Want to punch your website in the face

The #1 reason why your website is not bringing in new business

I have spoken with many business owners over the years. These owners had a rude awakening when it came to their business websites.

Some of these owners spent upwards of R20 000 on their websites, while others spent as little as R2 500. But the results were the same, irrespective of what the website looked like.

The website just isn’t bringing in any business.

Your website is a marketing tool. And if it isn’t bringing in any new business, is it really working for you?

This brings me to the #1 reason why your website is not bringing in new business…

Whichever way you cut it, if your website doesn’t receive visitors, it can’t bring in new business.

I made this mistake more than 10 years ago when I setup my first website. I had this bright idea of selling disposable cameras, mostly to brides for their wedding receptions, and to the occasional big company having a corporate event.

I set up a beautiful website (ok, it wasn’t beautiful, but it looked decent enough). Once I had the website designed, I added all my different products.

Then I sat back and waited for the sales to come rolling in.

Ha! What a fool I was.

After two weeks, I hadn’t received a single inquiry. And this was a product I couldn’t find anywhere in the country when I was looking for it. Surely I should have received dozens of inquiries by now.

This was when I started doing some research. Turns out, my website received zero traffic.

Wait, what…

I have to actually promote my website? That’s silly talk. That is like saying I have to actually hand out those flyers I just printed. Or I had to actually pay the radio station to play the ad I just recorded.

I know, when you put it that way, it sounds logical.

At this point, I started learning about different ways of driving traffic to websites. There are many sources of website traffic, and many places to get this traffic from. Google is one of the most targeted sources of traffic

What exactly is targeted traffic?
Long story short, when someone searches for ‘plumber pretoria’ on Google, we know exactly what he/she is looking for, which is a plumber in Pretoria.

Non-targeted traffic is when you hand out flyers for your garage door company to everyone at a traffic light. You don’t know how many of these people are homeowners, or if they even have garage doors (maybe they have a carport, or live in a flat where there is covered parking), or perhaps they are just passing through your service area.

You might be asking how do I get traffic to my website, well this is where the rubber hits the road…

How to drive targeted traffic to your website to increase your sales and revenue

There are a number of traffic sources, the two I like the most are Google and Facebook. These two internet giants complement each other very well when it comes marketing your website online.

Your website can also receive traffic from social media sites, like Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and many other social networks.

The trick is to find where your target customers are on the internet and to market to them on those platforms or sites.

For most businesses, combining Google and Facebook are the perfect approach in getting targeted traffic to your website.

But how do I get visitors from Google and Facebook to my website, you might be asking.

How to get website traffic from Google and Facebook?

Google is the largest search engine, that shouldn’t surprise anyone. Even my grandma can do some basic searches on The Google, as she calls it.

To get traffic from Google, you have two main options:

  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Google AdWords

Each of these methods has their advantages and disadvantages. If you haven’t heard of these before, you are welcome to schedule a call with me so I can explain the difference to you.

With Facebook, there is more than one method to drive traffic, but the most powerful method is Facebook Ads. The power lies in their targeting which enables businesses like yours to target users by age, location, and interests.

If you know your target customer well, this can be incredibly powerful.

Combining Google and Facebook for your digital marketing will ensure that you are ahead of 90% of your competitors.

Wrapping it up

I hope this has helped you understand why your website is not bringing in any new business. Having said all of this, getting traffic to your website is just the first step. Once your website is getting traffic, you need to convince each visitor to do business with you. But that is a whole new topic which I will cover at a later time.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to request a call with me so I can answer any of your questions.