Launching your online business is an exciting first step. Building your new site, adding products, and designing your logo is always a lot of fun. However, once all that is done, it’s time to start growing. Whether you are selling high-quality products, subscriptions, or services, sales tend to fall flat if you don’t know what you are doing.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not easy to get the first few sales when you launch your online business, especially when the competition is so tough. It is challenging enough to attract new customers, much less making them loyal to your business.

Increasing the traffic to your business is perhaps the single most crucial way to increase your sales, and consequently, bottom-line profits, too.

If this statistic is mildly true, then small businesses like yours need to be bringing as much organic traffic as humanly possible. Easier said than done right? In this blog, we are going to break down 6 practical ways you can begin driving organic traffic to your online business and website. Each method can be applied to any online business no matter if you are just starting out, 3 months into the process, or 5 years down the line.

1. Make Social Media Your Second Home

Your social media channels can act as your number one source for pure organic traffic. Giving your business an Instagram account and posting 3-4 times a day may seem like an obvious enough method to attract people to your business. However, too many businesses fail to attract enough customers simply because they choose one platform and stick to it.

The key to creating an effective social media sales channel and top-line funnel for organic traffic is to post and promote on all platforms that are relevant to your business. These may include but are not limited to your website, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest. To make the most of each platform, differentiate what sort of content you post. For instance, Twitter for short links, Facebook for informative posts, Pinterest for image-heavy promotion, etc.

2. SEO Is Your Friend

When you are just starting out, most of your potential customers don’t even know your brand even exists yet. Most are doing their own form of research on Google, Bing, or Yahoo. If you are not interested in paying for your place at the top of Google’s search results via Google AdWords, then you can get there with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

There are plenty of ways in going about bringing organic traffic from Google, but one of the best (and free) ways of doing it is by understanding what your target audience is searching for using keywords.

Once you have gathered a list of valuable keywords that are relevant to both your product and your niche market, begin using them all throughout your website.

The best places to use keywords are:

• Product Titles
• Product Descriptions
• Alt Tags on Images

Strategically using the keywords in these areas significantly increases the chances of your online business being seen on the search engine results pages.

3. Catering To Your Audience

The key takeaway here is to cater your content to your audience, not just search engines. SEO helps boost your website to the top of the search engine, sure, but it’s not enough to keep your potential customers on the page.

As important as SEO is, it is equally important to write in a way that appeals to your customers and keeps them searching for more. If your content “makes sense” to your readers, they’ll be on your page longer, and subsequently, your business will be able to attract more traffic.

4. Guest Posting

One of the less popular ways to drive traffic towards your website and business is guest posting. Although it may seem like a tactic only used by journalists, guest posting is far from obsolete. Guest posting essentially involves writing for another blog whose owner or editor will probably allow you to attach a backlink.

If the opportunity to write a guest post on a reputable blog pops up, be sure to grab it with both hands. In the post itself, make sure you directly address your business and what exactly you are offering to the customer wherever relevant. At the core of a guest post lies a good pitch, but don’t overdo it.

That being said, guest posting is not just a one-way conversation. Besides looking for sites to guest post, try inviting people to guest post on your website as well. The writer can then share those links on their platforms and allow more potential customers to visit your website.

However, at the same time, it is important to make sure those posts are completely original and high quality, without irrelevant links. No matter the following of that writer, if it is a low-quality post, Google’s algorithm can track it down and put a stop to your traffic.

5. Mix-Up Your Content

Once customers start flocking to your business, the next step is to get them to stay there. Rather than attracting new blood to your business, your priority should be building a loyal customer base.

Thinking up new ways to present the content related to your business is extremely important. Not everyone wants to sit down and read exhausting blog posts. Incorporate all kinds of formats, such as stats, infographics, and videos.

6. Fall In Love With Email Marketing

With the advent and booming popularity of content marketing, few new businesses employ more traditional methods of attracting customers. Email marketing is a long-forgotten promotion tactic, but even today, it can prove to be a strong instrument in favor of your business’ traffic.

Email marketing is often confused with spam emails or bombarding people with daily emails of any little business update. Much like your website, make sure the content of your emails is unique, engaging, and, most importantly, relevant. You’ll be surprised how much a well-written email can boost your traffic.

Bonus Tip: Know Your Competitions

Your business does not exist in a bubble. You may be competing against hundreds, if not thousands, of other businesses in the same niche or market. Therefore, it is crucial to know where you stand relative to your competition.

Research your competition extensively, and find out what is working for them. This is not to say that you copy their content; history has never been kind to copycats. Instead, find out what content resonates with customers and what people are talking about. What is your competitor doing that you are not? Then, integrate that knowledge to add more value to your own business.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that at the core of every successful business lies thorough research. Before employing any of these methods, it is important to look into what can work for your business specifically and how you can use these ways to your advantage.