Probably the most common question of all questions on the Internet is “How do I get more traffic to my site?” Hands down. There is no higher question. And theories abound, some of them work and some, well frankly, are a waste of time. Some of them are free and some will cost you.
If you are a smaller business trying to handle your cyber pr campaign yourself you are looking for a way to increase traffic and keep it affordable. So here are a few ways to increase traffic to your site without affecting your bottom line.
1. Get a blog, add content and update frequently
You may have a website already and that’s great, but search engines love blogs. The constantly changing content encourages bots to crawl and index your site often. Customers and clients will find new and valuable information that keeps drawing them back. It also gives your company a more personal site. I tend to think of a traditional website like a veil, sure it provides information, but it’s static and there’s no depth and I feel like the company is somewhere behind that website I just don’t know. A blog on the other hand can give a little more personality, even if it’s just the style of writing.
2. Use social media
Create accounts on YouTube and Facebook and Twitter and Stumble and Digg and update them regularly. This works two-fold. Yes you’ll be more in touch with potential customers and clients, but also, you’ll be creating “outposts.” These outposts are your presence in cyberspace and the more your brand is out there and the more outposts you have the more people will find you and the more you will come up in search engines. Ultimately these outposts can drive people to your site.
3. Employ article marketing to get the word out
You are in a great position for this because you are obviously an expert in your field. Write some articles and submit then to article marketing sites. These sites will allow you to include a link to your site. These article marketing sites usually rank high in the search engines helping your site out since the article includes a link to you. Also these sites allow others to use the articles and since the articles include a link back to you you benefit again by more incoming links. For instance if you have a landscaping business or sell gardening supplies you can write articles on gardening and have them link back to your site.
4. Use blog and website directories
Do a search for any and all blog directories and website directories and forums in your field and join and list your site there. Again this will create more incoming links and those links will help you in website searches.
5. Guest post on other sites
Identify the “biggies” or expert bloggers in your field and ask them if you can write a guest post. Make sure you are ready with an idea, or even a finished post and any photos and ask them if they’d like to run it as a guest post. Give them a time frame to get back to you in and hold off before you submit to other bloggers. A well-placed guest post can bring you in front of thousands of targeted customers. Just make sure your site is in its best shape when the traffic starts coming your way.