Traffic Generation Strategies

Traffic Generation is the term for getting potential customers to visit your website. Without customers, you are definitely not going to make any money with your website. This is a very important topic and if you can, please go through as many times as you can.

There are several Key Strategies in generating traffic. It seems short here but if you go into each of the above, you will know it’s a big piece of meat to swallow.

Key Strategy #1 : Using SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is short for search engine optimization, which simply means you’ve made your site the best it can be so that its ranking in the search engines is enhanced. You can optimize both on-site, through the use of keywords, and off-site through directory submissions. Hopefully your domain name contains a keyword or two as well.

Keywords

The best keywords are the most common words you think people type into the search engine when looking for your product. Simply make a list of words you believe will work, then put them into the Overture tool and it will generate other related keywords or phrases that people are searching for. You also need to know how many competing pages there are for the terms you want to use. Just go to Google and put a search of your keywords. It should come out with “Displaying 1-10 of 192,000”. Therefore there are 192,000 of competing pages. Since all this is tedious and rather time consuming, it’s a good idea to use some software that automates the process wherever possible. For things like studying search terms and linking (which I’m going to talk about in a minute) one of the best tools I’ve found is SEO Elite.

On-page optimization

After you know which keywords to use, you will make sure they exist on all site’s your pages. It is especially important that you sprinkle the keywords throughout the body of your text. The density of the keywords should be somewhere between 2% and 5%. Don’t overuse the words though; write in a natural style that incorporates them without overdoing it.If you aren’t sure about the density—and you wouldn’t be, unless you counted the words and divided them out! Consider using a tool like this Keyword Density Analyzer.

Keyword Tags

In addition to the content in the body of the page, you will need keywords in the tags. Tags are located in the html of your program; even if you don’t know how to use html, you should at least learn to locate and edit the tags. Meta tags are supposedly ignored by Google now, but there are other search engines in use so it’s a good idea to go ahead and use them there. The meta tag should not be stuffed with keywords; rather, it should be a tightly written description of what’s on the page. Make it as relevant and descriptive as you can. The title tags are going to be the most important ones, so think carefully about your titles. A title should describe exactly what is on the page; like the meta tag, it can help the visitor trust you by showing that they have found exactly what they are searching for.

If you wish to get to know more about Search Engine Optimization (I think you should!), you may like to read up on some techniques from Tom Traffic System.  

Key Strategy #2 : Directory Submissions

Once you have created all your tags and content and the site is ready to go, you’ll need to start submitting it to various directories. Listing your site in a directory means that when people are looking for a business or product like yours, they will be able to find you.

You will be able to submit your site yourself by going to each individual search engine and submit your site to them. Alternatively, you can find some reputable companies to submit for you. Most are able to submit for you free but the listing of search engine may not be appealing. Therefore, it’s best to pay some premiums to them and let them hand submit your website to the respective search engine companies. Remember to request for a submission report from them.

Do a search on Google and you will find a lot of companies vying for your submission. Choose those reputable company (most likely to be ranked at the top) and let them do the job.

Key Strategy #3 : Forums

Forum is a place on the internet whereby people gather around to discuss on various topics. Topics discussed are usually very niche. So most likely, the forums will be cater to a particular group of people with common interest such as forums for slimming, forums for aeroplanes, etc.

The first and easiest way is to add a link to your signature in all the forums that you visit and post. Simply putting “Visit my new site!” will encourage some of your friends to click on it, but even better is to put what the site is about: “Click here to visit my new airplanes site.”

Of course you must build up your creditability and let people know you. In this way, they will be more likely to click on your link than someone who just come into the forum and advertise their links. This behavior will most likely get you being ban from the forum.

You can also create and embed a forum into your website. In this way, your content will be changing each and everyday, possibly also minutes as people in the forum will be updating comments after comments. This is a surefire way of getting spidered. But first, you must have the capability to build up the member list in the forum. Or else, it will just be another white elephant.

Just bear this in mind – “Sincerity is the key to success”. 

Key Strategy #4 : Blogs

One of the fastest, easiest ways to get traffic to your site is through the use of a blog. Short for weblog, it is almost like an online diary. Search engines visit blogs often, hence the quick rise in ranking. Two most common blogs available on the internet is WordPress and Blogger.

If you want to make some serious money blogging, consider Blogging to the Bank. It’s a blueprint—including videos—that will teach you how to set up your blog on an automated system. It also helps you tap into hidden niches. Blogging to the Bank is extremely easy to follow and generates tons of traffic.

The way to utilize your blog is to make a post, or at least a change, almost every day. Include a link to a page of yours that you want the search engine to spider. If you’re using Blogging to the Bank, you can prepare all your posts at once and then schedule them to post whenever you want—even if you are away from the computer at the time!

After you’ve posted, most blog tools will automatically ping various search engines, which notifies them that you’ve made changes to the blog. That’s how new traffic gets to your pages so quickly. If your blogging program doesn’t have this option, you can use tools like Pingomatic to ping them yourself. It is a service to update different search engine that your blog has been updated.

Blogging doesn’t only mean that you write on your blog and let people know you more. It also means you can post at other parties’ blogs and leave behind a link that can be linked back to your blog or website hyperlink. In this way, you create links again. So start blogging to get the traffic going for you.

If you want to make some money with your blogs, you can try Wordpress Adsense System. As the name implies, this system only works in Wordpress. It is an ebook that teaches you how to intergrate the Google Adsense into your wordpress blog. Google Adsense is an advertising campaign whereby you get paid everytime someone clicks on it. Inside the package includes a ‘7 day action plan’ where it lays down the steps to building a new blog. Therefore it’s great for beginners. It includes lots of stuffs in the package and it is selling for $67. If you are still thinking on what to sell, he has included 4 bonus stuffs that has resell rights.     

Key Strategy #5 : Article Submissions

Another powerful way to drive traffic is through writing articles. Write a short article, say 4 or 6 paragraphs, about your topic. Then submit it to a site like one of these.

Ezine Articles http://www.ezinearticles.com 

Go Articles http://www.goarticles.com 

Article Geek http://www.articlegeek.com 

ArticlesBase http://www.articlesbase.com 

These sites publish articles for their visitors to post on their own site if they so choose. The ezine will usually publish your name and a link to your website at the bottom of your article. If visitors decide to publish your article on their site, they agree to keep the resource box on the page—giving you a free link. So you can see that articles done correctly can give you tons of one-way links to your site. If only 200 people pick up your article, you’ve got 200 new links. People will follow the links, visit your site, and make purchases; it’s very powerful.

Article submissions can also help build your credibility; as an author, you are instantly viewed as an authority on your topic. So it is a great resource for website owners as well as other business owners. 

Key Strategy #6 : Utilizing your mailing list

Ok. After you have captured the email address of your visitors using your autoresponder, it is time to utilize these mailing list. Don’t overlook the value of your mailing list when link-building. Always include a link to your main page in every email that you send out.  The key is to send your mailing list a link to your site and not having the content put in the email. Put the content in the page that the link points to. Many Internet Marketers create a right-side column, like the navigation bar on a web page, inside their emails with pertinent links: their main page, a few products related to the topic of the email, etc.

Key Strategy #7 : Getting Traffic with PPC

If you want to be sure your website is viewed, one of the fastest ways to drive traffic is through the PPC search engines. There are several, but I will just go into Google Adwords and Yahoo! Marketing Solutions. These 2 PPC search marketing tools have captured 75% of the market. So if you are able to succeed in these 2 PPC search marketing tools, I don’t see any reason why you will fail in the other search marketing tools. Both work almost the same way. You set up an account as an advertiser, then create short ads using relevant keywords or key phrases. They run the ads and you agree to pay any time someone clicks on your ad. I will only go through Google Adwords here.

Google Adwords

Google Adwords are the most successful pay per click advertisement on the internet. You pay every time someone clicks on your ad. The position of your ad doesn’t necessarily depend on how much you are willing to fork out of your pocket for the relevant keywords. The word here is ‘RELEVANCE’. Yes. The more relevant your ad is, the less you will be paying. Google builds up their reputation by giving results that are the most relevant to the searches. And they have been going with this philosophy ever since. So if your ad is very relevant, they will reward you with a higher position than someone who pays more but having a less relevant ad than you have. Google Adwords has lots of tools to help make your ads more search engine friendly. Below is an example of Google Adwords sponsored links.

Once you get used to it, though, writing Google ads is a matter of common sense. You will waste money if people click and don’t buy, so just like your web page copy you need to be short and to the point. Every word matters. Be very specific, and focus on one benefit (not feature) of your product.

Once you’ve written an ad or two, put it to work and then test. Many people run what is called a split test, using both sets of copy to see which one works best. Sometimes changing one word in an ad can drastically raise your conversion rate—so test, then keep testing. Every word really does count.

Some of the key terms you must be familiarize with are:

Total Clicks – This refers to the total number of click on the header of your ad. That means you will be charged for the click. Sometimes it’s refer to as click-through.

Total Impressions – This refers to the total number of time the ad has been displayed.

Total CTR – This stands for Click Through Rate. It means the total number of clicks you got divided by the total number of time the ad has been displayed. It can be shown by:

Therefore, if you got a high CTR and low conversion ratio, you will be in deep trouble. And CTR is very important in Google Adwords as it also determines your relevance of your ad.

You must be wondering why I keep emphasizing the word ‘relevance’. This is because this word is crucial to the position of your ad and the cost of your ad. You can learn more about Google Adwords by going to the Adwords Learning Center

Adwords can make your advertising budget rise drastically—some marketers spend up to $1,500 a month on their PPC campaigns. In order to keep the budget low, I would recommend that you try Get Google Leads Free. It’s a system to help advertisers eliminate their high costs, yet it still helps you generate income and traffic. 

Ok. That will be all for the strategies of traffic generation. These are just some of the more basic steps in getting you started. If you are still not very sure, please read through it again as these will be crucial in your survival in the world of internet marketing.