(by 14 people)
Strike a Bullseye and Get Just the Visitors you Need
It doesn't matter if you get a gazillion visitors to your website, if they aren't buying, what's the point? So what should you be doing? Try to get targeted web traffic. This means, in short, that you are only getting the visitors who are really interested in what your website is all about. Therefore, you'll be getting longer visits, more frequent visits, more referrals to your sites, more backlinks, and more sales.
This Sounds Like a LOT of Work...
If you're thinking it's a lot of work to get targeted web traffic, you're right! You've probably heard a lot of places scream out that content is what will really get traffic...it's true. If you aren't up for some web work, you may want to find something else to do for a living, or hire someone to do it for you. Are you up for it? Targeted Traffic Poll...
All the traffic in the world could leave you broke! Are your visitors just dropping by and leaving, or are they opening their wallets, if that is your goal? This is called buyer conversion. If you have a web store or goal in mind...
Ok, I Think I'm Up For This...
If you're up for the task, there are some definite ways to increase your targeted web traffic. First off, try to think of your target audience. If you know what your site is about, you should know your target audience. Ask yourself these questions:- Who are my visitors? There's nothing wrong with "lumping" your visitors into a certain group. You just have to provide them with something valuable!
- What sites will your readers be visiting frequently? These sites should be your target for having your link added.
- What are all of these people looking for?
- How do you fit into what these people are looking for?
- What else are these type of people buying?
- Is there a certain geographic location these buyers are located?
- Is the subject/product "hot" or newsworthy?
- Is the subject/product popular or in demand?
External Efforts
- banners on similar sites to your own or about your topic
- Directory submissions
- Article Marketing
- Adwords Marketing
- Niche Marketing
Here are some of the most ineffective marketing strategies:
- Spamming MySpace
- Spamming forums
- Ineffective Adwords placements
- Email Spam
- Link Farms
- Irrelevant Reciprocal Links
- Bad Web Content
- Links to and from x-rated sites
- Aimless, random marketing
- Overuse or misleading advertising and Adwords
- Pop-up ads
If you think spamming is going to help you in some way, even a little, think of it like this: what major company that you know of started out spamming? Sure, you might get an unwanted email every now and then from Bed, Bath and Beyond, but these are usually targeted in some way. If you'd like to be where they are, don't spam!
New to this Whole SEO Thing?
You can get a good kickstart to marketing your site online by visiting this lens. Learn some search engine optimization basics, and some tried and true ways to raise your visibility in search engines.-
How to Submit your URL to Search Engines, Google
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"How can you index your website in the search engines?" This is an often asked question for any website owners, Squidoo users, Bloggers, and eBay sellers. There are several top search engines to think about, the obvious being Google and Yahoo. Index...
Digging Deep into your Keywords
To get the right audience to your website, you need to get very specific. There's a reason it's called niche marketing! For instance, there are thousands of companies that claim to increase your web traffic. The phrase "web traffic" is one of the most competitve search terms out there. However, if you dug a little deeper and became more specific in what your site was about, like "Overstock auctions web traffic," you're getting a little more specific. There's not much chance that you'll get much traffic with a line on your site or a text ad like "web traffic," but the second phrase might be a winner.
The deeper you dig for more specific terms, and the more you stick to one relevant subject or topic, the better your chances are becoming relevant to the search engines. Here are some comparisons of some good search terms vs. bad...
BAD: wooden tables
GOOD: solid cherry dropleaf dining room tables
BAD: digital cameras
GOOD: refurbished Nikon Coolpix digital cameras
The Best Competition is NO Competition!
What's the best thing to write about? Something no one has written about yet! You're competition will be little to non-existent.
Listen to your Gut!
Incoming links are a major contributor in not only traffic, but your page rank as well. The more relevant sites that are linked to your site, the more weight your site has. A link like a forum signature does not hold as much weight as a link on MSN's home page. While forum signature traffic can be good and important, it's not as highly regarded in SEO.
Do you have good ethics?
In your efforts to get more backlinks to your site, you really have to be ethical and listen to your gut. Look for sites that really are relevant to your site and have great content that is useful. Be sure to scan the whole site to be sure they are not linking to sites that aren't reputable. If you're tempted to bite on a site that has a high page ranking but doesn't look all that appealing, remember this: search engines change every day. What's on the front page today could be on page 4,688 tomorrow. If you remain ethical, your site will gain exposure and page rank naturally.
The Power of Persuasion...
With the dawn of YouTube, Blogs, Podcasts, MySpace and Social Bookmarking, it's extremely important to learn how to utilize these trends using your own words and persuasion.
Secrets of Online Persuasion: Captivating the Hearts, Minds and Pocketbooks of Thousands Using Blogs, Podcasts and Other New Media Marketing Tools
Amazon Price: $14.21 (as of 10/10/2008)
Kenrick Cleveland reviews the book on Amazon, "I kept hearing all the hype about "new media" (YouTube, MySpace, blogging) but the only thing I really understood was that it seemed to be something that kids did -- mine in particular. LOL I completely missed the point.
Something kept telling me that it was important I understood what the power of the new media is and how I could harness it. That's when I found, Secrets of Online Persuasion..."
This book has received an excellent 4.5 star rating out of 10 users!
Backlinks
Increasing your Backlinks
Backlinks to your site are a highly important factor in the success of your website. The number of links and quality of sites that direct users to your own site is something Google takes very seriously.-
Where to get Backlinks to your Site
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Well, no one...except search engines! If you want to people to read your page on the web, you need to have plenty of incoming links pointing right at your site. Search engines value the quantity, quality, and relevance of these links. The trouble wit...
Popular Targeted Traffic Methods
Article Marketing Links
Article marketing is a great way to show your stuff. If you are a great writer and know a lot about what you are selling or doing, write an article about it. Readers view article authors as experts in what they are writing about, so do it well and you'll earn some trust and some traffic.
How Exactly does Article Marketing Make you Money?
It's one of the most targeted forms of traffic on the web. Here's an example: You're searching for new laptops online, and you're researching what the best laptop might be for travel. In your search, you come across an article about what features make for an excellent laptop for frequent travelers. The article is very informative, and you decide to click on the link at the bottom of the article, which directs you to an online store some of the laptops mentioned in the article. You find a deal on the laptop you want, and you buy it! That's targeted web traffic, and the author of the article provided you with some excellent information that helped you make an informed decision about your purchase.
- EZine Articles
- The most visited online article site on the web.
- Buzzle.com
- Buzzle.com is comprised of a dynamic network of authors and content contributors who we proudly refer to as our Intelligent Life on the Web.
- Geckoe Articles
- Free article submissions accepted for a large variety of businesses and subject matters.
- Is Article Marketing Worth Your Time?
- The idea from the writer's point of view is that you can increase your exposure by having your content reproduced around the Internet. Your are rewarded with one-way incoming links from the resource box, you don't have to reciprocate as you would with link exchanges, which in theory should reward you with better search engine rankings.
- Create top-quality Articles on Virtually any Subject in Minutes
- Continually posting unique, high quality content to your web sites is one of the only ways to keep the attention of your visitors and the search engines. An 8-week refund policy ensures that this product is worth the download.
- Squidoo
- Don't forget Squidoo! Squidoo isn't exactly an article, but it may be even better...with more freedom of content, html, links and design, Squidoo is one of the best places to go to promote your site effectively. You'll get $5 for signing up through this links after you earn your first $15!
Recommended Web Traffic Books
Web Traffic Magnet: 55 free things you can do to drive traffic to your website
Avg. Customer Rating: 
Amazon Price: $11.95 (as of 10/10/2008)
List Price: $11.95
Used Price:
Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site (2nd Edition)
Avg. Customer Rating: 
Amazon Price: $31.49 (as of 10/10/2008)
List Price: $49.99
Used Price: $21.50
Increase Your Web Traffic in a Weekend, Fifth Edition
Avg. Customer Rating: 
Amazon Price: $16.49 (as of 10/10/2008)
List Price: $24.99
Used Price: $17.25
Pay Per Click
Is it worth it? PPC, or pay per click advertising, like adwords and yahoo search marketing, offer great programs to help with your traffic. It's highly targeted and can be very effective, but you have to know how to use it correctly. Clicks can often be $1 per click and much higher...are your products or services expensive enough to justify this form of advertising?
Social Bookmarking Links
In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine."
Here are some of the most popular Social Bookmarking sites...
- Digg
- Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users.
- StumbleUpon
- Channel surf the internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar to find great websites, videos, photos and more based on your interests. StumbleUpon learns what you like and makes better recommendations.
- del.icio.us
- del.icio.us is a collection of favorites - yours and everyone else's.
- SocialMarker.com
- Social bookmarking is a powerful tool in promoting a website. But going through all of those social bookmarking sites is very time-consuming and downloading all toolbars is madness! That's where SocialMarker.com comes in, the free service designed to reduce the time and effort needed to socially bookmark a website
- Reddit is a source for what's new and popular online. vote on links that you like or dislike and help decide what's popular, or submit your own!
- simpy
- Simpy is a social bookmarking service that lets you save, tag, search and share your bookmarks, notes, groups and more.
- Furl
- Furl is a social bookmarking site that makes it easy to save, share, and explore favorite web pages.
- Diigo
- Diigo is about "Social Annotation," the best way to collect, share and interact on online information from anywhere.
- Bookmarking Demon
- Get Targeted Traffic from major bookmarking sites...without having to do it yourself. Just fill in some blanks and press the start button, and you start increasing your Affiliate Commissions, Product Sales And Adsense Income!
- Google Says Use Digg for Link Building
- Google Defines Good Linking & Bad Linking.
Confused about RSS Feeds?
You've probably heard a lot about RSS Feeds, but with little explanation. Here's the definition from Wikipedia to solve that!
RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works ? such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video ? in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",
"Web feeds | RSS | The Guardian | guardian.co.uk",
The Guardian, London, 2007, webpage:
GuardianUK-webfeeds.
or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content quickly and automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based or desktop-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's URI into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
The initials "RSS" are used to refer to the following formats: "Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)", "RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.90)", or "Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)".
RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. Although RSS formats have evolved since March 1999, the RSS icon ("Category: Image - :Feed-icon.svg|16px") first gained widespread use in 2005?2006.
Remember...
Don't Spam! It will ruin your reputation, get you limited to zero results, and can cost you money. Use opt-in mailing lists, real contributions to forums, and of course, real content!
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Web Directories: Submit your Site!
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A web directory is an excellent place to add your URL and gain a quick backlink. Not to be confused with search engines, web directories are compilations of websites categorized by topic. Not only do they offer a backlink, but traffic from directorie...
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How to Create a Captivating About Us Page for your Business
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An "about," "about us," "about me," "company information," or "about the company" page can be a valuable asset to a website, and is one of the most important web pages of your site. Often times an about us page will be one of the first results when s...
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The Best and Most Effective Way to Promote your Business...FREE Advertising!
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We've all grown up with advertising. TV, radio, billboards, pop ups, banners...it's everywhere, and you can't escape it. Now stop and think for a second...how many times have you clicked on an advertisement online, or heard a commercial on the radio...
Have Something to Say?
Had a good experience getting targeted traffic to your site? What has helped you? Share it with everyone and exchange tips here!
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Roxy_Calamari
I definitely learned something here! Much work to do. Thanks:) Posted August 07, 2008 |
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GlobalOpps
Good Job Kiwi, another 5*. We have found a great, step by step system for building targeted traffic that doesn't stop. It's Renegade University, and they teach a strictly white hat, quality content system for rocketing up the search engines. Training is step by step- so easy even we can do it! And best of all, this university is tuition free. Posted March 29, 2008 |
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glowchick
Great lens. I love all the info. Keep up the good work! Posted March 17, 2008 |
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EvieJewelry
Thanks for the great info Posted March 17, 2008 |
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flowski
Great tips and tricks for SEO of your websites, thanks! Posted March 14, 2008 |
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BizMom
Good advice, I do a lot of web2.0 marketing and love it. Posted March 07, 2008 |
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NewRiver
Great info! Posted March 04, 2008 |
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fanfreluche
Another useful lens!! From the storeboard with love! Posted February 28, 2008 |
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beesknees-23
Excellent information, well done!! Five paws up!! Posted February 27, 2008 |
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sisterra
Excellent Lens!! I will be back to use all this info again and again. Posted February 27, 2008 |
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Billco
You've created another informative thread. I'll come back to this one! Posted February 27, 2008 |
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Signhappy
Very informative lens. Saw you on the stores board. 5 stars! Posted February 27, 2008 |
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