| A steady stream of high quality traffic can mean the difference between success or failure to your website or blog. However, many webmasters take this for granted. They live in the, “If you build it they will come” realm, which the rest of us have already figured out doesn’t exist. Others know they need quality traffic, they simply lack the knowledge of how to get it.
So how do those with more web finesse get truckloads of traffic consistently coming to their sites? What key secrets or strategies do they use that can help the bewildered?
Actually, there’s quite a bit they can teach you about finding your own streams of high quality traffic. Things such as how to use search engines more effectively, increasing your conversion rates, and how to diversify your source of traffic for starters. Take a look at the list below for ideas to drive targeted traffic to your sites right away.
Trade Events/ Booth Sponsoring – You’ll find these all over the place with a bit of research and certainly more than one will fit your area of interest. One great source to locate national and international business events is found at Biz TradeShows (http://www.biztradeshows.com). All the major cities are featured and the events listed are pretty comprehensive.
Related Interest Groups – You probably already know the benefits of forum posting a link to your site in your signature, answering questions or listing one of your articles if allowable.
What you might not be so familiar with are groups sharing a related interest to your site content. For example, Yahoo!, Google and Meetup.com all have unique groups which cover a wide variety of topics from mountain climbing to backpacking. Choose a few that fit your site and get involved.
Volunteering – I prefer to call it “community give back.” When you selflessly offer your time to others, it often naturally comes up that you have an internet business. As you participate, members want to learn more about you on a personal level. By donating items from your company to scouting groups, senior citizens or any number of charitable causes, you build community goodwill.
Don’t be content to let it stop there. When you do things that benefit the community, promote it via simple press releases. Public Service Directors are always on the look out for “feel good” news story fillers, and you can probably get a free public service mention on a few radio/television stations too.
Keyword Enhanced Content – Keywords strategically placed on your site may help your site pages rank higher. Think about adding these enhanced keywords in your title and meta tags, in your header, in the name of your page, or throughout the context of your article body. Paying attention to all of these can help increase your page rank overall.
Advertise In Your Community- Create a themed newsletter and offer it free to related or complimentary businesses in your area. Captured eyeballs waiting for appointments, guests or clients to arrive etc. will invariably read everything within reach. Don’t rule out places for fun and recreation, libraries, community bulletin boards and anywhere else people are “captured” for blocks of time.
Mentor A Student For A Week – High Schools and College vocational offices are usually receptive to pairing up their students with well respected business owners for “hands on” training. Do this from the heart and the added press coverage will be even sweeter.
Content Relevance - What’s your tendency when you find something that’s really noteworthy or useful? Usually you share that source of information with others, and it works the same way with top notch site content. Word of mouth has long been proven as an economic and powerful promotion tool, so let it work to your advantage.
Freebies – Reports, articles, e-books, audios and the list goes on. Google the word “free” and you will find it referenced more than three million times. That alone shows you the enormous potential for extra traffic.
There you have it! Keep your creative thinking caps on, your eyes open and your ears peeled. New opportunities to get traffic to your sites are almost around every corner.
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