How to Drive Visitors to Your Website/ Blog

As the internet business is booming in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, many people are beginning to realize the need for a website. But most Nigerians hastily constructed their website and then promptly forgot about it; One of their most valuable marketing assets, now relegated to the back burner, becomes just another business disbursement.

Remember: the more popular your website is, the more benefits you get. 

Driving traffic to your site requires a combination of both online and offline measures. Here’s a list of steps you can take to drive traffic to your site:

• Include your web address on your printed materials. This means all your business cards, stationary, invoices, letterhead, newspaper and magazine ads, direct mail, corporate gift items like T-shirts, Mugs, etc. if your company has a branded car, ensure the web address is printed boldly on it. This way, people can research details about your company while on traffic. You never can tell, your next customer may just be driving right behind you.

• Submit your website to search engines, directories, and industry specific directories. Your website benefits from quality incoming links, therefore ensure that search engines(especially Google) knows about your website. There are hundreds of paid and unpaid directories online. Popular ones in Nigeria are Nigeria Galleria, VConnect, etc. also submit it to directories that are specific to your industry. This will increase your SEO as well

• Optimize your site for search engines. Don’t just give your website to a web designer, look for a web developer; a designer may just be interested in the look and feel of your website but a developer is both interested in both the design, content, navigation, loading etc. Having a website that can be discovered by search engines involves using relevant keywords on your pages and in your meta tags.

• Have a social Media Presence. Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, Blog, BB etc are one of the most visited sites online in Nigeria. You need a Facebook page for your business and to. Facebook for instance is one of the top three most visited sites in Nigeria. Make sure you broadcast relevant information to your audience on these media platforms

 • Use paid advertising. You may have heard of Pay-Per-Click Advertising, popularly called PPC. They are those adverts you see on the right side of your Facebook pages or Google search result pages. Base your pay-per-click ads on relevant keywords related to your business. Consider advertising on sites most Nigerians visit, especially visitors that include your target market. If you are into entertainment, beauty etc; a good place to place your advert will be a place like Linda Ikeji Blog. Also consider advertising on the online version of Nigerian newspapers.

. • Create a blog. Your Blog is The Online PRO Of Your Company. Start a corporate blog where you write about your products and services. Even if you don’t have time to write, contract it to professional blog writing companies, that will remove all the head ache from you and ensure your blog and website is regularly updated

• Link to non-competing industry sites.  Encourage them to link back to your site. You gain search engine visibility if you have quality incoming links. Eloquent TouchMedia for instance is a website design, development and promotion company; we can decide to link to a hosting company that does not do all we do and ask them to link back to us.

• Add your signature file to all electronic correspondence. Every time you send an outgoing e-mail, ensure your signature file is included which should contain your web address. Also try to use your corporate mail to send letters. Mail address like jude@eloquenttouchmedia.com is more professional and links people to what you do than jude@yahoo.com

Try these basic steps and be sure to get results. Your website can attract that lead, phone calls, emails you need to make sales by following these steps.

Jude Oguta

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