Top 7 Ways to Increase Traffic on Your Website

There are many ways to increase traffic on your website.  Some will cost you money, and some will not.

Here are my Top 7 ways to boost the number of qualified visitors to your website (several of these are free):

1. Have your website professionally optimized for the search engines, and submit it to both search engines and directories. Some website development platforms are more “search engine friendly” than others, so be certain that your website is built from the ground-up with optimization in mind.
2. Have an ongoing system in place to regularly monitor and review your organization’s entire electronic presence online. Your website alone is not enough to generate traffic.  Flexible’s “ePresence” Assessments are a systematized way to accomplish this important task.
3. Post in forums. No doubt you (or someone in your organization) are an expert within your industry.  Visit the online discussion forums where people in your target market gather, and contribute to the conversation by answering questions and establishing yourself as a source for credible information.
4. Comment on blogs. Visit other people’s blogs on the topic related to your website.  Many blogs allow registered users to add comments to the issues being discussed.  Add insightful comments and leave your website link, if permitted.  Your comment (and the link to your website) will remain permanently on the blog website.
5. Create something of value that others will pass around. It could be a report with useful information, a white paper, an executive summary, or a cool and unusual webpage that people will want to share.  Be sure that whatever you create includes your website URL (address).  This is called “viral” marketing.
6. Write articles on topics related to your industry, and submit these to article directories that permit others to include your article on their website. Of course, be sure to include a bio and a link to your website.
7. Test PPC (pay-per-click) advertising. All of the big search engines offer a PPC program, but Google is by far the largest.  You will need a professional to write the ads and manage your campaigns if you want the best results — remember, effective advertising is good copywriting targeted at the right audience.

To your continued success,

–Andy.