The purpose of any website is to attract visitors. Otherwise, what’s the point of setting up a site? Luckily, the Internet is full of tools that can easily help a developer attract attention. Many of the more efficient methods are even free.
After finding the best Drupal hosting platform, developers need to focus on how to bring in the readers. Because many websites are monetized in order to generate revenue, more visitors equals more money.
So, how does one drive traffic to a newly created Drupal website?
Step 1: Develop Superb Content
The most important aspect to driving traffic to any website is the quality of the content. Not only is writing excellent pieces important to search engine optimization, it also plays into whether a visitor bookmarks the site for later.
There is a great deal that goes into creating the best material possible. In order to improve traffic to a website, the content needs to be:
- Highly informative. Visitors need to leave feeling like they learned something new.
- In-depth and unique. With all of the competition on the Internet, a unique point-of-view on a topic greatly helps.
- There is such a thing as being too clinical. Promote the content in a more personable way.
- Based in fact and cite-worthy. Citing the work displays professionalism and plays into how visitors view the material.
- Grammatically correct. Spelling and grammar play into how professional the content appears.
There is a saying on the Internet; “Content is king.” This is because of the role text plays in the success of any website. Take the time to create something that is unique and unlike the competition.
Step 2: Using SEO Extensions
Search engine optimization doesn’t merely work for sites like Google and Bing. In reality, many of the best practices actually help people as well. For example, using headers to break up text affects search engines as well as humans by making it easy to read.
The most important thing to remember is that SEO involves quality content. It’s more than just using the right keywords or having the most backlinks. Search engines are looking for quality material to show in the results pages. Many SEO extensions provide those tools to help rank high while delivering a quality experience to visitors.
Things like lazy loading, readability scores, caching and others play into the user experience as much as they do for SEO. This is why it’s important to optimize the site for the experience of both. Thanks to Drupal hosting, many of these extensions are easy to install and utilize on the site.
Step 3: Connect to Social Media
While putting up share icons on the posts in Drupal may help spread the website to a wider market, more needs to be done for social media. Because of how important these profiles are, many sites allow for professional and business pages that are separate from personal accounts.
For example, Facebook allows developers to create a page to promote brands, businesses and professionals. These pages keep professional views separate from personal ones. After all, developers really don’t want visitors seeing posts from Grandma wishing them a happy birthday.
These professional profiles on social media can easily be integrated into the Drupal website. However, the work doesn’t stop there. Sharing content on those platforms drives interest in the site. Using systems like Buffer allows developers to share on the most popular social sites from a single entry.
Engaging comments is also vital to continued success in these channels. Most visitors are looking for that interpersonal connection, and replying to a comment boosts the reputation of the particular brand. Think about it. No one really likes to be ignored whether it’s in real life or in the digital world.
Being constantly active is another important piece of this puzzle for building traffic. A single post once a week simply just may not be enough. In fact, many top brands will post several comments throughout any given day to keep the audience engaged. Even if it’s a short blurb about a related topic, it can increase the reputation of the brand and website.
Step 4: Consider Advertising Campaigns
If the site centers around a specific business, such as eCommerce, then advertising is going to be necessary. Having the best deals for shoes means nothing if no one knows the site exists. Luckily, it doesn’t take a lot of money to get started with a marketing campaign.
Here are a few popular ways that businesses invest in advertising on the Internet:
- Pay-per-click ads: PPC campaigns are popular because they don’t charge the advertiser money until someone clicks the link.
- Email Marketing: Email is one of the most cost-efficient ways to advertise a website. It’s also still one of the most popular methods for marketing.
- Blogging: Many companies use blogging to attract visitors to the site, which has potential to lead to additional sales from that traffic.
- Ads on Social Media: All popular social channels have methods for advertising. Whether it’s a text ad on Facebook or a video ad on YouTube, it can all help boost traffic to the site.
- Affiliate Marketing: Affiliates are nice to have because they help eCommerce sites generate sales and leads. The trade off is paying those people a percentage of the sale they help create. It’s an effective method for quickly boosting traffic.
What’s great about many of these advertising campaigns is that a lot of them are actually quite cheap to maintain. For instance, blogging may only require an hour or so of time every day to create content. Putting a few bucks in PPC campaigns every month can help generate traffic as well as future leads for sales.
The point is that even the smallest business can build incredible levels of traffic with the right marketing campaigns. Taking the time to develop a strong strategy is definitely worth the effort in the long run.
In conclusion…
Drupal hosting is only the beginning of a strong website. There is much to be done if any developer wants to create a brand that is recognizable by the masses. Find ways to get the site out there to the public. A strong marketing strategy, such as using the methods above, may greatly help the success of the site.
