How to Increase Website Traffic

Okay- so you have created a website, submitted it to all of the major search engines & directories, and now you just need some website traffic right? So how can you speed up the process of getting website traffic (also called hits or visitors), and keep your visitors coming back for more?

Well there are several methods you can use to increase your traffic rating & get as many visitors to your site as possible. Some of the best methods include paid advertising and search engine optimization.

Paid Advertising

There are several forms of paid advertising you can use to increase the hits you get to your website. First, you can buy advertising space on popular websites. You can use a Pay Per Click method of advertising such as Google Adwords®, Yahoo Publishing®, Fastclick®, etc.

You can also purchase advertising space directly from webmasters. Just make a banner or link & ask them if how much they would charge for advertising. Beware of "guaranteed" traffic advertisements. For example "Guaranteed 100,000 hits a month only $12.99." These methods usually use ineffective ways of directing traffic to your site.

Search Engine Optimization  (SEO)

Another way to generate consistent visitors (or traffic) to your site is to use search engine optimization tricks (also called SEO). Search engine optimization simply means that your website is "search engine friendly."

To make your site optimized & to keep the traffic rolling in, follow these basic tips and tricks:

1. Make sure your site loads within a reasonable amount of time (10 seconds or less). This will ensure that visitors don't get frustrated & leave the site.

2. Write good content on each page, but never copy other websites. A search engine can usually detect exact copies & could remove your site from it's index if it suspects that it is a mirrored site.

3. Do not submit your site too much, and don't submit different URL's that lead to the same site. Again, most search engines do not like this & it could actually hurt you more than it helps.

4. Include plenty of links on your web pages. Ideally, you should have lots of links going out of your site as well as coming in to you site. Search engines use this to determine your site's popularity. Also, beware of some link exchange programs. While most can help your site, some could hurt your site if they are involved in activity that goes against search engine policies.

5. Never spam in your content or use things such as making the text the same color as your words to get more keywords on your page. Again, search engines can detect this & will likely remove your site.

6. Always include a title, description, and meta tag for each web page on your web site. This is simple to do. If you used software such as FrontPage® or Website Tonight®, you can usually do this by clicking on "File" and then "Page Properties." You should then be able to enter this information.
 

Keep Your Visitors Coming Back

If you want your visitors to keep coming back, simply write good content, keep adding updates on a regular basis, and make your website user friendly. It may sound simple, but using these techniques will likely help your search engine ranking, number of hits (or visitors), and it will keep your visitors coming back for more!

Now that you know some tips on building website traffic, learn how you can make sure that your website loads as fast as possible, and is user-friendly! Keep reading to learn more:

Optimize Your Website's Loading Time