5 Tips for Getting Internet Traffic
Once you have created your first website (or blog) you will need to get people to visit your website otherwise you will have ZERO chance of being able to monetize your website (i.e., make money from your website) . Keep in mind there are literally billions of websites on the internet so how can you get people to visit yours? The answer to this question is not exactly simple and if you ask 10 different internet experts you might get 10 different answers. But there are some universal strategies to follow that will help you get traffic to your website. You can also get web visitors by spending money on internet banners and text ads (Google AdSense is an example) but the tips below are free options that I believe every website should start with.
5 Easy tips for getting traffic for your website…
1. Choose a niche for your website that people are searching for on the internet. If you pick a niche for your website that only interests you, then only you will will likely ever visit your website. Yet that being said, if you pick a topic that is too broad (such as: news of the day) it will be very difficult for you to compete with the millions of similar websites on the net. Pick a topic (niche) that is narrow enough for you to be able to compete yet not so narrow that there is no interest in the topic. There are a couple free tools that can help you find what people are searching for on the internet: SEOBook Keyword Tool, Google Keyword Tool.
2. Optimize your website for the niche you are shooting for. Lets assume your niche/topic is: knitting for teenagers – make sure to include this phrase in your websites title tag, meta description, meta keywords, H1 title, and within the body of your text and don’t forget to bold, underline, the phrase occasionally. Optimizing your website for your target audience is how you will let Google, Yahoo, and Bing know that your website is about knitting for teenagers! Yet as I say on every tip… don’t over do it. Your website needs to be sensible, it shouldn’t be composed of your keyword phrase typed over and over again (that get’s flagged as spam).
3. Create a social networking strategy for your website. Start a Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube account just for this specific blog/website. Start following folks and befriending people who have similar interests. Even if your site has no content yet start collecting friends, this process can take time so get started now. When you are just getting started make friendly posts and don’t try to sell them anything, just create connections that will be valuable later. Once you start adding content to your website/blog you can start to give your friends and followers links to your website (and specifically your newly posted articles). If your friends and followers like you because you haven’t abused your relationship with spam they will start spreading your links around to their network of friends, and that is viral marketing! Remember never abuse your connections by constantly sending them links to your site, the only thing that will accomplish is losing connections. Use common sense… if you don’t like getting bombarded with the sales pitch, neither will your connections. (in this case the sales pitch is driving traffic to your new blog post)
4. Get backlinks on other websites that are relevant to your website/blog. (a backlink is a link to your site from another site) Search the internet for blogs and community forums that feature similar topics to your blog. You could send the webmaster an email and ask to swap links, many times fellow webmasters are more than willing to do this because it helps them as well. Or, you can comment on their blog posts, forum, or guestbook, with a friendly supportive comment and leave your link in the comment (there is usually a spot for your link in the comment form – see our comment form below as an example). DO NOT SPAM! Avoid the urge to merely spam your link on blogs without also leaving a comment that appears to be written by a human who actually read the article in question. Webmasters are smart, they can spot “copy and paste” spamming when they see it. In fact you will eventually become good at spotting spam yourself. Webmasters also don’t like folks who drop links on their site that are not relevant to the content on their site (that’s another spamming red flag).
A note about internet forums. I have been in the internet forum business since the very beginning and I can tell you that if you drop a link to your website in your first post or two you will likely be banned right off the bat which will be a waste of your time. When posting on internet forums get into the flow of the conversation and add valuable info to the topics, then as time passes you will find un-spammy ways to add your links (possibly in your forum signature).
5. Keep your content fresh. Google, Yahoo, and Bing (the major search engines) will reward your site if the content changes on a regular basis. If your site doesn’t change month after month you will drop in the SERPs (SERP = Search Engine Results Page). A blog post will often get its best search engine placement the first couple weeks after it has been posted. Therefore, if your site isn’t being updated your site will be dropping in the results pages. Lets assume you have 15 pre-written blog posts for your website, it would be a bad idea to post them all on the first day you opened your blog. Instead, it would be better to post one post per week for 15 weeks. This strategy would tell the search engines that your blog is being regularly updated and your site is not a ghost site.
Keep in mind there are many other tips and tricks for getting traffic to come to your website but this article represents the basics i.e., the foundation of a successful website. I would love to get your comments below regarding other tips and tricks that you feel are successful for gaining internet traffic.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article for folks just getting started. I think often times people ignore the fundamentals and skip right to the website promotion part yet in the end that strategy hurts their SERP’s.
It’s all about the fundamentals! Get the fundamentals right and you have a much better chance to succeed long term.
Real good advice especially on backlinks