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All Articles [22] NHS/PCT [4] Government [1] Online Business [4] Corporate [2] Small Business [4] Web Site [10] Urls [2] SEO [6] Marketing [10] Photography [1] Print [2]An Introduction to Building Website Traffic.
See all articles by: Lucas Scholten
Last updated: [ 12.08.2009 ]
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You can have the greatest website in the world, but if no one ever visits it, what good is it? Whether you’re selling a product, service, or simply an idea, you need visitors to make those sales. There are many ways to start building the traffic your website needs, and below are a few suggestions to start you off on the right track.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Nearly all Internet users use Search Engines to find what they’re looking for online. And if you happen to be on the first page when they’re looking for what you have to offer, chances are they’ll find you.But websites rarely rank highly in Search Engines by accident; a lot of work can go into ensuring a website reaches those upper echelons.
Rebuilding the parts of a website that define it to a search engine, and building quality targeted back-links, are some techniques involved in SEO. However, the way search engine’s rank websites changes all the time, so SEO techniques can change too. With this in mind, and also that if not carried out correctly, SEO can actually harm your rankings or even get you de-listed, the best option is to seek professional help.
With millions of websites online, competition is stiff, so there’s no substitute for using a dedicated SEO expert who knows all the angles, and keeps in touch with emerging techniques.
The downsides to SEO is that it can take some time, usually up to six months, before you start to see results, and those results can’t be guaranteed. Unfortunately, this is the nature of the beast, due to the process search engines go through in ranking sites. If you do speak to a SEO Expert who guarantees results and that they’ll be instant, they’re either not an expert or they’re out to con you.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
Unlike Search Engine Optimisation, PPC services, such as Google Adwords, do get you instant results. They work by having websites bid on search terms. The higher your bid, the higher up the page you’re ad will appear when someone searches for those terms. Then you only pay if your ad is clicked on. You can also put a limit on your budget, so you don’t find yourself with millions of new visitors but a million pound bill.A simple Adwords campaign is relatively easy for a novice to run, but usually only provides limited success. Much like SEO, to get the most from Adwords the best idea is to talk to an Expert. A professionally run Adwords campaign, using such techniques as multiple ad groups and conversion tracking, can bring massive amounts of traffic to your site, where you can convert those visits into sales.
Article Submission
Article directories are a less than popular destination for most Internet users, but submitting an article will still give you another opportunity to link to your website and improve search engine rankings. Occasionally, the owner of a newsletter or online magazine may read your article. They may decide to share your article with their subscriber base, giving you that little extra publicity.Blogs
Blogs give you an opportunity to hand out advice about your industry to your potential clients. They can also turn into news and tips resources for peers within your industry. If your blog is good enough, you can build a loyal subscriber base, to which you can subtly advertise your main business activities. The other advantage of a blog is that you can write “linkable” content that would not normally reside in the main part of your website.Banners and Adverts
Although it will cost you, placing adverts on websites that get a lot of traffic, will in turn bring traffic to yours.Traditional Marketing
All the off-line methods you may use to promote you business can be used to promote your website and build traffic. Newspaper and television ads, press releases, leaflet drops, mail shots and the whole range of traditional marketing techniques can help get the word out. The disadvantage with these is the limited scope and that they’re not just a click away from your site, like the online methods are.These are all great ways of building traffic and there are many more. As with all promotion, there’s only so much you can do yourself before you need to call in reinforcements. We’re ready and waiting, so give us a call and we’ll show you what we can do to really start building up your traffic.
Contact us now, to find out more.