Before I begin I need to make it clear that there are different types of traffic and lots of traffic doesn’t necessarily equal big bucks. You see, when people connect to the internet they have different ideas of what they want to achieve. Some people simply want to be entertained and to connect with friends. Whilst there are others who use the internet in order to buy products.
Imagine that a very famous celebrity (for the sake of example let’s say it’s Britney Spears) was involved in some sort of scandal and thousands of people start searching for information about the scandal. When they find the information they are looking for they just move onto other things, whether it’s checking the email or whatever. Basically they are looking for information and entertainment (infotainment?) and that’s it.
However the person who wants to buy perfume by Britney will type something along the lines of “buy Britney Spears perfume.” So if you’re selling Britney Spears perfume you will want this sort of traffic rather than the traffic where people want to know about the scandal she’s been involved in.
Anyway, if you just want to learn about methods of generating traffic to your website for free then here are some great ideas. Some of them might attract people who are looking to spend money whilst other techniques might just attract browsers. At the end of the day, you might as well give it a go and see how you get on.
YouTube
We all know that YouTube is the ‘net’s most popular video sharing website with millions of people using it to watch music videos, funny videos and also “how to” videos. There are loads of people who go straight to YouTube to find what they are looking for however there are also loads of people who find the site via the search engines. For instance, if you do a search for Britney Spears on Google you will see that YouTube videos appear.
If you create a video and upload it to YouTube you can tap into the traffic from the site itself plus traffic that come in via the search engines. What kind of video you create really depends on what your website is about. If you own a florist in Delaware you could create a video about you and the flowers that you sell. You could do a demonstration on how to arrange flowers and the likes. Just make sure you give the video a title you think people would search for. For example “Florist in Wilmington, Delaware.”
Google’s Local Business Results
If you have a “brick and mortar” business such as a florist or accountancy firm then you can create an account with Google and register your details here: www.google.com/local/add . Before the internet really took hold on society people just looked up their local copy or the yellow pages or their local news paper to find companies. However these days more and more people are using the internet search engines. So sign up with Google’s Local Business Results to get free exposure to your business’ website.
StumbleUpon (SU)
This is a very popular social website where people submit web pages they like and other people can vote them up or down. You can pay SU for traffic however you can also get it for free, especially if your website is very good and other people like it. The more frequently people vote it up the more traffic you will get. The problem is that the people who use SU have a short attention span and usually are not interested in buying anything. However if you still want pursue this method of traffic generation you should submit webpages that are informative or entertaining. Don’t just submit a product page with sales copy on it because people don’t find this of much interest to them.
Search Engine Optimzation (SEO)
If you want a constant stream of well-targeted visitors to your website learning SEO is a must. A lot of people try to make out that SEO is very difficult. However the people doing this are usually trying to sell SEO services so they want to make it sound as scary and complex as possible. However it’s actually quite simple. What it comes down to is including as many different keywords as you can within your website, especially the title of your website. Although it’s quite simple, there is a lot to learn so you will need to do further research on this topic.
Google Trends
If you are just looking for as much traffic as you can and don’t care about whether they will buy anything, then you should look at google.com/trends/hottrends. Basically it’s a list of the most searched for topics on the net. Usually people are just wanting to know about celebrity gossip and politics. However sometimes they also want to know more about new products that are being released. If you write about these subjects you should start to get a lot of traffic, the problem is trying to make money from the traffic you get.
Conclusion
There are actually quite a lot of other techniques that you can use. Some of them are legitimate whilst others aren’t. There are methods coming out all the time whenever there is a new craze on the internet. In the past people were going crazy over MySpace whereas now it’s more about Twitter and Facebook. There’s loads of free info on the web so don’t waste your money by buying an ebook claiming to make you rich. They’re just a waste of time and money.
If you are a website owner then you really need to get visitors/traffic to it in order to promote your business and make sales. A lot of people go to their local website designer and get a website created but then do nothing to promote it. It’s kind of like having a printer print you up some fantastic looking business cards and brochures but then you simply stick them up in your attic to allow them to gather dust. What’s the point in that?
So here you will find out about what you need to do to get traffic to your website and what the different types of traffic is.
Un-Targeted Traffic
In order to understand what type of traffic you want to get to your website, you need to understand the type you should avoid. A lot of people who are new to trading on the internet think that somehow the rules that apply to the offline world don’t apply to the internet. This is how so many people get ripped off by buying into products and services that are completely and entirely useless.
(Ultimately it’s traffic that comes from the search engines that convert best into buyers so it’s search engine traffic that will be discussed here.)
If in the real world you are trying to sell a guitar, would you walk into a shoe shop and start trying to sell? Of course not because the people in the shoe shop want to buy shoes - not a guitar.
Even if you target people who like music and perhaps can play guitar you’re going to have quite a hard sell on your hands because the person isn’t really in a buying mood. They might make an impulse buy if the price is cheap enough or your are lucky enough to find someone who is looking for a guitar. But generally you’re going to have to be a very good sales person to sell anything this way. And you are going to have to approach a lot of people in order to get a sale.
Targeted Traffic
However if someone has been thinking of buying a guitar for quite some time, they’ve done lots of research on the subject and have decided they want to buy a red Yamaha Pacifica with practice amp then selling to this person is going to be much easier because they have a need for the product.
When it comes to a website the trick is to identify the sort of keywords that people type into the search engines in order to buy a product from you. Sticking with the guitar theme, according to Free Keyword Tracker, ~4000 people a day search for “guitar“. But exactly do you think they are looking for?
Your guess is as good as mine, they maybe want to buy a guitar, download tabs, watch videos, find out about the different types, the history and anything else for that matter. Basically ranking for “guitar” might seem really impressive but you’re only going to end up with a lot of useless traffic. Also, remember traffic costs money in terms of your website hosting account so you could end up spending hundreds of dollars on hosting just to get useless traffic.
If someone is looking for a guitar they will quite often start with something very basic like “guitar” and then start refining their search as they gather more knowledge. The sequence might look something like:-
Guitar
Electric guitar
Fender electric guitar
Fender Strat electric guitar
Fender Squier Affinity Electric Guitar Pack
Basically the more specific they are in their search, generally it’s more likely they are going to make a purchase. So instead of putting your efforts into ranking for what’s known as a “top level keyword” you should be trying to rank for the “long tail buying keyword.” You’ll not get as much traffic but the conversion rate is going to be considerably higher.
