You’ve just created a website for your business. You have even taken the next step and begun marketing your online business through search engine optimization.
Now what?
While getting visitors to your website is important, it is equally important to understand how they interact with it. Analyzing website traffic helps website owners better understand their online customers, potential customers, and their interactions with the website.
Everything becomes a guessing game without measurement. If your website is not performing well, you won’t know it. You will have no idea which content is most effective nor which pages get the most traffic.
Why your website doesn’t get traffic and how to fix it
So, you have figured out how to read your metrics, but your website traffic numbers are small—what’s going on? Clearly, there’s something wrong. Here are some reasons your website traffic might not be growing:
1. Your SEO needs some work
Google and other search engines have become very good at identifying good content. If your content is not up to snuff or your site is not on par with what they are looking for, your chances of ranking high in the Search Engine Results Pages (or SERPs) and gaining traffic are decreased.
What is good content to get you traffic?
Content that attracts visitors has the following characteristics:
- It satisfies all SEO content tips known to work after Panda and Penguin.
- It is published on a website with an existing number of quality [indexed] pages
If your website is new, this characteristic may be difficult to achieve, especially if there are older and bigger websites on the same subject - It is unbiased and well-researched.
- It is fresh. Users want up-to-date content and so do SERPs and social media.
2. You’re targeting the wrong keywords
There are only 10 places available on the first page of the SERPs for every keyword. If you have a new website, then your site will not be shown on the first page as it is not trusted by SERPs yet. When you target the most popular keywords only, it will be difficult to achieve a good ranking.
If not the popular ones, what keywords do you target?
When you use the Google keyword tool to make your keyword research, you should aim for low competition, long-tail keywords.
3. Your website is slow
Page speed is a ranking factor as studies show that users are more likely to make repeat visits to websites that load quickly. On the other hand, they will exit a website if it does not load in 4–5 seconds.
Will increasing my website speed bring in more traffic?
Decreasing the load time of a website increases traffic because the rankings will also increase.
By fixing the page speed problem on your website, you will increase your chances of having a page or multiple pages in the top 10 positions.
4. Your website isn’t crawlable
There’s a chance that Google can’t find your website. If that is the case, you’ll want to fix it immediately.
Search engines index a website’s pages by regularly ‘crawling’ them. Sites are usually indexed automatically, but if yours isn’t, make sure that you have created and indexed a sitemap and that you have requested that Google crawl your site.
How can you tell if your website has been indexed? Go to Google and search for ‘site:[yourdomain]’. Example: site:mainstreetmartech.com. Then, you will see each page that Google has successfully crawled and indexed.
5. Is your website associated with a Google Business Profile?
Google Business Profile (GBP) accounts are free, relatively easy to set up, and very important for a business to have.
With a Google Business Profile, people can easily locate important details about your business when looking you up on Google, including your hours, address, and contact information.
A Business Profile is also the only way to get Google reviews, which not only indirectly help with search rankings, but also make your business more appealing to potential customers (if the reviews are good).
You can set yours up here.
6. You have no social media presence
You can put as much effort into your website as you want, but if you have no social media presence then your website traffic will suffer unless you have another established traffic source such as paid ads.
Over the years, social media has become a major part of traffic generation. It’s no longer just about Google and search engines.
It can be very helpful for your website traffic to have some sort of presence within your social communities. A single share/post on networks like Twitter and LinkedIn can result in hundreds of website visitors.
7. You’ve been hit by a Google penalty
Depending on the circumstances, you may have been hit by a Google penalty. A website’s organic Google search ranking may suffer from effects ranging from ‘hardly noticeable’ to ‘disastrous.’ You can take steps to minimize the factors that contribute to SEO penalties. Here are the top 3 guidelines to avoid a penalty:
- Don’t buy links.
- Don’t overuse keywords.
- Make original, quality content.
- Write for people, not the algorithm.
8. Your website has broken images and links
We all have broken links and images from time to time, but it’s essential to fix them as soon as possible. It can be due to typos, or it can be related to links that were not updated when a URL changed. In any case, it creates a poor user experience and can detract from your search ranking, especially if the links were internal.
9. Your website is hard to use
An easy-to-use, easy-to-navigate website is a must. Each link should open in the correct place. It should be easy to find important information (especially contact information). No matter what device is used, it should be intuitive and work well.
10. You hired the wrong SEO firm
Unfortunately, this also happens very often. In reality, most SEO companies promise first-page rankings while their tactics and methods are ineffective in helping your website gain the organic traffic it needs.
Main Street MarTech can help you engage and impress visitors to your website, so your traffic builds and your search ranking increases. Ready to get started? Contact us to learn how we can help to make your online presence powerful, popular, and profitable.
