Getting Prospects to Your Website (Traffic)

How many people came to your website each month over the last three months?

Where did they come from?

No idea? None?

There are typically two culprits causing your lack of traffic:

Culprit #1 – You have no visibility strategies.

You thought that just putting up a website would, somehow, result in people calling you.

Unfortunately, you soon find out that your website is not like an ad in a magazine (has a readership) or a store in a mall (gets mall shoppers).

That is, your site has no traffic.

It’s like a log cabin in the middle of the woods with no paved roads to it. No one knows it exists, and there are no paths to it.

To solve this, you need to create paths to your website.

Some common ones:

• Put your website address at the end of an article that you submit to a magazine.
• Ask another professional who has an ezine with lots of subscribers to mention your website to their readers.
• Visit a popular blog and comment on a recent post and include your website address for other visitors to notice.

Culprit #2 – There’s no compelling reason for people to go to your website.

Even though you may have a website up and you may have visibility strategies in place, you may still get no traffic (you’ve built the cabin, cleared a path to it, and even told some people, but still they don’t come).

This is because there’s no powerful reason, no super-motivating compeller, to get people to click to your website.

And yes, while a simple click probably takes less energy than taking a breath, if there’s no good reason to visit your website, people won’t (again, people won’t walk the path to your cabin unless there’s something juicy inside like hot apple pie!).

Three coachy solutions to get people to click to your site:

• Write a useful article and mention that it’s available on your website.
• Offer an assessment to help people think about their situation.
• Provide a video on a topic of importance to your possible clients.

Here’s an example of how #1(visibility) and #2(compelling reason) could work harmoniously:

You write an article titled, “How to Create a Genius Learning Environment for Your Child.”

You create an assessment called, “What’s Stopping Your Child from Getting Straight A’s in School?” and put that onto your website.

You then submit the article to a publication such as a parenting magazine, and include not only your name and website address but also mention that your assessment is available.

Now, here’s how the magic unfolds…

1.  Your article goes out with the magazine to the readers (live human potential clients who are interested in their child’s development).

2.  The readers read the magazine and see your article (visibility!).

3.  When a parent who has a child struggling with school notices your article, they are immediately compelled to read it because of the article title.

4.   After being impressed by your article, the reader (who now sees you as a parenting pro) thinks, “Hmm, who wrote this article? Perhaps this person can help me further!”

5.  The reader looks for the author (you!) and sees your website address and the assessment (the paved path to your cabin). They immediately go to their computer and type in your web address to take the assessment (to get the apple pie!).

6.   They are now accessing your website, getting their assessment results and Voila! They are now wondering what you can do to further help their situation (like hire you!).

7.  They pick up the phone and call you.

Is your website traffic stuck in a jam? Or, are people flocking to it at 60 mph?

What’s paths are getting people to your site? What path could you create that might work?