It happens all too often to new website owners. They launch their sites and brace themselves for the onslaught of business, only to find a disappointing drip instead of a flood. Surprised and dismayed, they begin frantically searching the Internet to find out why they have no traffic. Let me share with you the most common assumption new website owners make and how you can overcome this roadblock with free ways to drive traffic to your website.
The #1 Assumption:
If You Build It, They Will Come
Websites, unlike other marketing tools, have to be publicized. When you write a radio commercial, you pay a radio station to run the ad. When you design a brochure, you give it away. But when you publish a website, you must promote it to drive in business (visitors).
An excellent way to lead people to your site is to use a specialist. If you can’t afford the cost of professional search engine optimization (SEO) however, you can do a good portion of it yourself.
In its most basic form, SEO is the practice of making a site available for the search engines to index in their database. Once your site has been optimized for the actual keyphrases your customers are searching for, you can be found in the page listings on Google, Yahoo! and other engines.
The High Rankings Forum (www.HighRankings.com/forum) as well as Cre8asite Forum (www.Cre8asiteForums.com) offer exceptional search engine and web marketing advice. Search Engine Land (www.SearchEngineLand.com) is a helpful blog you’ll want to read regularly.
In addition to SEO, there are many other ways you can promote your site that are effective and free.
Exchange Links
As far back as 1999, a study by the Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) delivered proof of the importance of linking. It still holds true today. On one site, they observed that 84% of visitors came in via links from other sites.
Be sure you exchange links with as many quality sites as you can. One word of caution – use appropriate links. Arrange to trade links with companies that are reaching the same target audience you are, but for a different reason. For example, if you are a diaper bag manufacturer, you might exchange links with a daycare center. Another effective idea to incorporate links into your site is a “Testimonials” page.
We all love to receive praise letters through our email. Ask permission to use these as testimonials on your website. We should be just as liberal with our praises. When you appreciate a product or service, be sure to write a note of thanks. Mention in the letter that the person (or company) is free to use your kind words as a testimonial if they will simply include a link back to your website.
Here’s what most new website owners don’t consider: Request keyword-rich anchor text when someone gives you a link. Let me explain.
When surfing the Internet, you’ve no doubt seen underlined words that are clickable. Perhaps a web page instructed you to “Sign up for our free online baby seminar today!” “Online baby seminar” would be considered the anchor text for that link. When it comes to SEO, using anchor text with your links is extremely important. How do you create anchor text links? Use this simple bit of HTML code:
Anchor Text Goes Here
You can put whatever you choose in the “Anchor Text Goes Here” section. While you’ll want to follow the spacing precisely in the first half of the link, the anchor text section does allow for spaces between words.
Article Distribution
Another wildly popular source of targeted traffic comes from writing articles and distributing them across the Internet. You allow others to publish your work free of charge and, in return, they give a link back to your website.
Article distribution can be a confusing marketing method for some, however, because it is passive rather than active. As the author, you want your article to give quality, usable advice to the reader. You don’t want to fill it with self-promotional nonsense. Who would want to read that?
The promotional part comes in the bio of the article located at the end. It is there that you can include a few lines about your company with a link back to your website. REMEMBER: Use keyword-rich anchor text links when you distribute your articles around the Web to get the most bang for your buck.
Sites including www.IdeaMarketers.com and www.GoArticles.com are terrific places to start distributing articles.
Blogs
Creating a blog is simple and free, and it’s one of the most effective ways of generating repeat visitors to your site. Using free software from WordPress (www.WordPress.com), Blogger (www.Blogger.com) or other companies, you can develop and publish a simple blog in just a few hours.
Rather than merely selling to your customers, a blog allows you to communicate with them and opens the door for them to communicate with you. The two-way benefits of blogging are tremendous and, considering that you can set up a blog for free, there’s really no reason to miss out.
TIP: Rather than opting to use a subdomain (ex., http://YourBlog.WordPress.com), have your hosting company or your web designer install the blog on your server, so you can have a dedicated and branded domain (ex., www.YourSite.com/Blog).
Other Way
Website Checklist
There are some websites that will help improve traffic to your site. Take some time and see how they can benifit you!
It happens all too often to new website owners. They launch their sites and brace themselves for the onslaught of business, only to find a disappointing drip instead of a flood. Surprised and dismayed, they begin frantically searching the Internet to find out why they have no traffic. Let me share with you the most common assumption new website owners make and how you can overcome this roadblock with free ways to drive traffic to your website.
The #1 Assumption:
If You Build It, They Will Come
Websites, unlike other marketing tools, have to be publicized. When you write a radio commercial, you pay a radio station to run the ad. When you design a brochure, you give it away. But when you publish a website, you must promote it to drive in business (visitors).
An excellent way to lead people to your site is to use a specialist. If you can’t afford the cost of professional search engine optimization (SEO) however, you can do a good portion of it yourself.
In its most basic form, SEO is the practice of making a site available for the search engines to index in their database. Once your site has been optimized for the actual keyphrases your customers are searching for, you can be found in the page listings on Google, Yahoo! and other engines.
The High Rankings Forum (www.HighRankings.com/forum) as well as Cre8asite Forum (www.Cre8asiteForums.com) offer exceptional search engine and web marketing advice. Search Engine Land (www.SearchEngineLand.com) is a helpful blog you’ll want to read regularly.
In addition to SEO, there are many other ways you can promote your site that are effective and free.
Exchange Links
As far back as 1999, a study by the Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) delivered proof of the importance of linking. It still holds true today. On one site, they observed that 84% of visitors came in via links from other sites.
Be sure you exchange links with as many quality sites as you can. One word of caution – use appropriate links. Arrange to trade links with companies that are reaching the same target audience you are, but for a different reason. For example, if you are a diaper bag manufacturer, you might exchange links with a daycare center. Another effective idea to incorporate links into your site is a “Testimonials” page.
We all love to receive praise letters through our email. Ask permission to use these as testimonials on your website. We should be just as liberal with our praises. When you appreciate a product or service, be sure to write a note of thanks. Mention in the letter that the person (or company) is free to use your kind words as a testimonial if they will simply include a link back to your website.
Here’s what most new website owners don’t consider: Request keyword-rich anchor text when someone gives you a link. Let me explain.
When surfing the Internet, you’ve no doubt seen underlined words that are clickable. Perhaps a web page instructed you to “Sign up for our free online baby seminar today!” “Online baby seminar” would be considered the anchor text for that link. When it comes to SEO, using anchor text with your links is extremely important. How do you create anchor text links? Use this simple bit of HTML code:
Anchor Text Goes Here
You can put whatever you choose in the “Anchor Text Goes Here” section. While you’ll want to follow the spacing precisely in the first half of the link, the anchor text section does allow for spaces between words.
Article Distribution
Another wildly popular source of targeted traffic comes from writing articles and distributing them across the Internet. You allow others to publish your work free of charge and, in return, they give a link back to your website.
Article distribution can be a confusing marketing method for some, however, because it is passive rather than active. As the author, you want your article to give quality, usable advice to the reader. You don’t want to fill it with self-promotional nonsense. Who would want to read that?
The promotional part comes in the bio of the article located at the end. It is there that you can include a few lines about your company with a link back to your website. REMEMBER: Use keyword-rich anchor text links when you distribute your articles around the Web to get the most bang for your buck.
Sites including www.IdeaMarketers.com and www.GoArticles.com are terrific places to start distributing articles.
Blogs
Creating a blog is simple and free, and it’s one of the most effective ways of generating repeat visitors to your site. Using free software from WordPress (www.WordPress.com), Blogger (www.Blogger.com) or other companies, you can develop and publish a simple blog in just a few hours.
Rather than merely selling to your customers, a blog allows you to communicate with them and opens the door for them to communicate with you. The two-way benefits of blogging are tremendous and, considering that you can set up a blog for free, there’s really no reason to miss out.
TIP: Rather than opting to use a subdomain (ex., http://YourBlog.WordPress.com), have your hosting company or your web designer install the blog on your server, so you can have a dedicated and branded domain (ex., www.YourSite.com/Blog).
Other Ways
Website Checklist
There are many websites that will help improve traffic to your site. Take some time and see how they can benifit you!
http://anything4lessonline.blogspot.com/
http://www.anything4lessonline.com/
http://anything4lessonline1.blogspot.com/
Ezines are a great tool for delivering information prospective site visitors would like to read. Including ads for sale items and news about your company are perfectly acceptable as long as the majority of your content is user-centered.
Host free webinars. Using services, like WebEx (www.WebEx.com), that provide free and paid solutions, you can conduct live seminars via the Internet on topics your target audience will find interesting.
Include your web address (URL, domain name) on all your business cards. Make it bold. If your business derives most of its revenue from sales made on the website, be sure the web address is on the front of the card.
When printing letterhead, include your domain name. Most domain names don’t take up much space and can be easily incorporated along with the company’s physical address and phone number.
Don’t forget to mention your website in all your online and offline advertising efforts this will help to generate and boost website traffic. Whether it is a promotional video, television commercial or brochure, make it a point to position your URL where it is visible.
Be creative! Always remember to include your website information in everything you do and your efforts will pay off in additional visitors.
Editorial provided by Karon Thackston. Karon is President of Marketing Words (www.MarketingWords.com), a search engine copywriting agency that has been helping clients convert more visitors since 1999. She is author of the highly acclaimed Step-by-Step Copywriting Course (www.CopywritingCourse.com, now in its 4th edition), as well as other popular SEO copywriting ebooks. © Karon Thackston 2008, All Rights Reserved. www.marketingwords.com.
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