The 25 Best Ways to

Generate Web Site

Traffic

#WEB2
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The 25 Best Ways to Generate

Web Site Traffic
#WEB2
You have spent
money on a website,
but it doesnt seem to
be getting the number
of visitors you
expected.

You have a great web site. But when you

begin to ask your clients about the web
site you are disappointed to find they dont
even know you have one! Maybe you
havent even given your web site a second
thought after handing off that job months
or years ago. What can you do to let
people know about your site and generate
traffic?

If you only care about your clients visiting your web site,
then a simple announcement in your newsletter, on-hold
messages and notices on your invoices will do the trick.
However, if you have invested a good deal of time in
articles and other consumer information, you would
probably like for as many people as possible to see your
site. Additionally, if you ever intend to attract sponsorship
interest for your site, then you need to start building hits
now so you can prove to commercial concerns that you
are actually a well visited site that would make sense for
them to sponsor. Finally, if you are selling items on your
site, you REALLY want the hits because its a numbers
game.
Here are 25 important considerations for building traffic:

Using the Traditional Strategies:

Using the Internet and your Web site is a very new, very
high tech method of communicating. However, we still
have to be efficient and proactive in using more traditional
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methods to let our consumers know we have such a

resource.
1. Include your Web site address on all your
standard business communications. This
includes cards, stationery, brochures, and literature.
In addition, if you have been learning to be a
publicity hound, youll immediately realize your Web
site address should be on all media and press kit
information and all how-to articles and fact sheets.
This important information should be on anything
given away at speaking engagements, special
events and volunteer functions. We are no longer in
the 90s so we can leave off the http:// part and
print only the www.nameofyoursite.com portion.
When saying your Web site name on radio or
television, please leave off the www!
2. Continue to use print advertising. Be sure to
include your Web site address on all advertising.
Frankly, now your Web site address should be as
important to your advertising content as your phone
number.
3. Create some free functionality for your site. Most
sites are fairly one-way and mundane. If you
advertise and expect people to visit your site, give
them some sort of creative thing to do or receive.
The home mortgage companies really hit the mark
with the Home Mortgage Interest Calculators. That
is a creative and functional item that makes people
visit often. Free content should be another part of
your site. You can take your how-to articles, fact
sheets and even script from your speaking events
and turn them into a free library of goodies for your
visitors. This is a good way to increase traffic to
your site. If you sell items or information on your
site, be sure to have plenty of cross over links that
offer the for fee information as well.

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4. Create and fill your News Room or Press Room.

Use your Web site Press Room as a place not only
for the press to visit and see past media activity, but
also as a place to send consumers to see the latest
newsworthy information you have taken to the
media. This is also the perfect place for you to
highlight any media coverage you generate and
recycle this publicity for your benefit for many years.

Using Email Strategies:

Email is an extremely important method of generating
new and repeat visitors to your site. From the very
beginning of your business you should collect the email
address of all your customers or clients.
5. Use email respectfully. When you obtain your
consumers email addresses they offer their email
address knowing they will receive various
notifications from you. However, in each email, give
them the opportunity to unsubscribe from your list.
You do not want to annoy anyone with your
material. Spam is one of the most hated Internet
tools and you want to be sure your consumer base
knows you are not a part of the spam problem.
You can capture these email addresses when
visitors are at your place of business or from your
web site. Simply ask for their name and email
address. If you have a long form they must fill out,
you will dramatically diminish your response.
6. Use email as a notification method. Email is a
good way to notify consumers about many
important events happening with your business.
You should send an email to your list when you are
quoted or appear in the media. Your list should be
notified when you are speaking or volunteering in
the community. You should certainly notify your list
when you announce some news, trends or seasonal
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issues. Always use a signature block that contains

all your contact information including your Web site
address.
7. Begin sending a monthly newsletter. This is one
of the best ways you can keep in touch with your
clients and customers and generate trust and build
long term loyal business. You can distribute your
newsletter using your own email program, or hire a
service to do this for you. Ask your site manager
about this. A good beginning source would be
www.mailermailer.com
8. Use your email list to send important
promotional offers. Your own list of customers and
site visitors who have given you permission to
contact them will be your most productive list. Send
offers, coupon specials and product updates.
Personalizing the subject line and the message will
increase the results. Dont use all caps in the
subject line and avoid lots of sensational words as
this looks like spam. Always give your recipients a
way to opt-out of your list.

Using the Search Engines:

The most important first step is to register your site with
the main Web search engines, so let's begin with steps to
prepare your web pages for optimal search engine work.
9. Write a very descriptive title page. Write a
descriptive title for each page of 5 to 8 words.
Remove as many non-descriptive words from the
title, as you can. This is the page title that appears
on the search engines when your page is found.
You need to use good titling techniques to get
surfers to go to your site. To localize your traffic,
use your city name in the description. (See; Write
Headlines Like A Pro)
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Use descriptive keywords along with your business

name on your home page. Instead of "Bobs Pet
Shop use "Bobs Pet Shop Pet Supplies, Pet
Foods, Veterinary Supplies", or Pet, Vet, Supplies
Cleveland. This all important title is your entire
identity on the search engines. What people see
here in the blue highlighted sections is what will
make them visit your site, or move on to another.
10. Make sure your webmaster prepares proper
keywords and descriptions for your identifiers.
The most important 20 words are at the top of the
web page. They help search engines find you.
That is called a Keyword META Tag. Also, ask your
webmaster about a Description META Tag. Some
search engines include this description below your
hyperlinked title. Select your most important 20
keywords, and write a careful sentence or two about
200 characters. You don't need to repeat any words
used in the page title.
11. Submit Page to Search Engines. Next, submit
your page to the important Web search engines and
directories. Don't fall for all the solicitation emails
asking you to pay for someone to submit your site to
"300 search engines." This is a waste, since only a
few major search engines drive all the Internet
traffic.
Your webmaster should have all the software tools
to do this for you. You will want to have your site
submitted to: Google, HotBot, Infoseek, AltaVista,
Excite, AOL Find, Lycos, and Northern Light. These
are the main engines that will drive most of your
important traffic.
12. Submit your listing to Yahoo. Yahoo is the most
important listing of all. It is one of the most popular
search directors on the Internet. It uses real
humans to read your 200-character sentence, so be
very careful and follow their instructions. It is
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recommended that you use less than the maximum

number of characters allowable so the editors dont
have to edit and leave too little of a description.
13. Submit your page to specialized directories.
Some directories specialize in particular industries.
You will want to register with selected ones of
these. It does not seem to help much to buy an
upgraded listing in the specialized directories
because of their limited scope. One specialized
directory that is recommended is Open Directory
Project www.dmoz.com. The Open Directory Project
provides its listings to an array of the larger more
active search engines and is worthwhile.
14. Employ search engine positioning. In todays
busy Internet, hooking up with the major search
engines is only the first step. With only a directory
listing and countless millions of web pages, your
site may never get seen. It is now important to
construct a series of gateway pages, each one
designed for a particular search phrase and search
engine. This is a complex subject and one you will
probably want to leave to your webmaster, or
perhaps even hire an expert to help. It can require
considerable time and know-how.

The Use of Linking Strategies:

Search engines rank a site higher when it has many links
pointing to it. The search engines play the popularity
numbers game they deduce that the more links that point
to your site, the more traffic you will have. This tells them
your site is more likely a good site to safely rank higher.
Links from high traffic sites will help your site rank higher
than those from low traffic sites.
15. Request links from important commercial or
industry sites. Heres a change to take advantage
of your membership in your professional or trade
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associations. Most of them have sites that feature

member sites. Write to the webmaster of those sites
and ask for a link to yours. The webmasters or site
managers of the large sites are busy and typically
unresponsive. However, because of your
association with the trade or profession, they should
give you the consideration you deserve. The
increase traffic from some sites, especially large
commercial or industrial sites may even be worth a
small fee for the link.
16. Request reciprocal links from related sites.
Invest the time necessary to research and find
websites that are complementary or similar to yours
and request a reciprocal link. Many visitors will
repeatedly visit your site because they know you
have lots of helpful links. It is suggested, however,
that you develop a side page where you put links to
other sites so you don't send your visitors away as
fast as you bring them in.
You will have the best luck from sites that are
similar in size to yours. The giant web site
webmasters are too busy and frankly don't have
anything to gain by helping you. Find the smaller
sites that may have good Links pages. Beware of
software that promises to automate the process by
searching for keywords to help you find linking
partners. This will get your name on a spam list.
When you find a site you would like to link with,
send a personal e-mail to the administrative contact
found in the Who Is Directory www.allwhois.com. If
e-mail doesn't get a response, try a phone call.
Many commercial sites have reciprocal link
programs and will actually pay you to send them
business and the reverse is true. Pick these
carefully as your reputation is at stake.

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Other Important Ways to Attract Visitors:

17. Mailing lists and news groups. The Internet offers
thousands of very targeted e-mail based discussion
lists and news groups made up of people with very
specialized interests. Go to Google.com and click
on Groups to find the right categories for you. The
proper use of such groups to promote your site is to
simply join in the conversation in groups where you
feel there are potential visitors for your site. Also
look for groups where dialog is taking place and not
one where you see lots of spam. It is considered
inappropriate to advertise or promote overtly in
these groups. However, if you join in the discussion
and add important information, then use a signature
block with your Web site and email address, visitors
will come to trust you and visit your site.
18. Have a contest or give something away. People
love getting something free. By giving something
away or having a virtual drawing on your Web site,
you can generate a great deal of traffic. You may
want to ask your site manager about Internet
sweepstakes rules so that your offer is legal in all
states and countries you are targeting. Generally
what works best is some free information that has
real value to your visitors. Email coupons (click,
print and save programs), purchase incentives, ecurrency all have been used successfully in this
category.
19. Encourage visitors to bookmark your site. If you
are a regular Internet user you probably do this
automatically and it seems too elementary to ask
visitors to bookmark your site. But millions of
visitors are relatively new and may need your
encouragement to bookmark your site.
20. Exchange small ads with complementary
businesses. This would be especially helpful if you
can find complimentary businesses in your
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community that would be interested in simple

banner or thumbnail type ads. This should operate
similarly to reciprocal links and should help both of
you.
21. Recycle your written work on other sites and
newsletters. This is the best way to reach new
viewers and increase your visibility when you write
articles and distribute them to editors as free
content for their Web sites or for their email
newsletters. Be sure in your agreement you can
have a link to your website and a one-line
description of what you offer be included with the
article.
22. Multiply your efforts exponentially. In traditional
business promotion many clever programs cause a
great deal of extra traffic through word-of-mouth,
publicity and network marketing. The most
successful products and launches are able to create
a buzz with their efforts. That is what you would
like to do with your site. You can do this with the
help of others multiplying your efforts exponentially.
This is done through so-called viral marketing
techniques. Sounds like something you would NOT
want to do, but the term simply describes the rapid
spread of your information using approved
marketing and communications techniques on the
Internet. An example of this viral marketing is a free
email service like Juno that attaches promotional or
advertising lines at the bottom of all your email.
This may not be something smaller sites would do,
but it is worth mentioning here so you understand
the concept.

Using Paid Advertising Strategies:

Aside from traditional paid advertising where you should
be promoting your Web site address throughout, you can
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also pay other Web sites to generate visitors to your site.

This type of Internet advertising is sold in one of three
ways: 1) a traditional CPM (cost per thousand views), 2) a
pay per click rate (PPC), and 3) a pay per action
agreement, also known as an affiliate program. It is
suggested you very carefully select any site where you
plan to advertise your site. As with any advertising
program you can waste a great deal of time and money
by not properly selecting the right medium or ad. You will
probably have to do several small tests to see which site
proves to be the best advertising value.
23. Be careful what you buy. Most Internet surfers have
trained themselves to ignore banner ads and pop-up
boxes, so click-through rates are usually pretty bad at
0.1% to 0.3%. This also means that if you simply buy
banner ad space you could be mostly ignored.
Probably the best value is an actual affiliate program
where you receive a visitor who buys something and
you pay a commission rate to the referral source. Of
course in the medical and legal professions this may
be unethical or illegal.
24. Advertise in targeted newsletters. You can buy
advertising in a large targeted email newsletter list.
This is similar to classified ads in a small newspaper
and sometimes this works well. Anytime you can
target your advertising to an audience with a higher
interest level in your product, you are better off.
Some of the best advertising deals come through this
type of targeted and subtle approach.
25. Rented email lists. Before long you will receive a
solicitation from someone who says they will send
your message to 40 million email addresses. If you
are thinking of a pure numbers game this may make
sense. But if you are thinking of your reputation,
there is no faster way to kill yourself than to send
large numbers of people unsolicited email or spam.
The Direct Marketing Association has developed
targeted email lists you can rent. These qualified lists
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are people who have given permission to receive

solicitations in certain areas. If you plan on doing
this, Id suggest a small test to see if you have a
quality list. If all goes well then consider expanding.
For the basic small business or medical practice, this list
will certainly get you well on your way to generating Web
site traffic. Each of these strategies will need to be
customized and adapted to your particular business or
practice. Additionally, you need a good Web master and
site manager who can walk you through some of the more
technical aspects of todays complex world of Internet
Marketing.

Please see other special business reports on related

subjects from The Promotion Prescription:

Putting The Web To Work For You

Create Your On-line Press Room
Start Your E-Mail Newsletter
The Most Effective Email Marketing Strategies

For more detailed information on topics related to this subject,

visit www.ThePromotionPrescription.com and examine other
Special Business Reports on print and electronic media.

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