Increasing Website Traffic

Slow and steady wins the traffic race...

One of the biggest anti-climaxes that you can experience on the web is putting your heart and soul into building a new web site, in the build up to launch day, and then sitting there with anticipation as you put the site live and...

... nothing happens.

You eagerly monitor the traffic logs to your site, and to your dismay you have no visitors. It is disappointing for sure, but relax - this is perfectly normal. The question to ask yourself is not whether you just wasted thousands of pounds or dollars on the site, but rather what you can do to get people to visit your site. And the answer is two-fold: making your site attractive for visitors, and marketing your web site.

The best way to make a site attractive is both simple and difficult. The idea is simple, the execution more difficult. What you need to do is offer fresh, interesting, clearly written and compelling content. The sort of content that is easy to digest whilst giving people information they want. The sort of content that will have them coming back time and time again to your site.

Even if you are selling the same old products as everyone else, the quality of your copy and accuracy of your descriptions and imagery can be the difference between someone clicking the close button, and checking out more product descriptions and therefore increasing the chances they will click the hallowed 'buy product' button.

So, be sure to steadily add content and pages to your site so that it grows nicely in an organic fashion over time. And remember to give existing pages some TLC too - don't let them languish in the wilderness for years becoming out of date and irrelevant, but maintain them.

Of course all of this takes time and dedication - and often stubbornness to persist when things don't seem to be improving - but no-one ever said running a successful website and building traffic to it was easy. It does take commitment on your behalf unless you are one of the very, very few site owners who experiences immediate runaway success.

The second element is what you do outside your site to promote it. The obvious things to do are to submit to the major search engines then wait. You may have heard of the google sandbox effect, which states that your site will experience a subdued ranking for between six and twelve months on google before achieving its full listing potential. This effect is not known 100% to exist but many people seem to have experienced this phenomenon. So if you have a new site and don't get much traffic instantly from google, then don't be dis-heartened by this.

Next, you may find it useful to find similar sites to yours and offer to exchange links with them. Another tip is to write some articles and submit them to sites that take articles in exchange for a link back to your site and some free advertising when people read your articles - if they are impressed they may request your services as a result, or at least will be aware of who you are and what you do and may pass on your details to a friend or similar.

There is also the option of paid for marketing. You can advertise anywhere you can think you will reach people who may be interested in your site or service. Local magazines, newspapers or depending on budget, you can advertise further afield too.

There are also online advertising schemes you can use. A well known and popular scheme is Google Adwords, where you pay to target specific keyword searches, the theory being that you then know your advert is only being shown to people who are definitely interested rather than all and sundry. This can be a good way to get some high quality leads in a cost effective way and many site owners express that the scheme works well for them.

Finally don't underestimate the power of word of mouth. If you have a great site and tell your friends and family about it, and they all tell their ten friends and so on, then soon there are a good number of people who know about your site straight away. And be sure to include your site address in your email signature, on posts you make to forums and web sites and generally push it at any opportunity. Because if you don't, who will?

If you require a new website or would like to discuss a website idea, please get in touch with Clarity Media.

Author: Dan

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Last Updated: Aug 30th 2006

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