Website traffic: How to increase visits, pageviews on your site

A user visits Daily Monitor website. Companies have realised new ways of reaching their audiences through social media, mobile platforms and websites. Photo by Abubaker Lubowa

What you need to know:

Some of the concerns for any business operating online is how to attract visibility and retain market. At a later stage, such businesses start thinking about what it costs to succeed at using digital platforms and tools. Jonathan Adengo spoke to experts who expound on how this works.

Companies seeking to grow market share and increase their customer base are largely depending on digital platforms, specifically social media platforms to sell and market themselves. However, for some of these businesses, customer mobilisation is a big challenge.
As companies go about creating their marketing budgets, many have realised new ways of reaching their audiences through social media, mobile and web, causing some to either double or reallocate their budget resources appropriately.
Embracing the digital revolution has its own advantages. Marketing executives are able to incorporate digital platforms and tools in their marketing function today.
Ms Crystal Twebaze, a marketer says the Internet has become a key vehicle in a marketer’s communications “toolbox.” It can be used for a wide range of functions, from a general information source, much like an electronic brochure, to a product-delivery service (e.g., software downloads).

Ms Twebaze says unlike print adverts placed in different publications which are difficult to measure beyond general circulation numbers, the Internet’s electronic foundation allows for easy measurement across many different criteria. Overall, marketers want to measure whether their website is being used and, if it is, how frequently and by whom.
The most successful businesses have been able to make the best use of digital platforms that connect and measure their business’s reach to their customers.
Some of these digital platforms successfully connect buyers and sellers on a shopping portals, travellers and hotel operators on a booking service. In Uganda, the commonly used digital platforms are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Facebook
According to Facebook, they utilise an auction system to determine which adverts are shown to which users.
Mr John Ssenkeezi, a social media consultant, says: ”As for social media platforms like facebook, it is a pay per click and cost for mile market. You reach as far as your budget can get you from as low as $5 (Shs16,815). This basically means you will be charged for cost of 1,000 impressions, but you can modify the results depending on your budget.”
He says the paid for search helps prospective customers find your business, while paid social helps your business find prospective customers. Facebook advertising does this by allowing you to target specific audiences that are likely to be interested in your products and services by leveraging the immense wealth of data Facebook has about its users.
Facebook adverts are highly visual and align with the ways in which people use Facebook, particularly on mobile devices – definitely no tiny, text-based adverts here.

To track the performance, you use data and analytics to evaluate the performance of your ads, allowing you to make changes to improve anything from impression, share to click-through rate, just as you would in a paid search campaign.
Once you have boosted your page, Facebook is able to show you how you have performed for instance, number of likes, page views and the number of people reached, among others.
According to Facebook, adding just $5 in promotion to selected Facebook posts will drastically increase your interaction. You will start to notice a major spike in communication when you boost your post for a small budget. With Facebook’s Edgerank Algorithm, the likelihood for a business to appear high in the news feed is less likely. This is why for you should focus on posts that can yield the best results and boost them for a small budget.

Instagram
Instagram is slowly picking up in Uganda. Advertisers are getting more of an opportunity to share their content through filtered photos. Instagram is one of the most natural ways to share content for your brand.

Twitter outreach
Twitter is still a great platform where you can grow your following organically. Start searching for hash tags (#) within your industry and reaching out to users in this fashion. Compliment someone on Twitter about a blog post that they wrote. Begin asking questions related to your hash tag. The result will be more interaction and core following of people who are interested in your content!

Creating a website
Mr Ssenkeezi says the costs for websites vary, depending on the designer and host you are working with. There are various costs involved in the creation and development of a website and these range from web designing, domain name, web hosting and updating.
“Personally, I don’t charge less that Shs700,000 for building a company website,” he says.

Win digitally
Companies today face critical decisions when it comes to addressing digitisation. The first decision is fundamental: whether a company is even in the right industry. That’s because digitisation is blurring the lines between sectors, placing fresh demands on both leadership and organisational strategy.
Digital is shifting the competitive landscape in many sectors. It allows new entrants to come from unexpected places.