Building a website is one thing; ensuring website visibility is another. If you’re wondering what I mean by that, read on!
Just because you have a website doesn’t mean that people can easily find your website, at least not without some work on your end.
Your audience will find your website in one of three ways:
- You will tell them about it, either in person or via social media, or maybe on a business card or other advertisements.
- Someone else will link to content on your website from their website or social media because they found it so helpful they wanted to share.
- Someone types in specific keywords into a search engine, and your site appears in the search results.
Now, most people, from my experience as a website designer, assume that the last one will happen automatically. It does not.
In fact, that last one, where someone just types in something into the search engines and presto, there you are, takes the longest time to develop, using SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
What Is Website Visibility?
Website visibility is all about making your website easier for people to find and discover on the internet. It’s like opening a shop in a busy mall instead of a quiet alley or down a dead-end street in the woods.
When your website is visible, more people can see it, visit it, and interact with everything on your website.
Why Does Website Visibility Matter?
Your website’s visibility, and strategies you used to increase it, are crucial to your business’ growth for several reasons:
More Visitors to your Website
The more visible your website is, the more people will come to check it out. Obviously, the more people you attract, the more likely you are to have customers and clients from those visitors. Even if you aren’t selling anything, having more eyes on your content helps you spread the message you are sharing.
The average conversion rate for websites is under 3%. That means that for every 100 visitors to a website, there will probably only be 3 sales, depending on the niche you’re in, and other factors.
But if you have an average website that makes 3 sales per 100 visitors, that means you’ll need 30,000 visitors to make 100 sales.
You need to increase your visibility.
Opportunities can come from greater visibility
Increased website visibility can open up opportunities for you and your business. These can include opportunities for collaborations and partnerships. For example, being invited to be a guest on a podcast which will increase your visibility even more.
The opportunities that can come from increasing your website visibility are a great way to grow your website or business.
How Can You Increase your Website Visibility?
Obviously, increasing your visibility is important, but how do we achieve that? Here are some ways you can increase your website visibility.
Most of these, I should point out, are not quick fixes, or “make $40,000 in a month in just 7 days” kinds of fixes. Rather, think of this as a long haul that will eventually pay off if done well.
Increasing Website Visibility with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Obviously, it’s far more complicated than that, and there are whole YouTube channels dedicated to the topic.
The bare bones basics are this: figure out what people are searching for in the search engines when they are looking for a site like yours without knowing the name of your site. If you can find those lesser used words that other people aren’t using as often on their website, even better.
For me, in my field, Web Design is a VERY competitive niche for SEO, so I know I’m not likely going to rank high for words like “Website Designer”. I’d have to compete with deep pockets like GoDaddy and Wix. So, instead, I’ve had to take some time to do deep research into what people are searching for that other websites aren’t always thinking to use. Then I create content around those keywords.
As I mentioned earlier, SEO is a long game. You will not be on the front page of Google a week after I create your site. This requires creating quality content around topics and keywords few others are writing about, that your audience is searching for.
One faster SEO win is to optimize your website for local SEO. So, to use me as an example, if I optimize my site not for Web Designer but Web Designer Thomasville GA, I will climb to the top pretty fast if there aren’t too many web designers in town (and there aren’t). When trying to win in the local SEO, create a Google Business Profile too (Google Maps). This will help.
Social Media to Grow Website Visibility
Because SEO takes a long time and lots of work to really strike gold, other methods will need to be employed, especially when you’re starting. Use your favorite social media platforms to share your website’s content and engage with your audience.
Many social media platforms, like Facebook, are not thrilled with you sharing links on the platform directly, and will often hide your post with their algorithm.
It’s always something, right?
The reason being, they want to keep people on their platform for as long as possible because that means more advertising revenue for them.
Knowing this, create content on the platform to share with your audience, while occasionally sharing a link as a post or in the comments of posts. You can also link to your website in the about section of your profile.
I also don’t believe you need a Facebook Page, though that is nice to have. You can also share with your friends and family on a personal profile.
For Instagram, you’re not allowed to share links in posts, but you can have a link to your website in your bio. Some accounts can link in story posts.
On LinkedIn, you can share blog post content directly on the site, then encourage readers to read more details on your website.
The biggest amount of traffic I get for my website is Pinterest, which also seems to give me high converting traffic too. With Pinterest, you can share the link right in the content. Pinterest behaves more like a search engine than social media. In your pin description, use keywords as if you’re optimizing for SEO. You can also use hashtags sparingly. Then share your pin.
Online and Offline Networking
A big part of the appeal of running and online business, for me, was not having to network or socialize. I’ve since learned the fastest way to grow your online business happens offline, with who you know and who you meet.
Or, as we in the marketing world like to call it, Networking.
Connecting with other naturally, not to sell them something, but to be helpful and get to know them, turns out to be a great way to grow too. I really didn’t grow my business much until I started being more deliberate in reaching out to others, instead of just sitting around hoping someone noticed me.
Look on your local community calendar or community Facebook group to learn about in person events. For online events you might find helpful, check out Alignable.com. There are several regular online networking Zoom meetings offered through groups on there.
I often will send a link to a new blog post I just wrote to someone I know in real life if they inspired me to write it (because of a question or a discussion we had). Usually, but not always, when that happens they share the link to the post on their social media profiles, and that increases my visibility. Plus, I’ve created content that genuinely helped them with a problem they were struggling with.
The key here is authenticity. Not giving to get. I want to stress that. If you’re being fake nice just to grow, people do sense that. Network from a place of generosity.
If You Build It, They Don’t Always Come
Remember, in the Field of Dreams movie, they keep repeating, “If you build it, they will come”.
Well, that’s not so true with websites.
This is perhaps the most frustrating and discouraging part my clients have to deal with.
Google, Social Media, Your Audience, and People you meet are all looking for the same thing as your website:
- Quality helpful content that serves your audience
- Understanding what’s in it for your audience and delivering on that promise.
- Using words and phrases that they are probably searching for, rather than industry jargon.
- A website that loads fast and functions well
- A website that is easy to navigate around and find what you’re looking for.
Persistence and patience, along with those points, will eventually help you grow your website visibility.
