Invest in Organic Web Traffic

So, you have a business website! That's good news! It puts you ahead of many competitors that either have no website or an old and ill-maintained one. However, having a good business website is only the beginning. Once you have a website, you'll need to attract a steady traffic flow. And there are two basic ways to do this: organic search and paid search.

Organic Search

Organic search refers to a search engine looking at the content of your website and determining its usefulness to a web user. If someone Googles, "How can I get rid of thistles?" and your website has well-written content that addresses the intent of that query, Google may place your website high up on the search results page. Aside from the time investment of writing this high-performing content, organic search is free. And, if you're content continues to satisfy the needs of searchers, your website's ranking will remain stable.

Paid Search

Paid search is straightforward. To get your website in front of search engine users' eyes, you pay to run ads on Google or another search engine. Paid search can be a helpful way to bring in lots of web traffic fast. However, once you stop paying, your traffic will disappear. Using paid search to supplement a strong organic search strategy is best. Depending on paid search too much is risky. 

Blogging for Organic Search

The primary way you as a website owner can invest in organic search is blogging. The vast majority of web content is in the form of blogs. Blogging allows you to cover topics that will be of interest to people in your target audience. That means that your website will increase its average rank, and those viewing your website will likely have a use for the products and services you offer. 

You are investing in something you own and control by blogging for your business website. While there are other ways to get attention for your business online, the rules change frequently and can have a massive effect on your business. Although search engines change certain details about how they rank websites, they are much more stable overall. You can count on your blogging efforts to continue delivering results down the road, as all good investments should.

Don't Make Your Business Dependant On Social Media

Where does Facebook come into this? Social media is one of the most frequent places where businesses waste time and resources. A lawn mowing company is unlikely to gain traction on Facebook by simply posting about their business. They won't be able to offer people the experience they want on Facebook. Beyond low-engagement problems on social media, your company is also at the mercy of platform policy and algorithm changes that drastically diminish your reach.

When someone decides they need lawn care services, they will probably key in a Google search from their smartphone. And it's essential that when they come looking for your business, you've invested in your organic search so that they can find you. 

Helpful Business Uses For Social Media

For most small businesses, social media is a perfect gateway. You can supplement your successful organic search strategy by using platforms like Facebook to draw traffic to your website. For instance, writing interesting blog content and offering teasers and links to it on social can be an effective way of getting traffic to your website. Doing so will, in turn, benefit your rankings, as search engines measure engagement with your content and reward you for it. 

Social media will be one of the most valuable pathways to gaining website traffic for some businesses. For instance, companies like bakeries and wedding boutiques often succeed on Instagram because people enjoy looking at their products and services. But the intention should still be to draw traffic out of Instagram and onto your website, where the traffic can boost your site's prominence and make sales.

Facebook Ads

Ads are also an effective way to use social media platforms. Similar to ads on search engines, the purpose is to send traffic to your website. Facebook ads can be most useful for business types that naturally have low engagement on social media. Our hypothetical lawn mowing business would have low odds of attracting interest with regular social posts, but a well-written ad could still perform well with users that need your services. 

Blogging V. Facebook

What's the verdict? Blogging builds the ranking of your website, which you have more control over than any other type of web profile. Social media can make wide-reaching policy swings that harm your business if you are overly reliant on a platform. It's best to develop your organic search performance and supplement that with paid search ads and social media.

Ready to get started blogging? Learn more about Zimmer Marketing's web services, including our level two package with blogging!