How to Increase the Amount of Traffic to Your Websites
It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling your own products, promoting affiliate offers, or looking for AdSense clicks; if there isn’t any traffic to your site, you won’t be able to earn a single cent.
There is, however, more to the process than simply increasing traffic volume to your website. Non-stop traffic is essential; however, you also want targeted traffic – people who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer.
The methods discussed in this article, both paid and free, will help you to increase the number of people who visit your website and make it more profitable. It is possible that some of these methods will generate almost instantaneous traffic, while others will require more time to gain traction.
By spreading your traffic generation efforts across a number of different methods, you can generate high volumes of traffic quickly while gradually increasing their volume over a longer period of time.
Let’s get this party started…
Obtaining the Appropriate Kind of Traffic
Before we look at any specific methods for generating traffic to your website, we should take a moment to consider what kind of traffic you should be attempting to attract.
Because there are two types of traffic: the correct traffic and the wrong traffic.
Visitors who are not only interested in what you have to offer them, but who are also ready and able to take the action that you want them to do, are considered to be the proper sort of traffic. The improper sort of visitors is essentially the reverse of what you want – people who aren’t likely to perform your “most desired activity.”
To illustrate this, consider the following two situations…
Let’s imagine you run an affiliate review website that you want to promote. You create reviews and other material for your website, and you include affiliate links to the items you promote. When someone purchases one of the offerings, you will be compensated with a commission.
In the event that you create a large amount of traffic, but only a small number of those visitors are either ready or able to spend money, you will not be able to earn much profit from them. A excellent illustration would be a market where the majority of your customers are adolescents. While they may be highly interested in the subject and willing to purchase what you’re pushing, a substantial number of them will not be able to purchase since they do not have credit cards and their parents may not allow them to use theirs to make the purchase.
When dealing with a market like that, a website that shows AdSense advertisements could be a better fit, which leads us to our second example. Consider the following scenario: you have a website that is solely monetized by AdSense. In this situation, it makes little difference whether or not your visitors are able to make a purchase because you are paid when they click on an advertisement, regardless of what they do after they leave your site.
If there are a large number of “clickers” in the market who do not convert into customers, the advertising will not be particularly profitable, but we’ll put that aside for the time being.
From a purely conversion standpoint, you’ll want people who are actively seeking a solution to their problem – and perhaps the advertisements presented on your site provide that answer – as opposed to those who are simply browsing. Again, you want to target the proper people in order to receive the most amount of clicks on those advertisements.
There is a possibility that you will not receive many hits if you are producing a lot of visitors seeking for free solutions or just looking for information. As a result, increasing traffic does not always equate to increased profits.
Before you begin any form of traffic generating, double-check that you’re directing your efforts towards the appropriate audience members. Aside from that, you will be wasting a lot of time and money, maybe even both, with little or no return on your investment.
Methods of Getting Free Traffic
The free traffic option is unquestionably the more popular of the two options (the other being paid traffic). Many Internet marketers just do not have the financial resources to begin paying for traffic, therefore free traffic is a preferable alternative.
Some marketers are also misinformed about the economics of paying for traffic, which is a completely separate issue altogether. Unless you can turn a profit, or at the very least break even on the money you spend on advertising to drive visitors to your website, it isn’t actually costing you anything. It’s usual for marketers to focus solely on the cost side of the equation and ignore the profit side of the equation; however, we’ll go into more depth about this when we examine paid traffic sources later on.
If you’re looking to receive free traffic, there are two sorts to consider: short-term traffic and long-term traffic. Some tactics can bring in traffic to your website in a very short period of time, in some circumstances nearly instantaneously in some instances. Although other strategies will take longer to achieve traction, these approaches will often continue to drive visitors to your site for a longer length of time after they have gained momentum.
Traffic Generation on a Short-Term Basis
Short-term traffic sources that can be quite effective if implemented correctly are the three sources we’ll be looking at today:
a. Forum marketing a.k.a.
2. Blogging as a guest
Article submissions are number three.
Marketing using discussion forums
When it comes to generating short-term traffic, forum marketing is one of the most straightforward methods, particularly if you’re currently active in any famous forums in your industry.
Note: Because the majority of those who read this study will be familiar with the Internet marketing niche, many of the examples in this report will be drawn from that field. Every strategy works as well in various markets, so don’t fall into the trap of believing that “this just works for Internet marketing websites” – that simply isn’t correct!
A “signature” may be added to your profile on most forums, which will then appear at the end of every post you make in that forum. You may put a link to your website in your signature, as well as a brief call to action, to encourage visitors to visit it directly.
Individuals that are interested in your posts will click on your signature link if you are active on the forum and give good content. It’s much more effective if you provide them with something of value that is linked to the market, such as a free report, webinar recording, or some other form of reward.
The most important thing to remember is to be an active member of the community and to first and foremost contribute value. If you just register for a forum, add your signature link, and start posting at random with things like “Hey, fantastic post!” and “Hey, amazing post!” you shouldn’t expect to receive any traffic.
Give individuals something of value initially, and they will respond by looking into what else you have to offer them.
Blog Posting by a Guest
Guest blogging is yet another excellent method of “siphoning” traffic from a community of individuals that are interested in your industry or niche. Although a blog is less engaging than a forum, there are many parallels between the two.
Find some of the most well-known blogs in your industry and inquire as to whether they allow guest bloggers. The fact that some websites are upfront about this is demonstrated by the presence of a page that explains how to become a guest blogger for them. Other sites don’t promote it, but if you spend a little time going through their current pieces, you’ll be able to tell if they’re all written by the same individual or whether they’ve utilized guest posts in the past to supplement their content.
In most cases, guest contributions will include a resource box or author byline that contains further information about the author as well as a link back to their website or blog. These are good indicators that the site allows guest articles if you notice any of them.
When it comes to having your post accepted, the most important thing to remember is to provide a high-quality piece that the blog owner would be mad not to accept. Spend even more time than you would normally spend researching, developing, and producing these blogs, if possible. While it requires an additional commitment of effort, having your guest post published on a popular blog may result in a significant increase in traffic to your site.
In addition, while this click-through traffic may diminish after a post has been up for a while, it will continue indefinitely as the content acquires momentum in the search engine results. Furthermore, having a resource link leading back to your site will benefit your SEO efforts in the long run, making this a very effective tactic.
Submissions for Articles
In addition to article submissions, or article marketing, you can use article marketing to generate traffic for your website that will benefit you in both the short and long term. Similar to guest blogging, the short-term traffic will come from those who visit your website after clicking through on the resource box links in your blog post.
By submitting your articles to high-authority websites, you can take advantage of their authority with the search engines, allowing your articles to rank swiftly and generate traffic for your website. It is possible that this direct traffic will last for a long time if your post has some momentum with Google and the other search engines, but it also helps your own website rank higher in search engines, which in turn results in your site producing more search engine traffic on its own.
This takes us to the topic of long-term traffic management measures…
Traffic Generation on a Long-Term Basis
Specifically, we’ll be looking at three longer-term tactics for increasing traffic to your websites:
The first is SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization.
2. The use of social media
3. Establishing and fostering relationships
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a term that refers to the process of optimizing a website for search engines.
SEO is perhaps the most widely used approach for generating free visitors. When it comes to enhancing your search engine rankings, there are hundreds of tactics to choose from, and an equal number of products that educate you how to put them into practice. Some of these strategies are effective year after year, while others are only effective for a limited period of time.
You’ll also notice a number of techniques that would be classified as gray hat or ***** hat, which means they might be in violation of the terms of service of one or more search engines, or even be illegal under certain circumstances.
While you’ll have to determine for yourself exactly what lines you’re prepared to cross in the sake of increasing traffic to your website, remember that the strategies that cross those lines are often the ones that are more fleeting in nature. They may need less effort up front, but in the long term, you may find yourself paying more time and money to sustain your traffic as a result of the constant change in the environment.
SEO is a vast subject that extends much beyond the scope of this article, but let’s have a look at a few of the most significant ideas in this regard first.
On-site optimization and off-site optimization are the two most important variables in SEO. On-site SEO includes things like placing your keywords in strategic locations on your pages, as well as other techniques.
-In the TITLE tag -In the page text itself -In image ALT tags -And so on and so on
Previously, repeating your keywords over and over throughout the website (known as keyword stuffing) might increase your search engine rankings, but search engines have advanced well past that point in their development. Don’t do this; instead, include your keywords and other relevant terms into the article in a natural manner.
Off-site SEO is mostly concerned with the number of links referring to your website. The greater the number of connections you receive from relevant sites that also have some authority with the search engines, the higher your site will rank (and the more traffic you will receive as a consequence).
This is the point at when the short- and long-term strategies begin to overlap a little bit. If you’re employing any of the short-term traffic methods we’ve just mentioned to drive immediate traffic to your websites, you’ll find that they will also benefit your search engine optimization efforts in the long run.
As a result, while you may see a short-term increase in traffic when your forum signatures, guest blog posts, and contributed articles go live, they will continue to work for you for a long time to improve your site’s search engine results.
Therefore, even after your site has gained momentum in the search engines, it’s a good idea to continue performing those things. It will continue to be a major driver of both immediate and long-term traffic.
Social Media Sites
Due to the fact that social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are a relatively new means to generate traffic, they are frequently misinterpreted. A lot of marketers use them as a type of “announcement” service, putting links to new deals, affiliate promotions, fresh blog entries, and anything else they want visitors to check out on their websites.
However, that is all they ever publish, and as a result, they conclude that social media is ineffective since no one ever clicks through on their links.
The reality of the matter is that social media is a longer-term traffic generation technique. Before you can expect people to click on any of the links you publish, you must first establish connections with the individuals you follow on social media.
Consider the following example in the “real world.” If you went to a party or some other type of gathering, would you just go around making a sales pitch to everyone you met? Or would you want to have a chat first, so that you can get to know one another and what you have to give before proceeding?
Treat social media like you would a “real-life” meeting: first, provide value to your followers and establish some trust with them before bombarding them with a barrage of offers.
The Development of Relationships
Although building connections is not a traffic generating approach in and of itself, it is applicable to practically every other tactic to some extent. If you can establish relationships with the visitors to your website, or with the visitors to the other sites where you post your information, you will be much more successful over the long term.
The likelihood of your visitors returning increases dramatically when you build great ties with them. And return traffic is one of the most important factors in creating a truly successful website.
Consider the following scenario: If you receive 100 visitors per day and do not have a mechanism to entice them back to your site after they have clicked on an advertisement or an affiliate link, you will need to acquire 100 new visitors every day in order to maintain your results.
You may improve your future traffic without needing to attract “new” visitors if you get 100 visitors per day and funnel 10 of them into your “relationship funnel” so they return to your website. Let’s say, for the sake of simplicity, that they return the next day. As a result, you’ve had 110 visitors, of whom 10 will be returning visitors.
Every day that passes, you receive more traffic, despite the fact that you are just responsible for generating 100 new visitors. Over time, your traffic will continue to rise even if you don’t put in any additional effort to attract new visitors on top of the ones you already have.
One of the most effective methods to cultivate these relationships and produce repeat visits is through the use of our next traffic tactic, list building.
Using an email list to drive traffic to your website
One of the most significant advantages of developing an email list is that it allows you to have complete control over your visitors. Whatever happens to Google, Facebook, and every other traffic source tomorrow, if you have a list of individuals who are interested in your industry, you can still produce visitors by sending an email to your list of interested people.
It’s also possible to route traffic to a newly created page or website if you already have one up and running.
You could put up a website in the next half hour, send an email to your mailing list, and start receiving visitors to your site within a few minutes of doing so.
Even when you pay for traffic, it’s extremely difficult to get visitors to a new website within minutes of it being completed and launched.
List building as a traffic strategy, on the other hand, is a bit of a Catch-22. You won’t be able to produce that “on demand” traffic until you’ve established a mailing list, and in order to establish a mailing list, you must first generate some traffic from other sources.
That’s why it’s critical to employ all of the tactics we’ve discussed while also encouraging folks who visit your site to subscribe to your email list, allowing you to contact them on a regular basis in the future.
Methods of Obtaining Paid Traffic
A large number of Internet marketers are terrified by the prospect of paying for traffic. It’s possible that they’ve been burnt in the past, or that they’re terrified of losing a significant amount of money. You should proceed with caution when dealing with bought traffic because this is a legitimate source of concern for many people.
Paying for traffic does not have to be expensive to experiment with if you do it correctly, and if you figure out how to make it lucrative (or even just break even), it doesn’t actually cost you anything- you put X dollars into it and receive Y dollars back in return.
There are many different sponsored traffic sources, so we won’t cover them all in this study, but let’s take a look at some of the most popular (and effective).
Pay Per Click (also known as PPC) is a kind of advertising in which you pay for each click you make.
Pay per click advertising, often known as PPC advertising, is available through platforms such as Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter. You get compensated a certain amount for each individual who clicks on your advertisement and visits your website. That fee can range anywhere from a few cents to several dollars, depending on the industry and the keywords that you’re attempting to optimize for.
If you’re not cautious, pay-per-click advertising may eat through a significant amount of money in a relatively short period of time, so it’s critical that you handle it carefully.
Make sure you’re not targeting extremely wide keywords that will generate a large number of hits but result in a small number of well-targeted visitors.
Using the above example, you would most likely not want to target the term “reduce weight” because it would cost you a fortune, and those visitors may be seeking for a variety of things when they arrive at your site.
You would be better off targeting the keyword phrase “how to lose 10 pounds in a month” (assuming your website can assist people in solving that problem), because while the amount of traffic would be less, the people who are looking for that information would be much more focused on what they were seeking.
It’s also important to set your daily budget at a level that you are comfortable with. This manner, if your advertising just do not convert for any reason, the amount of money you lose is kept to a minimum.
You may begin to build on a keyword/ad combination that has shown to be successful as soon as you identify it. To be effective with pay-per-click advertising, a great deal of testing and tracking is required.
Advertisements on banners
Even though banner advertisements have been declared dead for more than a decade, the truth is that they are still effective when used appropriately. Most likely, you will not be lucrative if you just blast a bunch of banners with “punch the monkey” type of content to as many websites as you can.
However, if you choose the websites on which you want to advertise based on how relevant they are to your target market and design your banners effectively, they can still generate a significant amount of traffic for a relatively low investment of money.
Start small and track your outcomes, just like you would with PPC advertising. Once you’ve identified a banner and/or website that is effective for your business, begin expanding those campaigns to additional locations where they are successful.
Ezine advertisements that are paid
Paid ezine advertisements are another another “old school” traffic creation approach that may still be quite effective in certain situations. Essentially, you’re paying for an advertisement to be sent to another marketer’s email list. This might be a little ad that is included in a larger email, or it could be a “solo” ad that is focused solely on your product or service.
This is an excellent method of using someone else’s list in order to drive visitors to your own website (and hopefully onto your email list in the process).
The idea here is to tailor your offer to the specific needs of your target audience. Make sure you subscribe to that marketer’s list yourself and read a few of their emails to get a sense of the tone they use and the types of offers they are promoting.
It is important to personalize your ad so that it will appeal to the people who get that person’s emails, so make sure you give something of value and that what you are offering will be appealing to the individuals who will receive the email in question.
In comparison to other paid traffic sources, Facebook is a very young one, and it is continuously evolving as more and more people begin to use it. It should, however, be included in your paid traffic plan because of the hundreds of millions of users and the potential to target highly particular interests and demographics.
The key to efficiently using Facebook is to keep in mind that the vast majority of people aren’t there to be marketed to; they’re there to socialize. Even though it may appear that way to us online marketers, the vast majority of Facebook users are not conducting business there. As a result, if you approach them with a high-pressure pitch (whether sponsored or not), it is unlikely that they would respond positively.
It all comes down to developing relationships with people first, so that they become familiar with and trust you. Once you’ve gained their confidence, you may begin to introduce them to your websites and other services.
Conclusion
This post has hopefully given you a better understanding of not just how you can create traffic to your website, but also what you should do with that traffic once it arrives on your page.
New traffic sources appear and disappear on a regular basis, but the majority of the tactics we’ve explored here have withstood the test of time. Despite the fact that it’s never a bad idea to experiment with new techniques and include them into your overall strategy, avoid becoming enthralled with the latest “shiny object” that promises infinite traffic with little or no effort.
Those types of claims are almost always too good to be true, and even if they do function as claimed, they are almost always only effective for a limited period of time. As soon as all of the individuals who are hunting for a magic button begin abusing the strategy, it won’t be long until it ceases to function.
If you construct your traffic generation plan on a strong basis, you will continue to witness an increase in the number of visits to your website for many years to come.
