Attract More Site Traffic and Customers for Your Small Business

Often, generating more site traffic is not the end goal for a graphic designer when building a website. He or she is typically more focused on aesthetic qualities of the site. While you do want an eye-catching site, few people will even see it if it doesn't generate traffic. That's why it's also important to build a site that's pleasing to the search engines.

Consider How People Search

How do people search on the Internet? Often, they aren't looking for a certain company name. They're looking for a specific product. If they're looking for a new car, they won't type the word “car” into the search engine window. They type in specific information. For example, they may type “used low-mileage PT Cruiser.” If they want to purchase locally, they may add the name of their city. The words they type in are “keywords” to help narrow the search.

If a car dealer has these keywords on his website, the search engine is more likely to find this site and list it in the results. The higher the site is listed in the search results, the greater the possibility the searcher will view it. The dealer also has greater potential to sell the car, because it's exactly what the searcher is looking for.

Use Keywords to Drive More Site Traffic

You can design (or redesign) your website to drive traffic through the use of keywords. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this site, you should include your website URL on all marketing materials to help people find you easily. You’ll drive even more site traffic though, by including certain keywords in your website content.

So, how do you choose these keywords? You can find many online articles that go in depth about the art and science of creating keyword rich web content. Since this website takes a more basic approach, I won’t boggle you with so much detail. These simple tips can help you understand some basic concepts to attract more site traffic:

• Understand the concept of keyword supply and demand. Some keywords, such as “car” are very generic. You'll have millions of people searching for or “demanding” this keyword. Likewise, many websites supply it. Your chance as a small business owner of competing and showing up high in the search engine listings for this word is literally nonexistent.
• You must determine what keywords or keyword phrases related to your business have a higher demand and lower supply. In other words, you stand a better chance of competing and being found for these words. How do you find these words? You can use some simple, free online tools. My favorite is SearchIt, because it enables you to pull from Google, Yahoo and Wordtracker keyword selection tools from one location.

  Go to SearchIt and choose "Brainstorming" in Step One. For Step Two, choose Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool, U.S. Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool or Wordtracker Free Keyword Selection Tool. In Step Three, type in the keywords you want to research. (You'll notice that SearchIt has a wealth of other research options if you get ambitious.)

• More than likely, you can’t compete for some of the more general keywords. But, by doing some research, you can create a list of hidden gems. These are keywords, related to your business, people are typing into search engines without finding millions of competing sites.
• How do you use these higher demand/lower supply keywords? If you’re building a website, plan some of your site pages based on these keywords. Let’s say you’ve used the above tools to determine the words “Chrysler Cruiser History” are high demand and low supply. (I made this up for example purposes.) You might build your site with a page on the development of PT Cruisers, using the keywords Chrysler Cruiser History within your content. If you already have a website, you can add new keyword focused pages or edit existing pages.
• Incorporate keywords into your headline, body text and hyperlinks. They should also be part of your page title, the title that shows in your search engine listing. (This is different than the headline that shows on your page.)

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Focus on Reader-Friendly Content First

Even when using keyword carrots to attract more site traffic, still use common sense. Your site should always focus most on providing a pleasing experience for visitors.

Even when building in keywords, keep your content reader-friendly. Text should flow and shouldn’t sound as if you’ve littered keywords at random for the purpose of high search engine listings.

Also, keep in mind all pages don't have to revolve around high-demand, low-supply keywords. Some pages should still deliver content you know your visitors will expect to find, regardless of the page's search engine ranking. While these pages may appear lower in search results, you can combine them with higher ranking pages to bring more traffic.

Writing keyword focused web content takes time – time you may not have as a small business owner. Even if you don’t develop your own website, you should know enough about keyword-focused, search-engine-friendly content to direct the person building your site. Optimizing your company’s placement in search engine results is the difference between a passive web presence and actively driving more site traffic and business.