How to Increase Business and Website Traffic

 

Don't be Afraid to Copy Others

This may sound a little odd, especially after the previous chapter but this is 

something that everyone does. You don't copy the content; instead you copy what 

someone else is doing better by getting more traffic to their website. You will know 

what websites are getting more traffic to them by their ranking on search engines. 

You can also use Alexa.com to check the rankings of websites you are interested in.

Do your groundwork

This is not as easy as you would think though. You will first have to locate all the 

sites that are the leaders in the segment you are in. There are a number of tools 

that will help you do this, and Google PageRank is both very useful as well as free and can be installed in any browser.

After you form your list you will have to visit each of these sites and figure out for 

yourself why they are doing better than you. Check different search engines that will give you this information and this is where your true talent lies. The more accurate 

you are in identifying why others do well, the better you can make your site.

While making changes you will obviously have to continue tracking hits to your site, 

but do not be hasty and make changes quickly. It will take a day for the changes to 

be indexed properly in the search engines, and even then you will have to allow 

some time before the changes start making any difference. It is a slow process and 

you learn as you go. 

Never directly copy website content, this is not only illegal but detrimental to 

your website search engine rankings. Remember, no one not even Google likes 

a copycat. Use content as ideas to create your own content and make it better.

Focus on the most Popular Parts of Your Site

Many people do not realize it when they start out, but it is difficult to start a website 

and put in information that is always appealing. To most of us as long as the article that we post is well written and interesting to read, it should work, but it rarely does. You need to know which portion of your website is working well and which is not.

You can get this information using Google analytics, and once you identify this trend, 

it is up to you to start concentrating on that portion of your website. For all you know 

the portion of your website that you would think is the least appealing will get the 

most number of look ins.

For example, if you have started a website where you post reviews of different home 

appliances and also sell them, your assumption would be that the most hits would 

be on the reviews. When looking at the metrics however you may be surprised to 

find that it is your blog or your comments page that is receiving the most hits.

What you should immediately do is to concentrate on the comments page and 

leverage it. Ultimately advertisers look at the total number of hits on your website 

and as long as you can maintain a consistent number of visits a day or week it is all for the best.

Of course it means that you will probably need to rework your review page so that it 

too starts seeing more traffic, but that should be the second thing on your priority, not first. 

Be patient

Many websites that are really popular have a ratio of around 1:20. This means that 

for every 20 articles that you put in, one will turn out popular. For beginners this ratio will be much higher, but keep plugging away at it. Nobody finds a winning combination instantly and you should be willing to spend a lot of time on making your website a success. Don't be afraid to try out new things. If it does not work you can always remove the page later, but if it does click, you have something on which you can concentrate on.

Another thing that you should not worry too much about is not so much the number of hits on your website, but on how long the people stay. There are a number of reasons why people may just open your site and close it immediately. Those who matter are the ones who stay for a certain length of time. Although, for most commercial purposes it is the number of hits on your page that matter, for you to develop a good site it is the people who stay on whom you will have to concentrate on. Only then will you know what people are visiting your site for and provide more of the same. Google Analytics will provide all of these details for you.

Always Give Free Stuff

Stuff? This does not mean that you give out free products. It could very well be a simple eBook on a particular subject or free wallpaper.

For example, if you have a website that is related to IT you could give wallpapers or screen savers that you have designed. Many people do this, but not all ask for contact information as well. Remember we talked about building a list of contacts, well this is a way to do it. Exchange email addresses for content so you can add people to your newsletters and information distribution list.

You do not always have to ask for anything in exchange. There is fine line between giving items away for email addresses and becoming annoying to your visitors asking for some every time you give something away. Treat your readers and website visitors with respect. Give them freebies for simply being a subscribers. This builds reputation. You can even ask them to share this on social media sites for the pleasure. This also build reputations and traffic.

imagine you are opening a medical related site, giving out a short 10 or 20 page eBook on some ailment, say diabetes, will only do good. Of course if this book is not a good one you will be better off not offering it for free as the reputation that you will receive will be bad. If you give out an informative well written book, or a really nice looking wallpaper, people will talk about your site and ultimately the amount of publicity generated will be greater than if you had spend 10 times as much as you did for what you gave away. By offer awesome value or basically something you could charge a fee for, people will love and share your content.

The traffic potential of giving away a free guide takes time, but the viral aspects and out of this world. The more shares and people you have reading and distributing your eBook, the more traffic you will get. Simple.

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