Get Traffic To Your Website,
7 Ways To Get Targeted Traffic
List building step 3 – get traffic to your opt-in form, squeeze page, on your website or blog is crucial in your step by step program and effort to build a targeted and responsive email list. Without traffic or visitors to your site nothing happens.
Please make sure to review my other posts on list building and make sure you get the right autoresponder.
Traffic is indeed hugely important and its importance can’t be overemphasized.
However, it needs to be stressed (and this is not done nearly enough) that the traffic you’re looking for has to be targeted.
It will do you no good if you get all kinds of traffic and the visitors to your site will leave right away because what they find is not what they were looking for.
That is why you need to do some keyword research.
#1 – Keyword Research, Search Engine Optimization-SEO
To get targeted traffic you need to use the right keywords, more specifically keyword phrases. That is how your blog or website is found in the search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a big subject for this post but you must use keyword phrases in your titles and text that are relevant to your topic and blog or website niche.
That way the people who will land on your pages will be your targeted audience or at least will have an idea what to expect and will be interested in what they find on your site.
#2 – Write A Good And Valuable Content
Make sure you post a content that is of good value to your readers and visitors. You want them to stay and read for a while and to find such value that they will want to come back.
Make sure that your content is your original work, that you are contributing to the internet community. The search engines will reward you for originality too.
Answer your readers comments and develop a relationship with them.
#3 – Link To Websites That Are Related And Well Liked By Google
Most people will resist doing this thinking that it will cause their visitors to leave.
Some of the visitors may do so but the benefits of your site or blog reaching out and linking to other sites will far outweigh any visitor leakage.
#4 – Comment On Other Websites And Blogs
Leave valuable comments on other blogs. Please don’t just say “I agree with you” or “very nice post”. That is not a comment but a lip service amounting to a spam.
A good and valuable comment is adding value. If you can’t write comments of value that are longer than 4 lines of text don’t bother.
But good comments will get you noticed and besides getting a link to your blog or site they may even bring you some visitors.
You can also join forums related to your niche and comment there. If you do a good job at it some people will want to visit your blog or website to find out more about you and what you have to offer.
#5 – Join Social Media, Facebook, Twitter
You can find people through social media sites and form contacts and relationships there.
Whatever you do, don’t be just interested in selling your stuff. Be interested in other people, build relationships, form friendships and network.
#6 – Post Videos On You Tube
You can post videos on You Tube about yourself, your business and your hobbies.
Include your blog or website links in the video.
#7 – Put your Blog Or Website URL Into Your Email Signature
This is such an easy thing to do that you can implement it right away.
Whether you write lots of emails like most people or just one or two per day it really doesn’t matter. Once you have your email signature in place it will be there forever and people will see it every time they receive an email from you.
If they click on your URL in that email you have another visitor.
Who knows, they may even opt into your mailing list if they like your blog.
Get Traffic Conclusion:
There are of course more ways to get traffic to your website or your blog and to your opt in box inside of them.
I cannot possibly cover everything here. Please leave me a comment if you are unclear about anything that I’ve written or if you would like me to expand on any particular point.
I will definitely answer you to the best of my ability. I may not have the answer to all questions but I will go and find it if I don’t.
I hope that I have given you some basic information in this post on list building steps, step 3 -get traffic to your opt-in form.
.
Authored by Vance Sova
Subscribe to Vance Sova.com by Email
Filed under: List Building With Alex Jeffreys, Vance Sova
Good list, Vance.
One thing you need to be aware of in linking to other sites is the quality of the sites linked to. You can actually lose points if they are of low value. Reciprocal linking is probably where one could fall into that trap.
I’m not so sure about the email sig, to be honest. I have many different “audiences” I’m sending emails to that wouldn’t necessarily be conducive to having my sites address on or any advantage to having it.
That’s just my own situation however.
Cheers,
Rod
.-= Rod Macbeth´s last blog ..The Mayonnaise Jar and Two Cups of Coffee =-.
Vance Reply:
September 28th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Hi Rod,
Thank you for emphasizing that one should link to quality sites. I think that I mentioned in one of the headings that you should link to sites that Google likes and of course Google likes quality sites. But I may have omitted it when I mentioned commenting.
So I stand corrected. Regarding the e-mail signature it may not be of value in your specific situation but generally it works for the large majority of people. It certainly can’t hurt anybody unless they are trying to hide the fact that they have a blog or a website.
Good points. That is why I like when people comment. They keep me on my toes.
Vance
Hi Vance,
Yes, it’s a good list. Forums are also useful for getting links back to your site (from signatures) which helps with SEO.
I’d also add in JV Giveaways (These are relatively easy to run), and once your list is large enough Ad Swaps.
Thanks
Keith
.-= Keith Purkiss (Alex Jeffreys Protegee)´s last blog ..Challenge from an Alex Jeffrey’s Student =-.
Hi Vance,
Another good and well written post, and I’m happy to say that I’m doing most of things talked about.
One of the things I’m not doing yet, is putting my site URL in my email signature. But that is only because I can’t see any way to do that in Google mail? I suppose I will have to create an email address on my hosting account for that, using one of my domains?
Which brings me to the reason I haven’t made an email on one of my domains yet. It because I think that I probably wouldn’t check it very often. Gmail is just very convenient for me to check quickly, especially as I have a few email addresses with them.
If you know of a way I can have an email signature using Gmail, please let me know how.
I’ll be back soon.
Paul.
.-= Paul Lear´s last blog ..Top 10 Tips To Increase Alexa Rank =-.
There are very good tips here. The only problem with people who wish to making money online-they are lack of action in implementing all those tips.
.-= Syed Akram´s last blog ..To succeed, you must love the boring things that you do =-.
Vance
Liking the blog, nice and clean. Think it has changed since I last visited (have been away a while!) but correct me if I’m wrong!
Your point number 2 is very powerful and important, particularly when linked with SEO as without valuable and relevant content you are likely to get buried in the search engines and turn visitors and readers off.
Some great tips for people to act on, keep up the good work.
Tom
.-= Tom Harvey´s last blog ..Microsoft & Yahoo Team Up To Challenge Google =-.
Hi Tom,
I’m glad you like my blog and how clean it is. I’m trying to keep it as uncluttered as possible.
Yes, content is the king as they say but it’s only a part of the puzzle.
Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment.
Vance
Hi Syed,
Implementation is necessary otherwise nothing works.
Thanks for commenting.
Vance
Hi Keith,
Thank you for your input.
You are right about the links you’ll get from participating in forums and your signature line there.
I left out giveaways and ad swaps because I want to cover those in a separate post.
As always I appreciate the value you add in your comments.
Vance
Hi Paul,
Great to hear that you are doing almost everything.
Regarding the email signature in Google it is very easy to set up.
Once you log into your gmail account at the top of the page there is a link “Settings”. Just click on it and scroll down and the 8th item is “Signature”.
Just fill in what you want it to be and save.
As for the email for your site I would set it up and use it to communicate with your visitors. You can set it up so that when you receive an email there it will be automatically forwarded into your gmail.
That way you don’t have to go there and check it separately.
I hope that helps. Thanks for commenting.
Vance
Vance,
Very nice post. I really enjoyed it. If Alex has not talked about it yet he will. It is what he calls “Oil Rig Hopping” this is what you are talking about in #4. I think it is very important to get involved on other sites and forums. I am a believer in building your own oil rig, and to make this happen you have to show others you are an expert in your field. Make comments on others sites, especially the sites of the big boys out there. People will read your comments and come to realize you are an expert. Just remember… Don’t Pimp your site, let your comments speak for you.
Again Great post.
To Your Success
Thom
.-= Thom Swartwood´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.
Vance Reply:
September 29th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Hi Thom,
I appreciate your comment very much. Yes, pimping my site while commenting would be a big mistake and luckily I’ve never done it.
If somebody did it commenting on my blog I’d most likely not approve the comment. In any case I would check out their site first to see if there is any value.
Thanks for the wishes. I will go and check out your site soon. Just because you didn’t ask me to and I’m genuinely curious.
Vance
Vance!
Great post. Really a well written, concise primer for driving traffic to one’s opt-in. The kind of post that one should print and tack up on one’s bulletin board in their office. Well done!
Vance Reply:
September 30th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Hi Rich,
Thanks for the flying colors comment. I don’t really expect you to put it on your office bulletin board but it would be nice if you did.
I appreciate that you took the time to read it.
Vance
Hey Vance,
Good follow up to your previous 2 blog posts.
Some great tips in there for us all but it’s often the simple ones that we overlook and the email signature method is a perfect example.
Put a small ad in your signature and whenever you get one of those viral email messages, just pass it on as you would normally. You may reach a far bigger audience than you anticipated.
Andy
.-= Andy Michaels´s last blog ..Google Doesn’t Use Keywords Meta Tag =-.
Vance Reply:
September 30th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Hey Andy,
Nice for you to come by and read my post. I’m glad you liked it. The signature line is so easy do do and so often missed by people in their marketing efforts.
Thanks for your comment.
Vance
Hey Vance
Nice post my friend, I have to say I am implementing some of those but great tips will have to bookmark you.
I tried leaving a comment here a while ago but couldnt, but now I can so no worries.
Take care vance
cheers
Marcus
.-= marcus passey´s last blog ..Seminar In London met Alex Jeffreys & Dean Holland Plus hung out with a couple of students =-.
Vance Reply:
September 30th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Hey Marcus,
Glad you liked it and feel free to bookmark it. I’ll be very happy about that.
I wonder why a while back you couldn’t comment, was something not working?
Anyway it’s great that it worked out now and I hope to see you here again.
Vance
Hey Vance,
Good list and couldn’t agree more with #2. It’s an often over used phrase but it’s 100% true: “Content Is King”. Solid, well presented and valuable content, like your list here, will drive traffic and have people returning for more!
Rob
Vance Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Hi Rob,
Thanks for your nice comment. Original content is king and good content at that. I’m glad you are aware of that.
Vance
Hi Vance
this post should be printed out by everybody and kept in a frame by the side of their computer.
Its touched a lot of bases.
I bet everyone who has read this post can at least
relate to one or maybe two areas where they can do better , mine is the keyword section ,and seo.
cracking list thanks for the post Vance
cheers mick
Vance Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Hi Mick,
You are really kind in your comment for which I thank you.
I should put the post on the wall myself to remind me what I know I need to do consistently.
Cheers,
Vance
Hi Vance,
Great post, well written.
Traffic! Yes, lots to do still and quite a lot to learn also, however you gave some sound advice here and I will be going through it again as part of my “must do” list.
Keywords and SEO as a priority!
Dave
.-= Dave Whittle´s last blog ..Watch How Others See Your Website Here…By Looking Over Their Shoulder! =-.
Vance Reply:
October 7th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the compliment. Keywords are indeed very important. Not always fun to do the research but necessary.
I know of some people with a blog who refuse to do it. But unless they advertise and have other means of getting traffic I have no idea how they can be found in search engines.
Vance
Hi Vance,
Currently I am interested in the very first topic in your list: SEO.
I’ve heard that it is not as critical as far as bringing in traffic to your blog, compared to the other proactive techniques you mentioned, given the passive nature of SEO.
But it is something you do once and stays there working, so it is always good to have.
Regrds,
Jose
.-= Jose´s last blog ..How to improve search engine ranking =-.
Vance Reply:
November 13th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Hi Jose,
It is very smart of you to be interested in that topic. It is by far the best method as far as ROI is concerned. As you rightly observe, you only do it once when setting up your site and then of course you pay attention to it whenever you make a post.
Unless you are already famous and people know you by name everywhere and can easily find your blog, SEO is the number one thing to learn and keep doing.
I know that some people will say that search engines are too slow and all kinds of things. Blah, blah, blah.
They usually don’t want to bother with SEO or they simply don’t know how to do it.
This blog gets more traffic from the search engines than from anything else. It is still a modest traffic but it was beating the fellow students visits to the blog even close to the beginning of the AJ course just after setting up the blog when students were very actively blog hopping and mostly finding my blog through the forum.
It went from about 50/50 at the start to 47/8.8. The 47% being search engine traffic, 8.8% traffic from MWA students.
The rest is referred from other blogs on which I comment (about 20%) and from sites like Blog Catalog and My Blog Log.
The students are still the predominant commentators because we got to know one another. But the other (SEO brought) visitors are much higher in number.
I simply cannot believe anybody who says forget about SEO.
Thanks for visiting & commenting.
Best Regards,
Vance
Hey Vance-
I saw you at my site, so I came on over to see what you are up to. These are some good tips on SEO and getting traffic. I am kind of a traffic nut, so watch my blog for some unusual approaches.
I am learning from all of you guys (and gals) that have gone before me in the Marketing with Alex course.
.-= Evan Beck´s last blog ..Review of YouTube XL =-.
Vance Reply:
November 15th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Hi Evan,
Thanks for the comment. I think that being a traffic nut is completely OK because traffic is very important and without it nothing happens.
I’m always interested in new approaches and will try to keep up with what you can come up with.
At the same time the time tested approaches still work and should be implemented as much as possible.
Vance
Hi Vance
Thanks for coming by my site, Let me tell you I’ve been getting
a lot of traffic from twitter at least 5 optins everyday so don’t sleep on twitter and face book is another killer very targeted people.
Alexis
.-= Alexis Salaam´s last blog ..THE RIGHT MINDSET =-.
Vance Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Hi Alexis,
I may have to come by your site again soon to see what you have there on twitter and facebook.
I must admit that twitter and facebook are what I know the least about and I definitely want to learn more about them, especially as it pertains to list building.
Thanks for the comment and visit my blog again with more great tips.
Vance
Hi Vance,
I like your list of 7 ways to get targeted traffic, but I have a question on #3 Link To Websites That Are Related and Well Liked By Google.
I heard that many times, but no one talks about how to go about doing it. (Sorry about asking such a silly question).
I know about commenting on blogs, but how do you link to it?
Jeanette
Vance Reply:
November 21st, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Hi Jeanette,
I’m glad that you also read this post and thanks for liking it and commenting.
The answer to your question is very simple. You need to do the following:
Log in to your blog Word Press and click on links, add new and then simply add the URL of the site you want,
enter the name of it, scroll down and name the category for it (usually you’ll put most of such URLs in that same category) go further down and choose to open the URL in the new window and click on save.
Then you can keep adding other URLs you want in the same way.
I hope this helps. If you still have more questions just ask them here in another comment.
Vance
These are all good Ideas, Vance…and I must say I do them all pretty much all the time with the exception of video. I know video is huge, I just have not gotten to that stage yet.
Here is something else you might consider. Creating account on any kind of site, forum, or micro blogging site that allows you to create a profile and add links, or an RSS feed.
I currently have been doing this for the last few days. It takes forever, but I think the reason it works is because so few people do it. This will create one way links from sites that usually rank well in Google with high page rank.
.-= Evan Beck´s last blog ..Strategic Online Marketing with Content Syndication =-.
Vance Reply:
November 25th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Hi Evan,
Thanks for the comment. I’m glad you’re doing all you can to increase traffic to your blog.
Yes, signing up for forums and using your signature is also a good way to get traffic. Keep in mind though that you have to be active there and post in order to get traffic. It’s a good way but it can be very time consuming.
Vance
Dear Vance,
You are right about it being a time dump. My strategy though is really to build links from vital sites with good PR, not to spend a lot of time in forums.
I try to set up a new profile on these sites for every niche that I enter. It does take time, but in the end I find that I do this work up front for each niche and then I am done and can move on to other traffic strategies.
I don’t spend much time in forums, and the social network sites can be linked together with RSS feeds, so they can update each other in a network. This is similar to developing a blog network, or creating feeder blogs to generate traffic.
It works pretty good for me, and currently on my new site 40%+ of my traffic is referral traffic from these sites. Twitter and Stubmleupon are the largest source of traffic at the moment in this category of referral traffic when I check my Google Analytics.
This also quickly builds backlinks which help with search engine ranking. I am not spamming the search engine, because the links are all highly niche targeted. To make this work, you also have to keep keywords targeted and the profile content has to be highly relevant to the niche.
It is not much different then writing content rich posts or articles for article marketing. I also make a point to bookmark these vital links a few times as I build the account profiles.
I have a few niche sites that continue to rank on page one results with very little extra work. This is because they have more content, more targeted long tail keywords, and more backlinks.
In a very small or very targeted niche, these sites stand a good chance of becoming authority sites, because there is little competition and most people are too lazy to go to all this trouble up front.
At the same time I try to only write well researched posts that are on topics that are popular. I end up writing fewer posts, but these posts have better content, and I think are perceived to be more valuable. Most of my search engine traffic right now is from “How-To”, or tutorial type posts.
What do you think?
.-= Evan Beck´s last blog ..Strategic Online Marketing with Content Syndication =-.
Vance Reply:
November 27th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Hi Evan,
I think that you are doing just fine. If you can keep your niche sites on the first page in the search engines then you are obviously doing a good job.
I don’t know much about linking things with rss feeds. One thing to be aware of is to make sure that you are not creating duplicate content with them.
Otherwise I’d say keep on doing what you are doing that works for you. Do more of what works and don’t worry about doing everything under the sun.
I need to be careful here to take my own advice.
Vance
Hi there Vance!
Wow! Exellent information that you shared here! Very true on building a list fast this way! Thanks for sharing and I will definitely be back.
Take care
Dev
.-= Dev Maritz´s last blog ..5 Crucial Steps to Ensure That You Achieve Your Goals =-.
Vance Reply:
February 10th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Hi Dev,
Welcome to my blog.
I’m glad you enjoyed your visit and that you’ll be back.
Till next time,
Vance
I’ve tried several of these Vance and they work quite well. I know I should concentrate more on keywords and such but I find that too tedious. The time that I would take to find suitable keywords I could have commented on several blogs.
I’ve just started a couple of Squidoo lenses to see how they will work, and I’m also playing around with a traffic exchange to see if that does any good.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Where Bloggers Meet, A Forum For Bloggers =-.
Vance Reply:
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Hi Sire,
Thanks for the comment.
I know how much you like commenting. We both agree that’s one of the best ways to get traffic and it’s also creative and enjoyable.
Keywords aren’t that exciting. Maybe one day you’ll use them too but you seem to be doing OK without them.
I’m interested in seeing your Squidoo pages. I made one last summer and haven’t created any other since. Let me know how it works out for you. I think that those pages may need keywords too unless you can send people to them in other ways.
Traffic exchange is something I haven’t tried yet so I’m also curious how it’ll work out for you.
It looks like you are now using a new picture. I don’t think I’d recognize you from it based on the other one. Perhaps it’s because it seems a bit overexposed as it’s taken against the sky and the face is thus made dark and hard to make out.
Vance
Sire Reply:
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Damn it Vance, don’t make me go out and take another one. Sheesh, I suppose you want to see the color of my eyes next 😀
I think with Squidoo it’s all a matter of time. Seeing as how the lenses are quite new it will probably take awhile before they kick in, but then it all depends on the lens themselves.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..My First Squidoo Lens & About Bloody Time Too =-.
Vance Reply:
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Taking another one may be a good idea but I won’t try to make you.
To see the color of your eyes I think the picture would have to be bigger and no sunglasses.
Suiddoo lenses can sometimes rank well in search engines. I know that because I see them on occasion on the first page and even close to the top.
Yes, it may take a while I suppose for them to kick in.