So, you’ve finally completed building your masterpiece WordPress website – now you just need to sit back and wait for traffic, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, having a site is just one very small part of a much bigger picture and merely being online these days isn’t enough to guarantee visitors.
In a world where there are now more web pages than there are people, finding ways to promote your site above your competitors is harder than ever. It simply isn’t realistic to just expect visitors to come to you – rather, if you want traffic, you’ll need to start promoting your site through any number of available channels and techniques.
If you’re struggling to understand the world of online marketing and promotion, read on for some top tips employed by the experts to drive traffic to new and existing websites.
Remember the importance of crafting compelling, engaging content
In 1996, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates famously wrote an essay entitled “Content is King”, and while the work might already be over 25 years old, its message remains as relevant today as ever. Indeed, with the sea of sites and services that exist online these days, Gates’ prescient writings have stood the test of time surprisingly well, and the notion still stands true that good content rules the web.
It’s a proven fact that users are attracted to engaging and compelling content so, if you’re to stand any chance of generating an audience, you should spend time crafting the best and most informed text for your site. Not only will you be more likely to attract new users to your pages, but existing visitors will also be more inclined to share your content. Good text also has the knock-on effect of improving your search engine rankings (more on that later).
Think about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
The practice of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves a highly complex range of tricks and techniques designed to raise the exposure of websites in search engines to generate increased footfall. Successful SEO encompasses everything from changing the underlying coding of pages to be more search engine friendly to tailoring content, optimizing images, and adding meta code.
In truth, to explain SEO in any kind of depth would take far more space than available here, but, in short, unless you have a background in web marketing or understand the practices required for SEO, you would be far better outsourcing the task to a search marketing agency. Professional SEO firms will be able to propel your site far higher up the rankings far quicker than you’ll ever manage if you take a DIY approach.
At the end of the day, you can spend all the time you want tinkering with designs and crafting content but, if your site isn’t ranking in search engines, you’ll stand little chance of building that all-important audience.
With Google now accounting for around 92% of all search-engine-generated traffic, this is the platform you should focus on most – though any professional SEO work will increase your positioning in other engines too.
Consider writing about topics with high-volume, low-competition keywords
Depending on the type of site you’ve produced (and bearing in mind your potential audience), by doing a little research into popular keywords and phrases, you could strike upon content that your users are looking for most. There are two main metrics you should consider here:
Volume of searches: How many times a particular keyword or phrase is searched for by users in Google per month (and, if relevant, by country) to ascertain the keyword demand.
Difficulty of keyword: The relative difficulty of ranking high under the same keyword, based on a scale of 0 to 100.
If you can find keywords that have a low keyword difficulty (say 10) coupled with a high search volume (1,000 would probably work well), then you’ll be more likely to be able to write about topics that are of interest to your users. Note, this task will be made far easier if you first have a clear idea of the point behind your site and what it’s going to offer.
Guest blog for other sites
One of the simplest ways to drive traffic to your site is to piggyback on existing sites and services, using their reputation to broadcast your message. Guest blogging won’t just give you the chance to reach a wider audience; it will also let you demonstrate your knowledge and, crucially, add an inward link to your site.
Google’s first search algorithm was initially based primarily on prioritizing sites by the number of inward links they had from quality sites and, while the system has evolved considerably over the years, quality links remain at the backbone of how Google organizes listings in its Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Get involved on Quora
Quora is a relatively new question and answer service where users can post or reply to questions on pretty much any topic. Similar to guest blogging, answering a question on Quora will provide you with a great opportunity to show your expertise and knowledge on a topic – and also insert that oh-so-valuable link back to your website.
Post content to relevant communities and groups
Forum sites have been popular for years, but these services have evolved considerably over the years – to the point even the likes of Facebook now promote groups while forum-based services like Reddit continue to grow in popularity.
However, while groups and communities can be a great way to promote your site, you should resist the temptation to just head in with a gung-ho spamming approach, as there’s no quicker way to find yourself banned. Rather, take the time to establish the trust of a group before adding links to your pages (this is particularly relevant for the Reddit service).
If appropriate to your site, post content to YouTube
YouTube is part of the massively successful Alphabet group that also owns Google, so it should come as no great surprise that, as well as being the king of streaming video, the platform also now doubles as the world’s second most popular search engine. Posting immersive content to YouTube is one of the best indirect marketing tricks you can use to generate a bigger audience and bring visitors to your site. Just remember that one all-important rule – make your videos relevant, interesting and engaging.
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