Traffic Building - Understanding the Basics

So, you've spent hundreds of thousands on a state-of-the-art website. Your client is happy, and your hard work has paid off. The site goes live and the telesales team is standing by for a flood of enquiries. Nothing happens. Why?

It is easy to forget that the key aim of any web marketer is to attract visitors. They must not only bring in the visitors, but also keep them there, and encourage them to return on a regular basis. It doesn't matter how good your site is, if nobody visits!

There are many myths surrounding the art of traffic generation, often created by unscrupulous web marketers who claim they can 'double your site traffic for just $99 per month' or 'submit your site to 1000 search engines and watch your traffic grow'. Such bogus claims should be ignored if you are serious about traffic.

In reality, building site traffic is far simpler than you may think, and inexpensive. In fact, you can build a sizeable community for your site at no great cost.

From initial web page design to traffic generation, there are several key stages which should be followed to attract visitors to your site. We have expanded on each of these topics in articles on http://www.trafficgeneration.com

Configuration of your web pages

Time spent configuring the code in each of your web pages prior to search engine submission will pay dividends in the long run. Not only should the META TAGS in each page be optimised for each key search engine, but care an attention should be paid to the ratio of 'keywords' to page content, and the use of 'ALT' and 'Header' tags for example. Search engines use complex algorithms to determine how high your pages should rank for the keywords you specify in the underlying code. Good code configuration will lead to good traffic.

Submission to search engines and indexes

There may well be over 1000 search engines and indexes on the internet. However, there are only a dozen engines with any real clout. Google and Yahoo dominate the web in terms of traffic, followed by a raft of medium sized search engines. Ignore the ads claiming to 'boost your site traffic'. Just concentrate on these key sites (most importantly, Google), and submit to the smaller sites if you have time.

Reciprocal links / Link Popularity

Not only will links to your site from others increase your ranking on some search engines, but also they will ensure a constant stream of targetted traffic to your site. You want the right visitors for your product or service, not random visitors. It is worth exchanging links with sites with a similar theme to your own. You won't lose traffic, if your exchanged links are bringing the same amount (or more) back to your own site. More importantly however, Google measures your site's "link popularity" (the number of sites which link to yours) to determine its page ranking, so effort in this area is essential. The more relevant these links are to the content of your own site offering, the better. Also ensure your site is well linked together, since internal links also count towards your site's Google Pagerank.

Maintaining your traffic

Traffic building is not a one off process. It is a permanent activity. Search engines may drop your pages when they re-index (which happens periodically), or may not index your pages at all during busy times. Search engine submission should be an ongoing activity, with each page resubmitted on a monthly basis, as a general guideline. If your pages do not rank highly first time, you will need to revisit the source code in under performing pages, and resubmit.

These initial steps deal with the physical process of initial traffic generation. Following these steps will bring you visitors, then it is up to you to keep them coming back for more. Good site content, structure and positioning are key to building a lasting web community.

About The Author

James Leckie is founder of http://www.trafficgeneration.com, the search engine portal, and http://www.bytestart.co.uk, the UK small business portal.

---

10 Proven Ways to Breakthrough Web Traffic!

Here are 10 great ways to boost your web traffic:1.... Read More

Are Manual Surf Exchange a Dying Breed ?

3 years ago when I started trying to make money... Read More

Create Top Sites To Increase Your Traffic

You have a website, beautiful in design and unique in... Read More

Free Traffic Course - Day 6

We will start with one Internet Marketing myth - the... Read More

Free Traffic Course - Day 9

Though each web site is different, it is possible to... Read More

Web Site Monitoring Is A Global Necessity

Bill Huang sits down at his computer. As he connects... Read More

10 Highly Effective Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Website

There are many ways to promote your website for free... Read More

Generating Website Traffic with Sub-domains

Sub-domains are websites that are located within a directory of... Read More

131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies

In search engine optimization, "off page" factors have become more... Read More

Free Targeted Internet Traffic

Let others help with your marketing efforts. You can have... Read More

Targeted Traffic - How Will You Achieve It?

Wouldn't it be great if your website was listed on... Read More

How to Exchange Links With Other Sites

As a result of search engine changes, linking with other... Read More

Site Link Popularity (Site Poularity)

Just imagine ... your website having high PageRank and a... Read More

Create Laser Targeted Traffic to Your Online Home Based Business With These 7 Traffic Builders

If you are only looking at Search Engines too send... Read More

6 Ways to Get the Marketing-Targeted-Traffic-Machine On the Roll

1__MESSAGE BOARDSIntroduce yourself smoothly, by posting informations and be available... Read More

Increase Online Traffic with Directory Listings

Some of the best advertising available online would be getting... Read More

Its Not The Opt-In List That Brings Success, Its Peoples Desire For Your Product

Let me ask you a question. What is the most... Read More

Your Traffic Building Checklist: 15 Ways to Get More Visitors Who Are Ready to Buy (Part 1)

>When many of my clients first come to me for... Read More

4 Ways To Use Quality Content To Increase Traffic To Your Website

There are multiple ways to drive traffic to your website.... Read More

7 Ways to Drive Traffic to your Website

If you sell products or services, chances are you have... Read More

7 Things You Must Do If You Want To Increase Your Traffic

Gary Halbert once said that the ONLY advantage he wanted... Read More

Use eBay as Cheap Traffic!

Did you know that according to alexa, www.eBay.com is ranked... Read More

Using Traffic Exchange Programs Part 1

I have an ingenious concept in store for you!I am... Read More

How to Increase Link Popularity

Link Popularity refers to the number of links coming from... Read More

Are You Guilty of Stinkin? Linkin? Thinkin??

Do you know what kind of sites are suitable link... Read More

A Tip for Finding Willing, Quality Links

Google might not dominate the search engine world like it... Read More

Catapult Your Traffic With These Web Site Add-Ons

Having a website is great but, if the site doesn't... Read More

10 Tips to Avoid Getting Ripped Off by Web Traffic Experts

If you are looking at ways to increase traffic to... Read More

Secret to Increase Traffic from Banner Exchanges

IntroductionBanner exchanges allow you - as a website owner -... Read More

Link Exchange Primer

An Introduction to Link ExchangeInitially, when the internet was in... Read More

Winning The Hit Exchange Game

"How do I get more traffic to your site?" That's... Read More

8 Breakthrough Ways to Bring Free Visitors to Your Site!

Many websites have great ideas, excellent content, brilliant deals and... Read More

5 Illustrious Strategies To Explode Your Web Site Traffic

Are you spending hundreds of dollars on advertising campaigns, only... Read More