Do you want to increase website traffic? Last week I reached out to Launch Grow Joy readers and members of Help a Reporter (if you’re not already subscribed, you should sign up now by clicking here) and asked you to share your best tips to increase website traffic. A lot of entrepreneurs put up their website and think that the traffic will come – not true! You have to actively market your site and your products in order to see a steady stream of traffic.

Thanks so much to all of you who took the time to reply and provided such great insight

Here are your best tips to increase website traffic

*It’s a Niche*

I actively pursue additional avenues related to my product which helps in building my reputation in the food/wedding industry. I now write full time with Sugar Loco & also write personal press releases about my product which have been very successful in several publications & live TV appearances. – Thanks to Jacklyn from Sugar N Spice for this tip.

Tip from the Spunky Old Broad

The most important way to drive traffic to your website other than pay per click, is to have a dedicated squeeze page that people go to for a free report, CD or downloadable *something. *You get there with a squeeze page that is enticing enough to do that or a sales letter that drives them to the squeeze page. The sales letter should get them to go from line to line with interest and intrigue. So it goes: ppc, sales letter, squeeze  page, free gift and capture their name and email. Then sell.– Thanks to Gayle from Living Regret Free  for this tip.

Turning Personality into Profits

Last month I changed my whole brand for my company. I have found that the moment I started letting my real personality come out when I post on forums and blogs I instantly got more opt-ins to my website and more followers which led to more sales. I let go of my old proper corporate facade and showed that I was not only a real person but wasn’t afraid to express what I was really thinking.– Thanks to Erica from Erica Duran International for this tip.

Drive Traffic to Your Site and Earn Revenue with Udemy.com 

Back when I sold novelty drinking items on the web, I discovered Udemy.com, a website where you can create a learning course for how to make  things. Not only can artisans and craftmakers use Udemy to sell a course on  how to make their products, but they can link the course they make back to  their products, creating a double win!– Thanks to Brad from BradfordHines.com for this tip.

Facebook Contests Drive Sales

I recently launched a line of natural lip balms. To drive people to my  website to purchase balms, I hosted a Facebook contest that drove sales and was a huge success. New eyes to the site translated into new customers.– Thanks to Leila from Silly Lips for this tip.

Get as many product reviews as possible

To direct more traffic to your website, you need to make sure your site is being found by search engines easily and often. Everyone knows the key to having your website found on the great World Wide Web comes in the form of key word and key phrase matches. My tip is to use the help of others to write about your product and ultimately place links on the web that direct back to your website. You can do this by getting product reviews. There are literally millions of people who blog and write reviews for a living and/or hobby. If your product has potential these writers are likely to contact you requesting to review your product. But in the beginning, when your product first launches, you may have to seek out bloggers to write reviews for you.– Thanks to Elizabeth from PRK Products, Inc. for this tip.

Video is Queen 

Creating Videos and distributing them to as many locations as possible  including YouTube. Don’t guard your content like a movie studio; create  and set it free!– Thanks to Tara  from Mono Machines LLC  for this tip.

Get some air

While I utilize several networking avenues, like Facebook, emails and Twitter, the best response I haven gotten for driving traffic to my website has been to do interviews on radio programs. Figure out your target market, what your niche is and contact those radio stations or reporters that are going to spend time on your customer.  While we have the best coffee in America, we are a company that makes products only with 100% USA grown/manufactured goods, hence, I market to consumers who are interested in amazing coffee, and those dedicated to supporting the American economy and way of life.– Thanks to Julie from American Cowboy Coffee for this tip.

Blogging For Impact 

Having a blog on your site is key, but hosting a separate blog that appeals  to your main demographic is another way we drive traffic to our site. We run  another site called TheGentlemanRacer.com that offers stories that interest  our buyers, cars, motorcycles, travel, it also hosts ads for our site, and  generates additional ad revenue. Good content is key and like anything else,  it takes effort to see the best results.– Thanks to Michael from M&P Speed Apparel  for this tip.

Reward Your Customers and They’ll Reward You

Let your customers do your marketing for you by rewarding  those who send you referrals. It’s very simple and a win-win in terms of  generating customer loyalty, while maintaining a healthy ROI. You only  have out of pocket costs when you actually get more business.– Thanks to Jeremy  from CaliforniaContractorbonds.com  for this tip.

FLASH SALES

Naked Sports Gear has found that flash sales on other e-commerce sites indirectly promote sales on our website. Flash sales are socially connected and help us build our fan base on various social media platforms. By showing a large fan base, customers quickly figure out that we have a popular product that people truly like.– Thanks to Reilly from Naked Sports Gear for this tip.

Press coverage drives web traffic

At UGE, we found that great press coverage plays a huge role in boosting our web traffic. For example, on Thursday, September 16, 2010, we were on Good Morning America. That day, we received 6,465 visits, while during the months prior to the TV appearance, we had on average 750-800 visits/day.– Thanks to Ann  from Urban Green Energy  for this tip.

Channeling Customers with a Fan Page 

Like many we have a FB Fan Page but we don’t use it to direct market. We  use it almost as a private TV channel to pass information about running  onto our customers. People like what were doing and we can softsell our  products in the background. We try to give our fans a reason to keep coming  back whether for inspiration, read a story or ask a question. For us were  building a brand name.– Thanks to Dave  from RunGoddess Sports Endurance Tattoos  for this tip.

Give Something to Get Something

For several years we have been sponsoring giveaways on our blog and  providing product samples to bloggers. We have also given products to local charities and special events.– Thanks to Robert from Simply Bags for this tip.

Say YES to Product Reviews & Giveaways 

Our baby swaddle website gets over 25,000 unique visitors/month. A big  part of our strategy is to send samples to mommy bloggers who have a large  following. They not only write a review on our product, but often times  will host a giveaway of the product as well. This is an easy, affordable  way to tap into the perfect audience for us – thousands of parents!– Thanks to Karen from KB Designs, LLC (Woombie)  for this tip.

Start a Love Affair with the Media and Latch On to Current Events 

Your website’s up, all brand new and beautiful, just waiting for clients to come calling and then nothing happens. We just recently launched our new and improved website and guess what? The traffic didn’t improve.  One of the many options we are pursuing is called current events pr. It’s so important to be in tune with current events, so when the opportunity arises, you jump on it. For an example, President Obama recently called campaign donors from Air Force One begging for money and stating, I’ve got gray hair. I’m the incumbent president. The next day all the media outlet headlines were screaming I’ve got gray Hair Obama begs for donations.  BINGO!! Our biggest selling supplement is Go Away Gray, so what do I do???? I immediately drop what I’m doing and create a release offering the president of the United States a lifetime supply of Go Away Gray. Did it work? You bet it did! That silly little release that was tied into a huge current event drove the curious to our website and turned them into customers!– Thanks to Kathy from Rise-N-Shine, LLC  for this tip.

Optimize search through broad range of keywords 

Our products naturally decrease needle pain, so we optimized our pages to  provide helpful information. Anyone searching about needle phobia,  reducing burning from arthritis medications, or taking kids to the doctor  for shots or ivs could find us easily. We put research and helpful links  to info for nurses, as well as patients recently diagnosed with diabetes,  leukemia, etc.– Thanks to Caroline  from MMJ Labs  for this tip.

Buckshot over One Magic Bullet

I wish I had known how critical search engine optimization was to the design of my website. After nearly two years I went from not ranking- to page 5 after implementing a variety of search engine optimization tips.[My source: Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Grappone and Couzin.] I added metatags, page titles, descriptions, and text that included my key search term – something my web designer did not include, nor mentioned as important. I added html tags to images, I listed my website on various free listings, I signed up for adwords, and generated (and continue to generate) links into my site by offering free giveaways on blogs (I get reviews and try to get facebook likes from this.) All of these actions are the buckshot it takes to improve search engine optimization that causes you to be found in searches. A key factor in all these steps was realizing that I needed to use a term I was avoiding because of it’s negative connotation. As a substitute for an adult bib, I did not want the Cravaat to be thought of that way. However, adult bib was the key search term that would draw in customers, so I used it to get traffic. As soon as I made it part of my website I started getting unsolicited orders. These are just a few of the wide variety of actions (thus buckshot) it takes to improving traffic.– Thanks to Kathy  from DinerWear for this tip.

Use the outlets YOU use

Something as simple as posting a couple ads on Kijiji or Ebay can make a HUGE difference. These outlets are free and have a lot of traffic. By putting  one item on these outlets it links users back to your website to see all the different products that you sell.– Thanks to Katy from She She Impressions  for this tip.

Image is Everything

Image, that is of course sells online, however I learned a wonderful trick that I do not see many people using and that is to use sites like Flickr and be sure to tag your photos Google Images Yahoo Images and Bing Images. That is where I get the most traffic from as the search engines will show the images when buyers are shopping. You need to keep it fresh and add new product in order to show up on the Image of the search engine. This is why Pinterest does so well….Image sells. Do you know that I never shop on line, I shop Google images for what I am looking for and it saves me loads of time clicking into websites that do not carry what I am looking for.– Thanks to Ann from Butterfly Mobiles by Butterfly Orbs for this tip.

Tell a Story in under 3 minutes to drive traffic to my website

Your response (max 300 characters – this is around 3-5 sentences):  The one technique that I use the most is a short, but informative podcast on vegetable gardening that is posted directly on our website as well as in iTunes and through our social networks and email list that sends potential listeners to our site. We have found that they can listen to our podcast and peruse our site at the same time.– Thanks to Michael from Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC for this tip.

Heart Bombing sparks curiosity

I leave these heart magnets (site info on the back) that I make from reclaimed fabric & recycled cardboard everywhere I go. Atlanta has a big free art scene that inspired the idea. I even bring a bag of heart magnets when I go out of town to leave in parks. The hearts spark curiosity with people that pick them up and often generates conversation with people seeing me putting them up!– Thanks to Kat from Cardinal House for this tip.