29 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Web Site
by Maria Marsala
In 1998, if you wanted someone to find your Web site, you placed some
META tags on it and submitted it to free search engines or directories.
In 2002, there are many ways to help your Web site be found including
the following examples.
1. Build a solid business foundation. Design a business plan, marketing
plan, ideal client profile and a site map for your Web site.
2. Be consistent. Brand your company.
3. Make your Web site trustable. This article will show you 10 ways:
http://www.coachmaria.com/articles/trustableweb.html
4. Create policies that build trust: customer service, code of ethics
and newsletter privacy policy.
5. If you have pages on your site that you update monthly (such as an
articles page or recommended links page), say so on the page.
6. Find easy and secure ways for your clients to pay you. A shopping
cart with PayPal and a secure merchant account works very well.
7. Network locally to bring people to your site.
8. Check your links regularly to make sure they all work. Use a free
link checker like: http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
9. Place your Web site address on all your printed literature --
business cards, brochures, newsletters, letterhead, e-mail signature,
ads, everything.
10. Offer added values that make sense to your business and ideal
client. This can include affiliate programs, books and recommended links
to Web sites.
11. Use your Web address in your signature for e-mails (change it
regularly to highlight something new you're promoting).
12. Add a "Recommend This Site" link on your site. If someone visits
your site and knows someone else who may appreciate it, this feature
will e-mail the page's link to a recipient.
13. Provide monthly chats or bulletin boards (forums) to build a
relationships and community.
14. Instead of a link to subscribe to your e-zine, offer a subscription
box on your most viewed Web site pages.
15. Teach classes or speak to groups about subjects relating to your
products.
16. Use permission marketing by gathering the e-mail addresses of
students or the audience as part of your evaluation form.
17. Add a favorites script such as "add this page to your favorites
list" to some pages.
18. Conduct periodic contests and announce the winners on your site.
19. Offer a free e-book on your site. This could be two pages of
information that would be helpful to your visitors that contains your
business information, too. Recommend that this e-book be forwarded to
others for their personal use.
20. On large Web sites, create a "What's New" page, or even better, ask
your Web designer to design a site map for your visitors.
21. Write articles, post them to your site, and submit them to article
banks such as http://www.coachmaria.com/articles/articlebanks.html.
22. Design some quizzes. Statistics show that visitors love quizzes and
assessment tools.
23. Participate in online forums as an expert. You get to quietly
promote your business in your three or four line signature.
24. Join a few Web rings. Some sites to visit are:
http://www.Webring.com/rw and http://www.bravenet.com.
25. Search engines look for certain things, so it is crucial to make
sure your site is search-engine friendly.
-
Title tags: Title tags should be 60 or so characters and have some
keywords in them.
- Header tags are numbered from one to seven: Header 1 tags are
recognized by some search engines. So make sure you use this tag.
-
Keyword META tags: Add no more than 15 to 20 keywords to keep the
search engines from flagging your site for keyword spamming. Prioritize
your words. The best way to submit to search engines is to submit to
each engine individually.
-
Use keywords in the text area of each page. They are especially
important at the beginning of sentences and higher up on the page.
26. Search engines do not find your site unless you submit your site's
information to them. Below are three ways to submit your site:
- It is recommended that you submit to search engines individually
(this is also the way I do it and it works great, but is time
consuming). Visit http://www.coachmaria.com/webmarketing.html.
- Since some people prefer to use a free service to submit, I recommend
that they open a free e-mail address to use when you do anything for
free on the world wide Web. Three good search engine submission services
are
http://www.registerit.com, http://www.submitit.com and
http://www.scrubtheweb.com.
- Paid submission programs can be purchased through companies such as:
http://www.se-optimizer.com, http://www.webpositiongold.com,
http://www.positionagent.com
27. Visit these search engine information sites:
http://www.searchengineguide.com and http://www.searchenginewatch.com
28. Want to know more about Internet Marketing? Visit the Internet
Marketing Index at http://www.internetmarketingindex.com
29. If this list seems overwhelming, visit your favorite search engine
and start interviewing experienced search engine optimizers and
consultants.
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About the Author:
Maria Marsala is a business & life coach-consultant. Maria works with
successful individuals as they take their success to an even higher
level. Subscribe to "Helping You and Your Business Grow" our free weekly
online newsletter or download our free business start up e-book.
http://www.CoachMaria.com/ebook/download.html.