7 Ways To Get More Traffic To Your Site
Our host today is Alex. If you're interested in getting in front of the readers of Site Sketch 101, check out our guest posting invitation here.
Whether you’re running a website for fun or trying to earn money on the internet by blogging, you no doubt want more traffic – I mean, who wouldn’t like their site to be more popular right?
So this post is about exactly that. My own personal cheat sheet for when I want to boost my traffic, build my authority or just generally get my message infront of new readers.
1 – Guest Posting:
Like what I’m doing now! I don’t really guest post for SEO reasons, there are better ways to do that. For me; guest posting is an opportunity to “meet” new readers. It’s great to get your face out, interact with other bloggers and just generally be social. You get a flurry of new readers, make connections and probably some new ideas for your own site.
2 – Commenting:
Ok, so again, you get some nice links (although they are often nofollow anyway); but the best reason to comment is branding. If you are a regular in the scene you will probably see the same faces over and over. These are the guys who become the really trusted players in a niche and really get to be well known – if you have a known brand people will listen to what you have to say and they will be far more likely to link to you too.
3 – SEO:
It’s all very well building an authoritative website, or blog, but you can only rank in Google if you have some keywords to rank for. So take some time to get some appropriate keywords which get good traffic and make sure your posts / pages actually target them.
4 – Press Releases:
You know what these are don’t you? Write a press release that is of interest to people who don’t know you or your site. Make it funny, exciting or even give something away.
5 – Do Something Wacky:
You heard right; I don’t mind what it is, just make sure it stands out and appeals to people in your niche. Use some of the previous suggestions to ensure that people actually notice whatever you are doing, otherwise your efforts might be wasted.
6 – Make Something Useful:
A more sensible alternative to the above; If you have some technical skill or a good idea and a good developer you could have a website tool created that relates to your niche. If it is helpful then people will tell other people about it.
7 – Advertise:
Ok, so probably not something most of you will interested in, but advertising can be profitable even for affiliate marketers and adsense websites if you do it really carefully. This is a big topic and one worth discussing further, but that’s for another post…
Alex said:
Nice suggestions. I am getting back to marketing my blog and am trying to start commenting around and even get into the habit of guest posting on some places.
alex said:
Hi Alex. Thanks for the comment. Guest posting is something that I am just getting back into myself. It’s great fun.
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Jasmine said:
Me too. I have just guest posted on a couple of blogs so… I am still pretty new on guest posting!
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Bjorn Johansen said:
I think guest posts are the best way to get traffic today. But if also a hard choice if you should use the content on your own site to use it on guest posts. Comments can give some traffic, but I have personally not seen any big traffic from comments..
alex said:
Yeh I have had that dilemma myself. I think comments are best to back up guest posts. It’s just a good way to show your face and build your brand. Any traffic is a bonus too!
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Leah Baade said:
I think it’s fair to rewrite some of your better posts a few times for the purpose of guest posting and article syndication. That being said, it still needs to be original and great or you’ll find your guest posting opportunities dwindling.
Thanks for all of these traffic suggestions, Alex.
optionsdude said:
I am finally looking into the possibility of guest posting. It has taken some time to think that I had something useful to say, but I believe that I can contribute in a meaningful way. So, I recently contacted a blog to offer a guest post. I am looking forward to seeing what develops.
alex said:
Good luck with it then, I’m sure you will be psyched to do lots more posts!
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Helmi Asyraf | Kissing Crust said:
I love your idea behind guest posting; to open the opportunity to get new readers, not SEO reason.
By having this idea, we will put our best effort to prepare the article in order to impress the new readers. We will try our best to impress them and ensure we will be remembered by them.
By doing this, a strong brand will created surrounding our name.
alex said:
It’s true, ironically if your sole focus isn’t SEO, you tend to get better SEO results. And actually keeping your readers is nice too!
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Gabriele Maidecchi said:
I am a fan of doing wacky things. When I make videos showing what we’re working on in my company, usually the post gets tons of pageviews and RTs, of course it has to be something interesting and particular, not just you jumping in a grass field naked (that’s a bit more than wacky…).
Also, if you just post wacky things, they stop being wacky and they become the norm, which is bad as well. A good, equilibrate mix is the best way to go.
alex said:
lol, nice example there. Yes you’re right, jumping in a grass field naked will probably get you some press, but not the right sort of press!
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Thomas McGee said:
This is a nice list and information. You’ve touched on it here, but the absolute best way to build traffic is useful and relevant content. Commenting, advertising, and linkbacks will only work insomuch as they all are founded on good, useful content a reader comes back to. Without it, traffic will not grow or last. I’ve actually asked several experts on the subject, what actually works. Here’s an answer that reoccurs, time and again:
https://twitter.com/smashingmag/status/37457891111735296
I would recommend writing the absolute best articles and information for you particular readership, and build the things listed in this post from there.
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Dave said:
I’m with you Thomas regarding the content, you can advertise as much as you want but when you enter the site if the contents poor people wont stay long. I thought Social media could be number eight, quite a broad subject but does generate traffic (that’s how I got on this post) bookmarking sites as well could be a feature.
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alex said:
Social media is definitely another thing that you could add the list. If I’m honest it’s only missing from this one because I’m not actually that good at it! But I am definitely going to learn.
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alex said:
the key is to get a good mix of everything; cover all the bases and do them well…
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Danny @ Firepole Marketing said:
Great post, Alex – thank you!
I’ve had the most success recently with the first couple of strategies – I’m finding that ultimately, it comes down to 1on1 interaction, whether that’s through guest posting, commenting, or just being out there.
The methods that treat traffic as a faceless mass, rather than real people, just don’t work.
alex said:
I totally agree. 1 on 1 interaction seems like too much work for some bloggers, but it’s the ones that put in the effort to connect that do well.
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Thomas said:
Hi Alex
I am consitering doing some guest blogging some time in the future. I know how many new great blogs I have found that way myself.
Thank you for the tips.
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alex said:
Great, you should definitely give it a go!
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Daniel Sumner said:
Hey Alex,
Good points there. I also use article marketing and give away freebies on my blog to drive traffic. If you give the right free eBooks away they do get passed around, and within the eBook you can funnel the traffic back to your blog.
Cool post cheers!
Dan Sumner
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alex said:
Give aways are a great way to spread the word too, great tip thanks.
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Ryan Critchett said:
Nice! Definitely into doing things that are unorthodox or wacky. In many cases, that’s where the real results are.
People aren’t obsessed with Lady Gaga because she fits in, but because she’s outrageously wacky!
Great reinforcement Alex.
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alex said:
Lada gaga is certainly a case in point there!
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Ryan Critchett said:
Yea man! She seriously plays a good exmaple.
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Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing said:
Make Something Useful was huge back when I started in early 2000, it’s good to see the idea come around again.
Everyone was making nifty little tools for checking this or that.
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alex said:
The only difference now is that there is more competition out there. It takes a little more creativity to create something truly novel. But if you can do it it can work out great.
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Delena said:
Solid advice here.
I love how you pretty much stick with the basics, and give an example or two. It helps to illustrate exactly why the fundamentals are what they are.
With my own efforts, I’ve found that commenting and guest posting are my two most successful methods of traffic generation. I might start with offering free informational products, but only to help grow my mailing list for right now.
After that, I’ll go back to the basics and build on another key element.
Delena
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alex said:
Hi Delena.
Thanks for the compliment. Yeh I think that many times sticking to the basics is more effective than over thinking things.
The more time you spend trying to come up with complicated strategies, the less time you have to spend getting stuff done.
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anthonynlee said:
i like this….short, sweet and very concise. good advice. thank you.
guest posting is something that i haven’t ventured into yet. perhaps it is because of that awful esteem issue many of us writers suffer from. you know, the one where you are looking at your stuff going “would anyone REALLY want to read this?” or the more damaging voice that says “i’m a total fraud…and if i guest post, i will be exposed.”
so..on that note. thanks for the motivation. i am gonna write my first guest post now.
alex said:
I understand your concerns, it’s true it is hard to get the confidence when you are starting out.
On the other hand though, when you get someone like nick (at sitesketch) to publish your post and get lots of positive comments like these, it is such great motivation to keep going.
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ah hong said:
It’s good to explore on the guest posting feature to boost the traffic. But before that, try to take a look on how to optimize the SEO first. It’s the base ingredient to gain organic traffic
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alex said:
Yes that’s true. Good on-page SEO is the foundation you need before you start building links and traffic.
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Jason Acidre said:
Participating on high traffic forums like warriorforums and digitalpoint is also a great way to drive relevant traffic, it also builds up a good brand for your site, as you’ll be seen as an active contributor.
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alex said:
That’s a great tip too. I love the warrior forums, there are some great guys and gals on there and you can really build a good brand as well as getting a lot of traffic.
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Bjorn Johansen said:
I gave up DP, after they started forcing users to write captias for each post. Do they still use it?
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Chris said:
Guest posting is such a great way to not only meet other bloggers in your field, but to of course build permanent and strong links back to your own website. It’s so funny because I’ve had several blogs for a while and have not even done one guest blog post. I really need to start doing it!
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alex said:
It’s easy to put off isn’t it? It’s really worth doing though. I am doing much more of it right now and It’s been great fun.
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johnshuffle said:
Hi Alex,
personally I was not able to find something useful in your entry, all usual methods. May be just 5 – Do Something Wacky. Besides, you have not mentioned about Youtube. I thing it is a must to get some traffic from their.
Regards. John
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Kavya Hari said:
Actually, these 7 tips would be more helpful to the newbie blogger to increase the page rank with the great support in it. Than k a lot for given great article on here:)
karan@ Wordpress SEO said:
I have read about Press Releases a lot but is it applicable to all ?
Can a blog about seo and marketing create effective press releases?
johnshuffle said:
Hi Karan,
” – Can a blog about seo and marketing create effective press releases?”
You can write a press release about your blog, your blog specific entry or virtually about everything (it depends on your blog main topics). The press releases are perfect in orderd to be heard online. Besides, you can attract traffic if you use SEO tactics when submiting your press releases:
The whole method simply involves planning the way you link your press releases, and writing good copy that looks good when interlinked. For example, you would write a 600 word press release about your website, maybe a product launch, which would contain your main keyword, and then write a shorter press release of 400 words approximately. The 400 word press release would be an update about your products, maybe an offer, and this would link (using a different keyword in your niche) to your first press release.
For the next step, you would write a long press release of 600 words or more, that detailed the product with some reviews. In this press release, you would be linking using a different keyword to the previous two, and you would be linking to BOTH the previous press releases.
The main thing to do is arrange your linking so that you are not linking from within the same press release site. If you do this, the link juice will be wasted entirely. Arrange your releases so you are linking from high PR sites, to lower PR sites, and vice versa. Mix it up as best you can for great results.
Many Thanks
John
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karan@ Wordpress SEO said:
Wow, that was the best reply I have ever received on any of my queries.
Thanks for the support buddy, much appreciated.
Matt Majewski said:
Great advice. I’m going to take it and post a comment here
In my experience, by doing affiliate marketing for other blogs, then they sometimes will ask you to guest post. This helps both parties.
In the case of Web applications you develop, it helps when you have an API. Then the developer community can tap in and create apps, sites based on yours and then it is in both interests to cross-promote.
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alex said:
Great tip thanks. It’s great when you can find win-win situations like this.
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Valp said:
Ha, great post. I realized I didn’t pay attention enough to google keywords for both my portfolio and blog…
Albin said:
Well, it really seems like I’ve done all of that things for my swedish blog.
The best part was to guest blogging, I did that on a major webhosting service in sweden which gave me about sixty thousand readers for one day, that was awesome. Not so many was coming to my site again but for one day I had my fifteen minutes in the hot air
I liked it.
I must say that “Do something wacky” is the best thing to do to get many visitors fast.
alex said:
Wow, thats an impressive traffic spike! That just shows how effective guest posting can be though.
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Nasif Razzaque said:
I recently established the habit of commenting and now I need to form the habit of guest posting…
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alex said:
you should. Commenting is a great way to get started though. Remember, it’s all about building relationships!
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Rushan said:
Thank you for the great tips, im thinking of writing a press release.
alex said:
you’re very welcome. thank you for your comment!
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Rex said:
Helpful post. What about inviting others to guest post on my blog? Seems like that would bring new readers too.
vikas said:
I totally agree with you. But building backlinks and guest posting can alone send us lots of visits. I have never used a press release. Will you please tell me in detail about a press release.
Rayz said:
Hi, I was searching for top wordpress plugin and was directed here. I just wanna to say your blog really help me a lot thanks! Dude keep on going!
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InfoNote said:
One thing that you did not mention is answering questions on forums or an answer service like Yahoo Answers.
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Ian said:
Great post, I believe content is everything. The SEO race is a losing one if you don’t have content. I’ve been meaning to try and guest post one of these days.
Pacquiao Mosley said:
That’s an amazing idea. I’ve tried Press release and working on SEO stuff of my site. I’ll try the other methods but I think its impossible for me to do the advertising ‘coz it will cost something. But thank you for the idea.
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Brittany Rubinstein said:
I think SEO is definitely the one thing I need to focus on right now and what I think is often overlooked. Promoting your site via Twitter and other social networking sites is definitely effective, but you’re missing out on a lot of traffic if that’s you’re only method of promotion. Good advice.
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Lee Ka Hoong said:
Hey Alex, from these 7 ways that you listed above, I found guest posting is the best way to drive direct and quality traffic to your website. Advertising should drive you more traffic, but it’s not long term. If you want a long term and quality traffic, you need to build a strong brand for your blog, so guest posting and blog commenting do the best.
Guest post doesn’t bring you traffic, but it gives you a strong one way dofollow backlinks as well, that would definitely help in a long run basis. Keep doing it Alex and you can achieve your goal very soon!
Great post Alex!
Regards,
Lee Ka Hoong
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Andre said:
Seo is the best way to get traffic to the website. I really do not know, where to do press releases. What is press release?
Eddie Gear- The Guy With An Attitude said:
Traffic Generation tips are only limited to your imagination buddy. Come read a post on my site and you will know how many traffic generation techniques are there. Thanks for the post.
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Jordi said:
Hi Alex,
As a company based in the internet, we find your article really interesting. I agree most of all in the need of building a reputation behind our brand, and in this point we find advices like yours so useful!
Thank you very much and visit us soon at laminimal.com!
Brad Harmon said:
Becoming a guest blogger is a great way to drive traffic to your site, Alex. I’ve also found than hosting guest bloggers brings in a lot of traffic as well especially if the guest blogger promotes the post.
I was surprised to see that social media integration wasn’t mentioned in the post. I’ve found it to be a great direct source of referral traffic to my sites, as well as, an indirect source of traffic from the authority and credibility it helps to build.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
That’s very true. Guest blogging really does bring in traffic from both sides of the table.
Abdul Wajid CK said:
Hey Alex,
If anyone takes your 7 things just like as a tablet suggested by Doctor for “No traffic” Illness of any ones blog. I am sure and I am 100% sure that guest posting is one of the best way to get traffic to our blog. One of the Best way to Get noticed in the World of blogging is just to introduce something new, which can be introduced by few. Anyway your post is just not for newcomers, it is too important for oldies also.
Good Luck, Write more…
michael said:
I think commenting on blogs or forums is ok!! But what you really should be doing to getting your site noticed is social networking even Google is now taking notice of this!! I set up a site called search for new friends about a week ago with no backlinks nothing Google has already found the site and its now on page three for search for new friends!! All did was bookmark the site.
Ava Jae said:
I’ve found that guest posting especially is useful not only for receiving more traffic and inbound links, but just for building relationships not only with new readers, but with the owner of the blog you’re guest posting on.
Same goes for commenting on other blogs–not only do you get great links and some clicks to your blog from it, but it’s an opportunity to develop a relationship with the author of the post and, sometimes, other commenters.
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John said:
I really like the “do something wacky” part. All the rest is standard and probably already done by most people. But that was new and fresh. Will do that. Thanx for the tips.. even the obvious ones
James Hussey said:
What tips would you have for Press Releases if you just have a site for product reviews? I’m curious what people would consider newsworthy (though I see my competitors do this, and I wonder why they even get published).
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Akash Kumar said:
Nice post. Agree with you most people do not get involved in advertising and PPC but as brand management point of view its good to have a combination of SEO and PPC. If you do these two things right you’ll get tons of traffic that you do not need to worry much about the other things.
dieselpokers said:
Great article! I have recently found the great benefits of creating humor within my blogs. I feel like it keeps people interested and wanting to come back for more. Laughter is the best medicine!