Your SEO and social media marketing efforts are only geared toward driving traffic. That is the only reason for their existence. Likewise, the only reason your website exists is to convert that traffic into sales. While it all sounds so easy, it seems that it rarely is. Too many marketing directors, CMO’s and small business owners seem to think that volume is everything. If you drive enough traffic, some of it is bound to be converted. Right? Throw enough of something up against the wall and some of it should stick. Shouldn’t it?
Maybe. The reality tends to be, however, that less will likely mean more. You want quality traffic. You want traffic that converts. Any traffic that is coming to your website that isn’t turning into sales is a waste of your time. Get rid of it. Don’t encourage it. You don’t need that kind of traffic. So, how do you generate the traffic you need? The traffic that converts?
- Traffic just doesn’t come. The “build it and they will come” mindset is for the naive and the uninformed. It’s a rookie mistake. Any traffic you get must be driven there and it all starts with your keywords and your long tail phrases. You must assemble the proper keywords and phrases that will maximize your ROI. You must also examine the strategy of your rivals. Are they ranking higher than you? If so, find those keywords and phrases that are making that so and incorporate them into your SEO strategy.
- Next, while keywords and long tail phrases are great, it is better to write and direct your content toward certain subject matter and toward answering your customers questions than to just produce content geared toward the keywords. If you are diligent enough with your data analysis, you will be able to find those subjects and problems that your customers are interested in and interested in having solved.
- After you have begun this new focus, weed through your old content and discard what needs to be discarded and update what needs to be updated according to this new tighter, more focused, traffic driving strategy. Once your new mindset and strategy are in place, you may also want to give some paid advertising a try. A quick PPC campaign and some highly targeted social media ads just may turn the tide with regard to finding more targeted traffic that has come to your website to actually buy what you have to sell.
-Written by Kevin Sawyer
