When it comes to driving traffic to your website, there are a lot of things you can do. You can run paid ads, post on social media, participate in forums, and more. But what’s the point of driving traffic to your website if you don’t know why people are coming in the first place? A good place to start is by evaluating it against the main reasons why people visit websites in the first place. It actually doesn’t matter what products or services you are selling online because what brings people to your website in the first place is one of four basic needs. If your website doesn’t offer any of these things, then it’s likely that it’s not as effective as it could be. By ensuring that your website meets all four of these criteria, you can guarantee that it will be successful in engaging and converting visitors into customers.

Let’s take a look at the four main reasons why people visit websites so that you can better understand your own website traffic. By understanding these reasons, you can fine-tune your website and your marketing efforts to better meet the needs of your visitors.

Reason 1: To Find Information

One of the most common reasons people use the internet is to find information. Whether they’re looking to learn how to write SEO friendly copy or trying to find out how to choose the right brand colours, people turn to the internet as a source of information.

As an entrepreneur, it’s important to make sure that your website is full of high-quality, informative content. If you can provide visitors with the information they’re looking for, you’ll not only keep them coming back for more, but you’ll also build trust and credibility.

Reason 2: They want to contact you

How many times do you go to a company website to look for their telephone number, email address or a form you can use to get in touch with them? How many times does the website not answer this need?

I often tell my clients to include their telephone number and email address on every page of their website or, at the very least, include it in the contact page, meta description or ALT attributes in their header images so that Google can read it. Search engine users often use Google as a telephone directory, typing in a company name with “telephone”, for example: “Tree Duck Design telephone”. Searchers are more likely to click through to visit the website whose search result snippet shows them a telephone number from the outset.

In fact, in a test on one website (as reported by Kissmetrics), a split test revealed that the version with a telephone number received 54% of the total conversions, with 46% going to the version with no phone number. Even though people were not calling the number – it just seemed to promote trust.

Reason 3: They want to transact with you

The third reason why people visit your website is to make purchases. Whether they’re buying a physical product or digital service from you or simply purchasing a gift card, people love being able to shop online.

If you want people to purchase products or services from your website, it’s important to have a user-friendly design and clear calls to action telling visitors what they should do next. No obstacles, no complicated path to the transaction point. You should also consider offering discounts or coupons as an incentive for people to buy from you rather than from your competitors.

In short, you need to ensure that, when people visit your website, they land on the page that gives them what they are looking for. This is where SEO expertise can help because search engines already try to find the part of your website that matches what people want to do. SEO is not just about trying to be number one for specific keywords, it is also about ensuring Google can see the right things on your website and send people to the pages that match what they are looking for.

Reason 4: To be Entertained

People also use the internet when they’re looking for entertainment. This could be anything from watching a funny cat video on YouTube to reading a celebrity gossip blog.

If you want to attract visitors who are looking to be entertained, you need to make sure that your website is full of engaging content. This could include videos, infographics, articles and more.

Understanding the reasons why people visit your website is essential if you want to drive meaningful traffic that converts into leads and customers. Keep these four reasons in mind as you create and market your website so that you can better meet the needs of your target audience.