Learning how to increase online traffic is the number one priority that all internet marketers need to focus on.
The volume of traffic, or lack thereof, determines how successful your online endeavors will be.
Getting the traffic you desire is not based on luck; it is simply an art that needs to be tested and applied.
The more you test and find out the things that work and don’t work, the better you will get at it; and before you know it, you would be able to conjure up visitors anywhere and anytime you want to.
Here are 3 excellent tips to increase online traffic and grab those hungry visitors.
Traffic Generation Technique # 1: Web 2.0
Set up multiple sites like blogger, HubPages and Squidoo lenses; and then ping them all.
Pinging is an online service that sends out the word about your web 2.0 properties being created or updated.
These crawlers go out, collect information, and send them back to the search engines to be indexed.
You also need to be sure to update your web 2.0 properties regularly to increase your online traffic.
Search engines look for new, original and unique content; so if your blog or site hasn’t been updated in months, then the search engines might simply overlook them.
Be sure to stay active in the community.
Reading and commenting on other web 2.0 properties in your niche will show your active participation in the online community and boost your credibility; hence, it will be easier to persuade people to go over to your site and check out what more you have to say.
Simply add your URL at the end of a comment you leave on someone else’s blog or site, but you must be informative!
You shouldn’t just comment “nice post” and then add your URL.
This will look like you aren’t active and you’re just trying to get some links to yourself; and nine times out of ten, you will be passed over by other users.
Traffic Generation Technique # 2: Forums
There are tons of forums in a million different niches. You can see what the hot topics are and what people are talking about.
This can help in choosing exactly what you’re going to be marketing in the first place.
Knowing what the hot topics are – and knowing what problems the people in your niche are facing – can help you build a structure in which to market exactly what people are looking for.
Join in on the conversation and be informative. Give useful advice to resolve their problems. Give them tips or tricks to help them along the way.
Some forums allow what’s called a signature file; others don’t because they discourage marketing.
Search for the forums that allow signature files and post in these forums.
In this signature box, you should put the URL of your website.
Don’t just put your link; add a little bit of information like “Remove unsightly blemishes and be acne free today!” and turn the whole sentence into a link to your site.
This will entice the reader to find out more. Just like you should be doing with web 2.0 properties, you need to stay informative and active.
If you are just commenting “nice post” with your URL in the signature box, then you will most likely be overlooked.
Stay active and helpful, so you can grab your readers’ attention and increase your online traffic.
Traffic Generation Technique # 3: Competitive Niche Research
Researching competitive websites in your niche is a great way to find out how to increase online traffic.
Take a good look at your competition. Do not only figure out how they are getting their traffic, but understand why they are.
Know what they are doing, and then model what works; better yet, come up with a better version of your own.
This way, you can easily keep up with your competition, or even get the upper edge.
You don’t want to get left behind in any niche you are in, so really understand why your competition is doing so well.
You can accomplish this by just looking through the sites that are on the first page of Google in your niche.
You can also use a website called Quantcast.
Here you type in the URL and Quantcast brings up all different stats – how many visitors they’re getting and their locations, what other related sites they check out, the demographic of who these visitors are, etc.
This is a great tool and there are others like it that can tell your page rank, outbound and inbound links, and other important stats.
Take advantage of these tools and understand your competition to beat them.
Traffic generation is an art and needs to be practiced to get it right.
With so many different ways to increase online traffic, it may seem a bit overwhelming; but don’t allow yourself to drown in the sea of tactics.
Focus on a couple of strategies first. Learn them, master them and decide whether or not these techniques work best for you and your niche.
Once you have just a couple of these techniques down, you can move on to applying more and more.
Practice the art of traffic generation and you too will be able to “conjure up visitors from thin air.”