5 ways to drive traffic to your site

Driving traffic to your website is critically important if you are a Nonprofit, especially a local one.

It’s particularly important if you are working from home or a co-working space, meaning your website is your ‘storefront’. However, when you’re an organization, it can be hard to rank well in the search engines. You’re likely up against the big corporations, larger Nonprofits and their huge advertising spend which makes it near impossible to rank at the top for local searches.

And with so many websites out there, it can be quite a challenge to get visitors. It’s just not as easy as “build it and they will come”.

Here are 5 Ways to drive traffic to your Nonprofit's website:

Search engine optimization (SEO)

What is SEO?

In basic terms, it means your website is technically sound so that it can be indexed by the search engines and well-designed for good usability. It also contains content (including keywords and phrases) that people are searching for often.

A great place to begin is to check that your website is appearing in the search engine. If it isn’t, then you may need to verify your site with Google Search Console. 

To appear in local searches on Google Maps, be sure to add your small business to Google My Business (now known as Google Business Profile).

Also, check your page (and post) titles and meta descriptions. To assist with your ranking, they need to be the appropriate length and contain your keywords.

It can take a while to see the benefits of SEO as it takes some effort and time to create the optimized site structures and content. However, once you enhance your website, you can gain free traffic from the search engines, so it’s worth the investment and effort.

Some of the components of SEO are technical, and if you aren’t confident in this area, We would be elated to help or point you in the right direction.

Backlinks

One strategy to drive traffic to your website is to partner with another organization or business that can link to your site and send you referral traffic.

This strategy is known as backlinking, and it also adds authority to your website. It’s excellent for SEO as it means you will likely rank higher than another site with lower authority.

When setting up the link, be sure to check that there is not a ‘no follow’ reference on the link. A no-follow link is not good for SEO as the link will not carry any authority.

If you don’t have any established partnerships, another way to get backlinks is to search for broken links that no longer work on other websites using the brokenlinkcheck site.

If you can find a website in your niche that has a broken link and you happen to have a similar blog article on the same topic, then send a quick email to that business letting them know that they have a broken link and if they would like a replacement article then you have one available.

Email marketing

When writing emails to your list always ensure there are links back to your website within the email. If you write a new blog post or want to promote one of your services, be sure to include a link directly to the relevant pages. And don’t forget to add your website link to your email signature on every email you send.

Blogging

Creating highly valuable content on your blog is a great way to drive traffic to your website.

It will increase the chances of your website being found in the search engines and perhaps being shared on social media by other people.

There are many formats that you can use within your blog to boost the chances of it being shared on social media. Interviewing an influencer in your niche is one way to do this, as there is a high chance that they will share the article with their audience once you’ve published it.

Facebook groups

Sharing your links and helping others out inside of Facebook groups is an excellent (and free) way to build awareness.

However, be strategic about the groups that you decide to join, so that you are using your time efficiently. It’s very easy to lose hours and hours on social media during your day, so be sure to get in and get out when you need to.

Also, it’s a good idea to monitor the results you’re getting. You’ll find that you generate more traffic, subscribers, and sales from certain groups and you’ll soon work out which ones to visit. 

Try to pick a few methods above that you know you could stick to doing. Consistency is a big deal that will help deliver results! Additionally, remember, you don’t have to be overwhelmed by all of this! You don’t have to do all of them at once.

Building up a following, and traffic flow will take some time if you don’t have a large budget, so be patient and consistent with your marketing activities.