7 Surefire Ways to Boost Website Traffic and Encourage Loyalty for Small Businesses

Small businesses can be tremendously successful with a modern, website that encourages loyalty and drives website traffic.  Small businesses are endlessly creative, and many use their creativity and focus to create valuable online content, from engaging memes to how-to videos, and comprehensive guides and much more.

When you start your business website, it can be tough to know what to put on that blank canvas. What is the best way to engage your audience? The sky is the limit as to what you could pursue, but staying focussed will keep you on the path to increasing your website traffic. In this blog post, we’re going to outline seven surefire ways to boost website traffic and encourage loyalty.

1. Make Your Website Easy to Navigate

One of the first things to do is to create a simple structure for your website to make it easier to navigate.

Websites for small businesses should include a homepage, about, and contact page at a minimum. You may also have an area of your website that spells outin detail the services you provide or an e-commerce section that describes your products. In general, we often recommend that each service has its very own page. If you have too many to count, using your blog is another way to make progress toward explaining, inspiring, and informing about the goods and services you provide.

The layout of your home pages should be simple and clean with a few staples: an inviting image, your logo, links to important pages, contact information, social media information, and a signup form for your mailing list.

2. Don’t Overlook the SEO Opportunities with Your Blog

Websites for small businesses should include a blog! We know this sounds like a lot of work, but really, a blog should be fun, entertaining, and valuable to the current and prospective customers you want to serve. It is also another way to share what you know to raise your profile and your credibility.

Don’t talk about yourself or get too salesy. Instead, focus on industry-relevant edutainment. Teach your readers something new about your niche or something they need to know before they work with your or buy your products. Provide listicles, images, tutorials, videos, podcasts and other rich content to engage and grow your following.

Valuable content brings traffic and it makes search engine optimization and online visibility much easier, too.

3. Pick Social Media Outlets Where Your Audience Hangs Out

Social media is another part of a rich content marketing strategy, but it is very easy to get overwhelmed by the constant need to post new content. This is why we generally recommend small businesses pick one or two channels where your customers most often connect with you and do those well. Do not try to be on every single social media channel there is because that is a recipe for burnout.

Also, you should feature your social media links and feeds on your website, so visitors can see content that is constantly refreshed and active. Feature your most popular social media channel on your website and make sure you post to that social channel routinely.

You do not need to be on TikTok or Instagram every day to win at social media. If you provide business services such as legal consultation, your audience might find you best on LinkedIn. If you’re a local bakery, an Instagram Story showing your latest flavors may get the most traction.  Consider your audience, figure out where they gather, measure success, and then commit to one or two.

4. Get a Writer to Help With Your Content

Small business owners wear a lot of hats. They know all the good points about the company, and sometimes, all of these things blend together. When you’re working on your website, you must be concise. Make sure that all of your content is to the point. Length in content is not always the best! Many small businesses we work with benefit from a writer who can give them some outside perspective or who can polish up content they already have.

Short and sweet is just fine as long as your text effectively conveys your message. Search engine-optimized content is a whole skill set that can take your small business content marketing strategy to the next level. Sometimes it is a better use of time to hire someone with this expertise to free you up to work on your business.

Another thing to watch for is trying to use AI tools to come up with generic content without reviewing it. There are many great AI tools that can help with planning, outlining, social media content, and idea generation. It has been our experience that a human editor is needed to create content that is unique, personalized, engaging, and targeted to your specific audience.

5. Optimize Your Website for Mobile

More and more people are using the web from their smartphones and tablets, which means that websites for small businesses must be mobile-friendly, which is also called responsive design. The benefits of a responsive website include more traffic, more leads, and more conversions. Offering a responsive website for your small business isn’t as difficult as it sounds, either.

Most people access the Internet on the go with mobile devices, and Google uses it as a search ranking factor, too. If your website is slow or does not operate seamlessly on a mobile device, it can confuse your customers and harm your visibility on search engine results pages.

6. SEO Ensures Your Website Is Visible on Search Engines

Setting up a website for your small business isn’t enough! Your content and tags all need to be tailored for SEO so your business and content is visible when potential customers are searching for you. While this sounds like a chore, it really isn’t all that bad.

Finding the right keywords can be a bit of a challenge, and using them consistently throughout your content can also be tough. If you want to move to the lead of search engine rankings, however, you have to implement a strong SEO campaign and optimize your content.

You can build in SEO-optimized content yourself, but having a partner who understands the technical aspects of organic SEO can help you rank on search engine results pages more quickly. SEO is a marathon and not a sprint, so search engine marketing is another technique that can drive leads by placing advertising on search engine results pages.

7. Videos Are a Great Way to Increase Engagement

As part of establishing credibility and engaging your website’s visitors, you should think about including a few videos if it makes sense for your business. An intro video, explainer video, how-to videos, or videos to describe your products are all great ways to reel in new customers while establishing authority! If you’re serving a particular niche, an explainer video is a great way to introduce yourself and explain what you do.

Hot Tip: Having a video embedded on blog article can also increase engagement and be fantastic for organic SEO, too. It’s worth looking at this strategy to drive traffic and encourage loyalty.

Need a New Small Business Website?

Small businesses have the opportunity to rule the internet and harness massive streams of traffic with their websites by incorporating the seven ways above to amplify your website traffic and encourage loyalty!

As small business owners ourselves, we have helped thousands of small businesses in the Alexandria, Virginia, and Greater Washington DC Metro Area and points across the United States from Florida to Texas with websites that get job done. Whether you need full-service website development or starter website plans so you can get to work, we aim to partner with you every step of the way. We can help you navigate search engine optimation, web hosting, content development, and more.  Give us a call at (703) 370-7433 and set up a free consultation to learn more.