Read through the thousands of forums, blogs and articles on the Web and you will find plenty that focus on the lack of website traffïc. There are just as many that complain about how difficult it is to get people to come back to a particular website, or come back long enough and often enough to actually buy something.
Finally there are the thousands that talk about how complex and arduous it is to get a website listed and ranked highly in Google and the other search engines.
The interesting thing is that all of these website ills have exactly the same cure: content.
Content that is relevant to the subject of a website, content that is regularly updated is the stuff that will make a website sticky. What do I mean by “sticky”? A sticky website is one that keeps it’s visitors occupied and keeps them coming back for more. Search engines love fresh, entertaining, educating and interesting content provided by such websites.
The good news is that your website can be sticky too and can enjoy all the benefits that go with that for surprisingly little effort and a comparatively small budget. All you need to is create or find content that is appropriate to your website.
If you can add some or all of the following types of content to your website, the number of visitors you receive will increase and, better yet, those visitors will return to your website time and time again.
Blogs
Why should you have a blog? Because Google and the other search engines love blogs; they visit them frequently because they tend to be updated frequently. If you have a blog, you can use it to replace your current email newsletter and you can use it to feature your product or service reviews. You can – and should – use a blog for all the information that doesn’t merit a special email to your clients or your business and contacts network.
Newsletter and Newsletter archives
You don’t have to re-invent the wheel and try and create a huge subscriber list for your email newsletter. Instead offer regular updates by email or RSS or your blog to current and potential clients and your network. Include links to other relevant articles or resources. Make sure that your newsletter archives are accessible by anyone visiting your website and you’ll find that the search engines will visit your website more often.
Articles
There is no doubt that articles that are free to reprint remains one of the best ways to populate your website with good content. You can maximise the benefits of having articles on your website by writing the articles yourself or by offering a small fee to a good writer to write the articles for you. Alternatively, you can even approach the original author and ask them to provide a customised version of an article specifically for your website.
Quotes
Interesting quotes relevant to the topic of your website will help inspire and interest visitors. Make sure that you add fresh quotes regularly to keep your website interesting. There are a wide number of websites that provide a good source of useful quotes, including brainyquote.com and annabelle.net.
Games and Puzzles
Let’s face it; we all love games and puzzles (to some degree or other)! Make an appeal to the child that lives inside each of us and plenty of people will reward you by spending time on your website. There are plenty of websites and website developers who will help you to add games and puzzles to your website. One place to get a new puzzles is archimedes-lab.org.
Forums
Take a leaf out of successful websites and get a forum added to your website. Again, a good web company will be able to do this for you for a relatively low fee.
Site Feedback
Visitors feel more assured about a company that cares about its website; surely if they care about their website, then they care about what their customers think and therefore they must car about their customers. One way to demonstrate that you care about your website is by allowing people who visit your website to ask questïons or comment on your website or your blog. Make this information public (so long as it is in good taste) and make it searchable by visitors.
Reviews
A universally popular type of content – across all mediums – are reviews. In particular, unbiased reviews. So, offer reviews on your website of relevant books, relevant software, hardware and even movies, television shows and so on. Search engines will drive more and more visitors to your website and those visitors will return again and again.
Case Studies
People love success stories. So, get out there and interview your best clients. Add their stories to your website. It will reinforce your credibility in the eyes of your visitors and it will satisfy your content needs. A word of warning though; make the success stories interesting and motivational rather than as adverts for your service or your clients.
Jokes
Yes, business is a serious thing – especially in these difficult economic times, but everyone appreciates a good sense of humour and a funny joke. Would you not be more impressed by an accountant who has such a good sense of humour that he has a page of accountant jokes on his website? Irreverence is central to hugely successful brands like Virgin and everyone likes people who are able to laugh at themselves and who don’t take themselves too seriously.
Newsfeeds
Does your website cover a topic that frequently generates news? Then get current and topical news added to your website via RSS feeds that are available by sites of all shapes and sizes. For a good range of newsfeeds, take a look at the BBC website.
Resource Directory
Instead of just having reciprocal links on your website with your local plumber or fellow BNI group members, go that bit further and add a relevant resource directory to your website that gives your visitors access to valuable websites and online resources that complement what you do and what you offer. Only add websites that you like and choose, don’t get involved in insisting upon reciprocal links and make sure that every link in your directory opens in a new windows.
Testïmonials
Do you ask your clients for written testïmonials? Well, you should. And if you haven’t, go and do it now! Once you have testimonials, liberally sprinkle them throughout your website. Keep them fresh and up-to-date. Add new ones as often as you can. Give each client a link to their website within the testimonial itself.
Image by mackz via Flickr
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the accepted father of the World Wide Web originally conceived it as a means of sharing information around the entire globe. Embrace this vision and get relevant, interesting and useful content on your website and you’ll be rewarded by search engines sending people to your website.
And, perhaps one day all those articles, blog posts and forums complaining about how difficult it is to get visitors to a website will be overtaken by recommendations of great websites to visit and perhaps one of those will be yours.
Make your website work for you.
