10 Ways To Drive More Traffic To Your Web Site

Driving traffic and visitors to your web site is not that different than attracting customers to a business location. Just because you opened one, it doesnt mean you will get customers. If your shop is tucked away in an alley without a sign and you don't advertise, there's a good chance that the only new customers you get will stumble across it by mistake.

Getting customer from your website is possible, and can be not that expencive either.

1. Search Engine Optimization

By learning more about what Search Engines look for when indexing sites, it's possible to adjust your site to suit their requirements. There are a number of factors to consider. Here are just a few:

Linking strategies - The more links that point to your site, the more instant traffic you will generate, but also, the more favourably search engines will rank your site.

Keyword density and relevance - The number of relevant keywords which feature in your body copy and the more frequently they appear in relation to the number of words on your page, the better your site will rank.

Site design - Search engines love certain site designs and dislike others. By knowing which ones are looked upon favourably you can then ensure your site design complies. For instance, framed sites are generally frowned upon.

Keywords and other metatags - In the HTML code behind your site there's the opportunity to include keywords. These are a list of phrases that your visitors are likely to type into a search engine to find your type of business. The more relevant the keyword, the more hits you're likely to get.

Knowing what people type into search engines when they're surfing the Internet can give you an ace up your sleeve when it comes to adding keywords to your site. Naturally, adding popular keywords gives you a much better chance of getting hits.

2. Submitting your site's URL to different search engines

Even though we mentioned that keywords are powerful they're useless if you haven't submitted your site to search engines. To have your site appear when people type in a keyword it's critical that a particular search engine knows about your site. To do that, you can either submit your site manually by visiting each and every search engine on the Web, you can enlist the services of someone to do it for you.

Whatever you do, don't feel tempted to utilize the services of someone who automatically submits your site to hundreds or even thousands of search engines. This is considered to be spam and could lead to your site being blacklisted.

Another point to consider is paying for search engine indexing. Most of the major search engines now offer paid indexing where, for a small fee, you can ensure your site gets indexed quickly and/or you can guarantee a high placement. With the major search engines, this is well worth the money.

3. Install and Configure Google Analytics

Even if Google Analytics itself will not bring you any new visitor, you need to have this tool installed to monitor and track the traffic in your web site. Read the post > Do you know how many visitors hit your website?

4. Listing your site in online directories

A number of sites will grant free listings in their business directories. This is a really easy and inexpencive way to spread your company on the net. Directory lists like TrueLocal, AussieWeb, Australia Business Listing are just few. Just search on Google  'free australian business directory listings'.

5. Update your website

Google ranks higher updated web-sites than other left with the same content over and over. Your customer, as well,  will notice and appreciate your effort.

6. Email marketing

Not only can a Web site be a powerful sales tool, but it's also a great way of building greater client loyalty. To do that, you can send monthly newsletter with special offers and tips regarding your sector.

7. Purchasing banner advertising

There are a selection of "pay per click" advertising opportunities where you only pay for the number of click throughs your ad experiences. This is a great way of testing various approaches in a very affordable way, not to mention that it's a fantastic way of maximizing your ROI (return-on-investment).

8. Using Newsgroups

Newsgroups are an effective way of building an email list if you use net etiquette wisely. Basically, newsgroups are forums bringing together people who are interested in a certain topic. They post and reply to messages online. There are tens of thousands of newsgroups split into a broad range of categories ... anything from MP3 and X rated topics to a variety of business related subjects. You can build a mailing list by posting very soft sell messages on a newsgroup mentioning some information that you have that may interest viewers and then point them to your email address or your URL. An effective way would be to offer subscription to a newsletter or a report.

9. Advertise in offline media

It's important to use traditional media (such as newspapers and magazines) to promote your site. Naturally, the extent to which you'll do this will depend on your budget, however with print media, the good news is that your ad doesn't need to be exceptionally large because all you're trying to sell in your advertising are visits to your Web site.

10. Advertising at free classified sites

Websites like gumtree are free and highly ranked in Google. Place a free ad with your website link and you could gain custumer from the ad itself!

Call us on 02 9516 4974 or info@marameodesign.com for a free analysis of your web site, and a free consultation on how we can make your online business work better.