If You Build It, They Will Come.. Right?
Author: Wayne EggertDate: 11/23/05The Internet is a wonderful place where anyone with enough talent and a few bucks can create a website and share ideas, express their opinions, or sell that one-of-a-kind product. So you're ready to join the crowd -- you've purchased your domain, found hosting, utilized the latest SEO tactics you found & submitted your website to the major search engines. Now it's time to sit back and reap the rewards of your efforts, right?
Unfortunately it's rarely that easy. Building and retaining traffic is akin to being in the stock market. To a beginner, it seems like the only successful people are the ones who are seasoned pros or somehow got "insider tips" on how to boost their traffic. How do you compete against them?
Create Unique Content
You've probably heard this before, but the best way to get repeat visitors is to actually offer something useful to them. If your website sells widgets and there are 10,000 other websites that sell widgets at the same price -- your chances of selling a widget are pretty slim. If you offer your customers (and search engines) something unique though, you'll likely find the results are very positive. How about putting up some guides on using your widget or widget-related resources? Offer the user something unique & spend time creating the content that search engines will spider. If you're competitors don't offer the same advice or resources that you do, you'll look more professional and customers might even decide to purchase your widget at a higher price simply because you look more knowledgeable about the product.
But I Don't Sell Widgets
Okay, so you're a hobbyist. You create a technology website with the latest interesting tech news. You hear of RSS and think "Hey, that sounds like an easy way to get some dynamic content on my website." The problem is, there are a billion other hobbyists out there doing the same thing or something very similar. Slashdot, Digg, Gizmodo.. they're all executing the idea of bringing the latest and greatest tech news much *much* better than you every could. What can you do to compete? Again, the answer is content -- while you may never be able to achieve Slashdot popularity with your website, you can offer resources, articles, tutorials, reviews or other information that would benefit anyone who found your site and at the same time increase the content the search engines are spidering. As your website grows and becomes a more useful repository of information, so will your traffic & repeat visitors.
What About SEO?
I'm not advocating that Search Engine Optimization isn't necessary.. but all the optimization in the world isn't going to make much of a difference if you're not offering your visitors something unique. I've unfortunately learned this the hard way through my various personal websites. For months I'd wrestle with META tags, page titles, make sure I had keywords I was using within the page content, utilize dynamic content like RSS feeds, look for link exchange partners -- and for months I was frustrated with the results. I had my own content, but it was too limited and I wasn't trying hard enough to expand it.. I was just looking at the failures with SEO that I kept seeing time and time again. If the content isn't there, you haven't offered anything different from any of the other websites out there with similar ideas.
Traffic 101
Do yourself a favor and when you create your site and submit it to search engines, immediately begin adding content and don't stop! By the time the search engines begin spidering your site, you'll have added enough content of your own to start drawing repeat visitors and keep them coming as your site grows. The search engines will devour all of those rich keywords you forgot you were even writing & you'll be much less concerned with how to beat or cheat Google. It's a win-win for everyone.Article Word Count: 656
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