11 Effective Ways To Generate Traffic To Your Site


by Leonard Chen - Date: 2006-12-12 - Word Count: 1016 Share This!

We know that for a website to be successful, there must be people visiting it. But what is it that gets people there in the first place? Countless sites appear on the internet daily, yet not many garner strong viewership like those of Darren Rowse, John Chow, or Steve Pavlina. Yet, what they have done for themselves, is not exactly rocket science. Everyone has that capability of making their site heard. So, what drives the traffic?

Be Content Minded. This is definitely the most important aspect to work on if you aim to have a highly read and popular website. Everyday, billions of people visit Google for one main reason and that is, to search for information they want. By feeding your visitors with high quality, unique and information-rich content, you are creating the need for them to sub-consciously return over and over again. Over time, your website will become more established, and trusted not only by your visitors, but the search engines as well.

Add Fresh & Useful Content. If you place a plate of fresh meat out in the air, it naturally becomes stale over time. The same concept applies to your content. Search engines adore websites that constantly publishes fresh and useful content that visitors seek. By doing this, fellow webmasters who feel that you have written an excellent post, will link to you via their website thus, allowing you to tap on their visitors as well and resulting in higher quality traffic.

Perform Keyword Research. Knowing the exact words and/or phrases that people are searching for will allow you to optimize your site effectively, therefore ranking better in search engine results. If you are providing a service, or selling a product, you will also have a better opportunity of converting them from visitors to buyers. Also, imagine the amount of search engine traffic you can get when you publish quality content with keyword phrases that potential audiences are searching for.

Submit to Article Directories. On several occasions when I perform a search, what I find are lists of articles from article directory sites. The articles provide useful information that I was looking for, with a brief introduction about the author and a link to his website at the bottom of the page. This is good, but not good enough. What you can do is, instead of writing a full article and submitting it to the directories, you should divide them into several parts. Submit Part 1 to the directories, and link Part 2 or 3 to your website. That way, you have created a compelling reason for visitors to visit your website for more information.

Publish Newsletters. Don't just end there. You need to think of a way to contact your visitors, and interact with them. The simplest way to do that is to setup a newsletter. Through newsletters, you are able to inform your visitors of any upcoming news or projects you are undertaking, special offers and reviews found only at your website. Ask them what they want, and give it to them. People want their voices heard, and you are there to do that.

Be A Guest Writer Build friendships with owners of related websites. Show them you are credible, and that you know your work. Ask if they would like to have you as a guest writer on their blog on a particular topic, one that you are well-versed at. Having a backlink from related website is really about SEO, not to mention, traffic as well. Afterall, search engines do prefer links from similar content-based sites rather than those with different topics of interests.

Post A Tutorial. Besides great content, people dig information that teaches them to accomplish a certain task. This can be anything. It can be a simple topic like How To Embed YouTube Videos On Your Site to more advanced topics like Creating Your Very Own Wordpress Theme. Document the steps in simple english with pictures. It makes it easier for less savvy visitors to understand.

Post A Video Tutorial. I don't need to explain this. Just visit Tubetorial.com to get what I mean.

Social Bookmarks. If you believe you have written an article containing a good level of content that people will find it worthwhile to read, then submit it to social bookmarking sites. Being thick-skinned once in a while wouldn't hurt! Sites like Digg or Delicious have a high volume of users and they are the best places you should be submitting your articles to. Two others that I like are StumbleUpon and Yahoo My Web.

RSS or Email Subscriptions While some people will visit your website constantly for new content, there will simply be others who prefer to keep track of new postings via RSS. What you want is long-term traffic and by providing visitors with an option to subscribe to your feed or email subscription, you have already provided an avenue where you can constantly reach them. If a certain post interests them and they would like to share their comments, you would once again have created a reason for them to visit your site.

Email This Article. Chances of people emailing an article to a friend they know would benefit from it is not uncommon. In my first post 10 Tips You Need To Know Before Starting Your Business, I wrote about the effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing. This is it, in an email form. Once again, people are generally more inclined to click on a link coming from someone they know who says there's a great article and you would benefit from reading it.

Certainly, there are other methods including gimmicks to generate traffic. But eventually what gets people coming to your site, and have them talking about you in blogosphere, is the amount of value you create for them. In return, they will trust you and your reputation grows. More sites link to yours, creating worthy links which search engines love. Isn't that good SEO?

Finally, doing the right thing takes time and a load of patience. You probably won't see results soon, but when you do, you can be assured the traffic you are getting is not just quantity but quality as well.


Related Tags: content, traffic, keyword, blogs, search engine, search engine traffic, blog traffic, optimize

Leonard Chen is a darn fine Singaporean & a self-employed professional who takes a keen interest in online marketing, blogging and entrepreneurship. Visit his site: The Insights & Interests of Leonard Chen to find out more.

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