If you’re asking, “How do I generate website traffic?” then this post should provide you with some very helpful answers.

I run an online business, which requires a constant stream of incoming visitors. Even when your business is offline, you definitely want to be able to be found online. There are other things you’d like to have — Hopefully they are unique visitors. Hopefully they linger on the site. But regardless of what they do when they get there, you better have a damn good plan of getting them there in the first place.

Quality Content Can Drive Traffic To You

My first suggestion is the one I have to abide by every day — provide good content.

Seems simple right?… Well, not so much. Providing good content is work, but it has helped grow my company and my following into a profitable endeavor.

All Your Content Should Be Quality Content

This list from Hubspot provides a good framework for how to increase the quality of your content. Even if you are just promoting business on your site, the information available to your visitors should follow the same guidelines. Quality content is always beneficial.

The Hubspot list outlines 8 steps to take to improve your content:

• Fact Check
• Include Data
• Find Examples
• Use Visuals
• Get Quotes From Thought Leaders
• Remove Jargon (unless it’s niche specific)
• Proper Formatting
• Always have a separate Editor

Not every post needs to have all 8 but you should be including some of each in all your posts. Mix them around and keep it interesting, your readers will be happier for it.

Quality Content and Website Design Will Sustain Traffic Too

At this point you’re probably thinking, “You haven’t talked about website traffic yet.”

Well, before you invite people to your website you’d better give them a reason to stay once you get there. Otherwise it’s a bit like seeing this when you pull up to a new friend’s home…

and then seeing the inside…

That being said, it would probably be a good idea to make sure your landing pages are in order as well — as in, quality pages built by people who specialize in that sort of thing. The people at Kissmetrics have developed a nice guide to landing page design which I feel is important to keep in mind.

So, once you’ve given people a reason to stay, now you can address how to get them to visit in the first place.

Strategy #1: Local Listings

Professional services such as legal services are highly dependent on location. To maximize your lead generation, you should have a firm hold on the SEO placement for your area. Allie Gottlieb wrote a great post on maximizing local searches.

Google Places, Bing Places for Business, and Yahoo! Local Listings are all great places to start buying keyword presence.

Strategy #2: Long-tail Keywords

Despite the silly name, this is a pretty reliable strategy for keyword optimization. Let’s say you specialize in child custody law and think that “child custody” is an appropriate start. Chances are you will be met with a lot of competition on that keyword or phrase.

By including a longer phrase more specific to your product, such as “child custody lawyer Modesto”, you eliminate some of the competition and rank higher on search engines. Try it for a couple of different variations. These long-tail phrases are generally less expensive to purchase Pay Per Click leads as well.

Strategy #3: Share Your Content

You’re probably familiar with social media sharing tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. I’ll save some of the finer details for another time, but it should be stated that the most important thing once you’ve generated content is to:

SHARE

This is huge and it tends to be put on the back-burner for a lot of companies. A lazy social media presence is a reflection of your company. Share ideas. Promote similar content from reputable sources. Reply. Tweet your dealings.

It’s Business 101: Referrals are King.

Start with these few ideas and continue to tweak and alter as you see changes happening. The only sure thing an SEO Expert will tell you is to test. Test what you like and see what sticks. Luck favors the prepared.

If you feel like you’d like some help with the details, be sure and we’d be happy to talk about what you need.