Generating Website Traffic: The Long View

Here are five simple rules to increasing traffic to your website or blog:

1. Get Social

There’s all kinds of social media networks out there:  Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, Youtube, the list goes on and on. The more quality posts you create and share, the more likely you are to attract the kinds of people (and customers) you’re looking for.  Be sure to use hashtags to help your content be found.  We’ll discuss hashtags in another post.

2. Write really good content.

What you write about is important to you and to your audience.  Always strive to give something of value to your audience.  You don’t want to read boring, rehashed stuff and neither do they. They came to you for information. Give it to them.  Inspire people with what inspires you and gives you the passion to get out of bed each morning.

3. Links. Links. Links.

Regardless of which social network you happen to be on, be sure to include your website URL (address). Basically, it boils down to “the more inbound links to your website the better.” A word of caution: be conscious about where you are getting those links.  Low quality links can be bad news when it comes to Google ranking your pages in search results.

4. Don’t stuff your content full of keywords.

Keyword stuffing is a Google no-no, and you’ll get your wrists slapped and your website demoted for it. Keep it natural and you’ll be better off in the long run (and so will your website traffic).

5. Video is hot!

You don’t just have to write articles.  You may not feel comfortable doing that a lot.  Not to worry.  Youtube is the second largest search engine in the world.  Between Youtube, Twitter and Facebook, not to mention your own website blog, there’s plenty to share along with your written words.  Mix it up with relevant, well crafted videos and pictures to keep your audience engaged and more likely to share your content and your message.