This episode kicks off a four-part series on getting more website traffic, and I’m starting with the big picture: there’s more than one way to do this. I break down the three main methods and walk you through the questions you should be asking yourself before you decide which approach fits your business best.
Enjoy the episode!
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🧰 I love me a good digital marketing tool. This week’s recommended tool is Podchaser.
I use it to get notified anytime my name appears in a podcast. Sometimes podcast hosts don’t let you know when your guest appearance goes live so this is a great way to know. It also sometimes finds mentioned if you’re not a guest. So if someone mentions your name in the show notes, you get notified.
🎧 This week’s recommended podcast episode is How Constraints Help You Focus, Create, and Finish on the Art of Manliness podcast.
I can’t recall why I liked this one specifically; it was in my like list and I feel like it helped put some awareness around my procrastination habits.
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There are three methods of getting more website traffic.
There’s organic, there’s paid, and there’s earned.
The organic bucket is website traffic you don’t have to pay for. These are sources like search engines (think Google, Bing, ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity.) Social platform sources like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok. This could even be links you put on downloadable PDFs.
The paid bucket is where you, well, you pay for website traffic. These are sources like, Google or Meta ads, Display ads, or even advertising direct in a website, newsletters or podcasts. Technically this could include out-of-home sources too which are things like billboards, buses and mall kiosks.
And the earned bucket is the kind where people talk about you. That’s like referrals or un-paid mentions on other websites. Forums, where people go to a sort of bulletin board space like Reddit. PR mentions is a big nice juicy source.
The best strategies have a little of everything so you’re not dependent on one source. If that one source goes away, so does all your website traffic.
Some businesses tend to lean into paid methods when first starting out.
Others will use paid as a way to offset slow seasons.
Organic is simpler than earned and more sustainable but paid tends to be faster.
Sometimes the search phrase or topic isn’t conducive to paid if it’s informational and not close to the buying part of the customer’s journey.
There’s no right or wrong way.
So here are some questions to ask and answer so you can choose what method will best suit your business.
- How much time do I have each week for the direct goal of getting more traffic to my website?
- Can I track a website lead all the way through to a sale? Paid methods are a no-no if you can’t track this to know what your return on spend is.
- How fast do I need results? And I know I didn’t hear you just say yesterday. Be realistic about this answer.
- Are people searching for what you provide? If so, how and where?
- What’s your profit margin? If you have multiple offers, you can vary up the methods according to your profit margin.
You’ve got until next week to answer these questions where we go into detail on the first one… Organic website traffic.
Here’s The Takeaway
There is more than just search to get more website traffic. A smart sustainable strategy utilizes various methods.
About This Show
The Get More Website Traffic Podcast covers the strategies, tools, and tactics that help small business owners get more people to their website and turn that traffic into leads. Host Barb Davids breaks it down in plain language every week, with bonus episodes featuring other business owners sharing their expertise on topics that matter to running a small business. Produced by Compass Digital Strategies.
