There are many inventive ways to drive traffic to your website. The creation of high quality, original content, will naturally cause an organic increase in traffic. But if you want to give it a boost, there are a bunch of things you can do to help it along.
Article Writing 101
Headlines Are Important
Headlines are what catches a reader’s eye and convinces them to look at your content. They must jump out at the reader and quickly draw their attention. A great headline can also seriously boost your views when shared on a social media site.
Articles Should Be Rich In Content
High quality articles are ranked better in search engine results. Your articles must address the needs of your readers in order for then to find all of the information they need in one spot. Here are some more tips on writing high quality content:
- Putting together information from other websites will not generate traffic. Your visitors require information in order to achieve a goal, solve a problem, learn a skill or just be entertained.
- Do not copy and paste from other websites. Search engines have the ability to detect copied and unoriginal content and will not rank your posts accordingly.
Focus On A Niche
By focusing on a specific niche or audience, you will become known as an authority in that field. Your goal is for your site to be the main source for you readers to go to first. Start your site based on what interests you or look at what’s out there and work with a niche that hasn’t been overdone yet. Turn that niche into your expertise.
Make Your Content Shareable
In the world of social media, sharable content is king. Your content needs to be easily sharable so that your site’s readers can let others know what you have to say. A strong headline with an interesting image, as well as an appealing description makes a perfect hook for your article that others can share through Facebook, Twitter, and other networks.
Change Up The Lengths Of Your Articles
You should have longer, inclusive articles in addition to short and succinct articles. The content will determine the size. Don’t spend too much time going on about a simple point, but also don’t be too brief when more detail is needed. An average sized post should be roughly 1,600 words, but feel free to change it up as you see fit.
Post Articles Frequently
Your blog will be more successful if you have a regular stream of content. Aim for a minimum of six articles per week. But whatever schedule you choose, stick to it and be consistent. Regular updates to your website will be crucial for repeat viewers.
You can also outsource your article writing if you cannot keep up a regular posting schedule. Depending on the length, content, specialization and quality required, prices for getting articles written could be as low as US$5 per article. But don’t stop writing your own work, because you know what you want your site to say better than anyone.
Remember To Tag and Describe Your Articles
The tags, description, and meta data in your articles affects how well they shows up in search engines. It also helps people find the articles they need.
- To have a fully functioning and successful website, you need to make sure your tags are in place and your links are not broken.
- By using keywords correctly, search engines will help people find your website when they’re searching the Web. Keywords should flow naturally with the text and when you are devising good words, think about words that come naturally to people when looking for your type of site.
- Keywords don’t just go into headings and page names but also into your post’s meta tag”. Meta tags are the software code that website visitors do not see but search engines do.
- Don’t overdo the keywords as using too many keywords will result in a very low search ranking for your website.
Linking
Link building is very important for websites. This is the method of creating links that direct to your page from other pages. This will happen organically as you create quality content, but there are some things you can do to help build links yourself:
- Trading links with other websites that are complimentary to the subject of your website can bring you more website traffic. These are two-way links because you must provide a link to them, too. Linking to low-quality websites can threaten your credibility.
- Link back on associated blogs and forums. Find communities that relate to your niche and create a user profile there. Enter in your site details in your profile and make good quality posts. This will draw people to your site through your profile links.
Link To Articles Within Your Own Site
Make sure that you are linking to related articles that you’ve already published within your site. This will help new users find interesting articles from your backlog, and will keep people on your site.
Also add links on old posts to new ones. If you write an article that relates to an old article that you did, make sure to go back to the old article and link to the new one.
Put Your Content Into Categories
A well-organized site is much more user friendly for readers, and will lead to better retention. It will also help increase views on your older articles.
The Basics Of Promoting Your Site
Use Calls To Action
Be direct when asking your readers for something. Calls to action can be asking your readers to leave a message in your comments section, follow you on social media or subscribe to your email list. Calls to action also engage the reader, and helps keep them on the page.
Interact With Your Readers Via Comments
Comments are a great way to get to know your readers. Respond to good comments on your articles, and use the comment space to ask questions. Taking the time each day to respond to comments will do wonders for your community.
Follow And Interact With Other Sites And Blogs
Stay connected with other blogs that are related in content to yours. Leave comments on their posts and interact with the communities. Don’t directly advertise your site, but allow people to find their way to it.
Guest Post For Other Blogs And Invite Other Bloggers To Guest Post On Yours
Guest posting is a great way to drive traffic between related blogs, and allow you to attract new readers. Be sure to allow any guest posters to link back to their own site, and share any guest posts the same as you would your own posts.
Use Social Media
Use Social Networks To Expand Your Influence
Social networking is very important and by having a solid presence, you will create a large impact on your views. Post compelling content and you’ll soon have a loyal following. Follow and share with other users, who may return the favour and follow you. There are a variety of ways that you can use social networks to extend your online presence, depending on the needs of your site.
Create A Facebook Page
Facebook allows you to create a page for your site or company. This allows you to quickly share new articles with your Facebook followers, as well as share other related articles. A Facebook Page is also a good way to advertise your site to a large number of people.
Post Your Articles On Twitter
Post the headline and link to each new article you publish on your Twitter account. Make sure you have a link to your Twitter feed on your site.
Use Tumbler To Gain Readers
Tumbler is a blogging service that allows you to easily link to content around the web. Use Tumblr to post links to your articles as well as related content.
Create A Google+ Page
Google+ is Google’s social network service, and like the others, allows you to easily post links to your published articles. Google+ has a huge potential audience since all Google users have access to it.
Pin Your Articles On Pinterest
Pinterest is an image-based social sharing site. Make sure that your blog posts have good, clear images if you’re going to pin them on Pinterest.
Post Photos On Instagram
Create an Instagram account for your web site and take some pictures related to your niche. Be sure to use hashtags to advertise your blog on the photos, and have a link to your site in your profile.
Post Your Articles To Reddit And Digg
Reddit has a large communities of active users. Posting your article can result in a lot of good traffic and sharing, as long as you are posting in the correct place and following submission rules.
Have An Attractive Site
Your Site Should Be Modern And Clean Looking
If your site is hard to navigate, you won’t keep many visitors. Make sure that your style matches your niche, and that it is modern enough to be pleasing to the eye and easy to use.
Balance
Try to find the right mix of text, images and video content for your site. People process information in different ways so try to appeal to as many people as possible.
Keep It Simple
Removing all the superfluous visual elements from your site will allow important items to stand out. The use of white space on the page is key in order to create the illusion of space.
Use clean backgrounds for your site. Too much texture and graphics in the background can be very distracting. If really want to use a colour on the background, you must make sure there is significant contrast between the background color and the text. Avoid using brighter and darker colors such as red or yellow. They can cause visual fatigue and the reader will lose their focus on the text.
Use High Quality Photographs
If you are using photographs on your site, ensure that they are as high-quality as possible. This may mean investing in a better camera if you take your own photos.
Use Navigation Menus
Web users often look for the toolbar across the top or down the left the left hand side of the page. You shouldn’t forget a link to your homepage. It’s often forgotten but very important to point your users to your homepage.
Create Infographics
These are very shareable, aesthetically appealing and dominate social media feeds. There are sites online that can create infographics for you based on your data and template choices.
Make A YouTube Channel And Link It To Your Site
You can embed YouTube videos directly into your blog posts and send YouTube viewers to your blog for more details. You can even monetize your YouTube channel for additional revenue.
Warnings
Do not get tricked by traffic sellers promising thousands of hits an hour. All they do is add your URL into a program and run the program for a few hours which makes it looks like people are looking at your site because your logs will show visitors from thousands of different IPs.
What really happens is that your website is just getting pinged and no one is actually looking at your site. It is a waste of money.
Never spam. Your credibility will be gone before you know it, and with it will go your traffic.