In this day and age, there are millions of websites out there all vying for consumers’ dollar and attention. It’s a shark tank of competition on the Web 2.0 and you have to know what you’re doing if you are going to dive in. So what are you supposed to do? How do you compete with all those other sites out there?
The answer to this question lies in getting people to your website, first and foremost. Consumers can’t patronize your business if they don’t know about it or can’t find it. If your website cannot easily be found at the top of a search on most search engines, it will generally be overlooked and forgotten in time. Fortunately, there are a few tried and true methods to increase targeted website traffic.
First, know your audience. Pick a target audience and focus your efforts on trying to get them to come to your website. Don’t try to be everything to everyone—you will end up with a website that is an incoherent mess and it will turn visitors away. Once you know your audience and have dedicated yourself to focusing on them, it’s time to figure out how to reel them in.
The easiest way to bring traffic to your site is through search engines. Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, comb the web in search of keywords that match whatever the user is searching for. These keywords are not only what words the user sees on the screen, but also embedded in the source code of the site in the form of meta tags.
The key to getting the search engines’ attention lays in something called search engine optimization, or SEO. SEO is the process by which you sprinkle keyword throughout your site and in the source so that you get the search engines’ attention but still manage to have it look natural to anyone visiting your website. If a potential customer comes to your website and is instantly bombarded by obvious advertisements and hard sales pushes, chances are they will be turned off and go elsewhere. On the other hand, a helpful article (subtly laden with keywords, of course) that gently nudges them in the direction of a certain product can make a huge difference.
A good way to target your particular audience with keywords is to know your product. Say you are in the business of selling golf equipment, for example. Some keywords that you might use would be: “golf clubs,” “golf balls,” or “golf tees.” Use only the words that pertain to your site, with no filler. Focus only on the words that come to mind when you think of your product.
At the end of the day, it’s all about knowing how to function in the Web 2.0 world. Websites come and go, but you want yours to stick around for awhile and turn a profit. In order to get the most out of your investment, you need to get very closely acquainted with the concept of search engine optimization
