Getting Traffic To Your Site

It can be a challenge to get traffic to your site without spending a lot of money on advertising but there are a few tried and tested ways of increasing the number of visitors to your site and statistically, this should increase your sales conversion rate providing you have a good product or service that is presented well.

Search engines

Search engine optimization is the first thing you should focus on when you are trying to increase traffic. Make sure your website is fully optimized so that you can be found in the search engines and don't forget to submit your site. It takes time for your website to creep up the listings but with good relevant keywords sprinkled throughout your copy, your visitors will be able to find you.

Using the search engines to bring traffic to your site is very best way of getting free traffic -- but it is also the most reliable and the most respected way to get targeted traffic. If people are putting in keywords to search engine and they are finding your site, then they are obviously interested in what you have to offer. If you do nothing else, you should work on your SEO as this is by far the most effective way to get targeted traffic to your site.

Link exchanges

Once you have your SEO sorted, you should turn next to swapping links with high ranking sites that are not directly competing with you. They have to be relevant, of course, otherwise it is a waste of time but adding high-quality links to and from other websites should be your second priority. The best way to do this is to contact other sites personally and ask for reciprocal links.

Article marketing

Another effective way to get traffic to your site is by writing authoritative articles on your subject. Turn yourself into an expert and you should be able to attract visitors and paying customers. Write a series of articles and submit them to article directories -- you can also approach other websites and offer to let them have your free content in return for including links back to your website. Offer to use their own keywords in your article to help boost their SEO and you are more likely to be successful.

Pay per click advertising

Pay per click is a way to get traffic to your site quickly and relies on people clicking through your advert to your site. You pay the amount you have bid for keywords every time someone clicks on your advert. This method can get very expensive if you have chosen to pay a high price for very popular keywords but you will get targeted visitors who are interested in your products and services.

Pay per click advertising can be a good way to get traffic to your site while you are waiting for your SEO to get your website near the top of the organic search engine listings. Once you get to the top on Google, you probably won't need pay per click, so it can work very well as an interim strategy.

Pay per click advertising is also available through social media sites like Facebook and the advantage of advertising with Facebook is that you can include a picture in your advert. You can also target your prospects quite tightly, so that only people within your defined range will see your advert.

You Tube

Another way to get people to click through your advert to your site is via YouTube. When a video clip goes viral, You Tube pulls in revenue by advertising on that video’s page and also within the video itself. You can place your advertisement so that people click through to your own video clip or your website and it is a great way to target relevant prospects.

eBay

eBay has millions of buyers and sellers and you can target both through your listings. If you have a great product to sell -- maybe something you would be prepared to use as a loss leader -- you could promote your website through a link from your product description.

Submit to directories

Another way to generate traffic is to submit your website to some of the major directories like the Open Directory Project. There are also plenty of themed directories where you can get your website listed for free.

Wikipedia

If you are an expert in a particular subject, you might want to consider becoming a Wikipedia editor and write an academic article. At the end of your article you can include references and links to your website, but remember that you will not be allowed to pitch your products, it is simply a way to raise awareness and educate people but it is also a sneaky way to get a link to your website. Wikipedia is a very high ranking site, so any links you can get from Wikipedia to your site can make a huge difference in pulling your website to the top of the organic listings.