Getting traffic to your website is not an easy task. I receive questions regarding promotion tactics for new website and traffic generation on the web, almost everyday. Creating a new website from scratch is not a big deal but when it comes to website promotion, online advertising or traffic generation it can turn out to be a complicated task. No magic can bring traffic to your website unless you have the required skill set to attract customers and trust me; it is not everyone’s cup of tea unless interest prevail you.
Let’s see how you can generate traffic for your new website. Some of the points have been listed below.
1. Organic Traffic
Traffic from search engines is known as organic or natural traffic. If someone searches for some kind of information on the search engines and find your site in the results, the visitor will be categorized as organic traffic. So the best way to get organic traffic is to submit your URL to all major search engines. Submitting an URL to any search engine is simple. Just search for “URL submission” and you will get a list of links which submit URLs to various search engines. There are various things which you can do on the URL submission page of a search engine. You can submit your URL (but obviously!), you can submit your sitemap for proper indexing, you can get your site statistics and you can also get keyword help for your website and many more things.
2. Links Exchange
External links can churn magic traffic to your website. The more website pointing towards your domain will earn you more traffic. The simplest form of linking is to swap your links. All you need to do is ask webmasters of other sites to link back to your site and do the same for them. The more, the merrier. Only remember to link back with quality sites. On the web quantity does matter but when it comes to attracting customers for your business, quality counts more than quantity. You can visit sites like dmoz.org which is a link exchange site to submit your URL. Asking webmasters of your related category to exchange links can prove fruitful. You can also try another way which I call the-google-way-of-living. For example, if you are willing to rank for “laptops”, go to your favourite search engine and search for “laptops”. When the search results shows up, try to contact the webmasters and request a link exchange.
3. Link Directories Submission
There are tons of link directories on the internet: some are free while the others are paid. While in the beginning mode, focus on free directories only. Linking your site on directories will not only help increase your search engine ranks but also help getting more visitors to your site directly. The very well known and biggest free directory on the internet is dmoz.org. The only flaw is that it accepts very high quality websites. If you believe your site is really high quality, try submitting it here. You can also find other directories on the internet easily. Just go to your favourite search engine and search for “free link directories”, “link directory”, “backlinks directory”, “links exchange directory” or any such similar phrases. You will find hundreds of link directories awaiting your submission!
4. Social Networks
Social bookmarking networks works wonders when it comes to website promotion in a much similar way like link directories, but there are some differences too. The main difference from link directories is popularity. Social networks are like gold mines when it comes to traffic generation as they get millions of visits per day. High quality content is a key to become successful on social networking. When you submit your URL to social networking site visitors can rate it and if these rating are high, your URL is moved into main page where more people can see it. Adding links to social networking sites also will help getting better rankings in search engines. There are so many sites on the internet which are listed on search engine top pages only because of their presence on the social networking sites. This work is pretty hard, so consider submitting URLs manually or use automated social bookmarks submitter software.
5. Forum Traffic
Most of you will be familiar with forums. Forums are places on the internet where you can share things and get instant feedbacks from experts on the subject. There are thousands of forums around and some are dedicated to members who can reveal their websites for reviews and criticism. Posting a message about your website will not only get a direct backlink, but also expert tips and criticism from other community members, so you will know what needs to be improved and what have you done the best on your website. Nevertheless, be sure to read forum rules before making any post (especially if you are a new member to forum). Different forums have different rules, and if your message will not comply with these rules, your account will be banned and your message will be deleted. It’s better to spend a minute or two reading basic rules, instead of posting message with your URL and getting everything deleted instantly. If you want to find forums on the internet easily, just go to your favourite search engine and search for “webmaster forum”, “site showcase”, “show your site forum”, “site reviews forum” or any such similar phrases. You will find hundreds of link forums awaiting your submission!
6. Digital Footprints
Signatures are the best way to leave your web footprints behind. There are many forums, message boards, blogs and other websites which allow visitors to use signatures. Check out the rules of the forum and if it is permitted add links in your signature. Most sites allow adding minimum one and a maximum of three links in signatures. Once you post a message, signature with backlinks to your site will automatically be inserted below your message. All you have to do after this is to stay active on such forums and voila, you are getting more organic traffic than you expected. Simple, huh?
Most importantly, if you don’t understand any particular thing, don’t be shy to research it on your favourite search engine to get the answers. This not only proves to be beneficial to the webmasters (organic traffic, remember!) but for you as well. You can opt for link swapping with the webmasters if the site is well maintained with quality content.
Well, there are many more ways to build traffic and attract visitors, but the tips listed above should suffice for most new webmasters. Well, there are even bad and unethical ways of website promotion and money making online, but refrain from using them as these ways can get you banned from search engines like Google and Yahoo! as they have a strict non-compliance policy. Don’t expect results as soon as you make the changes as it takes a minimum of seven days to show up all these things on the search engine. If you get hold of an internet marketing firm for your website promotion, be ready for a time frame of more than seven days, much more than seven days in fact. Although, it only takes seven days to reflect on the search engine any search engine optimizing firm will give you a time frame of three months as the results won’t vary much after the first three months and a strong statistical report will affirm it. Don’t worry if you don’t see the results right after starting; experience will make you achieve perfection over time!
Chetan Vengurlekar
Sarvi Solutions 