Monthly Archives: July 2010
You’ve launched your company website and followed these tips for optimizing your online presence. So why aren’t your traffic numbers through the roof yet? If I knew the answer to that question, I would be a very rich woman. Unfortunately, search engines are constantly changing the way they index and rank website in their search results. So depending solely on Google to help boost your website visitors isn’t necessarily the smartest idea. That doesn’t mean I want you to stop optimizing your site – keep at it! But there are a few other things you could be doing to help drive traffic to your Chatham-Kent company website. Here are just a few useful tips.
5 Tips to Help Drive Visitors to Your Company Website
1. Add a link in your email signature.
This is a great way to subtly remind your contacts of your online presence. Most professional email applications, like Outlook, have an option for creating an email signature readily available. If you’re using a web-based email provider, like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or Windows Live, check out WiseStamp. This cool application lets you create a visually appealing signature complete with social networking icons (check out mine in the picture!).
2. Add share buttons on important articles.
You’ve spent valuable time and energy writing and publishing unique content and useful articles to your company website, why not encourage people to share this content with friends or on social networks? There are various plug-ins and add-ons out there that enable you to add buttons on your website that make sharing content a snap. The best place to insert sharing buttons are either at the top or bottom of your article posting.
3. Conduct a survey or poll on your site.
Make the content on your company website interactive with a survey or poll feature. Visitors will have the opportunity to really interact with your information, providing their opinion in a useful manner. More often than not, visitors who respond to your poll will want to spread the word to their friends.
4. Syndicate your content to your social networks.
Share your content with friends, followers, and coworkers using easy syndication tools for sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. These applications will automatically post a link to your latest published post on your social media profiles, helping spread the word quickly and easily.
5. Let users subscribe in a variety of ways.
Driving new visitors to your website is important, but so is encouraging visitors to return time and time again. One of the easiest ways to do this is to provide visitors with a number of different ways to subscribe to your site. An RSS feed is the simplest format, but you can also offer an email subscription via services like Feedburner. This will send an enrolled visitor an email message with the full text of your latest website posting.
It boggles my mind that small business owners are still under the impression that a pretty looking website will automatically attract traffic and boost sales. Having a successful company site takes work, and lots of it! Employing a number of tactics to help draw visitors to your site is a great way to get the most mileage out of your content and encourage customers to keep coming back for more.
How do you drive customers to your company website?
If you remember, last week I mentioned that I would be starting a new feature where I recognized businesses that participate in feel-good marketing. My first business mention was to Eve Chocolatier and her Kiva Lending team. This week, I want to send a shout out to Scribendi Editing and Proofreading. I used to work at Scribendi before I decided to launch CIK, so I must say that I owe the company founders, Chandra Clarke and Terence Johnson, a big thank you. I learned a lot working under their wing, especially about the importance of community involvement.
Fighting for a Greener Tomorrow
Chandra and Terence are extremely environmentally-conscious. They drive a hybrid, the Scribendi offices have a “think before you print” policy, and the staff is encouraged to recycle. Terence even lobbied to have a bike rack installed at the office so that employees could opt for a greener mode of transportation. So it should come as no surprise that Scribendi is one of Chatham-Kent’s biggest supporters of “green” causes. The couple makes regular donations to the Thames Conservation Authority, and a few years back, the staff rallied to donate 10,000 peat pots to the Chatham-Kent Greening Initiative. Just this past Earth Day, Scribendi staff members, along with Chandra and Terence, rolled up their sleeves to help plant trees in one of the area’s most important environmental habitats, Paxton Bush.
Paxton’s Bush is the largest forest within the City of Chatham, but it’s also one of the most threatened. Rumours have been flying around the municipality that a land development deal could possibly cut the bush in half, eliminating a great number of trees and endangering a number unique local animals. Luckily, the bush has supporters like Chandra and Terence to help push for further conservation and rehabilitation efforts.
Standing up for a Local Cause
Scribendi has made a great decision supporting a local environmental initiative. The company itself is relatively large; they do business on an international scale and boast a unique online employment system that enables them to hire staff members all over the world. Yet they’ve chosen to support a local charity, which I think is extremely important. Giving back to your community is a great way to remind local customers that you’re still very much committed to the area and receive positive press coverage. I know that Chandra and Terrence will continue their efforts at Paxton Bush, and who knows – Chatham-Kent could someday see a Scribendi Park spring up in its midst!
