10 Ways To Get Traffic To A New Site
August 14, 2007 by
Adam
Filed under
Website Traffic
Steven Snell designs websites and maintains a blog for Vandelay Website Design, where you can read his articles on design, marketing, blogging, and more.
Most established websites can get as much as 80% of their traffic from search engines. New websites, however, can take several months before they start seeing significant search engine traffic. During this time there are plenty of other creative ways to bring people to your site. In fact, some of these methods will even help to ultimately get higher rankings in the search engines.
Here are 10 things you can do to start getting visitors today:
1. Write quality content to draw inbound links.
Although you may not have much influence over your search engine rankings for the first few months you will always have control over the content you create for your website. Quality content that attracts people’s attention will draw inbound links which will bring visitors and get your site indexed by search engines quickly. Inbound links are critical to the success of any website. In order to entice others to link to your site you must produce something of quality.
2. Start a blog.
A blog is an ideal format for the content that you will be creating. Blogs make it easy to add new articles and they also tend to draw more inbound links. Bloggers link to other blogs when they find something the like, so combining these first two points is a great decision.
Additionally, blogs can help to get your pages indexed by search engines because they ping the search engines when new content is added, rather than waiting for search engines to find new pages on their own.
If you consistently add new posts to your blog, the sizeable amount of content that develops over time will put you in a better position to receive much more traffic from the search engines.
3. Run a contest or a giveaway.
One of the best ways to generate some buzz is to give away something of value. You can give away just about anything, but downloadable products tend to work well. Many websites have generated huge amounts of traffic by giving away a free e-book or special report. Of course, this only works if you are giving away something that people will actually want. One method is to give the freebie to new email list or RSS subscribers, which forces people to subscribe if they want what you are offering.
The best contests and giveaways will create a lot of attention and inbound links. The cost of whatever you’re giving away may be more than offset by the free publicity.
4. Write a press release.
Without help from search engines many of the traffic building techniques that we’re looking at involve creating publicity and attention to your website. An effective press release can do just that. However, a press release must tell about something newsworthy or it will get no attention. Just announcing the launch of a new website (unless it’s extremely unusual or groundbreaking, or if the creator is already well known) is not anything that will catch an editor’s attention.
A good press release for your website will work in conjunction with point numbers 1 and 3, creating quality content and the contest/giveaway. If you truly have something of value that people will want, your press release is bound to get some attention.
Press releases are now very easy to submit online (at sites such as PRWeb, PRBuzz, and I-NewsWire). By submitting your press release online your story will be available on websites like PRBuzz and Google News. A successful press release will also receive a lot of incoming links from people who see the story. The end result is new inbound links and a lot of interested visitors.
To learn more about how to properly write a press release see www.publicityinsider.com/release.asp.
5. Social media websites.
In the past few years social media websites (like Digg, Reddit, Stumble Upon, Del.icio.us and Netscape) have become extremely popular. Although they each have their differences, social media sites essentially present information that users have submitted. Popular articles can receive thousands of visitors in a day.
While traffic from social media sites is short term, the effects of that traffic can carry over to the long-term. Repeat traffic, increased RSS or email subscriptions, increased sales, brand recognition, and inbound links are just some of the results of a successful social media campaign.
6. Write for other blogs.
Guest blogging for another blogger that shares your target audience is one of the most effective ways to get your writing noticed by new people. To have success writing for other blogs you will need to offer original content, not just an article that you’ve already used on your own website.
You can find blogs that are looking for guest bloggers at Guest-Blogger.com. Another way to find blogs is to visit community sites like MyBlogLog and Bumpzee. Find a community that matches with your blog’s audience and contact some of the bloggers about providing content for them to use.
A different variation of the guest blogging idea is to participate in blog carnivals. A blog carnival is a group of blog posts from various writers on a particular subject hosted on one blog. The host blog will provide the post title and a brief description of each post with a link to the full post on the writer’s website. You can find blog carnivals to participate in at BlogCarnival.com.
7. Join or start a blog community.
The blog community sites like MyBlogLog and Bumpzee that were mentioned in the previous point provide another way for you to draw traffic. There are communities of bloggers who write about topics of all kinds. Being a part of these communities can help you to get noticed by other bloggers, which can lead to inbound links and guest blogging opportunities.
8. Pay-per-click advertising.
PPC ads are a relatively inexpensive way to get targeted traffic for your website. One of the greatest benefits of PPC ads is that no budget is too large or too small. It’s up to you to decide how much you want to spend. The most successful PPC campaigns will either generate direct sales or create leads that will lead to repeat traffic.
When setting up your PPC ads don’t just send traffic to your homepage and hope that visitors find their way to your sales pages. Pick the specific page that you want visitors to go to (or create a special one especially for PPC ads) and create the ad so they can land directly where you want them. The largest PPC ad networks are Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing.
9. Paid website reviews.
There are a growing number of services that offer you the option to pay to have your website reviewed on another website or blog. The review may bring traffic and a link to your site. The cost of the review depends on which website you want to review your site. Those with larger audiences charge more because they expose your site to a greater number of readers.
Some of the leading programs are:
10. Comment in forums and on other blogs.
Forums and blogs are great places to demonstrate your knowledge by providing intelligent feedback, answering other people’s questions, or posting a thought-provoking question. As a result, some people may click through to your site. Neither forums nor other people’s blogs should be used to advertise your site – if you do must likely your comment will be deleted. Focus on helping others and they will see you as a useful resource.
Making a free WordPress theme always sends around 2k visitors over a couple of days, if done right. Then there’s writing articles and tutorials and submitting them around the whole scene, getting active in communities like you said, etc…
It’s easy to a point
Once you want big traffic, you need to really get down to the content, IMO.
All the tips listed here are essential to bringing in traffic and making a new website successful. Most important is becoming a part of the community and forming relationships with other bloggers. This to me is priceless as is posting consistency. Bloggers who are willing to keep posting new content even when traffic is at a halt will inevitably succeed.
Great information. It does look like it comes down to the content of your website/blog.
Does anybody know of any examples of blogs with poor content yet decent traffic?
I disagree with holding a contest to get people to the site. You should have an established base before you do a contest, as they will spread the word much faster than only a handful of people.
Check out my post on web contests:
http://www.mynewhustle.com/index.php/hustle-tips-waste-time-with-web-contests/
Text-Link-Ads is another good program and I am currently testing their competitor since they allow smaller blogs with lower PR then TLA does. I’m finding that many of the people visiting my blog are newer and don’t have a well ranked blog yet.
BeachBum
ejoe - What do you consider decent traffic?
Can you explain the press release option more. Like how much you should pay for one? Thanks.
I’ve recently started a new website(blog), so I think that Ican benefit from some of your suggestions.
I’m not sure about the social bookmarking sites, they never seem to work for me(previously). Even if the article is really interesting.
Hey guys - thanks for all your great comments. Whilst these above methods can help you get that extra traffic to your site and get help networking in your niche - as Steven mentioned in his very first point, you need to write quality content in order to gain those inbound links.
Thanks Steven for a great article!
ejoe - I think the term “poor content” is really subjective. Different people have different opinions on what is poor quality and what isn’t. For me, I don’t really find the I Can Has Cheezburger blog that funny or cool. But thats just my opinion.
Coolio - I would have to say that I disagree with your disagreement ;). Everyone loves a contest and the freebie involved - so I think that generates sufficient buzz to help draw comments especially. Of course if there is a whole Archive full of great content and you already have an established community then it’s gonna be easier to promote the contest.
@ DayJobNuker - I’ll have to get Steven to answer that one
@ Daniel - cool! Social bookmarking sites are hard to take advantage of. It’s all about creating viral copy - which is an art in itself!
Great tips Adnan! I’ve always been intrigued by a press release, but I’ve never quite known how to use them for a blog like mine. I will look into it more.
BeachBum - I guess at this point 500 unique visitors a day to a content driven (not all adds and spam driven) would be considered good for me.
But I am a total newb…
Thanks Adnan. I’m already doing most of those in some form or another, but the press release is one I’ve not tried. I’ll check out the links you supplied.
Still some thoughts on holding competitions: I think there’s nothing wrong in holding competitions and if done right they might bring you more traffic.
But there is the problem that in order to get more traffic and create buzz you need to have some existing traffic - or work hard on getting the word out in the open.
I held a competition when my blog was still really young, and it resulted in only three comments and no additional traffic. Lessons learned:
- wait until you have a decent following (or e-mail other bloggers a lot letting them know that you are having the competition)
- make sure the prize is something that your audience is interested in
- don’t use DVDs as prizes (blogs are global, DVDs are not because of their obscure region code system)
- give more “points” for writing a story on your competition (this helps create buzz). Like Adnan is doing with his latest competition.
That said, I’ll probably have to try holding a new competition sometimes pretty soon. Any ideas on a good prize that you’d like to get are welcome
No problems Erik - good information from Steven.
@ Deron - thanks buddy.
Finally - Jarkko wow thanks for that response. And I have to agree with you. I would say that you need definitely over 100 RSS subscribers if you want to run a fairly successful contest. If you have 1000’s, then of course that’s going to be easier to promote.
Lol about the DVD’s, is that something you tried giving away? Yeah I thought I would do the points for posts thing as people seem to like writing up about contests! Hmm, for me good prizes would be some sort of informational prize. Like access to a blogging course, or a coveted eBook!
adnan, you confuse me. First you say that you disagreed when I talked about having an established base before you hold a contest, but you agree with Jarkko that you need over 100 RSS subscribers to be successful. Am I reading something wrong here?
Thanks for those tips!
I am definitly going to use them.
Tip 1 (quality content) is by far the most important (and the hardest), but I’ve never heard of doing tip 4 (Write a Press Release) - I’ll have to do that one.
Hey Coolio - sorry I think I was the one confused. I thought you meant that contests are a waste of time altogether. Lol my bad - I just realised that you and Jarkko have the same point. You’re right. Having an established base of content and subscribers first makes it definitely easier to launch a competition.
@ Brian. Thanks buddy. Yeah I’ve never done a Press Release either, but I’m considering it for blogLOUDER.
Sticking a sticker with your URL on your laptop/car/community billboard helps, too.
Adnan,
Thanks a lot for posting the article.
Connor,
You mention that getting about 2k visitors is reasonable with the release of a WP theme, are there any specific pieces of advice you have for marketing the theme or getting the word out?
Day Job Nuker,
I’ve never personally paid to have someone else write a press release for me, but I think the services I have seen run around a few hundred dollars. The press release can bring traffic and links, or it can bring nothing. You really need to have something press-worthy. I haven’t written a release for my own site/blog (I have for clients) because I haven’t had anything that would demand the attention of press. There are some basic keys to writing releases, the Publicity Insider link in the article has some good info.
Adnan,
I think a press release could work well for your contest and your new services. If you ask me, a 17 year old making money as an entrepreneur is newsworthy.
There were a lot of comments about quality content. Obviously, I agree. That is much easier for blogs than traditional websites though.
Daniel,
On the subject of bookmarking and social media sites, my recommendation is to look for smaller sites of niche sites.
For example, I write some articles about web development and submit them to a site called D-Zone that’s specifically for software developers and web developers. Obviously it doesn’t send as much traffic as Digg, but you don’t have to have a million “friends.”
Also, after your stuff gets popular on smaller sites it may carry over to the larger sites. A few articles of mine that got popular on D-Zone then got a ton of traffic from Delicious and Stumble Upon.
Stumble Upon is also a good target for new sites. If you can get a few people to Stumble your articles it can start something big. But generally, yes, social sites are tough. The results are big though.
Adnan: Yeah, I made quite a few mistakes in that giveaway.
The biggest was that I had almost no readers at that time, but giving out a DVD came pretty close to that too… I just thought that I wanted to share a good movie with some interesting people, and completely forgot about the region codes until a commenter asked about them.
Hey adnan, wrote a short posting about your contest on your blog, so far so good!
http://www.entrepreneurjoe.com/2007/08/16/bloglouder-competition-by-adnan/
Thanks for the great tips, I just started this blog about 2 weeks ago and am getting a few visitors, mainly from ProBlogger submissions, but I also got ’stumbled upon’ yesterday bringing over 200!
OK, perhaps this is small potatoes, but one way of driving traffic is to participate in a blog carnival. I don’t write tech or biz stuff, so maybe y’all don’t do carnivals, but they work well in other genres.
Great post! I have learned additional source of traffic to sites which I haven’t known before like for example the blogcarnival.com.
Nice tips! like the press release point
hey nice post, I submit articles to blog carnivals and it helps. I’m always interested in building traffic.
Here is another free press release site:
http://www.newslinq.com
I hope this help.
Thanks for the post. For me Article marketing and PR are the winners, a well written PR of mine on only one sites gets over 100 visitors overnight, not to mention the backlinks. Remember: the more backlinks you will have the faster your sites will get “trusted”. And getting loads of backlinks form PR 5-6 sites is the best deal you can ever have for free.