Photo Credit http://stockfresh.com/gallery/timurock
Want more traffic to your blog or website? Here’s an important strategy…
D – I – V – E – R – S – I – F – Y
(Oh, and also, share something worth reading or that makes your website worth visiting but that goes without saying, right? This post will assume you have good content or other good stuff to share!)
Where’s your website’s traffic coming from? I’ll share a behind the scenes peek at where mine comes from tomorrow so stop back by or sign up on the right side of the page to get notified when I add new posts here.
I’ve been asked how much time I spend on SEO (search engine optimization) on my own sites… and the honest answer is: not very much.
Do I do keyword research and check out the competition of a phrase? Sometimes. But I don’t let it rule every post and every page. If I want to write about how much I love my afternoon mocha or why article marketing is a great promotional tool, I’m going to do that and I don’t care so much if there are already 1,000,000 pages out there about it. Of course there are lots of posts about how wonderful a mocha is in the afternoon!
My point: I don’t depend on search engines as my only or even my main source of traffic. Search engine algorithms (the complicated list of what factors into how your pages rank and how much each thing counts) is complicated and for competitive terms it’s a lot of work to get to the top of those rankings. Then you wake up one morning and realize you’ve got no traffic because the search engine you were focused on changed something. I don’t see that as the best strategy to build your entire business on. It’s great to know and understand search engine optimization. I’ve done it both for myself and for clients in the past and gotten to the top of Google, so it’s possible, it’s just not what I focus on now.
I like a more diversified approach. By working to create different streams of traffic to my website, I don’t have to worry if one stream stops working (sort of like creating multiple streams of income that we hear so much about if we’re building a business online).
By using multiple methods to build traffic, I’m also building getting other benefits like visibility, a network of partners and fans, and getting great backlinks that wouldn’t happen if I only focused on search engine optimization.
So what strategies do I use? Here’s a sample:
- Guest blogging
- Article directories
- Publishing articles on other websites
- Commenting on blogs
- Social networking
- My affiliates
- My ezine and email marketing
- Testimonials
- Encouraging RSS readers/subscribers
Tomorrow I’ll post exactly where my traffic’s coming from and give you a peek at my referrer info.
How about you? What have you found that works for driving traffic to your website?
I agree that the more traffic avenues utilized, the better. I do however optimize for search engines as often as possible, and I receive a good amount of traffic monthly from searches. I also have sites around the web that generate traffic and income strictly from search engines. So, I firmly believe SEO holds merit in marketing online.
When it comes to blogs, I think it is another thing that is a personal choice (as so many things are with blogs). The marketing method is only as effective as your passion for it.
It definitely holds merit. I agree. :) I’ll go re-read as I didn’t mean to come across totally against it.
But what saddens me is when I see bloggers or small business owners feeling like then need to spend an hour analyzing and tweaking every single post before they publish. Especially if that time takes over and it’s the only marketing strategy being utilized because it is consuming so much time. There are so many great ways to get traffic out there.
Oh, no worries! All of it can be a headache, especially if too much time or energy is put into any one method.
Recently the stars have had to align perfectly and lightning needs to strike the same place twice for me to get any article marketing done…and I know full well how effective that can be. It is on temporary hold to prevent endless hours of computer stare downs. :)
Michelle,
Using every tool that you can effective use is always a good idea. That is what is great about the web, you do have plenty to choose from.
Looking forward to seeing what works best for you.