How to increase web traffic for your local business website
The following is a list of best practices to get your website noticed online:
1)Submit your business to Google Maps- local listings. Go to
2) Use Google’s keyword tool to see if your business name is listed for relevant search keywords. Go to
3) Register with Better Business Bureau. the BBB link to your website.
4) Get listed in the Northfield Chamber of Commerce directory. Link your website through the chamber at Advertise events using chamber calendar and on
5) Offer coupons for in store purchases that must be printed on your website and brought into the store.
6) Create a mailing list for customers to advertise new products, promotions, and events. Send this by email, linking to yourwebsite. Use a guestbook in store to obtain customer email addresses.
7) Create a customer referral program.If a customer writes a testimonial on your website or reviews you under your Google Maps business listing, offer them a discount.
8)Put something on the website to suggest people become a fan of the business on facebook and use it to follow updates about the store. This could be used as a great tool to keep your clientele updated on new deals, events and things of that nature.
9) Put the URL on your business cards. The more we can get this information out there the chances of people visiting the site will increase.
10) If you have a functional and attractive newsletter, this would be a great place to remind customers about the website for the business. Putting updates about the website and business
would be a great way to get the information to the clientele. This should only beimportantinformation though as customers could see it as obsolete if it is a small change.
11) Google’s Webmaster Tools is a free and very effective way to understand how Google interacts with your website and what information the system views as useful. To use this tool go to and follow the instructions. With this feature Google can perform several tests on the website that could make it better and friendlier for the system to work with.
Search Engine Optimization
In order for potential customers to use your website, first they must be able to find it. There are things you and your web developer can do to make this easier.
1)Having a simple URL is one of the easiest ways to accomplish this. Try to register your website under the business name, or the closest intuitive alternative. For instance, if you own John Doe’s Bar & Restaurant, it’s likely that is already registered, but less likely that is taken.
2)Your website should have a description of the products or services you offer. Make sure that any keywords that would be searched to find your business appear in the description, on the main page of your website, preferably adjacent so long as it makessense in the context of the description. This should increase your ranking on search engine result pages.
3)Use Metatags(the information that the links provide about the page) and make sure the description in the metatag appears in the body of the text of the homepage.
4)Keep it fresh. Some search engines rank sites with relevant updated content higher, so making sure the information on your website stays current should be a top priority.Even a change every other week or so will cause the Google system to continually re-evaluate the website and hopefully rank it higher and higher on the search status.
5)Keep it relevant. All content on your website should solely relate to your business and what your business does. Any incoming or outgoing links to or from your website should also be relevant to your business and/or industry.
6)Keep it working. Some search engines penalize ranking for websites with dead internal links, so while you are developing a subsection of your webpage, don’t post it until it is complete.
7)Keep it flat. Search engines use specific criteria for gathering information to compile their results. The information they crawl through should be on the surface level of your website. In general, you should be able to find any information on your website two clicks away from the main page.
8)Although I think it could be mentioned, the focus of the homepage shouldn’t be on specific products. It would be a great idea to give a few examples of products you carry, possibly with a picture next to it, but that information should come after a sufficient introduction to the site. The main thing about metadata is the key words that describe the site/business should be on almost every page, and especially the homepage. No matter what link of the site a customer navigates to, these key terms should be reiterated at least once.
For more detailed information, consult Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide