There are many ways to increase the traffic to your website; one sure fire way is to offer free, original, quality content. Offer people something they cannot find anywhere else or at the very least not at the level of quality you are offering it. Create content that is helpful and useful, mashing together information from other sites does not solve this. You need to provide your visitors with information that they actually need in order to achieve a goal, solve a problem, be entertained, find out what’s going on in the news world or if they just need a good laugh. Keep it fresh and up to date. Depending on the type of information you are providing you may have to update as often as every day or as little as once a week, in some cases every other week or even once a month may be applicable.
Beware of copying and pasting from other sites, search engines
are smart these days and they will detect the copied material and send your
site to the bottom of the pile. This is bad because when someone is searching
for the topic that you provide on your website you want your site to be one of
the first ones they pick. This is another reason why unique and quality content
is so important. Your search engine ranking is a very important piece of the
puzzle to your increase web traffic. This is achieved by focusing your
content on related topics and relevant keywords (words that people search for
the most).
Getting the word out there about your website is also very
important. This is achieved in a variety of ways, trading links with other
people who have sites that are closely related to your topic is one such way.
This can be risky, you need to make sure you are trading with sites that have a
higher credibility- if they don’t you threaten your own credibility. Your best
option is to seek search engine optimization consulting to help you discover
the sites that will best promote your site. Paid advertising and even offering
freebies can also be considered to promote your site but these methods may not
work for some types of sites. Make sure the method you choose is relevant to
what it is you are offering.
The last piece of the puzzle is patience. All of these steps
take time but the wait is worth it. Sooner than you think you will see an
increase in your web traffic, getting your website out there to the thousands
of people who need your exact type of original, quality content.
Where Does Your Online Traffic Come From?
The number one goal of any webmaster is driving online
traffic to their website. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling first
edition novels or coast to coast moving services, you want your website to
attract more prospects in a shorter amount of time. After all, more prospects
equates to more customers.
But understanding how to increase web traffic isn’t as
easy as it sounds. In fact, it’s an area that experts and entire marketing
organizations dedicate their lives too. And when it comes to increasing web
traffic there’s a thousand wrong ways but no one right way to go about it. In
fact, the best websites often use a variety of tactics and techniques to draw
an audience; from search engine optimization to pay per click campaigns and
targeted content writing. Understanding the unique advantages to each medium
will help you craft an online marketing campaign sure to drive more traffic
through your proverbial online doors.
Search Engine Optimization
Today, there will be millions of people on the internet typing
into a search engine looking for exactly what you offer on your web page, will
they find you? Will your site be one of the top 10 or the top 100? Do you know
how to boost your ratings? Do you know where to find the help you need to make
it all possible? Have you heard of the term ‘search engine optimization’?
Consider that as much as 90 percent of all online traffic is
driven by search engine queries and it’s easy to see that search engine
optimization is one of the most important marketing activities associated with
any successful website. Web users depend on search engines like Google and
Yahoo to point them in the right direction millions of times every day. Another
interesting and relevant fact is that when it comes to search engines, rankings
matter more than just about any other medium. By some accounts as much as 80
percent of online queries never breech the first page of return listings and it
goes without saying that the majority of online searchers only follow the first
three or four returned links. To further validate this claim, a recent study
has shown that people searching out information online typically employ a
visual search pattern dubbed the “golden triangle”. The golden triangle is
simply the area at the top upper and left hand corner of the page typically
where the first three organic results are found. The bottom line is that if you
want your website to reach more people and garner more authority in search
engine rankings you need to make SEO a key part of your online marketing
strategy.
Search engine optimization, more commonly referred to as SEO, is
the greatest tool out there to promote your website and build credibility.
Choosing to get a SEO is a big and rewarding decision, having an SEO can save
you time and improve your site. Search Engine Optimization is a supercharged
undertaking that requires focus and a clear and current understanding of how
search engines do what exactly what they do. SEO’s provide all kinds of useful
services and tools to website owners, for example:
· Reviewing your site and content and even the structure of the
site (outsourcing for content is common if you do not want or have time to
build the content on a regular basis yourself)
· Giving advice about the development of your web page (hosting,
the use of java script, etc.)
· Helping develop the content on the pages and streamlining it
be more searchable (primarily by editing the content and HTML and any other
associated coding to increase relevance)
· Keyword research- finding those words that are searched for
the most and removing barriers of the indexing activities of the search engines
· Expert advice in specific markets or even for specific
geographies
A search engine optimizer’s help will keep your site
original and attempt to keep the spammers at bay. Maintaining the integrity and
the ‘search engine friendliness’ of the site, design, shopping carts, images,
videos, and any other elements you have included on your website being
optimized for the purpose of optimum search engine exposure.
With an SEO at your side your website is on its way to internet
greatness and the sooner you get an SEO the better it is for you and your site.
Especially when you are considering a redesign of an existing site or better
yet when you are getting ready to launch a new site, to get it off the ground
with the best chance possible to get the absolute most amount of traffic then
an SEO will be your golden ticket.
Pay Per Click Advertising
To put it simply, pay per click advertising is like the yellow
pages listings of the online world. Pay per click ads in their most basic form
are search engine listings which have been paid for by the customer. These text
based advertisements look and act like organic listings but instead of being
ranked according to super-secret algorithms they are paid for. Why should you
consider buying PPC marketing? Top billing for one. Pay per click results are
placed at the top of the returned listings making them all that much more
likely to be followed. Another reason so many web marketers like PPC
advertising is that with most PPC campaigns you only pay for what are called
click thru rates or when a web user follows that link to your landing page. The
payment structure associated with PPC marketing makes evaluating and analyzing
ROI a simple process.
Content
Content is the meat and bones of any successful website. You may
have the best product in the world, but if you can’t articulate that how will
your customers know? In other words, you’re only as good as your message says.
But optimized web copy is more than just flashy words and catch phrases.
Seasoned web copywriters know that keywords, formatting, and images all play a
crucial role in the development of an articulate web page. A carefully worded
website inspires, motivates, and contains a call to action. When properly
executed these elements form the foundation for any successful marketing
campaign.
These three activities are widely considered the fundamental building blocks of any good online marketing strategy. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses associated with each avenue of web marketing will give you a leg up on the competition and help you to understand how to get traffic to your website. Of course, if you really want to see where successful marketing can take your website speak with a professional web marketer about developing a custom campaign for your website today