There are a variety of tactics these companies use to drive this traffic to your site, but the question for any Internet business is not how many visitors you get, but how many sales. The traffic provided by these companies is usually not the sort that will earn you many sales at all, because the visitors you get weren’t looking for your product or information on their own. These companies use tactics just to get high numbers you have to pay for, not to get quality visitors who are searching for information or better yet, ready to purchase.
The way you get the kind of quality traffic you want is first, build a cracking good, properly search engine optimized website. Any decent website ought to offer at least thirty pages of quality information and no, your catalog doesn’t count. Each and every subject that might make a sale has information associated with it. The job of the Internet entrepreneur is to offer a lot of that information for free. By over providing and giving the people who are looking for you more than their money’s worth, you build something much more powerful and profitable than a sale. You create a customer that will come back for more.
The second thing you can do in order to get traffic is to apply some basic Internet common sense. Don’t put all manner of flashy media up on your site. They’re hard for search engine spiders to read and they take a long time to load for people with less than optimal connections. If a door-to-door salesman hemmed and hawed at your door for three minutes, you’d slam the door in their face. Slamming doors on the Internet equal a fast click on the “back” button, and no entrepreneur can afford that. If you absolutely must include the flashy stuff, offer it in a simpler format for people who choose, and don’t put it on your landing page.
Get involved in your online communities. No matter what your business is about, somewhere there is an online forum about it. Don’t go on there just to get your links up, make a point of providing real, quality content and participation. However, don’t pass up the opportunity to put your website link in unobtrusive places like your signature and profile, either. If you post a message that looks like “Hey, come to <this website> you’ll see stuff you like!” you’ll probably get your post deleted and yourself banned quicker than you can say IP address. On the other hand, if you’re a decent, active and participating member of the community who provides real information and input, you’ll build repeat loyal visitors.
Create a blog. Again, don’t do it to be stupid. If the only purpose of your blog is to hawk your wares, skip it. You’ll be better off by not wrecking your reputation that way. Again, provide quality, relevant information and make a point of answering people’s commentary. On the same note, publish knowledgeable SEO articles with your website link in the signature. These two will drive high quality traffic to your site and will help establish you as a professional in your field. If you can’t write yourself, hire a decent SEO copywriter who can.
You’ve probably heard all of these suggestions before. There’s a reason they keep getting repeated, and the reason is because they work. There is no shortcut to building an online business, but there are plenty of people who will rob you blind if they can.
Learn more about the author, Gabriella Sannino.
The part about participating in online communities is a fabulous strategy. The benefit is two-fold: increased rankings in search results due to incoming links as well as increased targeted, relevant traffic.
A little while ago I published a press release and I'm still generating traffic and inquiries as a result, so I also recommend that strategy if you're promoting a new blog or forum or providing a new service that is truly noteworthy and different. I found the best results were from PR.com.
Thanks Tia. I will take a look at some of your work. I never really considered isolating a Press release for a blog, but what a novel idea. Why not? I appreciate the input!
Thank you Gabriella! i just launched a new web site and have been feeling slightly ruffled...your article gave some grounding that was very needed. I loved the pragmatism!
Thanks for the post Gabriella. I get a lot of emails from companies claiming they can increase traffic to my site, and while I know there are good SEO companies out there, most of these looked pretty shady. It's nice to have some confirmation of that and even better to have solid tips like yours!
Blogging and social networking takes a lot of time and effort but the payoffs are immediately noticeable. Currently, I am working on increasing the amount of information on our site, which is an online boutique. It hit the back burner when I saw traffic to those pages wasn't as high as I had expected, but your comments have inspired me to bring it to the front! Thanks!
I put a lot of time into promoting my website through stumbleupon, a social networking group. At times I would get a thousand hits a day. None of them were of any value. Your point about quality content building over time is excellent.
And by the way did you notice I am taking your suggestion by including my website link with my signature? < grin >
~ Aaron. www.StressReliefTraining.com
Aaron lol Excellent. Shameless promoting nothing wrong with that! Gabriella
Candice.. there are many "shady" SEO companies. I actually wrote an article of what to look for and what to ask potential SEO companies. I shall post it on here. Thanks for reading! Gabriella
Thanks Gabriella! I've never seen anyone put a number on content pages before. 30, eh? That is good to know. Google, Yahoo & MSN seem to love my site - NWweddingplace.com - and it's no doubt because of our full content pages.
I agree that sites with flashy stuff can be irritating and they only work for very specific industries/products. Also, you are correct that almost every industry has forums & communitites associated with them. Strange (in some cases) but true. We should all be searching for those spots and be adding high value info to them.
Nice article! Krista Dunk
Hello Krista.. 30-40 articles.... is really a good place to start "seeing" some amount of traffic if indeed you have honed your keywords. I hope that makes sense. :) thanks for your post.
I have spent 100's of dollars on services that would supposedly drive traffic to my website. Some of them did, but it was quality. Wish I'd had seen your article before I blew those bucks.
Great information Gabriella. Thanks for talking about this. I have been using Google analytics (https://www.google.com/analytics/settings/) and web tools to increase my SEO. While it has helped me hone my content and make my site favorable to the "searchbots" it cannot do everything. I think your ideas combined with good SEO will really help.
Great article Gabriella. I look forward to your SEO shopping article. I've put some of my articles on my website. I've heard google doesn't index duplicate content. How does that work when I post my article on my site and at a site like Ezinearticles.com?
John, it's called "shuffle". Basically try to post one article per week. Focus on different keywords, hire a copy-writer to re-write the article, (usually less expensive than writing a new article). What I have advised clients is to write around 5-10 articles a week. You don't have to have a "spamfest" with your articles. If it's good then keep it on your site. Or stop Google from indexing it. Here is more info http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66359 I hope this helps. :)
So I send one version to GoArticles, a different version to Ezinearticles & keep a third version on my website?
John Huddleston
Huddleston Tax Consulting
That is one way to do it. Or you can write the same article (twice or three times) with an emphasis on a different keyword. For example if you are discussing Mutual funds... use that in your title, then use a "long phrase" keyword. Example "investing in Mutual funds" can be your title.
Therefore make sure your keyword is in your title, then again in the first sentence or second sentence. Example ( when was the last time you looked at Mutual funds as an investment... blah blah)
Then again in the body of the copy. Example ( the best Mutual fund around today.. blah blah blah) and once again at the end of your copy. Example (In conclusion once you get your mutual fund portfolio in order... blah blah blah)
Either the last sentence or the second to last sentence.
You see it has to be appreciated by humans. It cannot have "flow" for both. Therefore I would suggest making your copy, persuasive, engaging and informative for human consumption first.
Always, Always, have a call to action at the end. Not directly promoting you per say... but something subtle. Example ( Next week I will be discussing IRA including the benefits... blah blah blah)
What you have to build with your articles is "trust".
If you ask them to buy right off the bat then you are not doing your job. They have to know that you can discuss Mutual funds, IRA, Gold, or whatever it is you are selling as a financial adviser. There is a certain formula with writing SEO copy.But sometimes people put too much weight on how to write it "properly" and forget that humans are their clients, not search engines.
I hope I have helped. :)
That's great stuff. Thank you.
John Huddleston
Huddleston Tax Consulting
Nice article very helpful. I've also heard that when posting articles make sure that you're not posting the same exact article throughout different forums and blogs. It can come across as spam!
Stacy
www.MyChannellockTools.com
Yes John.. nothing wrong with that strategy! Stacy I am glad you enjoyed it and hopefully will make use of it.
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