A Beginner's Guide to Getting Web Traffic: Getting visitors to your site

A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Web Traffic

You’ve just built your first Web site. Everything seems to be working, except for the fact that no one is visiting your site. You may feel disappointment, or you may be wondering why you wasted your time, money and energy. Before you lose all hope in your site, consider that building regular, steady traffic takes work. Depending on your personal views of what constitutes a “successful” Web site, it may take months or years to build such a presence. There are some basic steps that you can take that will start the process of generating regular traffic.

Site Assessment
Before you invite anyone to visit your site, you should review your pages with a critical eye. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I offer worthwhile textual content, chunked in legible, short paragraphs?

2. Does my site look clean and professional?

3. Would other webmasters see value in linking to my content?

4. Do my pages load quickly?

No other Web site owners will want to link to you if the link might damage their credibility with their visitors.

Simple Link Strategies
Topic Directories: You may begin your quest for traffic by doing searches for directories of sites that fit your site’s theme. If your site highlights parakeets, go to a search engine and type “parakeet directories,” “pet directories” or “bird directories.” You should then visit the result links and email the webmasters, asking them for inclusion.

Geographical Directories: You may gain entrance into some directories simply because of your geographic location. For example, if you live in California, search for “California directories,” then search for lists that highlight cities in your area. For some directory owners, geographic location is more important for inclusion than site topics.

Similar Sites: Search for sites that are similar to yours. Other webmasters may welcome the opportunity to swap links. For example, your parakeet site might create a logical partnership with a “pet birds” site.

Buy Ads: If you’re in a hurry and you want visitors right away, think about buying advertising. Find sites that have high search engine rankings and make the owners offers for ad placement. It’s a logical, but often overlooked strategy.

Follow these steps, submit to search engines and share your URL with your friends and you’ll be on your way.