How to Build Website Traffic?

You have your own website and online shop now, what's next? Visitors! Even the most cutting edge design and amazing new product is worthless if it’s buried under millions of other websites. As a online business owner, you need traffic to get potential buyers, as more traffic generally results in more leads and more sales. So if you’re struggling to get more eyeballs on your website to generate the amount of profits you’re looking for, consider the following basic methods of promoting your new online shop:

•Register with the major search engines

You must register with search engines in order to get your website searchable by web users. Google, Bing and Yahoo occupied 99% of the search engine market, so they are the major search engines in the world. They provide good webmaster management tool to track your website traffic. Google is the best one which provides comprehensive features for webmaster.

•Content marketing

Content marketing is the art of using engaging content to provide helpful information to your potential customers and, in turn, draw their attention to your relevant products and services. Content marketing is a top priority for most organizations in 2012, and an average of 60% state that they plan to increase their content marketing budgets over the next 12 months.

The effectiveness of some traditional marketing methods, such as printed advertisements, has greatly weakened in recent years. Many people are cynical about traditional adverts and have even trained themselves to become blind to online adverts when they’re browsing websites.

Content marketing works in a different way. The idea is to make content of genuine use and interest to your target market. After consuming this content, individuals may become tempted to use your company’s services, either in grateful recognition of the value of the content or because you have managed to subtly convince them of your company’s abilities.

It’s important to note that content doesn’t always mean written content. There are numerous ways to get started with content marketing, video and audio is equally popular, and sometimes more applicable and impressive. Below is a list of some of the most popular ways:

Blogs

Blogging is a very common means of content marketing that can entail far more than simply maintaining a company blog for your online business.

Producing blog posts is merely part of a marketing process that includes promoting the content so that people actually read it, and interacting with those that debate and comment. Guest posting for other blogs is also a common and effective means of using blogging as part of a content marketing strategy.

Podcasts

If you can make a powerful regular podcast in both audio and video formats, it can act as a free platform to promote your online business, at the same time as proving your specialist expertise and knowledge.

Video Marketing

Video marketing is a key part of content marketing and something constantly gaining in popularity. Video marketing can entail anything from producing video reviews of new products to creating “how to” bulletins aimed at reaching a significant audience. All of these can, in turn, incorporate your company logos and link to other areas of your online presence.

The key to effective content marketing it to maintain a consistent flow of new, relevant content, and put as much effort into promoting it as creating it. After all, there’s little point in working to produce content that nobody will engage with.

Luckily, social media makes this promotion straightforward and inexpensive. If the quality of your content speaks for itself, you will find it being shared across the Internet, independent of your own promotional efforts. Quality and relevance is therefore paramount – it’s better to create one amazing piece of content that attracts an audience of thousands that thousands of mundane articles or videos that interest nobody!

•Online Advertising

2012 was a very big year for online advertising as many exciting changes were introduced which have changed the way we reach and connect with customers. We’re expecting 2013 to be just as ground breaking as we expect many more options for targeting, engaging with, and serving ads to current and prospective clients, so it’s the perfect time of year to think about these trends and how your PPC ad campaigns can be even more effective in the year to come.

First, let’s recap the things that you should already be doing and why they’re a MUST DO:

•Search – Search advertising is becoming more competitive, but it continues to be the best way to reach those actively looking for your product/service.

•Display – Display advertising remains highly effective at generating brand awareness and is an excellent complement to your search campaign.

•Remarketing (aka retargeting) – Remarketing had a big year as more and more companies realized how effective it is at maintaining front of mind presence in a cost-effective manner. If you’re not remarketing yet, why not?

•Video advertising – Over 800 million users visit YouTube and watch over 4 billion hours of video worldwide each month. YouTube has introduced a variety of ad placement options including ones that ensure your ad is being watched, so there really isn’t a reason not to be there.

 What should we expect in 2013? The following are the top trends to keep on top of:

1.Mobile – Mobile is new, exciting, and constantly changing. With 20% of online searches taking place on a mobile device, it’s something to consider for the year ahead. In addition, at a much lower cost per click, mobile provides a very cost effective opportunity.

2.AdWords remarketing in search – Currently remarketing is just for display ads, but Google is in the process of introducing remarketing text ads in search results as well.

3.Facebook Remarketing – It was only a matter of time before Facebook stepped up to the plate and offered advertisers the ability to serve ads to users that have previously visited their website. 2013 will bring better, more accurate targeting.

4.Social extensions on paid advertising – Social is everywhere and it’s no surprise that social sharing icons have made their way into paid advertising. Recommendations from friends go a long way and now it’s even easier to profess your love for your favorite brands online.

5.Targeting – Expect new options for ad targeting. Users can expect advertising that is more relevant to their likes, behaviors, and actions online. With new options for targeting, companies will be able to deliver a specific message to a subset of people that are likely to convert.

6.Costs – Costs continue to correspond to the effectiveness of the ad format and we expect to see an increase in cost per click (CPC) for mobile, remarketing, and video.

•Offline marketing

 Business Cards

Where ever you go, make sure you always have business cards handy to give out. Business cards are a great, cost effective way to make sure that you capitalize on every possible business opportunity no matter where you are.

Brochures

Want to deliver even more information than what you can fit on a business card? Then try creating some brochures for your business. Especially if you are targeting a local customer base, brochures can come in handy when you are at a local event or when you are meeting with a local business partner. You can look for other businesses (like grocery stores or restaurants) that have a table or bulletin board that highlights local businesses and ask if you can add your business cards and/or brochures to the collection in hopes that your target customer will be looking through the information.

Conferences

Have you ever attended a free seminar or paid conference? Events are perfect form of offline network marketing that can increase your business’ revenue, regardless of whether you are going as an attendee, speaker, or exhibitor. These are just some of the benefits.

As an attendee, you get to network with other attendees and learn more about your potential customer base.

As a speaker, you can demonstrate your expertise in your industry and potentially walk away with tons of leads by soliciting your audiences’ business cards at the end of a presentation.

As an exhibitor, you’ll be able to show off your products and services to people who are looking for new solutions for their own business or personal life.

•Direct mailing (print, not email)

One advantage of direct mail vs. email marketing – no spam filters. Assuming that your target customer doesn’t get a ton of junk mail each day, they’ll likely be more receptive to taking a look at your message as opposed to it auto-filtering to their spam folder.

•List your blog in the major blog directories

Blog directory is one of the best ways to gaining exposure for your blog. Apart from utilizing SEO and creating keyword-friendly titles and URL structures, the next way to begin basic link building for any website is by submitting your site to a blog directory.

A blog directory will help you link your blog to other websites, and it also organizes your website by categorizing those links. Don’t confuse it for a search engine. A directory will not display any lists of web pages based on keywords, like most search engines do. A directory will list websites by both a category and a subcategory. Unlike a search engine, it is categorized not by one page or a set of keywords, but rather by the content which is contained on the entire website.