Well the good news is that there are several other ways of attracting traffic to your website that are very simple to implement and action.
Before we get into the detail it’s important to remember your website should contain either a news page or a blog that you update at least once a week. A lot of these techniques require fresh content, as that is precisely what your potential visitors want – content. You don’t have to write acres of text, just a short piece on what your business has been up too in the week, etc.
So once we have that content, let’s see how you can double your visitors using some really simple techniques.
Stumbleupon is a web discovery engine that is gaining so much momentum at the moment it’s considered as big as Facebook. According to global web analytics service StatCounter, it is the biggest traffic driver among social media websites driving more than 50% of social traffic in the US. The good news, however, is that you can easily get a slice of the action!
To get involved simply head over to www.stumbleupon.com and sign up to the site. Then, under the heading “Profile” you will see a link in the bottom left of the page named “Add a new page”. Click on the link and fill out the short form making sure you choose the correct and relevant section in the “What is this page about” pulldown box. In the tags box put in all keywords relevant to your content and then add the page to Stumbleupon.
Your site will immediately start taking hits as a direct result of this action. The first time I applied this process my live visits added 31 new unique hits in less than 30 seconds.
As always, there are some rules to abide to. Don’t submit every page on your site as you will be flagged as a spammer and blocked, stick to 2 or 3 for now. Also try to connect with other users and ask them to share your content too. You do need to get a little involved with the social aspects of the site but it’s not too much of a chore for the pay off.
Finally, if you can, add a stumbleupon button to all your web pages in the same way you have Facebook & Twitter ones. If others “Stumble” your pages then all the work is done for you!
Facebook, Twitter & Linkedin are well known for their ability to reach out and acquire you traffic. So, if you don’t already have a Facebook page, a Twitter feed and a Linkedin profile for your business then set one up as soon as you can. I cannot stress that strongly enough!
So, how do you get the best out of these resources for your business? The answer, as mentioned earlier, is good content.
Everytime you launch a new story on your website, Tweet it, Facebook it and post it on Linkedin. If the story is of interest to a viewer they will click it and therefore visit your site. It may seem obvious but it is surprising how few businesses utilise this channel to the full. Posting to social sites is fine but if you don’t put a link to something on your site you are relying on them to visit your profile and follow the link to your homepage, which is unlikely to happen.
Whatever you do post try not to spam your friends/followers/clients. One or two posts a day are fine but endless ramblings are a surefire way to get blocked or removed. People follow you because they are interested in what you do, just remember you live in their social space and should always treat it with respect. Try not to be like a nagging beach salesman pestering to shift product, you will be treated with exactly the same contempt.
Search engines such as Google love links, more than that they love reciprocal links. Make sure your site has a links page or, better still, include the links within your content. Then ask your partners and suppliers to link back to your site in the same way.
Reciprocal links can improve your google ranking immensely with the added advantage of being found by other companies visitors. Try to avoid signing up with “link farms” as the search engines know where they are, so instead make sure you sign up with Yell and other such trusted business directories to get an external link to point at your site in a search engine friendly way.
When you search for your particular service/product online in Google, look at what appears at the top of the natural search. In some cases you will see it’s some form of a business directory. It’s likely they spent a lot of time and money getting there but you can piggy back that success by registering your business in their directory.
Doing this may cost a few pennies but you do stand a chance of being discovered off page one of the Google search and therefore reap the benefits
Getting found is not always difficult and I strongly believe that if you are creating regular quality content that interest the clients and potential clients, once they find it they will engage with you. Using the techniques I have described you should be able to double the traffic to your site efficiently and without engaging any third party help. Always remember that your website is your shop window, you need it to look the business and encourage people to walk by and have a look in. Best of luck!
Adam – adam@topazdigitalmedia.com
