Investing time and money into a website that isn’t gaining any traffic is incredibly frustrating. When you put yourself out there, you want a worthwhile return. 

All too often, Infoserve sees websites that are built solely for aesthetic, but not functionality or usability. This is one of the biggest mistakes that SMEs make when positioning themselves online.

When you’re a growing business, you can’t afford to mess around. So if your website isn’t gaining any traffic, make sure you’re not falling victim to any of these errors: 

Your content isn’t up to scratch

Search engines like Google and Bing have become outstanding at recognising well written, high quality content that users respond to. 

If you aren’t creating content that is relevant to your business and resonates with your audience then search engine’s won’t put it in front of your target customers. 

To create great content, make sure you: 

• Keep it relevant to your business 
• Check out your high ranking competitors’ content 
• Use analytics to discover what your target audience is searching for 
• Remain concise 
• Target your customer’s pain point immediately 
• Have one main goal for your audience on each page and guide them towards it

So what makes content rank well? 

Take a look at our 8 easy tips for better content and higher ranking to find our top tips that will elevate your website’s performance. 

Targeting high competition subject matter 

Is yours a highly competitive industry? 

This could be why you’re struggling to attract traffic. 

It is notoriously difficult to rank in search results for businesses with lots of competition, but there are things you can do to crawl your way up the rankings: 

1. Optimise your business for local search by targeting location specific keywords and setting up a Google My Business Profile 
2. Ask your customers to leave reviews on Google to provide searchers with proof of value for your business 
3. See what your high performing competitors are ranking for and repurpose their ideas 
4. Create a social media platform that drives traffic to your website (how to use social media for business) 
5. Consistently write high quality blog and web page content that targets key search queries 

Your design isn’t responsive 

Google is now a mobile-first platform, and prioritises websites that have responsive design. 

Responsive design refers to websites that are flexible and respond to different screen sizes. 

Your website might look incredible on a laptop, but if it’s frustrating to use, slow loading or badly laid out on mobiles/tablets, search engines won’t put it in front of your customers. 

Luckily, Google provides a free mobile-friendly responsive test so you can check whether your website is up to scratch. 

Remember: Google aims to give its users the best possible content, so will always put their experience first. 

Your website is slow 

According to Google, improving your website’s speed by 0.1 second can improve conversion rates by a massive 8%! 

Even the tiniest increase in loading speed can greatly improve the volume of valuable traffic on your website. 

Try Google’s free Test My Site tool to discover how fast your website loads, and find suggestions on how to improve your loading speed. 

Ineffective SEO practices 

One of the biggest mistakes made by new businesses is assuming SEO is a one-time fix. This mentality is the quickest way to guarantee low website traffic. 

If you’re not gaining traffic, check if you’re: 

• Using outdated techniques
• Sticking to the same tactics instead of thinking strategically 
• Expecting immediate results 
• Only optimising on-page SEO and neglecting off-page and technical SEO 
• Neglecting data provided by analytics tools 
• Ignoring user experience/customer wants and needs 
• Responding to the strategy of your competitors 
• Being impacted by ‘toxic’ backlinks 

Any of the above could be negatively impacting your website’s ranking capability. 

Use our free website & SEO audit tool to assess your website’s performance today. 

You’re targeting the wrong audience 

One of the very first things SMEs need to do when creating a brand is define your audience. Who’s pain points are most relevant to the product/service you provide? 

If your website isn’t gaining traffic then you could be targeting the wrong audience. 

Not sure whether this is the case? Take a look at our guide on how to define your target audience to develop a winning digital strategy. 

Not sure where to start? 

If you’re an SME and are struggling to gain traction to your website, Infoserve is more than happy to help. Our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website, and our PPC and SEO team help your website get found.