Best Ways for Increasing Traffic to Your Online Store

Increasing your traffic is one of the most important tasks for any online store. Why? Well, because your conversion rate is only relevant when put against your traffic. If you have a 10% rate and 100 visitors, you have only 10 conversions. The same 10% conversion rate with 100,000 visitors is 10,000 conversions. The way in which this translates into a revenue increase is quite obvious, as well. Still, even if you know what are the benefits of increasing online traffic, how does one achieve this? Here are the top 10 methods to help you out with this.

1. Set up analytics

The truth is that you cannot know who your audience is until you do some research. While you may be able to look at your business from your own perspective, it is not guaranteed that you are your own target demographic. Ideally, you would sell the product that you yourself will use but this won’t always be the case. Also, while this would make things a bit more difficult, it won’t stop your development. This is why you need to focus on analytics. Once you know exactly who you’re dealing with, you might want to proceed with creating a customer profile.

2. Make a blog

The reason why having a blog is such a good idea is that it provides you with an opportunity to provide value to your target audience prior to doing business with them. It also creates a relationship based on continuity. After a while, people will become regulars or even check out your blog periodically in search of new content. In order for this to give the desired effect, you need to establish some quality standards. The first thing you want to do is ensure that your guidelines are up to date. Second, you want your blog to be optimized.

3. Optimize for sales

One of the biggest priorities that you have is optimizing your site for sales. People already know what they want and one of the factors which determine who they’re going to buy from is the simplicity of the process. For instance, people who are coming to your site to buy, let’s say porcelain tiles, want to have an intuitive UI, which will lead them to complete the purchase process in as few steps as possible. They need a clear call-to-action (CTA), accurate information, and a seamless sales process. This will make them come for more, thus boosting your traffic, as well as your rank, in the process.

4. Prepare for mobile devices

The majority of users online are browsing the internet via their mobile devices. This is why more and more platforms are going mobile-first when it comes to the design of their site. Sure, there are a lot of those who prefer to develop an app but this is a technically more demanding idea, which also requires a bigger investment and more maintenance. Just focus on the mobile experience of your audience and make sure to remember that a lot of people are buying/ordering via their phones. In other words, this is a top priority.

5. Check out your competitors

Keep in mind that you’re not running a business with a vacuum. An idea that you’ve just had might have an upgrade somewhere in your industry. Moreover, something that seems like a brilliant idea to you might not be as great or smart as it first appears. Who knows, maybe you’re lucky enough to have someone else test it so that you don’t have to. We’re definitely not suggesting that you should plagiarize or copy your competitors but there’s nothing wrong with borrowing an idea or two. After all, borrowing from one is called plagiarism; borrowing from many is called research.

6. Run polls and surveys

Assuming that you’re right and even having some logical arguments to back up this claim isn’t a valid ground for a digital marketing strategy. What you need is some data and one of the ways to secure it is to run some surveys. Now, here, there are a couple of risks you need to focus on. First, you need professional survey-makers, seeing as how making a poll isn’t as interesting. A suggestive wording might twist the results, thus giving you data that you want to see (instead of the actual/realistic data). Also, keep in mind that polls sometimes reflect temporary opinions. Not a lot of people will really ponder on the question they see in a poll. Still, you get some actionable data to go on about.

7. SEO optimization

People can’t visit your site if they can’t find it. This is why one of the first things you want to do is invest in the SEO optimization of your platform. You see, over 25% of all searches end with the link that has the first position in SERP. About 95% of all searches end on the first page of Google results. This means that if you fall too low, chances are that you won’t even be discovered/discoverable. At the same time, this rank has a psychological effect. People perceive a higher-ranked site/online store as more trustworthy. These are the points that you don’t want to miss out on.

8. Ask for help

This can be done in two ways. You can start by asking your friends and partners to spread the word. Eventually, when some of your traffic members progress far enough on their customer lifecycle, they might turn into brand ambassadors and help spread the word. However, you can also look for influencers who are willing to offer you their services in exchange for modest compensation. Ideally, you would look for specialist micro-influencers. If we carry on with our previous example (where you’re selling tiles and other flooring options), you would look for servicemen, tile specialists, and home improvement bloggers.

9. Use the power of social media

There are different platforms for every occasion. For instance, you can use your Twitter to spread important announcements, Facebook to share your blogs, and Instagram to showcase your goods. At the same time, the choice of the right social media platform may depend on your target audience. Different demographics have inclinations towards different social media platforms. This is a well-documented fact. Lastly, when posting, you must also consider the best time to post (which varies from one platform to another).

10. Google My Business

Use a business directory like Google My Business in order to make yourself easier to find. Now, one of the biggest mistakes that people make here is to assume that this information is only for offline shoppers. The truth is that the majority of people will check out your website before coming to make a purchase in person. This means that other than just the sale, you’ll also have a chance to earn reviews and to have your business highly rated. This is a step that you just can’t afford to skip out on.

In conclusion

At the end of the day, increasing traffic to your online store does make a world of difference in the performance of your business and your overall revenue. In today’s world, your online presence and your revenue are tightly intertwined. With the above-listed 10 methods on your side, figuring out a way forward will not be difficult.