How to Grow Your Internet Traffic

So, you’ve been receiving a steady stream of traffic to your site, but it seems to have hit a plateau. Your traffic hasn’t gone up in months or years, and you’re adding new content on a regular basis. So, what could be the problem?

The problem is that doing average things do not work anymore. Doing average things may have worked in the past, but SEO is drastically different now. It requires more thinking outside of the box. To get top rankings, you need to do extraordinary things, such as creating top-notch content or becoming an authority in your niche. Gone are the days when you can publish a 500 word article and be ranking top 5 the next day. Sure, it can still happen occasionally if you target long-tail keywords. But, for most competitive search queries, you will need more than 500 words. You will need great content and promote it.

Here are some ways to help you grow traffic to your site:

Stop spinning articles.

Let me clarify. It doesn’t mean you can’t write about the same topic as the big sites, but you need to come up with a unique approach… a different perspective. As I have said before, there are lots of competitors out there, big and small, trying to do the same thing – rank higher. So, if you’re just doing the same thing as the next guy, there is no reason for Google to give you higher placements.

Write more than 500 words.

For the longest time, 500 words has been the threshold for a good-sized article. Unfortunately nowadays, it’s not good enough. It may still be effective for long-tail keywords in niches where there is little competition, but for popular phrases, good luck. According to Orbit Media Studios, 1,500 words is the ideal length for an article. I know sometimes this is hard to do, especially if you are dealing with an ecommerce site, but it is what it is. You probably won’t be able to write 1,500 word descriptions of each product, but maybe you can add a blog to your site and write some lengthy blog posts once in a while.

Add unique features, services, or tools.

There are other ways besides writing lengthy articles to attract more visitors. A good way to drive traffic to a site is by offering free tools or services. If you have a financial site, you may want to add calculators or a software to help people manage their money. A classified ad site like Craigslist allows people to post free ads. You don’t have to be the first or the biggest to introduce the tool or service, you just need a piece of the pie. Try to think outside of the box and see if you can come up with some good ideas to drive additional traffic to your site.

Consider other ways to advertise.

I know you want all of your traffic to come from organic search rankings, but let’s be realistic. Unless you are a Fortune 5000 company with a large SEO budget, it will be very difficult for you to get top rankings. Think about allocating some of your budget to other traffic sources, such as PPC or banner advertising. I know as small business owners, it’s sometimes hard to get out of your comfort zone and advertise using a new method, but unless you try, you will never know whether something works or not. That’s what advertising is about. Try it out. If it works, continue. If it doesn’t, move on to the next opportunity.

Create partnerships.

A partnership is a cost-effective way for businesses to generate leads while minimizing risk. Partnerships can be based on any model that works for both parties. You can trade banners, exchange links, or pay per lead.

Hopefully these ideas will help you brainstorm and come up with creative ways to increase traffic and sales for your site.