Have you invested thousands of dollars in your website or hundreds of DIY hours and your website traffic isn’t improving? Are your conversion rates unsatisfying? It’s about time to figure out why.

If your website isn’t cluttered and about to shut down due to heavy traffic, it could mean that you have a stable system, or on the other hand, that nobody clicks on it. If you and your website need a refresh for clarity on what is going wrong, the first few places you might want to search for are branding and logo design.

While driving traffic to your website is the first necessary step, the ultimate goal is always to turn that traffic into paying customers or donors.

Unfortunately, high traffic does not equal high conversion, so having one viral blog post or thousands of visitors on one day isn’t going to do you much good in the long run.

Did you know that in the last few months, there were over five million new blogs on WordPress? The competition is stiff, and the chances of going viral are dismal. Instead, the goal is to have a consistent audience visiting regularly that will eventually make a purchase or come to your physical store. While there are many different ways to increase website traffic, here are a few key places you can start.

Your analytical data is among the powerful tools you have. Most businesses have a massive amount of data on different customers and clients (always obtained ethically, of course, and through verifying with your website visitors that they have permitted you to use the data in your marketing efforts). When used correctly and ethically to make data-driven decisions, you can target more personalized and effective messaging and ideally, drive more of the right traffic to your website.

The best social media campaign will explore various types of content on a range of social networks. For instance, posting infographics instead of presenting information in purely text formats typically results in higher conversion rates. Well-designed infographics are great for providing complex pieces of info and transforming them into bite-size chunks that are easiest to digest and understand for an audience.

Finally, you need to make sure that you invest in the proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. Many SEO tactics look fantastic on paper but aren’t going to pay off in the long term. For example, avoid tactics like blackhat SEO tactics, as this could potentially cripple your online ranking.

Furthermore, experts in the field suggest monitoring your analytics and tracking your results. Set some goals upfront so that you can record your benchmarks, take note of what’s working, and leave the tactics that fall flat behind.

Driving your ideal customer to your website is a worthy goal, but how do you keep them engaged long enough to explore your website and ultimately take action? You only have a few seconds, at most, to hook readers and keep them from returning to Google.

As a starting point, your website should be easy to navigate and contain plenty of headings that will allow the reader to skim through the content easily and find what they need. Additionally, the design elements should complement your brand and be consistent with what customers might expect if they visit your physical location or see other marketing materials from your company.

While your website content is ultimately the most crucial piece of your platform, the design itself instantly builds authority, brand recognition, and trust.

Professionally designed logos and pages are one of the easiest ways to ensure brand recognition. This is one of the main reasons why so many businesses rely on a professional web design agency, instead of undertaking the task themselves.

Your logo identifies your business and creates consistency throughout your digital and print marketing. This not only talks about your business but affects how people perceive your brand. An expensive logo is not only for bragging, it lets your audience know where you put your money. A childish logo instantly gives a feel to the people that come upon it. The logo and web design are much more than just aesthetics.

Increasing website traffic isn’t a perfect science, but the results speak for themselves when marketers use the right strategies consistently. In case you’re not sure where to begin, analyze some of your current website analytics and identify the areas where you’ve already seen success.

Then, use your social media following to steer followers to the site, evaluate your keywords to ensure you’re capturing your share of Google search results, and finally, deliver an outstanding design on the website that showcases your value and impact.