The big secret to website traffic

Most of us have come across those dreadful read, blue and white adverts that promise to increase traffic to your website-no names mentioned! Online marketing has become a niche for scammers to rip-off the newly initiated in the world of website marketing tools and techniques. Here is the reality of traffic on the web.

The Big secret

Logically, if someone was to post a "big secret online,then it would no longer be a secret would it? Many have fallen for the blue red and white adverts promising you "targeted" traffic to your website.Now imagine if 200 000 people bought into the Big secret for $29.95 (On promotion, usually $99-so hurry before the offer ends!), do you think that Google, Bing,Yahoo and other search engine giants would not notice that there is something fishy about 200 000 websites using the same tactics? Your search rank is in danger of plummeting and thus bringing any decent traffic you might have been getting anyway.

Targeted website traffic

The "targeted" part makes me laugh outlaid. With the little Search Engine Optimisation I have learnt, I can argue that a stranger to your site will hardly get to know who your specific targets are. This may be for the following reasons:

1. Your website is not Optimised for the right keywords, being the average Joe, you may have not ventured into inserting these in the meta tag area of your website. Most of us are no website, html blah blah experts, so its likely that we have not ventured that far.

2. Your description tag on your site may also not be optimised or might be missing completely-Now tell me Mr Marketer, how are you going to give me targeted traffic when my website itself needs work?

If you have implemented a web counter and you see the figures rise after you bought "The big secret", ask yourself, are these real people or are they bots? If they are real people, how come they do not contact me through my website in their large numbers? Check the specifics with a free online tool such as Alexa rank which will give you your global and local site rankings as well as traffic statistics. This will give you a good idea as to whether you are getting real website traffic or not. Another idea would be to incorporate Google Analytics into your site.This may require minimal html knowledge but it is well worth the effort and time.

Still on this newly acquired traffic-who are these people? This leads me to a more efficient way of increasing traffic to your site.

Internet Marketer

Spend a fortune with a real Internet Marketer. Do reverse analysis by typing in their website into Alexa rank and determining if they have good rankings ...the proof of the pudding. It is no point engaging in such a venture with someone who is also struggling to get traffic to their site.

The best option to this would be looking up an Internet Marketer in your area, researching their business as mentioned above and looking at their google rank too (The greater the number, the better their ranking on a scale of 1 to 10 e.g 1/10 is low while 5/10 is great).

The real big secret to website traffic

It all boils down to your online and offline efforts. It is about YOU. How well you advertise your site (For example USfreeads, craigslist, facebook, twitter and many more sites offer a great way to publicise your site. You could also "ping" it for free every day or whenever you have new content on your site. Use Pingler for this.)

When offline,make flyers and posters, business cards for your business. This goes a long way in marketing your site or business and could help increase website traffic in the long run.

Make a Youtube video of your site. With advances in video technology, this can be done by simply contacting a graphic designer with your site address and your idea. Videos communicate more effectively than a 50 page text document (though this would be great for SEO (Search Engine Optimization: basically using text to help the visibility of your site by using keywords, metatags etc.)

The long and short of it all is that, you know your website better than anyone else. You have a community already, start with family and friends, let them know when you have posted new items on your website, do it in moderation and avoid spamming them. Let them know they can be taken off your mailing list if they find it overwhelming. Tweet your activities, make your use of Twitter interesting and not only as a marketing tool. While still on Twitter, follow like minded people, respond to their twitter feeds and retweet interesting stuff, what goes around comes around.

Do not fall for the traffic generating robots out there. If you are going to spend any money, research your potential marketer, otherwise go with Google Adwords. At least Google is tried and trusted.