Increasing Web Site Traffic

The secret to increasing web site traffic lies with understanding how Internet Marketing works.  Wikipedia defines Internet Marketing as the marketing of products or services over the internet.  It sounds relatively simple yet it can be a complex process.  There are many aspects of Internet Marketing that you will have to learn and apply to generate the traffic you want.  For the beginner, increasing web site traffic may seem confusing but it gets easier with a little knowledge and understanding.

First Things First

Initially, I think it’s important to evaluate your site before you think about increasing web site traffic.  Internet Marketing will help drive traffic to your site but ultimately, things like price, quality and customer service will still play a huge role.  It’s these kinds of factors that will turn traffic into buyers and buyers into repeat customers.

Maybe some initial questions to ask yourself are:

• are you happy with the overall presentation of the site?
• Does it make a good first impression for customers?
• Does it reflect what your business is all about?
• Is it user friendly for customers?

Once you’re happy with your site, you need to find ways to start interacting with your customers and increasing web site traffic.

Increasing Web Site Traffic

I always think of my site as a shop and I understand that I need to have roads that lead to my shop so my customers can find me easily.  An internet site is no different.   Increasing web site traffic means using ‘roads’ such as  blogs, micro-blogs, Facebook fan Pages, Youtube videos, and many other social media tools, that will allow my customers to find me.

You need to create many opportunities for your customers to find you.  Of course, this needs to be aligned with what is appropriate for the products and services that you’re trying to market.

The Best Traffic

As you start increasing web site traffic, you will learn that while the above strategies will deliver you more traffic; it may not be the right kind.  You will get a lot of exposure but there is no point in having a lot of traffic to your site, if no-one actually buys your products and services.

When you’re thinking about increasing web site traffic, you need to focus on attracting targeted traffic.  Targeted traffic is the traffic that you have set out deliberately to find through a variety of Internet Marketing methods and who will be more likely to want to buy your products and services.  It doesn’t automatically guarantee a sale on every visit but the more targeted traffic you have; the better your chances are of making a sale.

How to Get Targeted Traffic

Increasing web site traffic means learning about and applying practices like Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Optimization (SMO).

Essentially, Search Engine Marketing involves driving traffic to your site through the use of paid methods, like Google Ad words.  Search Engine Optimization involves driving traffic to your site through free methods, like keyword research, choosing niches, link building, social media etc.  Social Media Optimization is maximizing the various social media tools to drive traffic to your site.

Wikipedia will give you a great overview of these processes.  Learning about increasing web site traffic involves a combination of all of these methods.

As you can see, increasing web site traffic, is an involved process.  There are many aspects to master and in future blog posts, I will go through each one in more detail.  I hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little about increasing web site traffic.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 5:50 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.