8-Step Guide to Getting More Traffic and Leads in 2023

Getting More Traffic and Leads

In 2023, digital marketing is expected to become even more aggressive as businesses continue to look for new ways to reach their target audiences. That’s why having an effective approach towards getting traffic and a lead is absolutely essential for your company to find success online.

But, how should you go about it?

Don’t worry – this guide will show you how! We’ve put together an 8-step plan that will help you gain visibility, create content that resonates with your audience, measure and optimize your strategies, and eventually lead to increased traffic and conversions for your business.

Whether you already have a lot of website visitors or just starting out, these actionable steps will help you identify new tactics and implement changes needed to get more traffic and easy-to-convert leads.

Are you ready to see your business thrive both offline and online in the coming year? Read on for tips on how to navigate the ever-shifting world of digital marketing in 2023!

1. Focus on Search Intent

Google is all about providing the best search results to its users. It shows them links to webpages that best match their search intent, which is basically the purpose of their query.

There are four types of search intent:

1. Informational: The user aims to learn more about a particular topic. An example would be someone searching “how to cook Italian spaghetti” to learn everything about the process.
2. Navigational: The user is looking for a specific website, resource, or information related to a certain topic. An example would be someone searching “YouTube” in order to access the YouTube homepage.
3. Commercial: The user is researching different products or services so they can make an informed decision before making a purchase. An example would be someone searching “best laptop for graphic design” to discover the best option that meets their needs.
4. Transactional: The user wants to directly purchase a product or access a service. An example would be someone searching “buy laptop online” to find an e-commerce website to buy a laptop from.

If Google sees that your content is relevant to your target audience’s queries, it will boost your ranking in the SERPs (search engine results pages). A higher ranking means more organic traffic and quality leads will come your way. Plus, potential customers will view you as a leader in your industry, further increasing their chances of converting.

Conducting keyword research is the first step towards matching search intent. You have to understand the purpose behind the search terms your ideal audience commonly use.

Let’s say you sell trekking and hiking gear. Based on observation, you found that many of your prospects often search for “how to set up a tent”. Writing an informative blog post with a title like “Simple Steps to Setting Up a Tent” or “How to Set Up a Tent in 5 Simple Steps” will most likely drive search traffic to your site. Whereas, a piece about the best tent brands won’t do you any favor.

2. Host Contests & Giveaways

Have you ever wondered why more and more brands are now hosting contests and giveaways on social media? Well, it’s not because they’re just feeling generous all of a sudden, but it’s because they’re looking to expand their following, boost audience engagement, and of course, get more traffic and leads to their website.

With viral contests and giveaways, you’ll be able to give your followers a reason to visit your site and keep them coming back, and not to mention, the word-of-mouth advertising you can encourage when you add a social-sharing component in the mix. In fact, 94% of the time, users will share the promotion of a contest or giveaway right after they sign up.

Here are some of the most popular contests to inspire you:

• Caption It: Post a photo of anything related to your brand and ask your audience to comment with the most creative caption they can think of.
  Tag and Win: Share a post where your followers should tag their friends in order to win a prize.
• Video challenge: Invite followers to create a video entry showcasing a product of yours in the most entertaining way possible.
• Trivia: Test your audience’s knowledge of your business and offerings. Reward the participant with the most correct answers.

3. Create High-Quality Content

By now, you may already be familiar with Google’s E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) principle. Perhaps you’re still implementing it to this day. If so, you’re on the right track. If not, you better make it a priority this 2023 if your goal is to get more traffic and leads.

Google favors websites that provide content possessing these traits. Not only does it rate them with long-term relevance, but it also sees them as experts in their fields – as a result, giving them a high ranking.

More importantly, original content that resonates with your target audience will increase their likelihood of becoming your customers. If they find your posts to be interesting and useful, they’ll come to realize that you’re a brand they can trust to solve their pain points.

4. Write Click-Worthy Meta Descriptions

While a catchy page title might be enough to grab the attention of users on SERPs, it might not be enough to get them to click on your link.

What’s the missing piece then? An interesting meta description!

If you’re not familiar, a meta description is a brief summary of the content on a web page. Crawlers typically use it to understand what the page is about so they can decide if the page should be included in search results. For users, it serves as a pitch that convinces them that the page is exactly what they have in mind.

Here’s how you can optimize your meta descriptions in 2023:

• Keep it short and sweet (160 characters max)
• Include target keywords as naturally as possible
• Write in active voice
• Be unique
• Use sentence case
• Add a call to action
• Talk to humans, not bots

5. Leverage Influencer Marketing

It’s no secret that many businesses today have incorporated influencer marketing into their strategy.

A form of social media marketing, it involves prominent individuals (aka influencers helping brands like you deliver your message to their fanbase. Since they’ve already made a name for themselves, you can count on them to spread the word about your business and bring the results you expect.

If you’re not sure where to start, below are several ideas to reach out to your desired influencer successfully:

• Offer an incentive they can’t refuse (ex. discounts, gift certificates, or freebies) and ask them to give you a shoutout on their platforms in return
• Mention them in your content and let them know by sharing the link
• Submit guest posts that are relevant to their niche
• Interact with their content regularly to get their attention
• Email them with a clear message stating that you want to work with them

6. Be Active on Social Media

Of 4.66 billion people who currently have social media, 55% of them are there to discover brands and companies. 75% of marketers have seen an increase in organic traffic through their social media marketing efforts, whereas 90% have noticed their brand getting more exposure.

So, if you have yet to use social media as a major source in promoting your business, there’s no better time than 2023 to start!

One of the most effective ways to get more traffic and leads is by running paid ads on channels like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. These ads allow you to create targeted campaigns that serve personalized ads to users who are most likely to click through and buy from you.

Another is by posting valuable content on a consistent basis. For instance, if you’re a dentist, you want to create content that focuses on oral hygiene so you can demonstrate your expertise while keeping your followers engaged at the same time. How-to infographics and tutorial videos will definitely do the trick. Oh, and make sure to share a link to your blog page every time you publish a new post!

7. Optimize Your Online Business Listings

We’d like to assume that you’ve already listed your business in some of the most popular online directories like Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Angie’s List – considering that these are the places hundreds of thousands of people turn to when searching for a business near them.

The question is, have you optimized your listings? It’s a crucial step since it’s basically what ranks you on their respective platforms and get found by local searchers.

Google Business Profile should be the first on your list, as an optimized profile will help you land a nice spot in Google Search and Google Maps. Then, you can move on to the other directories. Follow these steps to optimize your listings:

• Fill out every section provided
• Add your business category
• Add quality photos (and videos if necessary)
• Get customer reviews and respond to each one of them
• Keep your information consistent across all listings
• Double check for any errors
• Update your information on a regular basis

8. Have a Mobile-Friendly Website

With 92% of people using their phones to browse the internet, it makes perfect sense to optimize your website for mobile devices in 2023. Besides that, Google has introduced the mobile-first indexing, which means it will only rank sites that offer a positive user experience across ALL devices.

To determine if your website looks good on any screen size and works well on any phone and tablet, you can refer to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. In case you get a low score, these quick tips should be able to help you improve:

• Use larger fonts to ensure legibility and readability on any device
• Make it easy for users to navigate your pages
• Keep content clean and concise
• Remove unnecessary elements such as pop-up ads and animations
• Use high-resolution images and compress them
• Choose a fast hosting provider

However, for optimal results, it’s best that you leave all the heavy work to a web design agency like Digital Resource. That way, you can focus on running your business while you have a team of experienced web designers to take care of your website.

Wrapping Up

So, there you have it – a list of proven strategies to create more traffic and leads for your business in 2023. If you’re feeling motivated, why not start now? The sooner you get started, the better results you’ll see. And, if you need help along the way, we’re always here. Feel free to contact us anytime!