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Whether your website is your business card or your primary source of revenue, it's critical to design it using eye-catching images, clean design, and vivid writing. That said, building a great site might keep visitors engaged once they're on it, but it won't automatically draw them there in the first place.
To drive traffic to your website, you need to take concrete steps to make sure your website shows up higher in search-engine results, attracts new viewers, and builds a loyal readership. Your website traffic analytics don't just measure how well these efforts are succeeding, they can also help you direct your efforts in order to build traffic efficiently and effectively.
Optimizing your site for search engines
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the craft of making edits to your site—some visible to visitors, others visible only to search engines—to make sure that your website shows up as high as possible in the results for web searches.
Do a quick baseline check with a variety of search engines: Search for your business name, then scroll to see how high you appear in the results. If your site shows up on the first page, that's ideal. Try additional searches using keywords that potential customers might use. In Squarespace analytics, you can check the traffic source to see what proportion of your traffic comes from search engines, as well as discover which keywords lead people to your site.
Larger online businesses hire SEO consultants or staff who are dedicated to making subtle tweaks based on a sophisticated analysis of the data. However, there are a few key steps any site owner can take to improve the SEO of important pages—without hiring a specialist.
Make sure your webpage titles and URLs clearly identify your site and the subject of the page's content.
For each page, write clear, descriptive meta descriptions (the text people see below the page title in search engine results).
Clearly state the topic in the webpage text and include keywords that people might search for.
Make sure every subpage links back to the home page, its category page, and other relevant pages on your site.
Creating fresh content on a regular basis
Your website should never remain static for long, even if you're just using it to maintain a basic presence on the internet, like with a creative portfolio or resume website. Regularly adding new content to the website gives repeat visitors and loyal customers reasons to return to your site. In addition, the more relevant content you publish, the more backlinks you may accumulate, which means other websites link to your site. Backlinks also improve your relevance to search engines.
Here are a few simple strategies for adding fresh content to your site:
Add a blog to the site and update it regularly. Write for your customers or readers, instead of just writing self-promotional copy. You may want to offer tips or background information about your products. If you want to take a further step, look at the keywords that people are searching your site for, and create content that appeals to them.
Update your home page and your products regularly. List your current hours, highlight new products, and advertise regular or seasonal promotions.
Add videos or multimedia content. Similar to a blog, multimedia content gives visitors new ways to learn about or experience what you do. If you cross-post your videos on social media, people may discover your site or business through that channel.
Building a community of followers
Growing your site traffic isn't just about passively using SEO to gain visitors. There are many ways to promote your work and expertise.
Social media. It helps to post regularly on a variety of platforms where your audience is active. Always include links to your site and respond to people who interact with you. Your site traffic source data can even tell you which channels are the most effective at sending traffic to you.
Email newsletters. Create a weekly or monthly newsletter to tell your community about what's happening at your business and in your industry. Grow your mailing list by collecting email addresses, then study your site analytics after each mailing to see which links readers click.
Offline. Include your website address on all your print materials, mention it to customers and others in your network, and talk about it at events.
Learn more about how to use site analytics to increase customer conversion rates.