Generating Website Traffic

This is the first of a 5 part series that will outline some of the ways that you can generate traffic to your website. Not all the ways of generating traffic are found to be succesful for all people or all niches. You need to learn and understand the basic types of traffic generation so that you can pick those ways that generate the most traffic for you.

Get the Maximum Number of People to View Your Website

The aim of a website is generally to provide a window of one’s offers on a platform where a good deal of people can get access. A website is nothing more than a ‘storefront,’ in a way, providing a catalog of products, services and information, depending on the area of expertise of the one behind the site. The general aim then is to get the maximum number of people to view this window, be interested in its content, and then make them loyal followers who will come back repeatedly to the site.

In the jargon of the cyber world, these ‘visits’ can be termed traffic. Traffic, in everyone’s minds, shows how many people are coming by a site, a good indicator of its popularity and content relevance.

Traffic is actually more technical, explained as the amount of data sent and received by visitors to a site, and not exactly as the number of visitors. Though both definitions can be considered the same, giving an idea of the popularity of a site, traffic is thus a very good indication of whether a site is thriving or failing.

Traffic is usually the first indicator of whether a site is attracting visits or not, and as such, is a basis for advertising ventures with sites. Given that advertising helps site owners financially, regular traffic ensures they will be considered for advertising proposals–or that they will earn more from current advertisers (by increasing views and click-throughs).

Through traffic, owners can also see which pages are more popular and which are less visited, helping to know where their strengths and weaknesses lay. This data can further help them to determine trends on the site, and tailor their offers accordingly by remaining one step ahead of the game.

Thus, generating traffic and increasing it is a major concern of site owners. Whether a site caters to marketing products or to providing information on a specific topic, traffic will be the general indicator of its success and popularity, and consequently, of its survival – survival of the fittest on the Net referring to the site that receives best traffic.

Consequently, the aim of sites is to increase traffic. This differs slightly depending on the type of site. Marketing sites, provided by Internet marketers and Internet business owners, will want to increase their traffic to get more unique visitors and also to keep their returning visitors, ensuring that the products they offer are seen and considered by a wider number of potential clients. Content sites, for marketers and Internet business owners that offer information on a narrowly-defined topic and that generate revenue through advertising, will want to increase the number of page views (and, thus, click-throughs) of the site so as to increase the scope of penetration of their content.

How To Start Generating Website Traffic

Traffic can be increased through the following strategies, such as:

•    Search engine optimization.

•    Increased visibility on the Net.

•    Links to and from other sites (i.e. reciprocal and one-way) – an easy way to increase presence on the web.

•    Interesting add-ons on the site.

•    Increasing the amount of time each customer spends on the site – making sure all the pages are viewed, instead of only the home page/link destination page, thus generating more page views, an indicator of good traffic.

•    Making the most popular pages even more popular and increasing internal links to the site’s other pages to encourage views.

•    Forum-involvement and blog commenting

•    Use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter

•    Advertising – such as the purchase of bulk email, pop up ads, in-page advertising, as well as the purchase of traditional and non-Internet based advertising.

Of all these options, which cover only a very small part of how traffic can be increased, advertising seems to be the most popular.

Paid advertising is an e-marketing concept that enjoys a good reputation to generate traffic. Concepts such as banner advertising and pay per click are the most well-known and sought-after. Banner advertising has somewhat evolved to pop-up ads features when it turns out that Internet viewers got used to the concept of the banner at the top of the page. Pay per click uses the concept of sponsored links on search engine results pages by buying keywords and phrases that are bound to be associated with the site’s products or content.

There are many ways to increase traffic, and most of them will be covered in more detail later. It is important to proactive and reactive methods of generating increased traffic first.

Most methods of increasing traffic are reactive measures that identify an avenue to exploit on the site and then use it to generate traffic. Advertising and search engine optimization (SEO) placement are reactive measures undertaken when the site is already afloat

Many site creators and business owners underestimate the impact of proactive methods.

The difference here has to be made between two concepts, namely natural traffic and organic traffic.

Natural Traffic

Natural traffic is the traffic that can come naturally to the site. It deals with the site itself and its origins, name and content, whether it is for a product or for information.

This traffic is associated mostly with the name and the keyword content of the site. It concerns generic aspects, and the first thought that comes to mind when one thinks of something. The domain name of the site plays a big part in here. For example, someone looking for a keyword may not go through search engines and directly type the keyword as domain name in the browser. The likeliness of falling exactly upon what one is looking for is enhanced in this kind of maneuver.

As such, domain name – its choice and use – is the main determinant in this type of traffic increase. A well-chosen domain name, and one that is immediately associated in everyone’s mind to the product or content being offered almost guarantees a visit to the site.

Thus, traffic can almost be guaranteed to a site even at set-up stage, because of the easy and direct association of people with the name.