post itself, including as close to the top of the post as you can.

Step 3 – Use the keyword in your blog title and meta description

Google will rank your post in a higher position in the search results if your keyword is in both the title and meta description.

In Amy Medling’s example, her title is “The 9 Best Foods for PCOS”, so her keyword is right there.

Yoast has a section to add or change your meta description – the short description that shows up in search results in Google under the title of your post. This description is meant to let the searcher know what they will see if they click through and read your article.

You can see how Amy Medling’s blog post shows up, with the meta description, in a Google search:

If you search for “best foods for PCOS” you will see Amy Medling’s post come up on the first page.

Step 4 – Add keywords to headings and images

To get an even better SEO boost from your post, it’s a good idea to also add your keyword to at least one heading in your blog post, as well as any images you add (which is done by including the keyword as the ‘alt tag’ when you insert the image).

If you are using Yoast, you’ll see a checklist with green, yellow or red dots next to each item.

This is Yoast’s way of giving you a grade on each factor that is important for SEO, so you can see what you need to update and what you’ve got a green light on.

Don’t worry if all of these items don’t make sense to you at first! If you follow the recommendations I’m outlining, you should see several green lights. When the main score is a green light, you’re good to go!

Now you’ve got an active blog that is ready to be found by your ideal clients!

SEO does take awhile to kick in, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t see yourself at the top of page 1 on Google right away.

3. Leverage Social Media

Your social media channels are the best places to share your blog posts with the world.

Write a snippet, question, teaser, or intro to your blog post and share a link on your channels, like Jen Meister from Simple Clean and Whole did below.

This is a great way to drive people from your social media channels over to your website.

It’s a good idea to add images to your social posts. Posts with images get 94% more engagement than those with none.

Want to get even more exposure?

Nowadays, posts with video get shown significantly more, and get more engagement.

Here’s a powerful statistic: Facebook video receives, on average, 135% more organic reach than a Facebook photo.

Here’s an example of a post with a video from Dr. Becky Campbell:

I know that making videos can be daunting, but given how much it can boost your exposure, it’s worth considering dipping your toe in the water. This can be as simple as recording a simple 1 minute video on your phone where you introduce the topic in the blog post and get people interested in hearing more. Using Facebook Live is also a great option for increasing engagement and click to your website.

And don’t be afraid to share your posts more than once!

Social media newsfeeds fly by these days, so it’s very possible that your audience won’t see a post the first time you share.

Social media scheduling software company CoSchedule recommends sharing multiple times over the first month, then continuing to share your best content once a month or so.

4. Leave Comments on Other Blogs

Leaving a great comment is practically an art – one that can seriously benefit your business.

Leaving thoughtful comments can have great benefits for your business.

• It can position you as an expert in your field when you leave insightful, informative comments on posts or in forums
• It can help build relationships with other coaches, entrepreneurs and bloggers – because who doesn’t love getting a nice comment on their blog!
• It can drive people to your website!

There is a right way and a wrong way to leave a comment. The wrong way looks something like this:

Yuck! This type of comment will most likely just get deleted.

Instead, craft a thoughtful comment that shares your viewpoint or a related story. The most important thing is to add to the conversation, not just add your link to it.

Try picking out one point from the article and commenting with what you liked about it, then adding a question or your own anecdote.

If you have a blog post on the same topic, you can share it by ending your comment with “I wrote something really similar here that I think you might find interesting (link). Thanks again for your great article!”

You can see how one commenter did this on Sarah Jenks of Live More Weigh Less’s blog:

Wondering where to comment? Look for:

• Health and wellness blogs
• Blogs by your referral partners
• Blogs by other coaches or bloggers that serve a similar audience, but who don’t compete with you
• Health forums or question sites like Quora

5. Be A Guest

Being a guest on other people’s channels is a great way to get yourself in front of new audiences.

Here are a few options…

Guest Blog

Guest blogging is an online marketing strategy that has been around for a long time – because it works! A guest blog post is where you write a blog post that gets posted on someone else’s site.

If you enjoy writing, guest blogging is a great strategy for building your list.

Getting guest blogging spots isn’t difficult, but it does require you to pull up your sleeves and get to work. Identify the types of blogs your clients read and approach the editors about writing for them. Here’s a more detailed post on landing guest spots.

Podcast Guest

If you prefer speaking to writing, you can follow the same steps to get on podcasts as a guest.

Like guest blogging, it allows you to present your story and expertise to a new audience. The podcast host will include a link to your site in the shownotes so listeners can find you after they hear the episode.

Guest Expert

Take your guest spots a step further by creating a workshop or class that you can offer to other people’s audiences. This could be a free webinar that a colleague promotes to their whole list, or it could be a more exclusive bonus class for a program that your colleague is leading.

6. Have A Guest

Just like going on other people’s channels is great for expanding your reach, so is having people appear on your site.

Use your blog as a place to interview industry experts. They’ll be happy to link back to the article you write that includes them and their fans will want to read the interview.

You can also invite colleagues to write a guest post for you. Focus on those who serve a similar audience and offer something complimentary to you.

Another way to have ‘guests’ on your site is to use a ‘round-up’ style post. You can easily create a round-up post on any topic by gathering examples on one topic.

For example, I created a round-up post on must read blogs, which featured my favorite resources for running a health coach business.

Everyone included in the post was honored to be there, so they continue to share the post with their audience and it brings new traffic to my website every day.

That blue line represents how many people view that blog post every day, so you can see it continues to bring new traffic to my site.

7. Add a Link in Your Email Signature

This last tip is the easiest to implement – phew! But one that we often overlook. Email is still one of our most used communication tools, so why not use it to direct people to your website?

You can use this tool from Hubspot to create a custom, professional looking email signature with a link to your site. Or use a smart tool like WiseStamp to create a signature that pulls your latest blog posts via RSS! How cool is that?

 
Having a beautiful, professional website is only half the work. You want to make sure people are SEEING it. These tips will help you get more people to your website and, in turn, boost your email list and hopefully your client list!

While I know this list of strategies may feel overwhelming, don’t feel like you need to implement all of these immediately. Start by picking one strategy, get comfortable with it, and then add another strategy into the mix.

Before you go….

 
Now I’d love to hear from you!
Which one of these strategies are you interested in experimenting with first? Have you found any other strategies that work well to get more traffic to your website? Share your thoughts and comments below.