An Overview of Website Traffic Concepts and Strategies

How to stimulate website traffic

If there's one thing we can say with certainty it's that every website needs traffic.

Without website traffic, your Internet business goes no where. But of course, you know that or you wouldn't be reading this. Here's an overview of traffic building concepts and strategies that you should master.

To some, I may sound like a broken record. To others, who have been told that building traffic is very mysterious, I may sound like I'm over-simplifying, but I'll say it again... master the basics. You can't just slap up a site, or place an ad, or buy some traffic, and have a successful website or Internet business.

I know that's what it says on many a "guru's" sales page, but the reality is that for most people, that just doesn't work. You need to build an Internet business that provides value of some sort.

There are, in truth, basically two types of website traffic... paid and free. Free traffic is that traffic that you get without exchanging actual money for, and paid traffic is, well... paid!

Obviously free traffic is not totally free as you need to do something to get it, but for our purposes, if you haven't paid for it, it's free.

So, as I've stated elsewhere, the basics of website success can be reduced to basically three things...

• First, build a website that your visitors can use.
• Second, employ various website promotion techniques for your site.
• Third, monitor your progress and adjust until you get the results you want.

Let's break this down a bit and explore what we mean by this as it relates to driving traffic to your a website.

Creating Website Traffic - The Basics

There are basically two types of website traffic, free and paid.

There are basically two things you need to do in order to get free traffic to your site... build content, and build links. That's it. Really. So, all of your tasks need to focus on buidling content and links.

For paid traffic, there are a variety of sources, including pay per click (PPC), large media buys (buying ad impressions on large networks like Yahoo!), and paid links.

Any of the paid methods can become expensive, so it's important that you fully understand the risks when buying traffic. Your business model has to have a strong monetization plan in place, and your website has to convert visitors into cash or you'll quickly lose money.

How to Get Free Website Traffic - Content and Links

Most of your free traffic will come from either search engines (SE's) or links from other sites.

Hands down, then, the very best way to build free traffic is to:

• Build a good size (typically 100 pages plus, depending upon the niche) content website. and...
• Build links to that site.

With that in mind...

The first rule of creating website traffic is... give the visitors what they want.

For maximum visitor draw, and therefore maximum website traffic creation, the core of your Web business should be to provide excellent information for your visitors on a content site. Your information needs to be well (enough) written, and relevant and complete to the extent that it answers the questions your visitors are asking. Then, build links back to that site.

The second rule is to spread more content all over the web and get links back to your site.

But what if you have (or want to start) an online store or ecommerce site? Good question. The answer is still the same. Many successful online stores have content sites, or a network of sites and blogs, that drive traffic to them. You may not see this content when you're at the store, but it's there, acting as a traffic machine.

Website Success Through Building Content

The best long term strategy to increase website traffic is still to create content. When we talk about content, we usually mean words, but content can also be video, audio, and images. Search engines still only pick up on words, so that is the most important form of content with respect to search engine optimization (SEO).

There are essentially two types of website content, and they're defined by where the content is placed. There's on site content, and off site content. On site content refers to content that is placed on a site that you own (or control or have an interest in).

Off site content is content that is placed anywhere else on the web. Off site content can also be placed on one site you control, in order to enhance another site that you control. Some people own networks of sites and blogs and use the sites in the network to enhance each other. Other methods are to use blog networks, such as Vox or Blogger, or Web 2.0 properties such as Squidoo.

There are two ways to create content. You can create it yourself, or you can have someone else do it for you. You can write articles, create a video or mp3 audio and post it on the web. There are many ways you can acquire content created by others, including public domain works, hiring a content creator, or using articles that include free reprint rights.

There are two approaches to content placement. One is a site-centric approach where you place content on your site, and the other is a web-centric approach where you place content on other websites. Placing content on other websites builds links back to your site, as well as building a brand for yourself.

Often, you can gain access to an audience you normally would not have reached, simply by placing content on a high profile site. You need to spend time on both site-centric and web-centric content distribution activities. While creating a large content website is certainly a great way to go, the faster way to success is to enhance the reach of that site by spreading your content around the web.

Your best long term strategy for a successful site is to create a large site with great content. The more pages you have, the more Page Rank (PR) your site can accumulate. The more words you have on your pages, the more hooks you have in the search engines and the more chances you have to rank highly for your keywords.

Simply the best tool for building website traffic through content.

Inbound Links

To some degree, building content will attract links. "Build it and they will come." But that's not enough. You can't just build content and expect people to link to your site.

Link building is an essential part of your website traffic strategy. Remember, at the core, you really only have to do two things, and link building is one of them. There are many techniques for link building, including article marketing (my favorite), Web 2.0 techniques and social bookmarking, including Del.icio.us, Squidoo, and your own dedicated blog.

You can also get listed in directories and portals, and engage in link exchanges with other websites.

Paid Website Traffic

Paid traffic is a totally different story from free traffic. Paid traffic is risky and tends to be expensive. Many people have a great misconception about paid traffic and don't realize that most PPC campaigns actually lose money.

Even experienced PPC marketers are realizing that Google rewards well constructed content sites. Applications have sprung up that help PPC marketers build "silo" sites in order to overcome the limitations that Google has placed on poorly constructed sites.

If you watch the traffic of sites that primarily use paid traffic, you'll see just how short-lived it is. Experienced marketers are finding more and more that creating quality content sites is an essential part of the business model. I'll discuss paid traffic methods in detail more in upcoming articles.