Getting traffic really does represent one of the basic fundamentals of building any online business. Similar to the retail world, having people walk in through the door is the first step to making sales. Same with online business. If nobody visits your site, you simply won’t make any money. There are two types of traffic, free and paid. This article will introduce you to the basics for both types.
Possibly the fastest way to get traffic to any website is to purchase it. In theory, you could have traffic visiting your website within about 10 minutes of setting up a Google Adwords account. The idea is that you will setup an advertisement that will either show up on Google’s homepage when someone searches for a keyword phrase you’ve selected as one you’d like to have your ad associated with. Or, you may see your ad on another site that accepts advertising and has agreed with Google to have ads show up on their site.
Search engine optimization is probably the most common of the free methods of getting traffic. However, the process is not “free” as it does come with a cost. The only difference is that instead of spending money, you’re spending time, occasionally doing both. Search engine optimization is the art and science of creating solid valuable content for your users and being strategic in how you promote your site. SEO can be a popularity contest where you either find keywords that are low hanging fruit and have virtually no competition or you spend a lot of time creating content on other sites that can link to and support the page you’re trying to get ranked.
Social media optimization or marketing can happen when you take the message of your products or services to a group of people you have an existing social relationship with. The idea here is that you leverage a group of people you already have a level of trust with and take your message to them. This has the prospect of creating problems if you are over using this method with your existing friends. Think of this like someone who shows up at the family reunions and all he talks about is his MLM. Depending on the nature of your social group, there is probably a fine line when taking any marketing message to your peers.
One of the ways you can get a ton of traffic, even more than search engine optimization is to purchase advertising on sites that already get millions of visitors per month. The type of traffic you will get would be slightly less “qualified” than those that are actively searching for your products or services through a search engine. However, the sheer amount of visitors you can get to your website is incredibly high. Of course, the other factor that may influence whether media buying is a good thing for you to use is the type of products or services you are selling. If you’re offering “underwater basket weaving”, you may be out of luck unless you have major hook, but if you’re offering “weight loss”, you may be targeting 2 of every 3 Americans, and your ad may do very well.
What I consider to be a “shortcut” to the top of the search engines is leveraging video sites, specifically YouTube. This is a site that already has millions of backlinks and Google already has proved that the like to provide some variety in their rankings which includes rich media (video). If you can create a video with content that offers good value and uses the right keyword phrases in the title as well as the description, then add some articles with backlinks to your videos from various article directories, blog commenting, etc, you can get your video to rank relatively easily. This is especially true if you’re targeting some less competitive keyword phrases.
Getting traffic is crucial. The main thing to consider is that no matter what you have planned so far, the important part is taking action. Redesigning your website for the umpteenth time won’t make you any money. The ugliest website ever online will make more money than the website sitting in your photoshop and dreamweaver on your computer. My only other advice is to not get distracted. There are a lot of bright shiny objects out there that are excellent at getting you off course.
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