I frequently get e-mails from people asking how they can increase their traffic. Unfortunately many of them ask questions that are so broad and general that it’s nearly impossible to give any specific advice.
Example questions
How do I get traffic to my site?
There are literally hundreds of ways that you can get traffic to your site including:
- search engine optimization
- forum marketing
- e-mail marketing
- social bookmarking
- creating communities
- creating killer content
- viral marketing
- video marketing
- off-line marketing
- auto blogging
- link baiting
- being controversial
- using humor
But you don’t have the time and money to do all of these things. So which ones should you focus on?
The answer to that is: It really depends.
It really depends on:
- your website and its content
- your domain
- your niche
- how you intend to make money
- what skills and talents you possess
- how much time you’re willing to spend
- and how much money you’re willing to spend
- what you are ready have experience with
I hope you can see how difficult it is to give specific advice when I know nothing about a person and their website.
How do I use twitter?
This question is tricky because I’m not sure what the person is really asking.
Are they actually asking how to use twitter i.e. how to set up an account, how to make tweets, etc.?
Or are they asking how to get traffic from twitter?
Can I rank in Google?
When you say “rank in Google” I’m guessing that you mean a top 10 rank in Google.
But the problem here is that they haven’t specified what keywords they want to rank for.
Anyone can select a longtail keyword with few searches and zero competition and rank high for it in Google. I ran an experiment and was able to rank #1 in Google for Biggest Absolute Failure with very little effort. But keywords like these are not going to give you the traffic you want.
So what keywords do you want to rank for?
3 tips for asking better questions
1. Always include the URL of your website
Whenever you ask a question be sure to include the URL to your website. This makes it so I can look at your website, review some of your content, and think of traffic ideas that are best suited for your niche.
2. If you’re asking about SEO then include your keywords
There’s very little advice I can give about it SEO unless I know what keywords you want to rank for. Some keywords will work well with social media, some will be easy to rank for, and some are too competitive and aren’t worth your time.
But Nick I don’t know what keywords I want to rank for
Then SEO is not really your problem; your problem has to do with understanding what your visitors really want and what they’re searching for.
3. Include your traffic goal
It’s helpful to include numbers on how much traffic you’re currently getting and how much you ideally want to get i.e. your traffic goal.
But Nick I don’t have a traffic goal. How do I make one?
I made a quick video showing you a simple way to create goals for your traffic.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Great run down. That is quite a broad question for them to ask. I guess a good question is what methods do you use that is the most productive.
The trouble is what's most productive for me is not what will be most productive for you.
Thanks or all the valuable tips. Till today i didn't find the exact one that i needed. I always get confuse about driving traffic, sometime go for seo or sometime social media. Now finally taking the help of blogging.
All good points.
Too often I get people coming to me saying "I'm not getting any traffic to my website! Tell me what to do!"
I'm afraid that internet marketing just isn't like that. I need to know somebody's skills and long-term business strategy before taking time to devise a bespoke internet marketing plan. There's not quick fix for a worthwhile, long-term approach.
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Very well said!