In the early days of the internet, building traffic for your website was not so easy. However, with the birth of Google how we searched for things was revolutionized. It made everything easier and more convenient. And then as Google grew, so did its service. Google maps not only show locations, but they also give directions. Google’s takeover of Picasa makes it easier for us to share photos from our cell phones. And with the launch of the new social network, Google+ in 2011 a lot of these services became integrated making it easier than ever before to link up your WordPress site to several places online with a single click.
Choosing Natural Traffic over Paid Adverts
The internet is a good source of traffic for your website – especially the free, natural traffic from Google for those who know how to get it. You can’t buy a place in Google’s natural search engine results. Of course, you might decide to buy the ads found on the right-hand side of the page, which is not nearly as simple as it probably could be. However, getting the natural search traffic is more effective and less expensive. Not to mention that once you stop paying for the ads, the traffic usually drops off soon after.
Sacramento, California chiropractor Dr. Jeri Anderson is one such professional who has a website that benefits from the natural, free traffic generated from where she ranks in Google’s search engine results. Her website brings in new patients to her practice every week. But it doesn’t bring in new people by staying in a stagnant state of outdated content. Dr. Jeri is always working to add new information whether it is client reviews or blog posts.
Don’t Use Outdated Strategies for Marketing
While you might choose an antique, roll-top desk dating from the 1800s over a sleek, modern style glass l-shaped desk in your office, when it comes to marketing your business and building traffic outdated techniques aren’t an option. Aside from 5 years of as a practicing chiropractor in a small Oregon town, the bulk of her 26-years in the business have taken place in her native Sacramento, California.
While talking with James Martell, host of marketing programs like Affiliate Buzz (on GeekCast.FM) and Coffee Talk, Dr. Jeri reminisced that while in Oregon during the start of her career, she did a lot of newspaper advertising. Her reason was because in a small town, that’s what everyone as a way to get their entertainment and news. They read the newspaper. In fact, she began advertising before her business even opened.
Dr. Jeri explains, “I did a lot of meet-and greets. I went to Chamber and Rotary meetings, and did all sorts of things to meet people. In fact James, I literally went door-to-door and introduced myself to people. I did all this before opening my practice to introduce myself, so the first week I opened my practice was very successful. But it was successful because there was a lot of footwork and groundwork to launch it properly. But back then it was really a lot of print stuff.”
Start with a Website and Keep Adding Content
A lot of businesses are stuck in the mindset that they have to send out X number of direct mailers per year, or they have to make cold calls to try and drum up new leads. While that might help some businesses, you’re better off learning WordPress and starting up your own website. Once your website is ready, add content and keep adding. Add content all over the web and use keywords that will help people find you online. Backlinks, things people use to link back to your site, are also important. Here are some ways you can add content elsewhere online that links back to your site:
- Submit articles to websites about your topic. You’d be surprised at the number of internet publications that accept free content. In Dr. Jeri’s case she found it useful to add content about the other ways a chiropractor could help patients besides with their back pain, such as asthma or migraines. Just make sure where you’re submitting is not an article directory.
- Blog posts. Publishing blog articles and newsletter content on other sites that are relevant to your topic is not only a great way to build traffic, but also a great way to network with like-minded professionals.
- Share content on social media. Turn your blog article into a mini-webinar on YouTube. Use Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to link back to articles on your blog.
An important feature on WordPress is that you can schedule posts in advance allowing you to set up a lot of content at one time without having to flood your website visitors with it all at one time.
Don’t Throw Away Cash on Yellow Pages Advertising
Just prior to the internet, Dr. Jeri’s office was doing both internal and external marketing. Internal marketing includes things like direct mailers sent to existing clients while external marketing includes yellow pages and some newspaper advertising. Dr. Jeri explains, “In a chiropractor’s office, yellow pages were very, very heavy, particularly in a service profession. Everybody who looked for something just went to the phone book.” However, since moving her marketing strategies online, she hasn’t used the yellow pages at all.
Just having a business landline will net your telephone number a spot in the yellow pages, but beyond that it’s not necessary to advertise there at all. And the same goes for other types of print advertising. As far as newspapers go, successful chiropractor Dr. Jeri Anderson advises, “It’s just not cost effective. You will get more bang for your buck out of the web than anything. I’ve got 80 year old patients who look stuff up on the web. Who are we kidding? My mother is 85 and she has a computer and uses the web. Any more with smartphones, people are searching on their phones so much that to me, the web is really the avenue you have to go down now.”
Internet marketer James Martell has been working in the industry for well over a decade. This self-taught internet entrepreneur was the first person to ever hold an affiliate marketing training course and literally wrote the book on the subject, titled Affiliate Marketers Handbook. Other programs such as his 26-lesson series called the Affiliate Marketers SUPER BootCamp are why he’s asked to speak with other experts at conferences such as the Affiliate Summit. James surfs the net on a daily basis, checking out sites like www.officedeskreviews.com among many others.