A surprisingly high amount of business owners that I meet often ask me about their website traffic. They simply want to know how to find out how many people visit their website on a daily basis or why it seems that no one is visiting their website.
There are quite a few ways to determine how many visitors land on your website. From searching through your web hosting company analytics to using paid software, only you can determine the best way to view this information.
Let me list a few options:
SEMRush
Similar Web
Alexa
These are all paid traffic estimation tools that report overall website traffic, including direct; organic (i.e. “search”); social; and referral traffic. You can get some stats for free and your website would most likely need to have a lot of traffic before your website activity will actually show up in the data.
Google Analytics You can see information here, but other issues involved in how Google collects (or can't collect) can skew your numbers.
AWStats This is located in your Cpanel or web hosting dashboard. cPanel offers several built-in statistic reports, and AWStats is one of the more popular programs. AWStats updates every 24 hours and also instantly when you click the Update now link. The statistics report gives details about the number of people coming to your website and other information. You can contact your hosting company to learn how to access this information.
Determining how much website traffic is great...
but did you know that about 96% of the visitors who come to your website don't take action at all. What's the use of knowing how much traffic visits your website if no one takes any type of action?
Getting more people to your website is great. They visit and see , in most cases, a very nice brochure about your business. But I know most small business owners want sales from their website, not just views. Having website traffic without sales is like handing out a brochure to someone who visits your booth at an event. What do you think happens to that brochure after the event?
But don't give up on your website yet...
With your website traffic comes much opportunity. All you need to do is start taking advantage of it.
So What Can You Do with Your Website Traffic?
How can you take advantage of the visitors who come to your website? The opportunities that exist can make the difference between no or low business and a thriving, lucrative business create from
Also, there is a great article by Gabriel Shaoolian on the Entrepreneur website that offers 5 ways to drive traffic to your website.
Let me highlight a few options from the article:
Utilize email marketing.
Although there's some discrepancy as to the exact return on investment email marketing provides, sources all agree that it's one of the most useful marketing tools and provides a high return on investment. Brands can promote products, services or even content marketing initiatives with a simple email blast or newsletter.
To maximize email marketing benefits, try A/B testing, segmenting and personalization. These tactics will foster a more personal relationship between you and your customers, help you determine the content and subject lines they prefer, and send your emails when your subscribers are most likely to both open them and engage with them.
Integrate video content.
A video is an extremely effective yet underused form of content marketing. Although many businesses focus on blogs and Instagram followers, for example, video initiatives receive high numbers of shares and views. According to HubSpot's State of Video Marketing report, 76 percent of marketers say that video content has increased traffic to their website.
Shaving startup Harry's has a great example of engaging video marketing. This short video introduces consumers to the brand, sets a lighthearted and playful tone, and informs potential customers about the company's origins in an engaging snapshot. The company smartly embedded it directly on its website as well as shared it on social media.
There are plenty of videos you can include in this strategy, including brand videos, short social media clips, advertisements, informational, about and demonstrations. What's more, if it fits your brand, go a step further and offer webinars. This will digitally engage customers, provide high value to consumers and even give you the chance to collect emails, which can help you with step three above.
Advertise online.
While organic, non-paid strategies that drive traffic are every brand's dream, sometimes, you just can't beat advertising. Luckily, we've moved past the days of billboards and Mad Men campaigns. Instead, look to unique advertising tactics such as retargeting and remarketing.
According to ReTargeter, only 2 percent of websites convert on the first visit. Both retargeting and remarketing rely on cookies, which are dropped on browsers, to follow users around the web. Retargeting then serves consumers ads for your website, encouraging them to revisit the destination. Meanwhile, remarketing sends users a curated email based on their activity on your website.
Although search engine optimization is effective and all businesses with an online presence should invest in it, SEO isn't the end-all, be-all when it comes to driving traffic to a professional website. By investing in social media, guest blog posts, regular email marketing, video content and digital advertising, you'll be sure to increase site traffic without the outright competition that comes with SEO keywords.
Retargeting (or Remarketing) is one of the best techniques today that you could use to keep your product or service in front of people who have visited your website.
Your visitors may not be ready to buy just because they visited your website. No matter what stage they are, in the customer journey, placing those ads in front of them can ensure that you are in the right place when they are ready to buy.
Visit realleadsmarketing.com for more information on how you can start retargeting your website traffic to increase your business sales.