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Getting Free, Targeted Traffic to Your Web Site using Online Forums
Online forums are a great place to meet people, learn things
and, most importantly, build traffic for your web site. You can
build heaps of traffic to your site by just following these few,
simple guidelines.
Help People Every Chance You...
How to Get One Way Backlinks
Don't be fooled into believing that all backlinks are created equal because their not! Why, you may ask? It's no secret that many webmasters trade links left, and right, for the benefit of a higher ranking in the search results, but search engines...
How To Promote Your Online Store
Copyright 2005 Denise OBerry OK. So you took the leap and started your online store. But, oops, there are no customers and your store is lost in the crowd. All is not lost. You just need to be very creative in how you market your site. The key...
Using Forums to Promote Your Business
When is work not really work? When it's fun! Using online forums, also called message boards, can be a fun way to promote your business in a low key way. Benefits: You cultivate relationships with others You learn about all kinds of topics Your...
Using Free Publicity to Build Your Web Site Links and Traffic
So, you have a great product or service, yet your web site is not getting the high rankings and traffic you desire from the top search engines like Google and MSN Search.
You’re not alone. This scenario is playing out all across the web, yet...
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Marketing Your Website
Market my website? Why should I have to spend time and money marketing my website? It's supposed to be marketing my business!!!
That's how so many business owners feel, they spend a bit of money on their website design and then sit, doing nothing, waiting in vain for it to start paying dividends and bringing in the customers.
It's very simple really, nobody is going to come to your new site if they don't know about it - if they don't see mention of it, a link to it or aren't recommended it.
So how can you get your website noticed? Here's a list of the common methods you can use:
- Traditional Ads & Marketing
- Search Engines
- Online Directories
- Links Development Campaign
- Participation in Online Discussion Forums
- Article Submission
- Pay Per Click
- Banner Ads
Traditional Marketing
Magazine & newspaper ads, Yellow Pages, PR articles, leaflets & door drops, business cards, email signatures, company stationary, company vehicles, the front of your store. These and many more are places you can and should advertise your website's URL.
Search Engines
Getting to the top of a keyword search on the major search engines - Google, Yahoo etc. - is high on the wish list of most website owners. Unfortunately it's not something that will happen straightaway. It can take many months of adding content, getting links from other sites and optimising your content for keywords to get a high listing.
Online Directories
Directories are collections of website addresses that are collated by human beings. Most will charge a fee for inclusion, DMOZ/ODP is the one
everyone wants to get listed in - it's free and will have a great effect on your search engine ranking, but expect to wait months if not years for a listing.
Links Development
This is one of the most powerful ways of promoting your site. It means getting other (hopefully related) sites to include links to yours. To get a link simply email the site owners and ask for one. Often you'll have to reciprocate the kindness i.e. link to their site as well but some will be happy to list your URL for nothing.
If you're a member of local business groups then don't forget to include your web address on their sites. What about all your suppliers, can you get a
listing on theirs?
Not only will you get people visiting your site via all these links, you'll also improve your position on search engine listings (search engines algorithms take the number of links to
your site to be an indication of its importance).
Discussion Forums
Another way you can attract attention is by participating in online discussion forums (to do with your area of expertise of course!). Most will allow you to include a website link in your
signature, i.e. a link to your site in every post you make.
Article Submission
This is a brilliant way of getting noticed. If you don't have any problems writing essays then get your pen out! There are many sites that allow you to submit your articles for free and
they should all allow you to include a resource section on yourself or company with a link back to your site.
Pay Per Click
Pay Per Click (PPC) is a very good way of driving traffic to a site in the short term. Google's Adwords is one of the best known PPC systems around,
Overture provide another.
When somebody searches for keywords in Google you get a list of 'sponsored links' on the right hand column (go to Google and search for 'catering work' and see the sponsored links on the right). The owners of the sites don't pay anything unless the person browsing clicks through to their site.
Banner Ads
It might be worth putting up a Banner Ads on sites you know your prospective clients are likely to visit. The ads, which will be made to click through to your website, come in GIF format or, increasingly, are created in Flash for a more striking and memorable ad.
Pricing is often Cost Per Click (CPC) but most common is Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM). CPM is related to how many people see your ad.
As you can see, there are many ways of building up traffic to your site. If you've got products, services or content that people want and you're willing to put some effort into some of these methods then you will soon start to see a rise in
visitors.
About the Author
Trevor Lewis has over 10 years in the Software Industry. He is currently a Senior Consultant at EMNM.
EMNM offer a range of new media design services including interactive CD presentations and website design.
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