Title: How do I get more website traffic?

Written by: WebDesignDoorCounty

After 12 years in the business of designing and promoting websites, I can say categorically that this is the question we are asked most often "How do I get more website traffic?"

First of all, despite all you read online about the magic tricks and techniques needed to rank well, there really are no 'secrets to getting web traffic', per se. In fact, if you go to Google Webmaster Tools you'll basically find all the information you need to optimize and attain good page rankings for your website. Granted, 5 years ago that was not the case, but Google has worked hard in trying to level the playing field so that Mom and Pop website owners have the same knowledge on ranking techniques that the bigger "SEO fueled" websites have.

Great. So why don't I have any website traffic?

Well, you need to read, understand and implement the strategies that Google provides, and that can be time consuming. So you have three options.

1 - Do nothing and hope that you'll just pop up at number 1 of Google someday and everything will be fine.
2 - DIY SEO - read, learn and implement strategies yourself.
3 - Pay a company to do it for you.

If you feel inclined to trust in option 1, read no further. If you feel option 2 is within your scope of expertise then read on, I have some good information for you. If you prefer to pay for services, then visit us at www.webdesigndoorcounty.com and we provide you with lots of information on web design, Joomla, SEO and ways in which to contact us to request a no-obligation quote.

So assuming you are willing to have a go at promoting your website yourself, your strategy for getting more web traffic will depend largely on -

A - Your Budget
B - Your skill level
C - Your industry (type of website)
D - Your time frame

Obviously a company with a large multi-thousand dollar marketing budget is going to approach traffic building strategies differently than a small company with more modest resources.

This article is really geared towards smaller companies trying to develop web traffic on a shoestring budget.
Let's assume that for arguments sake you have fully built your website, have it hosted on a reliable host platform with a unique IP address, have covered basic on-page optimization steps, and you're ready to start marketing your 'finished' website. Is that a safe assumption in most cases? No, probably not. Most website designers skip over basic website optimization to try and keep their costs in line with a clients budget. Also, despite their claims to the contrary, most website design companies often do not have the skills to perform good SEO.
Anyway, let's assume a $500 initial budget and a $100 month ongoing budget and that you do not have an aggressive time frame for getting new traffic/sales. The techniques will vary for everyone, but a sensible approach to getting more web traffic on a modest budget would be as follows -

1. Create an Adwords account at www.google.com and deposit $35.00 into your account. Using Google keywords tool, create a list of 25+ of your search terms and setup bids avoiding the more generic and higher cost search terms. Perhaps cap at $0.75 cents per click initially. Set a $35.00 monthly cap on your account so your spending is controlled and predictable. Install ad tracking so you can see how your investment with Google converts into sales or leads. Each month you'll need to sit down and asses your return on investment and decide if it's positive or not. You can switch off your spending after a couple months if you decide it isn't cost effective.
2. Do the same at Yahoo Search Marketing. Create your account and use the same keyword phrases that you've setup with Google, and install Yahoo tracking to see how your clicks convert. After 2 months look at your Google and Yahoo results side by side and see what your true cost per click is on each, and what your real ROI is. You can then decide whether to keep both accounts active, close one, or close both. You may also decide to close one and transfer the budget from the closed account to the other open account. For example, you where spending $35 each month on each account ($70 total) and you found that Yahoo has a better conversion rate so you closed Google and increased your spend with Yahoo to $70/mth
3. Take $200.00 from your budget and use it to pay for an incoming link building service. Research the subject and look for those companies with real testimonials and who offer full reporting on where your links will be placed. Ensure that they place links only on sites from compatible industries and target at least a few high PR websites.
4. Take $75 from your budget and find several industry website directories and pay to add your link into their database. Make sure that they use real links and not javascript links that won't create any link juice for you. Write different descriptions based around your primary keywords for each directory, so they don't look too canned.
5. If your website is regional, or if you think you can benefit from local traffic, join your local area Chamber of Commerce and pay for a website listing. These sites often command higher PR's and do well on local searches. You should expect to pay around $125 for a local directory listing, and will need to renew it each year. You could divide this by 12 in some instances and pay monthly or quarterly if you prefer.

At this point your $500 budget looks like so
$35 Google + $35 Yahoo + $200 link building + $75 directories + $125 Chamber = $470

So you're pretty much at your limit for the first round of investment but you can start to think about your next month strategy which should be split between some PPC ads on Google Yahoo and continued link building.
If you've found, as many people do, that the Return on Investment (ROI) from Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing is negative, and you prefer to drop that expenditure entirely, then use some of the money to have articles written for your website. You should obviously be the primary source for written content, since you know your industry best, but sometimes the writing just dries up and it's OK to pay a company $25 or so to create a press release or article for your business. You can also spend some of your monthly budget on Press release distribution, as a means to building more web traffic. You won't gain a lot from this but it will help directly and indirectly. This highlights the importance of tracking your advertising online so you can see how it converts. It's not just important, it is essential, assuming you do not want to go broke. Print and more conventional media marketing make it difficult to track where your leads are coming from and how they interact with your website. The online world is different, you can track every lead and follow each visitor through your website to see how they react to the information you are presenting, it's absolutely essential that you take advantage of tracking techniques.
After 3 months or so you should hopefully be able to increase your marketing budget and start to develop into other area's of marketing, perhaps some higher-level SEO or intensified link building campaigns. Keep within your budget and keep monitoring/checking your returns and you can start to see good results on a modest budget within six months or so.
And don't forget to visit Google for information on SEO and visit us on www.webdesigndoorcounty.com for a good deal of information on web design and SEO including designing with Joomla and Wordpress, and working with eCommerce.

Carl Hruza
CEO - Connect Online Services
PO Box 382, Egg Harbor WI,54209
www.webdesigndoorcounty.com