It doesn't matter how well-designed your e-commerce site, photo album, or affiliate page is, without traffic, it's merely a collection of pixels on a screen. Once you have a web presence of some sort, what could be more important than getting more people to interact with it?
If you already have a site but don't see the traffic you expected, you must find out why and correct the problem. Promises of traffic are not enough. Were your expectations inflated by hype? Traffic from search engine spiders or robots it critical. Are search engine spiders able to read your content with ease? If search engine spiders have trouble reading your site, you can be certain it will never be seen by anyone else in great numbers.
The number one way to get traffic is to have well-designed content that meets a particular need. Visitors to that kind of site tell others and often link to it. Word-of-mouth and link-of site are surefire ways to grow your traffic.
OK. What if you already have those bases covered but still lack the numbers? Here are some proven ways you can employ to increase your traffic:
1) Buy Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads with the big 3 search engines. - Maybe it seems odd to pay to advertise your website, but would you shun advertising for a bricks-and-mortar store? Of chouse not. Perhaps PPC advertising should be a large part of your ad budget. If you're still hesitant, go find some testimonies of the effectiveness of Google AdWords. You'll discover that all the big name companies are already in the game.
2) Exchange or trade links with other sites. - You need to know that search engines do not value two-way links as highly as the one-way links inbound to your site, but they still have some value. Do a link search, and count how many links you currently have to your site. Concentrate your link trading effort on similar content sites. If you're a store, you don't need to exchange links with a competitor. Look for sites that offer information about your product.
3) Find your Keywords. - Use website statistics and analytics to discover the keyword phrases your site is found by. Then use a keyword tool (Google has a free one) to discover what keyword phrases that relate to your website have the most searches. If these two groups don't match, rework your website content, and build it around the high-traffic keyword phrases that most describe your product or service. If this is too daunting a task, there are plenty of professionals who can do it for you.
4) Use article writing as a way to build links to your site. Contrary to popular thinking, your articles don't have to be related in any way to your website. The link to your site in the author resource box or bio box is what counts. This type of link has the potential to multiply as other sites redistribute your article. Are you not a writer? You can always pay someone else to do it for you. Remember: the best article networks have the 'dofollow' tag in their outgoing links. This gets published by the search engines, and the search engine spiders love it.
5) Join an established forum in your field. All forums give you a place to tell about yourself and your website. You can also design a custom signature that incorporates your link. Be involved in the forum at your level of interest. It's a great way to not only grow traffic, but gain standing in your particular field.
6) Create an email list and market your site in the newsletters to your list members. Realize that it isn't lawful or ethical to blindside strangers with sales pitches and links in unsolicited email. You can create a form on your site for visitors to opt-in to your email list. You may think it looks like trying to build traffic from traffic you already have, and that's correct. Repeat visitors and loyalty is the best kind of traffic that can come from email marketing. If you're overwhelmed by the thought of where or how to start, Constant Contact has an email marketing software package that will do all the hard work for you.
About the Author
Chris has been authoring websites for over ten years, and his specialty is SEO. His latest site features washer dryer combination information at Dryer Combination" href="http://washerdryercombinationshop.com/" target="_new">WasherDryerCombinationShop.com
