Tips for Getting Traffic to Your WebsiteCall us toll free 877 WE DO WEBI'd be happy to share my marketing "secrets". Keep in mind that building a great web site is really lots of common sense, so don't expect too much from this, it's kind of like asking "how do you lose weight?" No one wants to hear an answer like "diet and exercise". This is mostly common sense. Remember, cutting edge technology can kill the cat. Keep it simple!
Content is King!You will have lots of traffic only if your page is fun, entertaining, or informative. I have to say that the best marketing tool is to have the best original, complete, killer content out there that there is. Dry content (over-professionalism) will not hold your readers. There have been numerous articles on this. Being politically correct doesn't always work on the web. Articles need to have personality. You don't have to be crass, but humor goes a long way. In addition, there is a rumor going around that all content has to be dynamic. Not true. Some information is what they call "evergreen", meaning that's its relevance and value do not go stale. As long as the navigation on a set of so-called static pages is well done, there's no reason to think set of plain ole' HTML pages can't draw a large traffic base. Things to Avoid in Website DesignThese tips are given so you don't appear like an amateur or annoy your audience. The first thing new web page designers want to do is use all the tricks of the trade: flashing pages, background graphics, colorful fonts, tired images downloaded from tired web image galleries. I can usually tell how many months a designer has been doing web pages by looking at them. Avoid this trap!
Design Tips for a Well Done SiteTo appear as professional and to reach the largest audience possible:
Navigation Can Make or Break a SiteSo what if you have brilliant content? If your navigation is confusing or just impossible to wade through, your visitors will never find it! And if you frustrate them, that's right, they are gone. Here are some basic navigation tips:
Getting TrafficThe top three draws to a website, and ones that will generate the most traffic are:
Contact the various search engines available and ask to be added to their data bases, or register to most of them at one time by using an all-in-one service such as a submit-it service. This is a great free site and will get you automatically enrolled in all the major search engines! There are many more search engines and sites out there which will submit links. When I first started Credit Info Center, I made it part of my day to spend a half hour a day submitting my site to search engines or to pages who I thought might be interested in my content. This alone generated significant traffic. You may want to use paid search engine submission services. There is one I recommend. I hired a company to do stealth submissions to the search engines which has tripled my web traffic. http://www.deadlock.com/promote/ - these guys are great, and they love to give me a hard time. It used to be that search engine spiders would scour the web and rank your web pages automatically, but Yahoo is making plans to start charging for search engine placement, effectively wiping out the "little" guys chances. If you do have to pay, I personally think Google has the best deals. Make Sure Your Customers Can Contact You Via E-MailIf your pages provide an easy access link to your e-mail address, your customers can contact you on the spot without printing out your page or copying down your information. Even if your customer intends to contact you after leaving your site, he may forget or simply be too lazy to call or write. It's also important to return emails quickly. Nothing is a bigger turn off than not receiving a reply to email sent to you. Hire a part time student to handle this if you have to. Don't send back canned responses. People are smarter than you think.
Getting AdvertisersDon't over look advertisers as sources of revenue, even if your main reason to have a web site is to sell products. If your site has a lot of traffic, there is lots of money to be made by advertising. There are numerous organizations out there that will pay you by the click. I'd put links here, but they change so frequently. Do a search on one of the search engines to find one. As far as my own advertising experience, I'm not bragging when I say this, but companies beg me to let them advertise on CreditInfo Center and don't balk at the price at all. I have done absolutely nothing to market my site to advertisers other than have a site out there with obvious traffic. It feeds on itself, good content leads to high volume, which leads to advertising potential. Without exception, all of my advertisers have contacted me first about advertising, several of them before I posted ad prices. I do get way higher than the industry CPMs, but my audience does trust my advertisers I have checked all of them out and have turned down lots of them whose practices I thought were shady. I don't want anyone ripped off through my recommendations. In other words, I think I give my readers a sense of trust in my recommendations to them. |