The success of any internet business rests solely on the amount of traffic that visits and/or lands on the website of that business. Additionally, some groups of people are more interested in a specific product and/or service than other groups. For a simple example, men will be more interested in a website that sells tools than women will be. The people you really want to attract to your website are people who are likely to spend money on your goods and services. So the question is, “how do you target specific groups to increase your website traffic?” What follows will teach you how to increase targeted web site traffic.

Research Keywords

Every product and/or service has various words that relate directly and indirectly to them. Such words are known as “keywords” and are what search engines look for when searching the internet for a user’s request. There are many keyword tools available on the internet, like the Google Adwords keyword tool, that can help you find the number of users using a specific keyword to find whatever they are looking for.

You can also make a short list of keywords and perform an organic search to produce a list of websites in the same niche as your business. Look at what keywords are being used in their descriptions to target responses. Knowing what keywords are specific to both your business and your audience is part of the key to increasing targeted website traffic. These are what your content should focus on and what your website should be optimized for.

Keyword Relevancy

A very important factor in selecting keywords is choosing those words that are relevant to your business. But be careful here because many words in most languages can have multiple meanings, especially when combined with other words. For instance, the word ‘conversion’ can be coupled to measurements, religion, and even internet business, all of which mean something different. To increase targeted traffic your keywords must be specifically relevant to your business.

Website Optimization

People will enter specific words when performing a search. Optimize your website by being specific about what you are offering and match it as much as you can to what people are looking for. As indicated earlier, different people are attracted to different things. If your website sells products for young people optimize your website by creating a website to attract young people.  Use the right keywords and make sure you use approximately a three per cent keyword density on each webpage. You can use slightly different keywords on each word to widen your appeal to your target audience.

Split Testing

Split testing is a way of comparing two or more different marketing ideas or campaigns to find out which one, or parts of them, attract the most traffic. This information will allow you to tailor future campaigns to help meet your marketing goals. There are various split testing tools available online to help you analyze the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

Directories

There are many directories, like Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc., where you can list your website to increase targeted website traffic. The more of these you submit your website to the more traffic you can generate.

Look At Your Competition

Visit some of the competition’s websites and note the keywords they are using. Finding keywords used on a website is easy. Just click on the ‘View Page Source’ in your browser and you will be presented the XHTML page for that web site. This page will give you the keywords used, the title, meta keywords, and description tags. However, it’s not advised that you copy anything from the XHTML page of another site, but only use it as a source of information to help you develop your own keyword strategies and usage.

Be A Trend Leader

Be the first to offer special things related to your market niche to your customers. This can be done by paying attention to blogs, trade journals, or any other informative resource that will give you insight into what people are looking for from businesses like yours.

Web Site Promotion

A large part of attracting traffic to your website happens off your website. Blogs, articles, and directories are an excellent way to promote your business and the products and/or services it provides. Also, establish a blog about what your company does. Blogs are easy to set-up, as well as maintain, and can increase traffic to your website. Make sure your information is of good quality and include a link to your website in the blog post, article or author box and you will have people visiting, keen to find out more.

All these strategies should help you increase your targeted website site traffic and thus increase your business and your profit.

The main purpose of most Websites and blogs is to generate business for its owners. It cannot do this without getting traffic. If you fail to make people aware of your Website’s existence, it will not get visitors and therefore serve no purpose. Traffic or hits is the sign of a successful Website. However, just having a site is not in itself sufficient to get traffic.  There are a number of techniques and strategies that must be employed to make a Website successful. Apart from the regular PPC (pay per click) and link exchanges the following are some good suggestions on how to increase web traffic.

It is important to note that some of these methods will take some amount of time and money, but they will all be worth it in the long run. Some of the best tried and proven methods are:

• Content: The value of content to increasing Website traffic can not be overstated. But it is not just any content that will make the difference, it is content that is current, valuable, original and not time bound that will do the trick.

With limited time at their disposal and many competing Websites, browsers want content/information that is timely and usable. If information is just a rehashing of old facts without anything new it will not hold the interest of your website visitors and it surely won’t have them coming back. Keeping content fresh and original is very important. Most Internet users are looking for information that can answer a question and is credible. Finally, it is a good idea not to write content that is date specific. These become old news much too quickly and do not pull visitors to a Website.

• Create a Blog: One surefire way to increase Website traffic is to use a blog. Many corporate entities have now included a blog as a part of their Website presence. Bogs are easy to write and by their very nature demand currency as entries have to be posted at least 3 times per week, preferably more to reap success and build readership.

• Social networking sites:  The latest rage in increasing Website and blog traffic is social networking sites. Joining and promoting yourself and your Website on social networking sites is a great way to increase Website traffic. There is a large number of such sites out there with some of the most popular being Facebook, Stumbleupon, Buzz It, MySpace and Twitter.

• Post to newsgroups: Participate in newsgroups, especially those that relate to your subject area or business focus. Make sure to include a signature line that also has your URL.

• Offer something for free: People like getting things for free, whether it’s a complete ebook or a chapter. The ebook should ideally be related to your business. Also, having a contest with prizes, especially where entry is free is sure to generate lots of hits. These tactics also lead to repeat visitors.

• Advertise, Advertise:  Many online businesses do not realize that they still need to advertise. Advertising here means both online and offline. It includes exchanging links with other Websites that your target audience may be interested in.

• Promote your Website or Blog: Feel free to submit press releases to announce changes to your business, but make sure that your Website’s URL is prominently displayed. Luckily, there are many sites that post free press releases, just do a search online.

Many Websites fail simply because their owners neglect to follow the basic rules of building traffic. Optimizing a Website with good, current content is the first and primary rule of online success. It is often said and has become quite a cliché, but ‘content truly is king’.

In today’s competitive world of internet marketing, website owners are becoming more and more desperate to bring traffic to their online presence. They’ve been told by internet marketing gurus that a beautifully crafted website design and the services of the most dependable hosting company are nothing without traffic. And while that is true, the question arises as to what is quality traffic. To be successful, a website owner needs targeted traffic that converts to sales. It’s nice to have visitors to your website, but a thriving website business can only be profitable if it has buying customers. With that in mind, let’s consider whether or not the growing trend of utilizing traffic exchange programs will assist you in reaching your marketing goals.

A traffic exchange program is a website business in itself. The main idea of their strategy in marketing is for website owners to exchange traffic with other website owners. Registration is free and simple to do which includes filling out a form for some personal information and entering the URL of the website or websites that you wish to receive traffic for. You can enter as many websites as you wish. The process for receiving traffic includes a credit system, whereby the registered member is offered the option to surf other websites for credits. Most traffic exchange programs have a system set up where you are required to stay on the website that you are viewing for a period of 15 or 20 seconds before you receive credit for that visit. Then you can click on the next website for viewing and accumulate credits as you surf. Each credit that you receive allocates a visit from another member to your website and so on.

Many of the traffic exchange programs have implemented anti-cheating programs in their applications that prevent a member from using their own software to “break” the traffic exchange frame that appears at the top of the screen to regulate the time spent and rotation of websites. In the past, software was used by some members to keep another member at their website by kicking them out of their surfing session. Other anti-cheating systems that traffic exchanges use prevent robotic surfing and spamming. However, there is always the possibility of a member opening up several windows on their computer and rotating between traffic exchange programs as they surf for credits and never spend any time actually viewing any website.

The problem that can exist with this concept is the human nature of most people. It has been the experience of many individuals that have utilized these programs that humans tend to want something for nothing. For example, I may want you to visit my site, but I don’t want to have to visit yours. This is where the traffic exchange programs make their money. Most of them will sell credits, and they sell them pretty cheap. EasyHits4U sells credits at the rate of 1000 hits for under $6 and TrafficG sells 1000 credits for $13. This is a very tempting offer as many website owners don’t have the time or patience to sit and surf for hours. And this is what it takes to build up enough credits for any amount of traffic. Consider the time it might take to receive 1000 credits. If you are required to stay at one site for 20 seconds, that’s a maximum of 3 sites per minute. So each minute you may gain 3 credits and each hour you may gain only 180 credits. It would take up to 5 hours of surfing to accumulate 1000 credits. Most people’s time is worth a lot more than $6 for 5 hours, so it seems cost effective to purchase credits rather than sit and surf for them.

Obviously someone has to be surfing for the program to work, so the question arises as to whether or not the traffic is good quality if you were to purchase credits. There are two sides to this story and the first version is that the traffic is good targeted traffic because some programs like TrafficSwarm allow you to select categories that interest you when you register for membership. And repeated exposure to the websites that interest an individual may result in conversions. On the other side of the coin are the obvious implications that were previously mentioned about members wishing to avoid the task of viewing websites? This has in turn required many of the traffic exchange websites to instigate incentive programs to receive commissions for clicks and down-line purchases bringing cash to the member. Many times this is simple pennies, but members have expressed the concern that there is a problem with their marketing strategy if they have to pay customers to view their website. Many of these types of viewers may not be real conversions to paying customers, simply paid viewers.

Another concern is that of picking up viruses, “adware” or “mallware” from these types of programs that have difficulty weeding out unscrupulous members. One such traffic exchange website no longer exists because of the prevalence of this issue.

So finding successful internet marketing strategies for your website is challenging to say the least. Some website owners have reported good results from the use of traffic exchange programs and others have reported nightmares. It’s wise to research the pro’s and con’s and maybe enlist the professional services of a reputable website design and custom programming company for assistance with gaining targeted traffic to your website.

As of today, the most popular traffic exchange program we could find is the http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/exchange/  Bravenet Traffic Exchange. Please also note we have no affiliation with this, or any other traffic exchange programs mentioned in this article.

You have worked hard and long at building a Website—one that looks good, sounds good, feels good! You’ve made sure that each page gives the information people need to buy your product(s) or service(s). Now someone tells you that you need to add more content, and keep adding content! And you think, perhaps a little incredulously, “So just why should I add more to an already great site?”

There are several reasons for this. They have to do with first, your potential customers and second, the search engines. Let’s look at both of these.

Imagine you are in a very large city, like New York or Los Angeles. You want to buy an iPod—the very best one that you can afford. You can make dozens of phone calls to the stores, which are scattered throughout the city, asking about their iPods, the benefits of each one, and the prices. Some of the folks you talk to are not very helpful, so you decided not to go to their stores, even though one is by far the closest of any, less than a mile away. The store that is the furthest away had a clerk that was by far the most helpful—he seemed to have infinite patience with all of your questions and, in fact, he even gave you a lot of information before you could ask a question. He was pleasant and courteous, was thorough in the information and gave it in a way you could grasp; he knew what he was talking about. Even though some of his prices were higher than other stores, you travel across the city to buy from this most helpful salesperson.

Your Website is your salesperson. You’ll make few sales if you just put up a catalog with short item descriptions. You need to give your prospective customers all the information they want about your products or services. In fact, you want to give them even more! If you have the information they are looking for the first time they come to your site, they are more likely to return to your site a second time when they need information about something else you offer. If you were the Web store selling iPods and other portable media players, you would probably start out by listing the players you have available and giving descriptions of each, along with their pros and cons.

But don’t stop there. Give them information about iPods and their copycats in general, even going into a little bit of their history. Give information about any glitches that folks run into with portable media players in general, and give them solutions for those glitches. Give them ideas about all of the ways they can use their players. Give them Web sites where they can download music. Give them simple to follow instructions. Give them a place where they can contribute their own ideas and information to your site. Keep them up-to-date on the news about these kinds of products.

Make sure it’s easy for your potential customers to find the information on your Web site that they need and want. You want to develop repeat customers—the lifeblood of any business. A static Website is unlikely to do this.

Those are the main reasons for continually adding content for potential customers. The reasons for the search engines are really not all that different.

What is the job of a search engine? Basically it is to recognize what a Website or page is about and to determine how good it is. Once it decides how good it is, it can rank it with other Websites that are about the same thing.

At first, search engines pretty much looked for how often certain words occurred on a page, and where they were on the page. But as the Internet grew, so did the search engines. They altered the algorithms (mathematical formulas) they used to refine their searches and findings. Pretty soon the big engines, like Google and Yahoo!, were changing their algorithms so often that Webmasters could hardly keep up. The search engines were not making these changes just to frustrate Webmasters or keep them on their toes. They made them so they could offer more accurate results to their users and customers.

Yahoo! even tells us what they are looking for in a Website:

• Original and unique content of genuine value
• Pages designed primarily for humans, with Search Engine considerations secondary
• Hyperlinks intended to help people find interesting, related content, when applicable
• Metadata (including title and description) that accurately describes the contents of a Web page
• Good Web design in general

Yahoo! also makes the following comment: “Unfortunately, not all Web pages contain information that is valuable to a user. Some pages are created deliberately to trick the search engine into offering inappropriate, redundant or poor-quality search results; this is often called “spam.” Yahoo! does not want these pages in the index.”

The search engines will spider your Website every time you add or change content (you do have to notify them that a change has been made). The more often they spider your site, the more likely you can move up in their ranks.

Besides content, they also look at the number of visitors you have had, how long they have stayed at your site, how many of your pages they looked at, and so on. The higher those numbers are, the higher you will be rated by the search engine. And those numbers rise with good, plentiful content on your Website.

So, pleasing your customers pleases the search engines. The more you please the search engines, the more potential customers will find your site, which—in turn—will please the search engines.

You just can’t lose with lots of great, new content continually being added to your Website!

Now, among plenty other features, you need user interaction by allowing them to access reports, communicate directly and purchase products. You need to be on time with your services and up-to-date with your information in relation to the marketplace.

Think of it this way: You can view a billboard by the side of the road, but you can’t push a button and learn more about what the company has to offer. You can’t provide feedback. Most importantly, you can’t instantly make a purchase from what the business sells.

Shortly after passing the billboard, you see another one, and your memory is lost. What did that old billboard say again? You forget about it and move on.

The most important challenge of today’s Web developer: Provide the means to not only make visitors return, but also increase traffic. Creativity and ingenuity are very vital in making the Web site thrive and bringing more revenue to the business.

Here is a list of the top 10 objectives that must be achieved to increase Web traffic:

1. Web content must be fresh and easy to navigate. In order to appeal to the masses, the site must be visually appealing and have relevant, up-to-date information.
2. Market your Web site. Any means of literature that is issued by your company must include the Web site address. E-mail teasers – providing minimal information on a topic that will encourage the user to want more – are becoming commonplace to direct traffic to a Web site. Also, it is wise to include your Web site address with your signature on every E-mail transmission.
3. Sponsor and trade links wisely. Many businesses that interact help each other by offering a sponsor link. Be sure to include your logo with the link. You should trade links with other organizations frequented by the same visitor.
4. Complement any information you provide with online content. When including an article or newsworthy information on your Web site, back up the content with related material and resources that are offered elsewhere online. This validates your Web site and makes visitors more at ease in returning to see what else your site provides.
5. Offer virtual communities. Creating chat rooms and other discussion forums encourages user involvement. They feel compelled to return to your Web site to either make a comment or learn more about what they are researching.
6. Involve search engines for sponsor listings. This is a very vital form of advertising your Web site. You will notice these sidebars along search results in Yahoo!, Google or other popular search engines. When someone searches for information related to what your Web site presents, your Web site will appear next to the results of the search.
7. Maintain the Web site effectively. The last thing you want to do is annoy the visitor. Providing out-of-date information is one thing, but frustrating the user by including broken links can be deadly. Make sure what is linked is correct and that any offerings are error-free.
8. Prominently announce new features. It does not do a Web site any good to have new content if the returning user has to search for these features. Broadcast the new features prominently on the home page and through E-mails.
9. Make sure your Web site is secure. With identity theft rampant, users want to be assured that any information they provide to your Web site is secure. If they do not see security information, they will likely never return.
10. Develop a search-engine optimization plan. An effective Web site includes pages that are programmed correctly to ensure the likelihood the site will show up prominently in search engines. For example, if you own a shoe store in Las Vegas, and someone puts in a search for “shoes in Las Vegas,” your store should pop up as one of the first in the list.

The bottom line is staying in demand. If users are tired of your Web site and know of a competitor that is more contemporary, they will obviously desert you in an instant.

As is the case with any successful business – always be on the cutting edge and never stop developing ideas. When you stop, your traffic will come to a standstill as well. Your Web site will become a dull billboard by the side of the road instead of a dynamic piece of work.

All the work of designing your Web site is complete. You have all the necessary graphics, images and fonts to make your site pop. You believe you have the correct and necessary links to other sites, which makes your site more credible and appealing to viewers or customers.

Now how do you make your Web site known to the public?

If you do not submit your Web site to a directory or search engine, you might as well close shop. It is the equivalent of having a shop in Antarctica, and no one knows you exist. You only hope someone will happen to stroll by. Not a chance.

Follow these 10 surefire steps to submit your Web site to a directory, such as Yahoo, Google or MSN:

• Write a list of keywords that are related to your Web site. For example, if your Web site involves selling gift baskets, think of keywords such as gifts, gift baskets, gifts for him, gifts for her, etc.
• Make some practice searches in the search engines you like the most.
• Take note of which categories appear first.
• Research where the search terms are located in the search string.
• Click on some of the Web sites and notice the similarities and differences with your site.
• Narrow the directory search-engine results to two categories. Using our example of gift baskets on Yahoo, the categories should be cookies > gift baskets and shopping  >  fruit gift baskets
• On the current directory page, click on “Submit a Site.”
• Make payment if applicable, in Yahoo’s case, $299 (if your site does not have adult content; $600 if it does).
• Fill out all the pertinent information.
• Make sure the title and description include your best keywords.

Google and Yahoo, each of which has a high-traffic environment, have the most popular directories to make your submission. Google’s is actually free through Netscape’s Open Directory Project, an open-source inspired initiative created and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors.

Each has a different response time. Yahoo lets you know within a week if your Web site made its directory, or if it did not. It provides suggestions for making the site suitable for its directory. The ODP with Google might take up to a month and the communication is a question mark. If you don’t notice your site in the Google directory after a month, and you have not received communication, submit the site again or access the ODP’s help pages at http://dmoz.org/help/submit.html.

A long list of online businesses exists which provide programs that submit your Web site for a directory. Some of these businesses, such as www.directoriezsubmission.com, also offer a list of directory search engines that are free. The URL address to access these sites from this particular business is http://www.directoriezsubmission.com/free-web-directories.htm.

Be careful to choose companies that offer manual submission of Web directory requests. Automatic submissions take out the human element and might create unfavorable situations in which your Web site might be in a directory you don’t want or know anything about.

When filling out a form for a Web directory, make sure you are only providing pertinent information about you and your Web site. Make sure you list a phone number you can be contacted at all times. A full mailing address and e-mail address are important. You need to keep open all means of communication with the Web directory host.

On the form, you must list your categories. In the gift-basket example, your categories can include cookies gift baskets or fruit gift baskets. Again, try to do as many searches as possible with your keywords to determine the most traveled categories on the Internet. No better marketing tool exists to get your Web site noticed than to perform searches from your list of keywords.

In the end, you should not be left out in the cold, like in Antarctica. Do your homework and follow the steps listed in this article and you should have a hot Web site soon.

Your new website is finished and sits shiny and new on your server. It’s your pride and joy! It was a labor of love to get it to this stage, but it was worth every ounce of blood, sweat and tears you poured into it. The main question on your mind at this stage is this: what can you do to prevent it from ending up as an unused, unvisited expensive ornament? What can you do to stop it from going to the cyberspace graveyard in the sky?

Well, there are several steps that you can take to avoid this nightmare scenario. The first thing you must do is get your site listed with all the major search engines such as Google. There are hundreds of search engine submission services online. Many offer a paid service and a free one. The paid service sends your web site information monthly to hundreds of search engines for a fee. The free service sends it to a handful of very select search engines including Google. If you are starting up your website on a shoe string its best to stick with the free service.

If your site is selling a product or service then its best to list your site with the relevant online directories out there. If your site is selling ebooks then list your site with every online ebook directory. To find them, simply type ‘ebook directories’ into Google or any other search engine. Once you have found them, use their built-in automatic site submission tool to submit you website’s information. Your information could take time to appear but it will. Unless you are selling a serious product with a serious amount of cash behind you, don’t pay for any directory listings such as the Yahoo directory.

If you do have a product to sell, then the most cost effective way of attracting potential targeted buyers is to sign up with a major Pay Per Click (PPC) search engine service such as Google Adwords, Kanoodle and Overture. If you look to the right hand side of any Google search page you will see a series of ads, relevant by keyword to the search just made. On other PPC search engines the ads may appear above the search listings. This is where your ads will show.

All PPC search engines work off the same principle, although they do differ in the set up costs, minimum cost per click and the payment methods. You set up an account and bid a maximum cost-per-click for keywords. When somebody types in a relevant keyword your ad will appear. How high it appears depends on your maximum cost-per-click.

Bidding for the best keywords on the major PPC search engines can be an expensive and cut throat business with people paying silly money for highest ranking. If possible, stay away from high demand keywords such as ‘mortgages’ or ‘cars.’ Aim instead for less pricey alternative keywords such as ‘buy a house’ or ‘buy a second hand car in London.’ Keep an eye on your PPC campaign, especially at the beginning. Watch especially the amount of click-thrus your ads are receiving as well as the cost accrued by your campaign. You may need to tweak your campaign to get the best results.

Signing up for the hundreds of smaller PPC search engines on the web is a waste of time and money because the search engine traffic they receive is non-existent and, hence, your ads will be viewed by nobody. Stick to the biggest PPC search engines that receive good to excellent traffic.

There are other ways that you can advertise your website. You could take out classified ads. You could make business cards or posters. If it is a brand new site you could send it in for review to relevant magazines or websites. This is a great way of spreading the word.

Never sign up for any service offering to send your ad to millions of email addresses for a few dollars. These companies are sending spam and you will probably be asked to leave if your ISP finds out, which they will because someone always complains.

Never buy visitors or website hits. There are hundreds of companies online who offer something like: ‘Buy 50,000 website visitors for $10’ or ‘Buy 100,000 guaranteed website hits for $30.’ Your hit counter will rise but the quality and source of the traffic is appalling, even if you buy supposedly ‘targeted hits’. If you own an e-commerce store you won’t make any sales this way. Guaranteed! Remember, it’s quality not quantity!