Turn your website into your market’s favourite hangout area with these easy forum tips and seriously boost your websites traffic
Forums are really blogs before blogs were created. Forum submission falls under an Off-Page SEO and is known to be one of the most conventional, yet effective, ways to generate backlinks that are necessary for boosting blog traffic and page ranking. According to research and practice done at Rising Phoenix SEO Company, here’s how a forum can triple the amount of traffic to your website, boost search engine optimization and get more sales to your brand.
- Build a community around your website
With forums, you form a sort of community around your website. You create a bond with your visitors, meanwhile, your website becomes your market’s favourite chill spot, which in return delivers more value.
- Free content and a refreshed website
According to the SEO Brisbane company, content creation takes some time to produce, as you have to factor in research, value identity, creation, and posting. By getting regular comments and live posting, you tend to receive free and valuable content and a constantly refreshed website.
- Support and advice by consumers
Consumers are able to provide support and advice through forums. When someone isn’t sure about something, they can ask questions through your forum and collect immediate feedback.
- A moderator to the rescue
Sometimes you might not be available online to answer queries, thus, having a moderator(s) can be beneficial. However, before choosing a moderator, you might want to do research about your candidate and factor in their response to criticism and how quickly they respond to questions that are targeted at them.
- Best day for a forum
Set the time and day for your forum(s) based on your consumer’s time online, do the necessary research on what time your consumers are likely to be online and interact. According to Forbes, the best days to host forums or live chats are Thursday, Friday, and Monday.
- Promoting your forum
There are many ways to promote your website on the internet; the most obvious being through social media and Google Advertising. Online advertising and online marketing are easy, cheap and effective when used properly. Through Facebook’s targeted advertising, you can specifically target the community you want to reach. The more value added to your community, the more visits and identity it builds for your website and brand.
Allow your opt-in message to promote your forum, and use your newsletter to market your forum.
- Integrating your website with keywords
Integrate the rest of your website with your forum, in other words, when someone is searching for car parts (for example), they can be linked to a forum with a subject that has to do with cars and car parts. You can integrate this method using keywords as categories.
- Welcome new members
Social media is temporary as any social gathering, nightclub or party, it is not the venue that counts, but the people. And so it is for forums too, treat it like a social function, it is your duty to welcome new members, set the tone and make sure everyone gets along well.
- Getting people to subscribe to your forum
Get people to subscribe to your forum, and automate a welcome email or message. This will play a pivotal role to ‘lurkers’ or people who visit your forums to read conversations but do not necessarily contribute to answers. The opt-in option will increase the chances of the visitor joining your forum and newsletter based on the quality of the conversation.
- Listen and learn, is one of the best ways to boost your websites traffic
The most important part of it all is listening and learning from your community. Visitors will discuss issues and interests that either concern them or uplift them about your brand or product. By listening, you get a better understanding of what they need and in return, you broaden your market research and deliver a product based on your target audience’s needs.
In conclusion, a forum is a great way to build and grow a community, and at the same time to get valuable feedback on what works, and what doesn’t work. There’s never a negative feedback, all feedback is either positive or educational. It is a superb way to find out what interests your consumers, while boosting your SEO, traffic to your website, and ROI.