In order to create a successful website you must have traffic or visitors to your site. Without traffic your
perfect site is useless; it might as well not even exist.
Moreover, because traffic is an essential element of any successful site, many novice webmasters make the
mistake of believing all traffic is created equal.
Huge mistake.
For if traffic is King; targeted traffic is God. All traffic is good, but there is a great distinction between
ordinary traffic and targeted traffic. Someone clicking on a link to your site who is looking for the exact
information or product you have displayed is said to be a targeted visitor. These are the kinds of visitors or
traffic you must try to obtain in your marketing and link building.
Why?
Because targeted traffic is often the key to building a successful site on the web. Targeted traffic will
greatly increase your sales conversions, bring back repeat visitors and help your site gain a prominent online
presence.
So here are 10 targeted traffic building steps you can take:
1. Google Is God!
Only half-kidding but at least where targeted traffic is concerned, Google is still the all important being
you should be worshipping online. Don't ignore the other two major demigods Yahoo! and MSN, but Google will
deliver most of your traffic. Your website stats will point this out to you daily, so you must optimize your
site for Google.
As a general rule make your pages Google friendly by only using one topic per page, include your keywords in
the title, meta description and url for that page. It would also be helpful to have your main keywords in the
first headline on the page and most experienced webmasters try to place their keywords in the first 90 words
and in the last 25 words. Sprinkle your keywords and variations throughout the copy but don't keyword spam,
just let the engines know this is what your page is about.
2. Target The Right Keywords
You must target the right keywords in order to get useful traffic to your site. You must first check the number of
searches and amount of competition for your chosen keywords. You can use software like Keyword Elite or sites like
www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/ which will give
you the Overture and WordTracker monthly stats to help you pick the right keywords for your site. Instead of picking
highly competitive keywords, take the middle road and milk the 'long tail keywords'!
Most webmasters create a master keyword list for their site then branch off into sub-categories from this master
list. For example, if you have a site on laptops your sub-keyword categories could be laptop accessories, laptop
batteries and so on. Similarly, most webmasters only develop their sites in a simple hierarchy with the homepage as
the center with their major keywords as separate pages and then sub-categories branching out from these. Your webpages
should not be more than three clicks away from your homepage as this will really displease the search engine gods!
3. Have Relevant Content
Perhaps what will appease the SE gods the most is relevant content. Your content has to be relevant to the topic of
your site. Keep everything on topic and within the scope of your site.
Relevant, helpful content will also be the biggest magnet for targeted traffic. Surfers are usually looking for
information, give them what they want and your site will reap the rewards. Original, high quality, relevant content
will draw in targeted traffic to your site so make sure you have some good content to satisfy your visitors and the
search engines.
4. Let The Search Engines Find You
Instead of submitting your site to the search engines, let them find your site. One of the best ways to do this is
by placing your links on high traffic/spidered sites: on online forums matching your site's content, on social networks
such as MySpace, YouTube, Squidoo... and on article directories like Ezinearticles, Goarticles, and Ideamarketers. The
search engines will follow these links and index your site before you even know it.
5. Use Traffic Modules
One of the most effective ways to bring in targeted traffic is to create traffic modules: whole areas of your site
devoted to one sub-topic. For example, if you have a general site on cars, you could develop a whole section on a
car-buying guide. Another section could be on car accessories, link all these pages together into a neat traffic
cluster on your site. The search engines will love these closely grouped pages and reward you with lots of targeted
traffic.
6. Use Articles
Don't forget article marketing, just because it has become extremely popular doesn't mean it has become any less
effective. Writing short helpful informative articles on your site's topic is still one of the best ways to get
targeted traffic to your site. Place your links with your targeted keyword anchor text in the resource box.
Article marketing is an invaluable source not only of targeted traffic but also one-way links to your site. These
links will help increase your rankings, especially in Google which considers each link as a democratic vote for your
site and ranks each page with a PageRank PR 0-10.
Articles are also extremely important for pre-selling to your potential customers. These articles warm or soften up
your prospective buyers to your salespitch before they even reach your site.
7. Build Opt-in Lists
Most marketers and webmasters use opt-in lists to bring targeted visitors back to their sites. Instead of just
receiving that visitor once, you can get repeat visits by using a simple follow-up system with an autoresponder.
Studies have consistently shown it might take 6 or 7 follow-ups before a potential customer buys.
Building a subscriber list will also be helpful in creating a web community around your site. These community
members may become your most targeted of all your visitors. Likewise, you should have a bookmark feature on all
your pages, any repeat visitor is a targeted visitor!
8. Have Blogs & RSS Feeds
Make sure you have a blog and RSS feed attached to your site. This will not only bring in targeted traffic but
your visitors can also subscribe to your RSS feed. This will bring targeted visitors back to your site. Use a free
site like Google's own www.blogger.com or better yet create your own blog using
free software such as WordPress.
9. Use Social Media
Build links and contacts in all the important social media networks such as MySpace, YouTube and Flickr. These
social networks are a great source of very targeted traffic.
10. Use Multimedia
Perhaps the biggest opportunity to build targeted traffic is using video and audio media on your site. These
will help personalize your message or content and build trust with your visitors. Video clips also have a great
viral potential which will bring in traffic.
