Site owners can generate web traffic by employing a three-pronged strategy: creating compelling content, developing internal and external links, and increasing activity.
Creating Compelling Content
The content creation prong of a traffic generation strategy includes articles and posts that are relevant to the website or blog’s topic. Effective market research will reveal the specific needs and issues facing your target audience. Write your content with the goal of providing the solutions your readers seek, and you will not only grow your readership but convert casual passersby into loyal readers.
Conduct keyword research to locate terms with high search volume and low competition. Good on-site search engine optimization tactics, such as including your keywords in the title tag, post title, and within your post will help those who are looking for answers find your site.
Developing Links
A good linking strategy is vital to generate web traffic. Links should be both internal (deep linking) and external (backlinks). The key to an effective linking strategy is to make sure the anchor text (the text the link is embedded into) is a relevant phrase, one that preferably includes the keyword you’re optimizing that article for.
Inbound links, or backlinks, add more authority to your site when they are relevant to the topic and originate from a site with good PageRank. One of the best ways to develop backlinks to your site is through article marketing. Article marketing provides benefits in addition to backlinks, such as helping position you as an authority in your niche and by introducing those who read your articles to you and your site.
Activity
The third part of a good traffic generation plan is site activity. Activity includes site visitors, blog comments, social media shares, social bookmarking, and any other means of interaction between you, your guests, and your website or blog.
A good blog commenting strategy includes returning the favor by visiting the sites of those who leave comments on your blog. Make your comments relevant and insightful — more than just writing “good post.” Some site owners may think a simple comment like that is a ploy to get a backlink from their site and might delete your comment. Activity takes time, but as more and more bloggers and website owners have become SEO and link savvy, some search engines have begun to weigh activity when determining where to display pages in the search engine results.
One of the best ways to initiate activity on your site is to simply ask. Ask readers to tweet, Digg, share on Facebook, bookmark, leave a comment, etc. Sometimes blog posts written from a controversial point of view receive more activity than a typical post or article. Ending your post with a question and inviting readers to submit their answers in the comment section can also increase activity.
A tip about on-site activity: make it easy for your guests to leave comments. If the security level is set so high that readers become frustrated when they attempt to comment, you may not only lose a potential comment, but possibly the reader, too. A good spam filter, such as Akismet, enables you to let the real readers interact without worrying too much about spammers.
Other Ways to Generate Web Traffic
You can increase awareness and interest in your site by developing “outposts,” such as posting relevant videos YouTube channel, recording podcasts and broadcasting them on iTunes, and becoming involved in communities and forums within your niche.
To learn more how compelling content can help generate web traffic to your site, sign up for the FREE Creating Compelling Content mini-course.