How to Easily Boost Your Website's Traffic
Guide Demonstrates the Simplicity of Building Online Audience
Nov 17, 2008
For small business owners with a website, there's often a problem--the website is not attracting the amount of traffic they'd like it to.
Following are two creative ideas that will help bolster the kind of high-quality, high-quantity traffic to a site that it rightfully deserves. Best of all, these ideas are fun and extremely easy to implement. If the reader handles the upkeep of his/her site, great. If not, simply share these tips with the IT person or staff that does.
Create a Blog
It's no secret that the blog has been perhaps the premier fad in the world of cyberspace for quite some time already, yet it's a tool definitely still worth looking into and seriously considering for those who have not yet implemented one.
In a nutshell, a blog allows one to publish thoughts, reflections, and commentary of all kinds quickly and easily.
Many websites feature a blog on one of their pages, while many other blogs constitute the sole feature of a website.
A blog makes for a great addition on an already-existing website because it helps generate a wide variety of additional content for the site, which in turn translates into more search engine results for the site on different key search words and terms. And when visitors come across a site as the result of blog entries, chances are high that they will browse around the other pages of the site, hence making more and more people aware of the existence of the business as a result of the blog.
Two neat examples of how blogs are increasing awareness of small businesses across the Internet are The Falk Group Public Relations and Casey Law Offices, S.C., both Milwaukee, Wisconsin -based firms.
The Falk Group is a public relations firm that has handled projects for many big-name clients throughout the metro-Milwaukee area. The firm's president, Susie Falk, enjoys writing on an array of different topics when she finds the time, so naturally, she felt compelled to have a blog placed on her firm's website. With her interesting perspectives and reflections, the blog is helping the site attract an audience that it may not otherwise attract without it. And while these visitors are reading her latest insights, they are also learning more about her business.
Attorney John Casey of Casey Law Offices, S.C. has been practicing personal injury and family law since 1991. He recently launched a blog on his personal injury website that offers his rich insights and reflections, as well as relevant news stories, concerning this aspect of the law. As with the previous example, Attorney Casey's blog is helping his site attract visitors that might otherwise not come to it. At the same time, the blog provides the opportunity to let more people know about his firm.
Create a Directory of Other Businesses/Websites
Small businesses depend on other small businesses for survival. If there are other businesses that you would recommend to people, do so on your website by creating a page called "Solutions Partners" or "Service Partners", or something similar. On this page, simply provide visitors with links to the websites (or other contact information if a site is not an option) of these other businesses, with perhaps a brief description of the business and why it is recommended to others.
The result is a mini Internet directory of sorts on the website.
By doing this, visitors have yet another reason to continue returning to the site. Just make sure to have these links open in new windows so that visitors can remain on the site!
Take this concept further by asking fellow business owners in the area to do the same on their sites. More links to a site from other sites means more traffic.
Conclusion
In closing, implementing a blog and/or a directory on a website are two great ways to boost traffic. Many websites across the Internet are static, meaning that their content changes very rarely. As a result, many visitors may not return to them after the first time. But with these two creative tips, websites stay fresh and interesting, two key ingriedients for success on the Internet.
