Business websites are supposed to make money. Attracting clients is the number one reason businesses own a website. Money can’t buy you love (allegedly), but love can’t buy you a dream house in rural Kent—that’s what your website is for, and if you don’t qualify web traffic, you can kiss that dream house goodbye.
Here’s what we’re covering:
What is qualified web traffic?
Qualified web traffic equals visits from your ideal client/target audience. These users are browsing the internet, typing keywords that perfectly match the service or product you offer.
When you qualify web traffic, you’re drawing cold inbound leads to your site. These users are (potentially) the perfect someone, but a moment before typing into a search engine, they had no clue who you were, so qualified traffic direct to your digital door isn’t enough to make users hire/buy from you.
Unqualified web traffic.
Before you understand how to qualify web traffic, let’s touch on traffic you don’t want: unqualified web traffic. Ranking on page one seems like an SEO win, but not when the ranking keyword makes no sense. Don’t get me wrong, I like masses of site visits as much as I like Alexander Dreymon…
And let me tell you, I like Alexander Dreymon, but search traffic from randoms on interwebshire is like a butter tea cosy: fookin’ useless. Loads of site hits without conversions (users taking action) means there’s something wrong somewhere.
How to qualify web traffic.
You qualify web traffic as you’d qualify real-life clients. (If you don’t have a qualifying process, now’s the time to sort that out.) Flesh-and-blood prospects are guided through a client triage. A set of steps that determines how suitable (or unsuitable) they are. You qualify web traffic in much the same way. With inbound enquiries, you don’t convert them all. That’s why homepages target broad keywords to pull as much traffic in as possible.
There are hundreds—if not thousands—of businesses doing the same thing you’re doing. So, how do potential clients (users) choose you?
Step 1.
Know your ideal client. This is basic marketing stuff, but unless you know their fundamental traits, you’ll struggle to qualify and convert traffic. Why? Because you won’t know how to speak to them. So if you can’t answer questions like…
- Who is most likely to buy from me?
- What do these people care about?
- How much money do they have to spend?
…SEO is going to be really bloody hard.
Step 2.
Keywords are the entry to all things SEO. You won’t get online visibility and site visits without them. Figure out search intent and what keywords you require to qualify traffic.
Step 3.
Customise snippets (page previews). This is the first time a user comes into contact with your business. Page previews might be the difference between someone clicking the link or moving on to the next result.
SNIPPET DISCLAIMER: If SEOs read this, they’ll be spitting feathers coz “SNIPPETS AREN’T A RANKING FACTOR!” and they’ll go on to say that customising snippets is a waste of time. Not only because they make no difference to where you land on the search results, but because Google pulls whatever the hell it wants from a web page to display in the snippets.
That’s all true.
However, snippets correlate with click-through rates. So if your customised snippet ‘speaks’ to your ideal client, they might be more likely to click it.
Also, Google does use customised snippets, but there is no guarantee it will. I customise key page snippets (homepage/services pages) and leave less important pages.
Step 4.
Website messaging. When you know your potential clients as you know your own kin, your website content will be on point. You know what they can afford, what they like, and what they need and when they feel heard by your message, they will get in touch.
Article first published, 17th July 2024.
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