How do I get more traffic to my website?

How do you drive traffic to your website when there are so many places to get lost on the web?You have many different options, but as always resources are limited and not all traffic is beneficial.You will probably want to approach this issue with several different methods and focus on the most profitable method.

A lot of the desired traffic will depend on your individual website.If you are in the business of getting paid by having people click on advertisements then you want a large quantity of people visiting.If you are in a specific industry like plumbing or computers then you need specific people to visit.If you are in a wider industry like shoes or ice cream then you don't have to discriminate on who visits.However, if you only own one ice cream store then you want to focus on those in your immediate geographic area which can be difficult on the internet, but not impossible.

The three best methods you can use to begin with will be purchasing traffic, linking traffic or search engine optimization.You should have a fair understanding of each of these before you make a decision on how to drive traffic to your website.You may want to try a little of all of them, but you may need to try each separately to decide which works best.

Pay-Per-Click
Many different companies offer this program and some are better than others, but the basic premise is the same.You advertise on their site and each person that clicks on your add will be charged to you.You will want to make sure you do some research so you understand the offered program thoroughly.

You will then choose your site to advertise on.You will need to choose which key words will trigger your advertisement to be displayed.If you were in plumbing you may want `plumbing' and `plumbers'.You will then bid on how much you are willing to pay per click.The more you are willing to pay the more prominent your advertisement will be displayed.Hence, you get a direct return for your advertising dollar and only people who are interested in your product or service will be directed to your site.

Linking
Linking can be done using paid sites or by using unpaid methods.The paid version is to have a link to your website published in Ezines, newsletters or on other peoples' sites that have relevant material to what you are advertising.This method can be costly so you will need to be selective where you put your advertisement.Also, you will be charged whether anybody goes to your site or not.You will want to make sure any Ezines you advertise in has at least 500 subscribers.The more subscribers usually mean the costlier the advertisement.

The unpaid method is through article writing.This will take more work and effort on your part, but the return will be more long term.However, writing articles will require that you have content with substance that people will want to read.Additionally, you will need to have the content be related to the product or services you are advertising.

Search Engine Optimization
Search Engines have different algorithms that are used to find the websites when they search the net.You can research how the search engines do this and then configure web pages to take advantage of these algorithms.In order to optimize your web page for the search engines you will have to continually work at it because the search engines continue to evolve too.This can be a difficult and time consuming chore.However, if every time somebody entered `plumber' in Google your company appeared at the top of the page, it would well be worth the effort.

In summary, you have several methods to use to drive traffic to your website.Try most of them that you find affordable and keep track of the results.Then choose the method or methods that provide the best results both in traffic and sales.It doesn't do you any good to have a lot of traffic if nobody purchases your products or services.