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7 Simple Ways To Build Traffic To A New Website
By Mike Tekula (c) 2008

Got a brand new website? That's great, but nobody cares.

OK, maybe that's a little harsh. The truth, however, is that
just having a website doesn't get you much.

Many business owners I meet are surprised to find, once we look
at the numbers, that the shiny new site they had built not too
long ago gets little to no traffic on a daily basis.

Many newcomers to the web make the mistake of thinking that just
by buying a domain name and putting up your site, visitors are
going to happen by - something like when you buy property and
build a storefront in a busy part of town.

It just doesn't work that way. The web is harsh. You can have
the best looking site in the world with great resources and
content and go entirely ignored or unnoticed. It happens.
It's happening right now. Somewhere out there in the ether is
a brand new gorgeous website loaded with great content, and
nobody cares. Poor little lonely site.

But there is hope. Every website had its early days. Even
sites that get hundreds of thousands of visitors a day started
out with none.

Here are 7 simple things you can start doing right now to help
drive traffic to your site.

  1. Get Some Quick Links From Trusted Directories
     Link building is a long-term process with long-term goals,
     but for brand new sites with no history you've got to start
     somewhere. There are a number of directories out there that
     offer free and paid listings (subject to editorial review,
     of course). Here are the ones I recommend:

          * Yahoo! (http://dir.yahoo.com/)
          * Business.com (http://www.business.com/)
          * JoeAnt.com (http://www.joeant.com/)
          * DMOZ.org (http://www.dmoz.org/)
          * BOTW.org (http://www.botw.org/)
          * Ah, what the heck - here's a great list of
            directories (http://www.avivadirectory.com/
            downloadblog/?p=341) sorted by SEOmoz's Trifecta
            score - bookmark it and get started

  2. Start Blogging
     OK, blogging isn't for everybody (especially you boring
     people), but it's a great way to build relevant content at
     your site on a consistent basis. It also gives your
     visitors/customers a way to engage with you. But please
     don't make the mistake of being too "corporate" on your
     blog - do yourself a favor and check your Public Relations
     cap at the door. Don't be afraid to discuss your mistakes,
     missteps you've made, and what you've learned from them as
     well as your triumphs. In short, be a human, not a brand.

  3. Consider Paid Search
     For new websites, the day when you receive all the traffic
     you need for free from search engines and other referrals
     is a long way off - if not just a pipe dream altogether.
     Often times paid search campaigns are a great way to get
     your site in front of your target market today. Be sure to
     keep your budget modest, though, until you're confident in
     your ROI. Be sure to do your keyword research to find
     lower-cost "long tail" keywords - going after the big
     traffic keywords might be tempting, but it gets expensive
     and the ROI is often not the best.

  4. Use Article Marketing To Build Links
     As with any tactic, I'd recommend using this one in
     moderation. Article marketing is, essentially, trading
     words for links. It can help with link building, but the
     quality of the links it garners is usually less than
     stellar.

     Here's how it works:

        * Write an informative article on your site topic (or
           something related)

        * Include an "about the author" section as well as links
          in the article that point to your pages using relevant
          anchor text

        * Submit the article through one of the many article
          syndication services (such as EZineArticles.com
          [http://www.ezinearticles.com/] or
          GoArticles.com [http://www.goarticles.com/])

        * The deal is, anybody can come along and publish your
          article on their website - provided they use the
          article in its original format including the "about
          the author" section. So when the article is published,
          any links you include back to your site are published
          as well.

  5. Guest Post At Relevant Blogs
     This certainly requires some up-front investment, mainly
     in terms of building relationships with bloggers in your
     topic (a little brown-nosing never hurt), but it can help
     get the flywheel turning for your site like nothing else
     can. Take the time to make your guest post remarkable and
     smart - your host blogger will appreciate it, and it'll
     improve the likelihood of attention coming back to your
     site (which you'll link to in your guest post, of course).
     Links from blogs are some of the most powerful editorial
     links you can get - don't underestimate them for a second.

  6. Submit Your Site to Design Galleries
     Is your website breathtaking to behold, beautiful enough
     to make angels weep? Yeah, sure it is. But seriously, if
     it looks pretty sharp there are plenty of web design
     galleries that accept submissions for new sites and link to
     the sites they feature. Particularly for CSS-driven design
     there are a number of galleries that will consider your
     site for listing (provided your site uses CSS for layout/
     styling - and God help you if it doesn't) - including
     CSSElite.com (http://www.csselite.com/), CSSHeaven.com
     (http://www.cssheaven.com/), CSSBeauty.com
     (http://www.cssbeauty.com/) and many others. Just search in
     Google for "CSS design gallery." Unless your site is ugly
     - in that case, I can't help you, and stop asking me to
     look at it.

  7. Sponsor a Local Event or Charity
     OK, I admit this is kind of a tired tip - but it works!
     Especially for local small businesses. Is there a local
     event coming up in your community? A local charity that
     has a website? Not only will sponsoring such an event give
     you all of the normal PR benefits (and self-righteous
     bragging rights) that are the byproducts of charity, but
     any web announcement for the event will potentially include
     a mention of your website as well as a link to it. And you
     can feel good about yourself for a change.


Bonus Tip: Be Patient
Alright, this one is cheap, I admit it. Not much of a tip. But
it's important to remember that you're not going to see your
unique visitors count skyrocket immediately for your new
website. Most "overnight successes" actually take a few years
(http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/05/overnight_succe.html)
to get going.

And if you find yourself checking your traffic numbers on a
daily basis, please do us all a favor - step away from the
computer, go toss the ball around with your kid, maybe take your
niece out for ice cream. Contrary to popular belief, staring at
your site traffic data has no positive effect on it.
================================================================
Mike Tekula is the president of Unstuck Digital, a Long Island
Web Design (http://www.unstuckdigital.com/web-design/) and
Search Marketing agency based in Ronkonkoma, NY.
================================================================ 

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