What good is your website if no one knows about it? The reason most webmasters fail within their first year is because they overlook advertising and promotion. Just because you have a perfectly designed website does not mean that people will find it. It is not hard to produce a steady stream of targeted traffic, and it can be absolutely free if you do it right. Below are eight free ways to produce quality targeted traffic for your website.
1. Search Engines Search Engines are one of
best sources for targeted traffic and potential customers, so search engines should be one of
biggest factors for advertising and promotion. Did you know that most people never click past
first page of search engines? You need to be on
first page of search engines for your targeted keywords to generate targeted traffic. Getting your website to
top of search engines such as Google and Yahoo for free takes special methods called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search Engines Optimization envolves many factors, such as Meta Tags, Inbound Links,
tags, keywords, content, and PageRank. Since SEO is such an advanced field, HitsBam has written a completely seperate article entitled A Complete Guide to Search Engine Optimization to get you to
top of search engines for free.2. Message Boards Message Boards, or commonly known as forums, are great places to make partnerships with other webmasters and gain targeted traffic. First, create a signature post file with your name and URL so everytime you post a message, people will be interested in your website. Then introduce yourself slowly by posting useful information and answering questions. The more active you become in
forum,
better, because you will be known as an "expert", which gives you and your website a good reputation. Always remember to obide by
forum's rules and NEVER spam them with your website. A good signature for a forum would look something like this:
--------------------------------------------- Your Name http://www.yourwebsite.com "A funny or catchy quote" ---------------------------------------------
3. Email Signatures Imagine that every email you send out is advertising for your website. This can be a reality if you utilize email signatures. Almost every email program or website has this feature. You can use it when sending personal emails, business emails, when you email your clients, in your autoresponder, or any other email that is sent. Email Signatures are perfect to keep people coming back to your website because
signature reminds them that your website exists. Remember to never spam, it just is not worth it. A good email signature would look something like this:
--------------------------------------------- Your Name Your Website Title http://www.yourwebsite.com "Your Slogan" or a Short Description ---------------------------------------------
4. Content Content, Content, Content! Search engines are so sophisticated these days that
only real way to get on
top of search engines is to have good keyword-rich content. Not only will you recieve top rankings on search engines, people will actually want to visit your site, especially if
content is for free. You could also post your articles at ezines and websites and leave your link at
bottom. This lets people know that you are knowledgable and that they should visit your website, and it works suprisingly well to generate targeted traffic for free. You can make some real money selling links on your website if you have good content. Some websites with a PageRank of 7 or more sell links for $250+ a month! Don't forget to place your keywords all over your website and in your articles. The more keywords you incorporate into your content,
better, just make sure it is still an understandable article and not just an article full of keywords.