Blog · 5 tips for getting more traffic to your website · Is it enough to just have a good website if no one's visiting it?
Is it enough to just have a good website if no one's visiting it?
Here are 5 basic tips for increasing traffic to your website, making sure you make the most of the time and money you've already put into making it good.
1) Optimise for search engines
There are some simple steps (as well as more advanced undertakings) you can follow to optimise your website to attract search engine traffic. This is known as Search Engine Optimisation or SEO.
As a general rule most website traffic comes from search engines (like Google, Yahoo or Bing), as opposed to links from other sites, or visitors who type the address in.
Act with caution here though, it's easy to go over the top and end up looking spammy.
2) Advertise it
Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) is a form of advertising your website or service online using a service such as Google Adwords.
Although results here are not as long lasting as SEO, PPC can be good for a quick boost, or a specific campaign.
3) Publish good, creative content
Perhaps the most important tip here - if you have good content people will see it, find it useful, enjoy it and with some luck they'll share it and come back again.
Google favours good content - getting this right gives you a leg up on the search engines.
4) Get social & get sharing
If you're not part of, then you will have at least heard of social network sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Delicious, Digg, the list goes on.
These can be a great way of publicising your site for free, and building relationships with your target audience.
Social networking lets you connect with real people, lets you tell the world what you're up to, allows you and others to share your creative content, is a great way to get feedback and even generates inbound links which are great for SEO.
5) Make the most of every opportunity
Make sure you take advantage of every opportunity on and offline to plug your website.
You can include your web address, as a hyperlink where possible, on...
- Your email signature
- Letterhead
- Business cards
- Signage
- Press releases
- Merchandise
- The list goes on...
Your website should be a keystone of your brand - feature it on everything!
In conclusion...
- Remember that there are no quick fixes - it's unlikely you'll see a massive increase in traffic over night, let alone quality traffic.
- Not all these options will suit you or the way you do business - pick the ones that will work best for you.
- Make sure you have a way of measuring traffic to your website.
I hope you've found this brief overview useful - we should be covering some of these topics in more depth in future months, plus how to convert visits into paying customers.
Ben J Walker · 27th November 2009
Ben founded Resound Design back in 2006 after completing a Computing degree. He now spends his time designing websites, coding web apps, and drinking tea.
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