What NOT to Do When You Want More Site Traffic

I don’t want more site traffic – said no eCommerce business owner ever! Boosting traffic is the number one objective for every online store owner and it can be frustrating if your traffic is not growing with your business. In fact, an A Better Lemonade Stand survey revealed that as many as 69% of online store owners listed increasing traffic as their biggest concern.

In this post, we take a quick look at the top five things online store owners do that is hindering their traffic potential.

Grab that coffee and let’s get going!

1. Ignore Your Site Speed

One of the most underutilized traffic optimization hacks is checking and fixing your site speed. Not checking this on a regular basis can wreak havoc on your traffic. Why? Because whether it’s organic SEO traffic or targeted traffic from Facebook and Google ads, if the browser hops onto your site, product page or blog content and it’s slow to load and checkout, chances are they’re going to bolt. This not only means fewer sales but will affect your SEO and PPC quality scores.

There are a bunch of free site speed analysis tools including GTmetrix and more comprehensive free tools such as Benchmark Hero, which will assess not only your technical performance but the shopping experience, trustworthiness, and user experience of your store.

2. Don’t Prioritize Email Marketing

I’ve spoken to quite a few online sellers who feel there is no value (sales) in email marketing. However, as we learned from 9 Winning eCommerce Email Campaigns, email marketing doesn’t just help you boost traffic with remarketing campaigns but brings traffic that is more likely to convert.

Email marketing isn’t just a weekly newsletter; it includes all your automatic emails. Here’s a list of the top types of email campaigns you should be using to drive traffic.

• New product or promotion announcement emails
• Welcome email series
• Transactional email series
• Abandoned cart email series
• The newsletter
• The confirmation email
• The remarketing campaign

If your emails aren’t getting you the results you want, here are the Top 4 Things That are Killing Your Email Marketing and How to Fix It. 

3. Don’t Invest in Google Ads

If you are opting for social campaigns and relying on SEO over Google Ads, you’re making a traffic faux pas. To drive the most (targeted) traffic, you need a variety of traffic-boosting strategies that work today and there are stats to back them up. According to Wolfgang Digital, 43% of all eCommerce traffic comes from Google searches. If you’re a new store owner, cashing in on organic search is not going to happen overnight, and without Google Search campaigns you’re being left in the dust.

The leading Google Ads campaign types to drive traffic to eCommerce businesses are:

• Google Search
• Google Shopping
• YouTube
• Google Display

The secret to ensuring your Google Ads campaigns drive consistent traffic lies in using the right campaigns, optimizing these campaigns in real time and integrating your social and Google PPC strategies. If you don’t have the time or expertise to make Google work for you, don’t give up. Instead, use services like Traffic Booster that will help ensure your Google Ads are optimized for maximum traffic.

4. Only Use Highly Popular Keywords

When it comes to choosing keywords and search terms for your web content (SEO) and headlines (PPC campaigns), a sure way to limit your traffic is to only use highly popular keywords. Why? Because the more popular the keyword or phrase, the more competition it has; and if you’re just using these kinds of keywords, trying to compete for traffic in search and Google Search ads can become frustrating.

Bonus Content: Popular Keywords for Your Industry 

Instead, you want to integrate your keyword strategies to include long tail keywords, which have lower competition. You can go about finding these keywords the same way as you would when researching the right keywords for paid search.

5. Don’t Leverage SEO

As Google and Facebook Ads continue to dominate eCommerce marketing, a lot of newer online store owners put SEO-leveraging efforts on the back burner. The truth is that SEO, along with PPC, plays a vital role in your traffic strategies. Here are the minimum things you should be doing to ensure your store is SEO optimized:

• Have all your meta descriptions and titles loaded
• Add strategic keywords to your site copy, product descriptions and blog content strategies
• Include external links in your blog content
• Make sure your site is correctly indexed 
• Ensure your site is fast and user-friendly

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There you have it – the top things you should NOT do if you want more site traffic to your store. For more tips and hacks on boosting traffic, check out our 17 Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Online Store Today and 11 Myths About Driving eCommerce Traffic, Debunked posts.

Happy selling!

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