Proven Ways to Drive Quality Traffic to Your WebsiteAn abundance of self-proclaimed “experts” out there promise they know the secret of driving traffic to your website.  However, increasing your website traffic is not rocket science and doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult.  While you do have to invest time and resources to achieve quality results, the mystery of Internet marketing is yours to solve. Here are seven easy and effective ways to drive more quality traffic to your website.

1. Create more content for your websiteContent doesn’t just mean the words on the pages of your site. Content can take the form of blog posts, free how-to guides, whitepapers with industry insights and facts, ebooks to educate your audience, and more.  It empowers visitors with helpful information to make them feel comfortable turning to you for advice when they are ready to become a customer. But remember, writing one blog post won’t send thousands of people to your website overnight. Research shows that it takes about 20 quality blog posts published on a regular basis to start seeing a significant increase in lead activity.

2. Write better content for your websiteWhen it comes to content, quality over quantity is key.  Quality matters, period.  Too many companies have fallen victim to SEO schemes that preach, “more is better” when it comes to content. While continually producing content is essential, quality is most important.  If you create informative content on your area of expertise, search engines and customers will reward you. Stumped for content ideas?

Keep a notepad by your phone and write down questions customers have. Answer them on your website or blog. Look in your email inbox for the most common questions from customers, or your Sent folder for your answers to their questions. Think about the topics your customer service team fields the most and make sure your website content answers these questions.

You don’t have to be an authority on content strategy, search engine optimization or writing for the web to create informative and interesting content that shows your knowledge and industry expertise.

3. Add video to your content strategyChances are that you have a video camera on your phone, tablet or computer.  Just like written content (see above), you can inform and educate your audience via video. People love personal interaction and video is a great chance for people to get to know you better. YouTube is one of the top search engines that people use to find information. Not only do they search, but they also share. You can easily add video to your website and YouTube channel to generate traffic and gain leads. Here are a few ideas for creating video content:

Take video of your office and facility Show how your products are made and create demos Conduct interviews with your staff Explain one of your products or services Get video testimonials from your customers

4.  Share content on social mediaOf course it’s important to create content, but it doesn’t do a lot of good if nobody sees it. Having the right distribution channels is essential. As you create new content on your site, share it across all of your social media channels. As you share your blogs, new offers, videos and more, you’ll connect with prospects who can turn into leads.

Think social media can’t generate leads for your business? We’ve discussed at length how we were skeptics and changed our tune.  It’s one of our top new business lead sources!

Not sure what to say?  Create a social media editorial calendar to keep the conversation going and ensure content is produced consistently.  Content is meant to be re-purposed, so don’t be afraid to re-phrase a social message and post it again at a later date.

5. Evaluate every web page for good SEOEvery page of your site is a potential entry point for a lead if it’s optimized correctly. Treat each page as an opportunity to speak direct to a specific person using a targeted keyword phrase. To find relevant keywords, start with Google’s Keyword Planner. Once you decide your keyword phrases, incorporate them properly within the meta tags and on-page content.  A simple one-two-three plan is to make sure the keyword phrase is included in:

Page <title> tag meta description (to increase click rate, not necessarily to improve ranking) H1 tag

If you aren’t sure how to do this technical stuff, then simply include a keyword in your blog or page title and once or twice inside the copy of the blog/page.

6. Comment on industry blogsSharing your expertise on other blogs not only shows that you’re an industry thought leader, but can also drive traffic to your website.

As you read daily/weekly industry blogs, comment on at least one a week. Commenting allows you to offer your professional insight and add something of value to the conversation.

Sometimes, you can include a direct link back to your website for valuable “link juice” that search engines love. Some blog comment tools like Disqus also include a link to your most recent blog post. So, always use your real name and offer as much information as possible to improve your digital footprint.

7. Pay for search engine rankings

Paid search tools like Google Adwords, Bing ads and Facebook ads are also a viable option when used in conjunction with organic content creation.  The downside is that paid search can be very expensive and time consuming if you don’t know how to manage it.  But, most paid search tools have valuable statistical analysis and budget setting so you can monitor and adjust along the way.

Having a website is not enough to make the leads roll in. You have to pull people in with quality, original content that answers their most pressing questions about your product or service.

- See more at: http://bit.ly/1Yb5bM1