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The Traffic Handbook: How To Generate More Online Visitors For Your Business

There was a time when running a successful online business or making  passive income was new and unheard of. There was a time when it took a  courageous and pioneering spirit to make a full time living from a blog. 

But that’s changed. Stories of people becoming extremely successful  through social media and running a website are now commonplace. It’s been happening for decades. 

And yet it’s still something that a lot of people don’t understand and aren’t taking advantage of.  

This is a HUGE missed opportunity.  

What’s the key ingredient here? TRAFFIC. 

That is a high volume of traffic. 

And highly targeted traffic. 

This isn’t just for entrepreneurs and bloggers either. If you run a business  with any kind of online component, then traffic is the key to making sales.  Traffic is the lifeblood of any online business. 

Let’s say that you have an online store and you’re currently using that to sell  hats. Right now, you get around 500 visitors to your site a day, which leads  to 2-3 sales, or about $40-60 profit. It’s a small side project that is earning  you a bit of cash doing something you enjoy. 

With the right strategies, you could easily increase your visitors to a similar  150,000 daily within a year or two. Those 2-3 sales now become 60-90  sales. 

And what if you leverage that success to start selling other products? To  build a successful YouTube channel or Instagram account? 

The sky’s the limit. 

Even for a local business such as a restaurant, increasing your traffic has  the potential to massively increase sales. 

Right now let’s say you get 100 orders every night, which is largely due to  word of mouth. But what if your website was the first one to come up on  Google? What if people could order through your site with a few clicks? 

What if you had a thriving Facebook page or group and a strong  community? 

You could easily increase the number of orders you get. None of this is easy, but none of it is hard either.  

This book will serve as your guide. It will show you some of the most  effective ways and methods of generating traffic to your website.

Content Marketing 

If you’ve been moving in digital marketing circles for a while, you’ve probably heard it said that ‘content is king’. 

And it’s not without reason, because when done right content marketing is  a mind-blowing powerful strategy.  

How powerful? Well, research has shown that it can cost up to 62% less  than traditional marketing and generate about three times as many leads.  

If you want to start driving more traffic to your website, then there is one  single thing that you need to be doing. This indisputable, critical aspect of  your marketing is non-negotiable and has the biggest potential for  increasing your viewers, your authority, and your engagement. 

That is to apply content marketing. 

What is Content Marketing? 

Content marketing is about using media such as blogs, newsletters, social  posts, videos and infographics to draw customers towards you. How? By  providing value upfront.

 

Content marketing flips the script on traditional marketing. Instead of  roaring at your audience through a megaphone, content marketing  transforms your business into a powerful magnet that pulls customers to  your doorstep.

The reason this is so crucial is simple: the internet is built on content. Most  of the time you spend online will likely be either reading or watching videos,  both of which are examples of content consumption

To find that content, you probably searched for a phrase or term in Google,  and Google will then have matched your query to content that it had  indexed.  

Why You Need to Implement Content Marketing 

When you add high-quality content to your website on a regular basis, you  achieve a number of things: 

You provide free value 

You demonstrate your knowledge and expertise in your niche and  become an expert 

You increase brand awareness and trust exponentially You provide Google with a means of understanding what your site is  about 

You create more pages for your site, each of which can then act as a  potential entry point to your site and your brand 

You gain a commodity that you can share on social media You increase the likelihood of people who enjoy your content sharing  it with other people: thereby giving you free links and free exposure. 

How To Write an Engaging Blog Post 

One of the key ingredients to your success then is to write a high quantity  of articles. The more you write, the more opportunities you create to be  discovered. The more questions you can answer, and the more people you  can engage with.

As a starting point, I recommend writing at least one blog post a week.  This is far from ideal, though. Far preferable would be 3-4 posts per week,  and potentially even a post a day.  

What’s arguably more important, though, is that you learn to write high quality blog posts. If you get this wrong, then it doesn’t matter how many  you write!  

Only a high-quality blog post will increase the likelihood of someone  returning to your website, and only a high-quality blog post will increase the  likelihood that your site will get shared. 

So, what does the perfect blog post look like? 

First and most important is that your post should not be derivative. This  means you should not be sharing content for the sake of it. Every single  post needs to have something unique to say. 

Let’s consider two approaches to fitness. 

One blog post on fitness is an exclusive interview with the elusive and  extremely in-demand Ido Portal. His is a completely unique approach to  training and one that has set the social media world on fire for several  years now (he’s a real guy, look him up!). 

The other is an article called “5 Exercises for Six Pack Abs.” Which will perform better? 

The way I’ve phrased this question means that it may be obvious. But for  many, it is not. In fact, many articles and gurus will claim that the latter is  superior. 

On the face of it, the second title looks like a goldmine. Everyone wants six pack abs. This is an extremely high-volume keyword/key phrase (meaning  people search for it a lot), and it has a great list format. 

But here’s the problem: most of us have read thousands of articles just like  it! This is an issue because it means that no one is going to be that excited  by it.  

Which article would you be more likely to want to click? 

Even if it comes up at the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results  Pages), an article still needs to entice the visitor to click on it because they  want to read it! 

Then there’s the issue of this content being so competitive. With thousands  of similar articles, how will you make sure yours gets to the top of Google? 

On the other hand, the interview is unique content that has a built-in  following. People who love Ido Portal are almost guaranteed to like and  share this post, especially if you can get it to the right places by sharing it  on social media. 

Anyone who hasn’t heard of him might have their interest piqued. A new  approach to fitness? Really? What is a “movement first” attitude anyway? 

Then there are the long-tail keywords. You might not easily be able to rank  for a top keyword with this post, but people will find you when they search  for related terms. These include such things as: 

Movement culture 

Just move 

Ido Portal 

Ido Portal interview

 

These can get you a decent number of targeted visitors (meaning they are  visitors that will find your content interesting and be likely to buy from you).  They can also bring you an increasing number of visitors as these terms  grow

Post lots of content like this – long-form and at least 800 words – and then  make an effort to really share it. Promote each blog post like you would  promote an entirely new product! 

Do all this, and you’ll find that your content helps to gradually increase in popularity on your site, while at the same time building up your reputation,  exposure, and influence.

SEO  

The other piece of the puzzle when it comes to high-quality content is SEO. 

The chances are that you know what SEO is. SEO is a series of techniques  that can be used to get a website to reach the top of Google. This stands  for “Search Engine Optimization.” 

This is a topic that has been written about ad nauseam. The problem is that many of these blog posts, articles, and videos only serve to muddy the  waters and create more confusion regarding precisely what SEO is all  about. 

It’s certainly true that SEO is changing all the time, and that it is  multifaceted. This can make it difficult to know where to focus your efforts. 

But ultimately, there are two crucial ingredients for effective SEO and one  important rule that binds them together. 

The ingredients are: 

Keywords 

Links 

And the important rule is: 

Provide value 

Keywords 

Google works by finding content and adding it to a huge database (index)  where it keeps every single one of its links. When somebody searches for a  phrase, Google then refers to that database in order to retrieve the most  relevant, high-quality webpage to attempt to answer the question.

Keywords are what Google uses to recognize the content of a webpage  and thereby to know who to show it to. We want our website to be shown to  as many people as possible, and so we should look for keywords that a lot  of people are searching for. More often than not, this will mean looking for  popular phrases and things that are currently trending. 

To show Google that our content is highly relevant to that keyword, we then  need to lace our website with those keywords as much as possible. 

One way to do this is by repeating the phrase throughout our content. We  don’t want to overdo this though, or it will look like we’re trying to spam the  system.  

 

The best way to include keywords in content is to try and make the  keyword often appear, while simultaneously avoiding doing too much.  The best advice is to follow a rule of 0.5-2% density. That means that you  should include a keyword once every 50-200 words. Be guided by what  feels natural: if it is going to stand out to the reader as forced, then leave  it out. 

It is far better to “underdo” your SEO than it is to overdo it!

LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) 

Moreover, you should aim to use related terms and synonyms. This is what  is referred to as “latent semantic indexing” or LSI. This is how Google looks  for the kinds of increased use of specific phrases that would naturally occur  in a post about a given subject. It’s important for you to understand the  

subject you are writing about well so that you can naturally include all of the  related terms and phrases that you would normally when writing in that  niche! 

Note: This is also how you go about covering new ground when writing  blog posts. We mentioned before how important it was to avoid writing  derivative and “overplayed” content. The only way you can go about doing  this is to make sure that the content you write is in a topic that you  understand and you are passionate about. 

9 Other Elements to Optimize For Search Engines 

There are also some particular areas in a post that benefit particularly from  the use of keywords. These are: 

  1. The title 
  2. The first paragraph 
  3. Headers throughout the text 
  4. The last paragraph 

You should also aim to use the key phrases in the code and file names of  your website. Useful ways to include this include: 

  1. Alt tags for images 
  2. Meta description 
  3. SEO title 
  4. File names for images 
  5. The slug of your web page 

Should You Only Target One Keyword or Key phrase? 

It’s okay to target more than one keyword, and in fact, a good strategy is to  have one “primary” keyword along with a couple of secondary options. 

If you can do all this as much as possible without making it stand out  obviously to the reader, then you will have effectively laced your content  with keywords! 

If you’re not sure of how to do this and you are using WordPress to run  your website, then you can always try using a powerful tool called  YoastSEO (https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo).

This plugin will look at the content of your blog posts, and it will highlight  areas where your SEO could be better: by using more search terms in your  opening and closing paragraphs for example, or by using keywords in your  headers. 

When using YoastSEO, you shouldn’t expect to reach a “green status” every single time. Some articles will have a great social media value, but  won’t lend themselves naturally to SEO. Other articles will have keywords  that are difficult to fit into your content. The aim is simply to be aware of  these methods and to tick all the boxes as often as possible. This is the  mindset to have when performing SEO for your website and webpages. 

3 Types of Keywords You Need to Know About 

There are 3 types of keyword you need to know about: 

  • Short Keywords – broad concepts, e.g. swimming 
  • Medium Keywords – narrowed down concept, e.g. swimming goggles
  • Long-tail Keywords – more specific again, e.g. swimming goggles for  triathlon 

Typically, short keywords are the hardest to rank for, followed by medium  and then long-tail. This is because there’s less competition for long-tail  keywords. So, we’ll be aiming mainly to target longer-tail keywords with 2-4  words. 

How to Find Keywords Using The Google Keyword Planner Tool 

Of course, there is one more step when it comes to building an effective SEO campaign using keywords… and that is to actually find the right  keywords in the first place. How do you know what people are searching  for? 

To do this, you can use Google’s Keyword Planner Tool. 

Step 1. Go to https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/

Step 2. Sign in to your Google account. 

Step 3. Select the option that says Discover new keywords

This option will search not only for a keyword or key phrase you enter, but  Google will also show related keywords, too. 

Step 4. Enter a keyword.

Step 5. Set your criteria. Choose whether to include brand names, set a  language, and geographical location. These options may be useful if you  are only targeting a specific country. 

Step 6. Click Get Results once set. 

Step 7. Browse through the keywords that Google has now presented you  with.

This tool is aimed at customers using Google Ads, but it can 

help you to get  an idea of the volume of traffic looking for any given key phrase.  

The screenshot above shows the average monthly search for “swimming  goggles” is 10K – 100K. That means this keyphrase gets searched 10,000  to 100,000 times each month. 

Other Keyword Research Tools To Consider 

Should you need more data, then you can pay for a third party tool – though these are typically quite expensive. 

KeywordTool.io 

https://keywordtool.io/ 

Moz 

https://moz.com

SEMRush 

https://www.semrush.com/ 

Which Keywords Should You Go For? 

The aim is to look for keywords that have a high volume of traffic, but not  too much competition.  

As with most things, the more established your site is (meaning it has  “domain age” as well as lots of backlinks and tons of content), the more  easily you’ll be able to go after the highest-ranking keywords. A great  strategy then is to view this as a ladder. When starting out, go for the low hanging fruit. Aim to get to the top of Google for those terms that are a little  more obscure, but that could still get you a few hundred visitors per month. 

This will then help you to establish yourself a little in the eyes of Google,  which will, in turn, then allow you to go after slightly more popular links!

Another extremely important thing to consider is the matter of “intent.” Intent refers to the intention of the person searching for the key phrase:  what are they looking for and why?  

This is very important because it is what will ensure you attract the right  people to your website. For instance, someone might phrase a term  differently depending on whether they want to buy something or just ask  about it. 

“Hats online” AND “buy hats online” are probably keywords that suggest a  person is looking to buy a hat. If you have a hat store, then this can be a  great way to get people to your site! 

But if you have an article that is all about hat style, then calling it “hats  online” will likely mean you get the wrong type of person visiting your page.  This can, in turn, mean that they leave that page very quickly, which in turn  means your “bounce rate” will be high (meaning people leave your site  before they have spent any time there). A high bounce rate significantly  hurts your reputation in Google’s eyes, and it means that Google will stop  recommending your site when people search for related terms! 

It’s not just about what you can rank for then: it’s about understanding your  visitors and what they might be looking for. 

Backlinks 

Backlinks play three important roles in Google’s systems. Firstly, they allow  Google to find your content in the first place. Google trawls the web using  programs called “spiders” or sometimes “robots.” These programs work by  following links to move from one website to another. 

So by having as many backlinks to your website as possible, you make it  easier for Google to find you and therefore put you in the index.

At the same time, Google looks at links as another way to know what your  site is about. If your site has lots of links coming from sites about fitness,  then it will assume that your site is also about fitness! 

Finally, Google will look at links as testimony. Links suggest quality  because people don’t tend to share links to websites that they don’t think  are very good! 

The more backlinks you have to your site, the more Google will consider  your site to be important and valuable. Much MORE importantly, though,  Google will also want to see that your links are coming from pages that it  already trusts.  

For instance, if you have a link from the BBC, Google will consider that to  be endlessly more worthwhile than a link from a website that is full of spam. 

Looking for links that Google is known to trust is perhaps the single best  way to increase your chances of climbing the ranks. One way to do this is  to look for links with .edu and .gov TLDs. Another option is to look for the  sites that Google commonly features in the SERPs. 

Finally, look at the top competition that you want to beat and then use a  backlink checker that will show you the links point at that website. You can  then try to get those same sites to link to you – as you know that they a) will  give out links and b) can help you get to where you need to be! 

The best way to get backlinks from other sites? 

Guest post! That means writing a high-quality article for that website, then  giving it to the website for free in exchange for a link that will point back to  your website. This strategy has been used online for a long time, but it is  still highly effective. Not only does this gain you a link back from a site in  your niche that is high value, but it also helps you to build important relationships that can help you to succeed. You’ll gain direct traffic from the  recommendation that comes from being on a high-quality website. 

One more tip? If you are going to succeed at guest posting (and SEO in  general), then your website needs to be high quality. This is another way to  keep bounce rates low, but it also ensures that bloggers in other niches will  want to work with you. 

Be honest with yourself: go and take a hard look at the very best/biggest  blog/website in your niche. Can you honestly say that your website  competes with that site in terms of presentation and content quality?  

A top creator is not going to want to link to you if your site is covered in ads,  or if it looks like it was built in the Geocities era (the early 00s, for those not  familiar with their early websites!). You need to look the part if you’re going  to succeed. And this plays out in another way too. 

Value 

It’s important to remember that Google serves the user. That is to say that  Google is not interested in making life easier for blog owners. If your  website provides valuable and useful information, then Google will want to  share it with its visitors. 

Why? Because if Google’s visitors constantly find the high-quality content  they are looking for – if they consistently have a good experience when  searching on Google – then they will want to do it more often! 

If Google’s visitors find that the websites that are brought up are low  quality, or that they don’t contain the right information (mismatch between  intent and content), then they will eventually stop using Google.

That’s why Google looks at key factors such as the amount of time spent  on your website when determining your potential ranking. It’s why Google  favours brands over sites that focus purely on keywords, and it’s why Google  is now strongly emphasizing the importance of a website that loads  quickly and that performs well on mobile. If your website is not mobile friendly, then fixing that limitation should be one of your chief concerns! 

This is why Google is constantly changing its algorithm. The algorithm  defines how Google searches for content, and thus bloggers and site  owners are constantly trying to second guess it in order to unravel the secret formula to success. If only they can find out what Google is looking  for, then they will be able to build successful web pages every single time! 

Google doesn’t make its algorithms public though, and so SEO optimizers  are left to guess. They will then often come to conclusions such as “Google  wants to see 3% density for keywords” or “Google wants you to collect as  many links as humanly possible.” 

The problem is that Google will then invariably change the goalposts by  altering its algorithm. Suddenly, collecting thousands of links without giving  any regard to their quality is actually going to hurt your website’s ranking! In  fact, this precise thing happened once, and it led to many websites being  completely removed from Google (this is called being “de-indexed.”) 

Historic algorithm changes like this have put huge companies out of  business and devastated entire industries! And those people trying to  optimize their websites had only been doing what other companies had told  them to do for marketing purposes. They had only been doing what they  thought Google wanted them to do!

Of course, this is a difficult subject. After all, this has seriously affected  many people’s lives – and Google’s monopoly over search gives the  company responsibility to businesses. 

But at the same time, Google never asked those businesses to try and  “game” the algorithm. The company never came out and stated that people  should be building links on low-quality websites. 

Those business owners that followed this approach simply missed the  point: that Google serves the customer.  

We can’t predict future changes to the algorithm, but we can guarantee that  Google is trying to serve the visitor first (while also taking care of its own  needs, by ensuring people stay on its own pages for longer). As long as  you focus on delivering high-quality content on a well-designed website,  and as long as your content answers the questions posed in the search  terms, then your goals will be aligned with Google’s, and you should benefit  from future changes. 

Rich Snippets 

One more aspect to consider for your marketing is the use of rich snippets.  Rich snippets show a higher quantity of information from your website,  often with a bulleted list, or an image.  

These are used by Google to try and keep visitors on the SERPs for longer.  Google ideally would love to cut out content creators altogether in order to  retain that valuable traffic! Thus, Google’s spiders can look for specific  elements in your text and share those directly with visitors. These include  things like dates and locations of events, as well as recipes, the answers to  questions, and more. 

Here is an example of what a rich snippet search result looks like:

You will see extra information such as Rating, Votes, cooking time, and  Calories: 

By using a special “Schema” mark up, you can communicate key elements  to Google and ensure that Google chooses your page to highlight in the  SERPs. This might lose you some traffic – seeing as people are now  getting their cooking instructions without having to visit your page! But you  will lose far less traffic than you would if another brand were chosen  instead of yours. Moreover, this will help you to improve brand awareness  and will lead to more visitors in the long term. 

Not sure how to implement schema mark-up’s? Then visit Schema.org for  the full documentation. Alternatively, there are plugins for WordPress that  can help you with the process. This is one of the key features of modern  SEO, so don’t get left behind!

Social Media Marketing 

Social media for marketing is a concept that is hugely misunderstood by  the vast majority of big brands trying to bring more traffic to their websites. 

You see this all the time. Take a look at many of the brands on Facebook  or Twitter, and you’ll see them repeating the same mistakes. Primarily, that  means posting over and over again about the same promotional nonsense,  without giving any thought to strategy or value. 

These posts look like this: 

  • Why not sign up to our mailing list today to find out more about our  business? 
  • Did you know that our CRM system was rated the top new software  product last year? 
  • Sign up now for 20% off of our latest software package! Is your business doing everything it can to maximize efficiency? 

And on and on! 

Answer this: would you consider following a social media account that only  published these types of comments? 

The answer for us is no, and the reason is obvious: there is no value being  provided here! 

What’s more, is that these messages will be sporadic and random and with  no real goal in mind. Then the owner of the business wonders why they  don’t see the huge numbers they feel they deserve for their efforts! 

There are four key things you need to understand if you are going to  successfully use social media to drive traffic:

  • Value 
  • Community 
  • Integration 
  • Consistency 

Value 

This should be obvious. If you want people to follow you on any platform,  then you need to give them a good reason to do so. That means that you  need to be able to offer some kind of value for their time, their effort, and  their contact details. 

In the case of social media, there are a few ways you can do this. 

On Instagram, the best fitness brands don’t just post random pictures of  themselves topless. Instead, they combine these pictures with useful  insights and information that might help someone reading to improve their  own training and results. 

Likewise, if you run a business brand, you can provide useful money making tips. If you run a blog about makeup, you should provide tips that  can help someone create a better look. 

What’s key to understand here is that this is not just true for independent  blogs. Many businesses assume that providing tips is “unprofessional” and  should be left to the influencers. They instead want to post business stuff

You can be as professional as you like though. If no one wants to read  what you have to say, then you aren’t going to get any followers! Anyone  who does follow will leave. 

Why would you want to see what amounts to advertising all over your home  feed?

Another challenge for businesses is finding a way to offer value in what  might be a very dull niche. For example, if you offer life insurance, then  what could you offer to your readers that might be relevant? Makeup tips  are hardly applicable here! 

In this case, it is perfectly acceptable to think a little outside the box: to  think about what you can offer that will provide value for the target  audience.  

Someone looking for life insurance is likely to be: 

  • An adult 
  • Married with children 
  • A homeowner 
  • Health-conscious and money conscious 

Therefore, you might provide regular tips for families: ideas for days out,  ways to stay healthy, ways to save money. These are things that benefit  the target audience while being tangentially relevant to the services or  products you are offering. 

If 90% of your posts provide genuine value on this subject matter, then the  other 10% can be used to promote your service and to drive sales. This  works in any niche, as long as you are consistent.  

Selling the Dream 

There’s another, less tangible way that you can deliver value to your  audience through social media too. That is to focus on inspiring your  audience. This is something that Instagram, in particular, is very well known for.

The idea is simple: people follow brands because they want to feel inspired  and motivated. For example, you might follow a fitness brand because you  are inspired by images of people going for long runs or training hard at the  gym. These images sell a “dream” and a value proposition: they make the viewer think about how they might feel if they were to achieve a similar  level of fitness. 

Meanwhile, brands about making money online might post images of  themselves working hard at a computer through the night. Or they might  post images of them giving talks in front of thousands of people, or looking  out of high rise buildings wearing sharp suits. 

Think about the “dream” that your business is selling and show this through  your social media. If you can do this, then you will bring a large audience  on board that will not only loyally follow your content, but also be more  likely to visit your website – and buy any products you sell or recommend. 

Community 

Another more nebulous subject that is nevertheless extremely important  when it comes to promoting your brand on social media is the idea of  community. 

Too many companies believe that social media is essentially a foghorn: a  tool that they can use to shout loudly and reach a loud audience with a  marketing message. 

But social media is much more than that. In fact, primarily, social media is a  communication tool! Understanding this is what will allow you to tap into its  full power.

When you post something to social media, it’s very important that you also  engage with the audience who comment on it. Likewise, you should  actively participate in other discussions or comment on other images. 

This helps your audience to feel as though they know you, which once  again makes them far more loyal to your business. You’ll find they are then  more likely to: 

  • Share your content
  • Visit your website multiple times 
  • Engage with future posts 

Think about it this way: if you were to ask your friends to share your links,  chances are they would go above and beyond the call of duty to do so.  Imagine if you can create a legion of followers with that same sense of duty  to you! 

A great strategy is to create a Facebook group. This will allow you to  develop a particularly loyal audience that you can almost guarantee will  visit your site for every new post. 

Integration 

I also mentioned the importance of having a strategy. That means knowing  how your social media is going to fit into a broader plan to promote your business and drive traffic to a website. 

What’s the point of developing fantastic social media presence if you’re not  going to do anything with it? This is another typical mistake for many  businesses. 

The answer is to use each of your “platforms” to promote each of your  other platforms. You can do this in a few ways:

  • Reminding people to follow you on social media in your content
  • Reminding people to visit your website from your social media posts
  • Sharing (high value) content from your website to your social media  accounts
    • Including social sharing buttons on your website so that people can  easily share your post 
    • Re-sharing old posts on social media – you don’t only have to post  new content! 
    • Including social links on your homepage 
    • Even including a feed right on your website – so that people who visit  can easily see that they can follow you through other places too 

Consistency 

Finally, none of this will work unless you are consistent. If your social media  accounts are like ghost towns for months on end, then you won’t see them  grow! Not only does this play badly with the algorithms, but it also looks  unprofessional! 

Consistency means posting regularly, but it also means having consistent  messaging, branding, and quality. That means your content should be on  as many platforms as possible, but it also means that you should have a  consistent brand and style across all of those platforms. Your logo and URL  should be recognizable between Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

Paid Advertising 

While all of this can make a big difference, we are so far missing out on  one major strategy for generating traffic for a website: paid advertising. 

If you want to get eyeballs on your website, then paying for ads is one of  the most effective strategies. 

That’s because paid ads guarantee you a top spot for a particular keyword,  or guarantee that you will get targeted exposure to the right people via  social media. 

Facebook Ads and Google Ads 

There are two major forms of paid advertising that are popular on the web for smaller businesses with modest budgets. These are: 

  • Google Ads 
  • Facebook Ads 

Google Ads is particularly effective as it will help you to get your links to the  very top of Google. These are the ads that show above the “organic  results” as sponsored links. This places them in a prominent place, and it  means that you can target the same intent as you might do with SEO. 

In other words, you can show your ads to someone who has searched for  how to buy the product that you sell! Or that has searched for the kind of  information you specifically provide. This is extremely valuable.  

Google Ads also have the benefit of letting you test different search terms  to see, which might bring the most traffic. You can this way ensure that a  particular search term will be worth chasing after with SEO strategies.

Facebook Ads work slightly differently by showing ads on the home feeds  of Facebook users. This time, you will target the position of your ad based  on the interests and details of the user. As users, we give an awful lot of  information to Facebook: 

  • Age 
  • Sex 
  • Location 
  • Interests 
  • Relationship status 
  • Hobbies 
  • Social network 
  • Job title 
  • Potentially even income! 

This means that if you run a website selling wedding dresses, then you can  use Facebook to show ads to: 

  • Women 
  • With high disposable income 
  • Who are local 
  • Who are engaged 

PPC Explained 

What makes both Ads and Facebook Ads particularly powerful, though, is  that these are both forms of PPC advertising. PPC stands for “Pay Per  Click”, and it essentially means that the advertiser only pays if someone  clicks on the ad.

Therefore, if your ad is unsuccessful in getting attention, it won’t cost you  anything! If your ad is shown and no one clicks on it, you’ll gain brand  exposure completely free! 

What’s more, is that this system allows you to calculate exactly how much  you are willing to pay for each of your visitors, which in turn can guarantee  a profit. 

Pay per click advertising works using a bidding system. This means that  you choose the maximum amount that you are willing to pay for your ad.  When a relevant slot comes up for your ad to show, you will then enter into  a bidding war with any other advertisers that are trying to advertise in the  same spot. The advertiser with the highest maximum bid will be the one  that wins, and you’ll only pay the amount necessary to get the position. 

That means that a lot of the time, you actually won’t need to pay the full  amount you have pledged: you might pay just 10 cents! It also means that  the more competitive a keyword is, the more you will need to pay. 

But what this also means is that you can now calculate the maximum  amount you pay for each visitor. You can then measure this against your  CLV (Customer Lifetime Value), and that way find out precisely how much  you are profiting from your campaign. 

For example, if you sell an eBook for $50 and you have a conversion rate  of 2%, that means that you will earn $100 for every 100 visitors (this is just  hypothetical – that would be an extremely high conversion rate in reality). 

Now if you have a maximum bid of anything under $1, that should almost  guarantee profit as long as the ads run for long enough!

Video Ads 

Another extremely powerful tool that is under-utilized by a lot of marketers  is video. Video ads shown on YouTube (before videos) and Instagram (in  the feed) have a huge potential to make a massive impact on your visitors.  That’s because these videos have the potential to make a massive impact  that makes a strong impression for your brand. 

Think about a big influencer like Tai Lopez. Even though he is now being  called out for being a “fake guru”, he has created popularity by using video  ads. The campaign “Here in My Garage” showed before a huge number of  videos and was highly memed for being extremely transparent. But it also  got people talking about Tai, and it led to a huge number of visitors for his  real YouTube account.

Imagine the potential impact you could have by using video ads, but  combining it with a high energy ad that built up excitement and emotion for  your website and your products and services! Of course, we’re not saying  to be like Tai Lopez, that was just an example of the power of video ads.

Building a Brand That’s Memorable 

We have discussed a wide range of different strategies for generating  website traffic in this book. We have discussed everything from using  traditional SEO to more modern strategies like Schema.org mark up  language. We’ve looked at the importance of page optimization, and we’ve discussed the use of advertising. 

But there are countless other strategies for bringing traffic to your website.  And one of the big things I want to emphasize before we part ways is that  you can promote every single post on your site like you would promote a  new product. 

That means you should be sharing your content on forums that discuss  those topics. It means you should be reaching out to members of the press  (especially other big blogs), and it means you should be teasing your  audience days prior to its release. 

Do everything you can in your power to create “buzz” around every one of  your posts, and utilize all the resources you have available to you.  

The Importance of a Strong Brand to Bring Everything  Together 

A big bulk of this book has focused on the importance of delivering value,  of offering something new, and of inspiring the audience. 

If you can learn to do this, then you will find that your content stands out  and that you generate a HUGE amount of traffic over time. This is FAR more effective than attempting to use short-term strategies to gain visitors  by spamming the web. 

It may take time, but you will stand out, and you will grow. Why is that? Because 99% of brands online just don’t care. 

I’ve worked with a whole lot of them. And so often, I see the same thing  time and again. A client comes along to order some work, and they show  me their website. 

Their website doesn’t have a brand. The name of their website is the  keyword (www.getgreatabs.com). They don’t believe me when I tell them  about the 1% LSI, the keyword density and the organic-looking links.  Rather, they just want that keyword repeated as often as possible. 

They ask for generic titles for their content: 

“Best Diet for Abs” 

“Top Sit Up Exercises” 

“How to Lose Belly Fat” 

They clearly don’t know about the niche they’re in, they don’t care, and they  don’t have anything new to say. 

And as a result, they fill their site with tired, generic and derivative content  that is stuffed with keywords and all tied together with an uninspiring brand.  Most of them don’t even have a logo and the ones that do either made it  themselves in MS Paint, or they paid the lowest amount possible and got  something really clichés like a lightbulb or a globe with an arrow moving  around it.

Then they tell people to follow them on Facebook where they repeatedly  post about ‘Check out my new ebook HERE’.  

They have nothing interesting or new to say. They’ve done their research,  they know the keywords, and they know that this is a good niche to be in. 

But they don’t understand the niche. They have no heart. And so they are  destined for failure. 

Worst of all? They have no skill. 

Now take a look at the sites you already read on a daily basis. Take a look  at your favourite blogs and vlogs. What are they like? 

The chances are that they have a clear mission statement and brand. They  aren’t for everyone, but they have a legion of loyal fans. They have a cool  logo, and that logo instantly communicates what their brand is all about and  who should listen. 

They post content that is interesting and unique. They have a completely  different take on the subject, and they write about the highly advanced  aspects that most blogs simply don’t know about or miss.  

They might write about ‘Cardio Acceleration for 30% Faster Fat Loss’. 

Or they might write about the role of dopamine in encouraging snacking  behaviour. 

In other words, these posts are interesting and unique. And they have  personality – they’re written by the brand owner themselves in a way that is  passionate and interesting. It’s storytelling. 

The site is beautiful and well put together. There’s a video. There are interactive elements. And the images are crisp and high definition. 

In short, it has high production values, and it looks like something that has  had time, money and love spent on it. 

If you want to succeed online – really succeed – then that’s what you need  to build. 

How To Create a Memorable Brand 

Creating a brand doesn’t mean creating a logo. A logo is just one aspect of  a brand, and it’s not what comes first. 

What comes first is a mission statement. A mission statement is a phrase  belonging to a business that says what it’s all about. This should explain:  what, how and why. 

What do you make/sell/do? 

How do you do it differently? 

Why do you do it?

I highly recommend watching Simon Sinek’s excellent TED talk on the  Golden Circle at this point. It’s called How Great Leaders Inspire Action

Most companies will think about the what (we make hats, we design  websites, we provide legal advice). Many will think about the how (we use  the best materials, we outsource to China, we resell but with a value-add).  

But the WHY is what matters most. This is the motivation that spurred you  on to get involved in the business in the first place. It is what makes you get  out of bed in the morning.

And it’s once again why you CANNOT have a successful website/business  in a niche or industry that you don’t truly care about. 

So, if you have a restaurant, maybe your ‘why’ is because you want to  introduce the world to healthier, cleaner and more responsibly sourced  food. 

If you have a website about fitness, maybe your ‘why’ is because you want  to inspire the feeling of accomplishment in your audience. 

Whatever the case, you need to understand this because it is what will give  you your value proposition, it is what will give you your design language, and it is what will create your marketing opportunities for you. 

This will also allow you to find your ‘buyer persona’. This is your ideal  customer, and through a combination of surveying and of thinking about  your brand, you will be able to draw them up.  

Now you need to ensure that your strategy is aimed at this person. It is a  huge mistake to make a website that you want to be ‘for everyone’. If you  do that, then it won’t be particularly interesting or inspiring to anyone! 

The key thing to remember is to make people into real fans. Remember, content  marketing and ‘new SEO’ are about the quality of your followers, not the  quantity. You want engagement. 

Ask yourself: is yours the kind of brand that someone can be a fan of?  People don’t just know about Apple; they are fans of Apple. People are  fans of Tim Ferriss. They like what these brands stand for; they feel they  know them. They want to associate with them. 

To get to that point – where your site is inspiring to people – you need to  stand for something other than getting clicks on your AdSense.

This is the single most important thing to understand if you’re going to  succeed on the web. So make sure that you understand your “Why” and  that you have an idea of what your audience is looking for. Now make sure  that everything from your content, to your social media, to your logo and  website design speak to these values.

5 Powerful Types of Content  to Try 

YouTube Content 

Starting a YouTube channel is something that many brands don’t consider.  But they do so at their peril. 

Because YouTube is the world’s leading source of video content, with 83%  of consumers watching content on the platform. For reference, Facebook  occupies the number 2 spot with 67%.

What’s more, 7 out of 10 viewers watch videos to get ‘help with a problem’ they’re experiencing in their job, studies or hobby. 

The implication? Producing primarily educational content aimed at  resolving your audience’s struggles is the way to set yourself up for  success. 

There are lots of video formats to choose, such as: 

  • Explainer videos 
  • Tutorials 
  • Whiteboard animations 
  • Interviews 
  • Talking head 
  • Vlogs & more 

For some inspiration, check out how mediation provider Headspace uses  their YouTube channel to educate, inspire and entertain their audience.  Their helpful animations and tutorials gently guide viewers and subscribers  closer to their brand.

The great thing about creating video content for YouTube is that you can  easily repurpose it for other channels. 

For example, you can easily take the audio from an interview and turn it  into a podcast. Or you can cut video snippets and post them to social  media to give your followers micro-nuggets of wisdom.

User-Generated Content 

Many brands are overlooking the potential that social offers by skipping  over user-generated content. In fact, just a measly 16% of brands have a  documented strategy regarding user-generated content. 

And that’s a shame because research has shown that UGC pulls in around  28% higher engagement compared to standard company posts. 

What’s more, almost 50% of consumers say that UGC helps them find new  products.

In fact, a recent case study by clothing brand Burberry attributed a 51% jump in eCommerce sales year-on-year to the results of their UGC  strategy. Fifty-one-per-cent! Ay caramba! 

The best part about UGC? You don’t even have to create it. Your brand  advocates do the heavy lifting for you. 

But you do need to encourage them because over half of consumers want  brands to tell them what type of content to create. 

How? It’s simple: create a #hashtag campaign. 

Just check out how online furniture store Wayfair have created a campaign  around the hashtag #WayfairAtHome to turn their customers into content  creators: 

Podcasts 

The popularity of podcasts is on the up. In 2018, there were 48 million  weekly podcast listeners, but by 2021 that’s expected to jump to 115  million. 

And right now the marketplace is not crazy competitive. There are around  80 million Facebook business pages – but there are only about 750,000  podcasts airing on a regular basis. 

This high demand, coupled with low supply means that now is the perfect  time to add podcasting to your content marketing arsenal. 

Especially when you consider that the average podcast listener earns  between $10-20k more than the average US consumer – with 15% of  listeners earning $150,000+. Did somebody say higher purchasing power? 

For inspiration, check out how Harvard Business Review uses their podcast  ‘HBR Ideacast’ to give their audience a glimpse into the thinking of some of  the world’s biggest companies

Infographics

Okay, infographics aren’t always strictly ‘text-free’, but they’re predominantly a visual medium that you shouldn’t overlook. 

Why? Well, how about I let an infographic do the talking for me?

Pretty powerful stuff. As the old adage goes ‘a picture is worth a thousand  words’. 

Infographics appeal to us because they’re so easy to consume. The mental  effort required to get ‘the gold’ is so low that we’re more likely to retain the  message. 

In fact, when relevant images are used, eye-tracking studies show readers  spend more time looking at the images than they do reading text on the  page. 

Plus infographics have serious potential to go viral – being shared widely  across the web they’ll help you pick up valuable backlinks and boost your  SEO rankings without you lifting a finger. 

You might be thinking, that’s great – but I can’t afford to hire a graphic  designer right now. Don’t worry, you don’t have to. 

You can use a tool like Pictochart to create beautiful infographics with a  simple drag and drop editor. Who says life needs to be complicated? 

Courses 

Developing educational courses is an incredibly powerful content marketing  tactic. 

Courses are especially potent if you’re selling higher-priced services or  software, but they can still be useful for physical products too. 

Sharing your professional experience with your audience creates a strong  sense of reciprocity and showcases your expertise. 

Take software company HPLife, for example. They offer business and  start-up courses for free, with some of HP’s products at the heart of each  lesson.

They’ve improved how hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs run their  business, but better yet, they’ve indirectly trained those people to use their  products and services. 

Obviously creating a course of your own doesn’t have to involve the level of  effort HP have put into their Life academy. 

You can use a platform like Teachable (or YouTube is always good) to  create free short courses. Or even just run a once-off webinar focused on  educating your audience.

You’ll find that once you start giving value like this, you’ll get it back in  spades.

Conclusion 

Hopefully, by now, you’re equipped with the tips and strategies for generating traffic to your website and building your following online. 

There’re endless opportunities to drive traffic, generate awareness, build  relationships and bring in revenue. 

One small word of caution: don’t try to jump in and do multiple things at  once. Spreading yourself too thinly isn’t going to do you any favours. 

Instead, pick one to two mediums and go all-in on it for the best chance of  success.

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