5 Easy Tips to Increase Website Traffic with Natural Link Building

If you have a website, whether it is a blog or a business based, it is crucial to your online success that you know how to increase website traffic. In your search for this knowledge, you will encounter strategies that you either buy, like a PPC campaign, or that are free.

One useful, cost-saving strategy that is common amongst most website enthusiasts is natural link building. Natural link building is an important search engine optimization (SEO) technique that works most effectively when a highly-trafficked site provides an outbound link to another website. The more quality links a website has, the better the chance it has of ranking well in the major search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

While natural link building can be quite laborious, it is one of the absolute best ways to maximize website traffic. The key to saving time and to obtaining successful results when link building is to remember that it is the quality, not the quantity, that really counts. These 5 easy tips will help you create links that can effectively increase traffic to your website.

1) Write informative blogs or articles that demonstrate your professional expertise. If you are selling a service or product online, provide useful information in your article that your ideal users would find interesting. Once you’re finished writing, add the content to your website and then submit the URL to popular online directories. Unsure of which directories you should consider? Think about the topic of your article or blog. For example, if you wrote about puppies, you could submit your URL to The Dog Lover’s Online Directory. Conduct a search for online directories that are relevant to your topic and your website.

2) Get free links by leaving comments in professional blogs or by answering questions on major, traffic grossing sites like Yahoo! Answers or Google Groups . Every time you comment or answer a question, add your URL to your signature. When answering questions, stick to your area of expertise so both your answer and URL are applicable. When leaving blog comments, stick to blogs that are relevant to your website.

A word of caution, most blogs has a “no follow” attribute, which prevents comment spam. When “no follow” is present in a blog’s HTML, the search engines’ spiders will not count or follow user posted links when delegating page rank. Blogging platforms, like WordPress, automatically assign the “no follow” rule. However, there are platforms where links may be accepted by trusted users of the blog, so it is important to also establish your credibility with blog owners.

3) Submit your website to relevant online directories, like the Internet Business Directory . If you are not sure which online directories are relevant to your website, Google offers a list of internet business directories that is broken down by category. Some directories are free and others charge for inclusion, so do your research before you decide to submit your website’s URL.

4) Pay special attention to your website’s internal link structure. If you are using links within your website, make sure that all links have appropriate anchor text and avoid the words “click here”. A good rule of thumb is to link your keyword phrases to relevant pages within your site or to quality online resources. When referencing your web pages in your text, make sure that you provide an internal link.

5) Finally, as mentioned before, it is the quality of your links that matter, not the quantity. When using natural link building to increase web traffic, try to add links over time. This is especially true if you own a newer site. Adding a ton of random links to other sites may be viewed as spamming by Google and can lead to omission from the search engine.

Why Social Networking Equals Increased Website Traffic

Increase Web Traffic with Social Networking
In the ongoing quest to increase website traffic, many site owners and businesses are realizing the value of social networking and how popular, user driven sites like Facebook, MySpace and Flickr can effectively attract new users to their websites. Each day, millions of users gravitate toward social networks because these sites allow them to connect with others, to share entertaining content and to build new relationships.
Social networking can present limitless opportunities for traffic growth for people who own and operate individual or business based websites. However, before anyone takes the plunge into the evolving marketing medium that is social networking, they will want to understand why utilizing social marketing leads to more page views.

Where There Are Users, There Are Online Marketing Opportunities
Social networking is truly where the action is at as millions of users log into these sites on a daily basis. In 2008, Silicon Alley Insider reported that MySpace averaged 17.7 million daily users, followed by Facebook, which averaged 8.6 million daily users. With incredible and consistent numbers like this, website owners simply cannot afford to not partake in the action. Remember, you need to be where the users are.

People Use Social Networking to Target Both Larger Audiences & Niches
Social networking sites instantaneously allow you to have access to a larger audience and user base. Within minutes, you can establish your online presence by creating a profile on any highly-trafficked social site and begin posting information about yourself, your website or your business. The fun begins when you start adding friends to your profile page that share the same interests as you or who may be interested in your business. You can even go so far as zeroing in on a niche of users, which can increase targeted website traffic. In time, you will attract users to your website and gain valuable back links, both of which can lead to more page views.

Most Professionals Use Social Networking
Many online business owners have heard of social networking, but are hesitant to use it as an advertising tool because they are under the impression that these networks only cater to younger individuals. And, if their businesses aren’t interested in targeting a younger market, they feel they shouldn’t waste their time and they fail to see the value.
The truth is that this assumption is completely false as many of these sites specifically target career professionals, not teenagers. In a recent survey conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity, it was reported that approximately 65% of business professionals use personal and professional social networking sites. Additionally, the same online survey revealed that most professionals gravitate to social sites like LinkedIn, followed closely by MySpace and Yahoo360.

Utilizing Social Networking Tools Can Save You Money
When you have millions of users at your disposal, why would you buy web site traffic via a PPC campaign? Instead, you should add social networking strategies to your online marketing plan and save yourself some money. Numerous companies, like MasterCard, are monetizing with social networking applications, blogs and photo galleries. In fact, according to Yahoo! Senior Product Manager, Laura des Dorides, many companies who purchase micro sites (sites geared toward advertising a brand) within the Yahoo! Network now demand that their sites include social marketing tools like Facebook applications and Flickr photo galleries, as they fully understand how these tools generate website traffic.

Tips For Increasing Website Traffic

Increase Site Visitors

See also: Increase Site Visitors; Increase Website Hits

A-Z Tips to Increase Site Visitors

We said A-Z and we meant it. Here are 26 sure-fire ways to increase web traffic and site visitors to your website. Use some or all of them, and let us know which ones worked best for you.

1. Optimize your site (SEO).
   Win on the search engines when people search for keyword phrases related to your products or services.
   (More about search engine optimization.)
   
   
2. Get your site listed in directories.
   Submit your site to all the major web directories. This will generate traffic directly from the directories themselves and will also help to improve your link popularity. That helps you win on Google!
   (More about web directories.)
   
   
3. Get listed in search engines.
   Submit your site to all the major search engines.
   (More about search engines.)
   
   
4. Get links to your site.
   Get people with complimentary sites to link to yours. You offer rental kayaks on the beach. Ask the local restaurant owners to link to you, and offer to link to them. Ask the local tour guides, the real estate agents, the night clubs, and everyone else. Links lead to clicks onto your website and help to improve your search engine rankings.
   
   
5. Buy links to your site.
   Buy text links on other websites. That means more spiders stopping by, more people clicking through, and better search engine rankings.
   
   
6. Buy banner ads.
   Buy banner ads on other websites. It helps to build brand recognition.
   
   
7. Participate in a banner exchange program.
   It won't cost you anything, and will lead to a few extra visitors. Plus, you're spreading your brand all over the place.
   
   
8. Participate in a WebRing.
   Connect your site with other sites in your niche.
   
   
9. Pay for clicks to your site.
   Pay for clicks or inclusion on the search engines so that people will see your site in the sponsored links section of the search results when they search for keyword phrases related to your products or services.
   (More about pay per click.)
   
   
10. Set up an affiliate marketing program.
    With affiliate marketing, you can either pay per click, pay per lead generated, pay per sale, or pay per customer acquired.
    
    
11. Use smart public relations (PR).
    Get news coverage of your business and your site. Approach online and traditional media. This will often lead to others placing links pointing to your website, which leads to more clicks and also to improved search engine rankings.
    
    
12. Use E-mail marketing.
    Ugly, but effective for the cost. Blast out your special offers, but be nice about it.
    
    
13. Use off-line marketing.
    Promote your site. Put your url on all your license plates. Paint it on your car. Buy newspaper and yellow pages ads with your url. Put up flyers and stickers. Sponsor a little league team. Do anything and everything to spread the word about your website around your city.
    
    
14. Run regular promotions.
    Stage regular giveaways and spread the word about it.
    
    
15. Get published.
    Write articles for publication on other websites. The author profile will link to your site. The article will show that you're an expert.
    
    
16. Publish yourself.
    Write articles for your own site regularly. This will help you to win on the search engines and gives your visitors a reason to come back over and over.
    
    
17. Ask for reviews.
    Ask for reviews of your self-published articles on other webmasters' websites. Ask for reviews of your website, your products, your software, your services. These will usually include links to your articles.
    
    
18. Write briefs.
    Write daily or weekly news briefs focusing in on your industry or specialty area. This keeps your site "fresh" in the eyes of the major search engines and helps you to spread a wide net when fishing for top search engine positions.
    
    
19. Create a newsletter.
    Ask your visitors to sign up for your newsletter, and encourage them to send it along to people they know. Send a newsletter regularly with teasers or lead-ins to your in-depth new articles or with special offers and the latest products.
    
    
20. Post in chat rooms.
    Become active in bulletin boards and chat rooms focusing on your industry. Leave inciteful comments, and people will click on your profile, then visit your site.
    
    
21. Give away free stuff.
    Offer something people want at your site. Give them a reason to come back and get more. Offer free downloads and update them regularly. Offer coupons or discounts. Content content content.
    
    
22. Give awards for excellent sites in your niche.
    This builds more links back to your site and establishes you as a credible reviewer, an expert in your space.
    
    
23. Run a contest and promote it.
    Photo contests, essay contests, goofy contests, random drawings, anything. Example: Messiest Garage in America contest on OfftheFloor.com.
    
    
24. Join your local business organizations.
    Chambers of Commerce and other organizations will often add your site to their member directory. That's an added advantage over the obvious business-building and networking opportunities.
    
    
25. Create an RSS feed.
    Give people another way to interact with your content.
    
    
26. Be accessible.
    Build your site so that it is accessible to all browsers and to PocketPC and Palm Pilot users. Don't forget, people with disabilities buy things too. Make your site Section 508 complaint. Your competition probably hasn't