After a small business or individual creates a website, the next step is to drive traffic to
the website. Driving traffic to a website increases revenue through advertisements,
affiliates, and mass exposure. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), affiliate advertising,
blogging, and social networking are successful tools that are proven to increase website
traffic. This guide is ideal for individuals or small businesses that want to increase
revenue by driving traffic to a particular website.
Quick Guide to Driving Traffic to Your Site
Table of Contents
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 1
Affiliate Advertising 2
Blogging 2
Social Networking 5
Appendix A: On-Line Glossaries for Internet Advertising Terminology 6
Quick Guide to Driving Traffic to Your Site
Selling your products and/or services is the primary way that most of us hope to make money
from our websites; however, unless you have enough visitors to your site, you are not likely to
make any money. This is based on the same principle that applies to brick and mortar businesses
– if no one comes through your doors, you will not sell a thing. You must actively seek ways to
drive traffic to your website, and this guide will give you some tips and tricks for doing just that.
The basics of promoting any business, whether it is web-based or brick and mortar, are pretty
standard:
Provide a quality product or service that will result in happy customers. Happy
customers increase word-of-mouth advertising for you, and also result in repeat business.
Remember the old adage, “the customer comes first.” While there are some people who
you will never be able to satisfy no matter what you do, you can save yourself from
negative feedback and thread posts by offering timely, responsive customer service, and
making things that go wrong (because they do) right to the best of your ability.
Offer added value or bonuses, where you can – things that your customers cannot get
from your competition. One of the best is referral bonuses – when one of your customers
sends another customer to you, reward them in some way.
When competing for business on the World Wide Web, however, there are some specifics that
you absolutely must know in order to bring in business. The four main categories that we will
cover here are: Search Engine Optimization; Affiliate Advertising; Blogging; and Social
Networking.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization simply stated is making sure that your site comes up as close to the
top of a list of search results as possible. This is done primarily through the use of keywords, but
also involves targeting different types of searches, as well as overcoming naturally-occurring
barriers in the form of how servers index certain data. SEO can have a lot to do with how your
site is designed and you can take steps to ensure that everything from your shopping cart to your
menus are search-engine friendly.
Keywords can make or break your website and the following information is compiled from the
top-rated internet advice for making it work for you:
Find the best keywords for the product or service you offer by considering how relevant
they are to site content and how likely folks are to use them while searching for products
similar to yours. You can get some help with this from a couple of different tools that do
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this for you: (1) WordTracker; and (2) Keyword Research , both of which offer free
trials before you buy.
Ensure that your page titles start with targeted keywords, and that your permanent body
copy is keyword rich. Repeating keywords throughout your copy may lessen the quality
of your writing style (most of us who write tend to shy away from redundancy), but will
ultimately pull in business, so there is a small trade-off here.
When using graphics and pictures, make sure that you include captions and that your
captions are keyword rich.
Include a site index which is formatted so that each index entry acts as a link back to a
page on your site.
Make sure that your site’s filenames and directories are named with keywords.
Here are a few more considerations for keywords on your site. (Please also refer to the
document titled, “Checklist for Search Engine Optimization.”)
o Keyword phrase order anticipates search terms: try to think of how people will
search.
o Keyword appears early in page or tag: put it at the top of the page, in a large,
bold font.
o Keywords used in links to other sites: optimizes clicks on those links.
o Keyword phrases structured around popular search terms: again, try to think o