Web Site Traffic Regardless of the Economy, Part I
There is much talk about the economy these days in terms of how it is impacting the average American household. We – the average American household – are here to tell you, it’s not going well. The gas prices are enough to put us off driving for good and the food prices aren’t that much better. Not to mention the fact that the housing market is stagnant and property taxes are staggering. It is tough times all around for most of us; and this, of course, includes the average American business.
Sure, times are tough for us as individuals but businesses are suffering as well. One look at the news will tell you that doors are closing and layoffs are happening every day (and if Starbucks can close stores then where does this leave the rest of us?). These are shaky economic times to be sure but this doesn’t mean – nor should it – that business has come to a grinding halt.
In fact, business continues to happen on a day to day basis and – online – where no daily commute is necessary, business is as usual. Web sites that sell particular products and services may have seen a decrease in web traffic due to a decrease in disposable income, but this should not mean that they have to close up shop. In fact, now is the time to give visitors something else to come back to so when they do have the money to spend again you will be the first place that they go.
Web sites that provide products and services have a commitment to their customers to provide high quality merchandise and topnotch customer service (not to mention good prices) if they are to survive. But survival right now is about more than making that sale. To increase web site traffic today we need to be able to give consumers something else to logon for – blogs, forums, or a resource for information.
In the next post, we’ll discuss some of the ways in which to offer customers something above and beyond in order to increase web traffic regardless of the economy.