KEYS TO TRAFFIC

What produces traffic? What is it about some websites that makes them popular destinations for a huge number of visitors? Why are some blogs checked out by tens of thousands of people every day while others struggle to find a single visitor? The issue of traffic can be complicated. There are a variety of factors at play, and every strategy can be dissected and the details debated ad infinitum.

However, there are two keys to traffic upon which everyone can agree: Content and Links.

Before briefly looking at each of these, we should establish some context for our evaluation. Traffic can come from a few different places. Direct links to your site may produce a stream of visitors if those links are in the right places. Search engines, however, offer the real key to high volume traffic numbers. Surfers rely on Google, Yahoo and MSN to help them find the sites that will provide them with the kind of information they are seeking. If your blog comes up early in those search engine results, you can expect a significant stream of traffic.

Content is essential to traffic flow.

You have to offer something that makes your site worth visiting. Content creates repeat visitors, increases their stay, encourages word-of-mouth type promotion and assists in improving a blog’s standing with the search engines.

Every link can conceivably serve a traffic producer. If someone finds a link to your blog on another site, they are only one mouse-click away from being part of your traffic. Search engines also assess the number and quality of links to your blog. They regard sites that are linked to frequently as authoritative and reward them with higher placement in search engine results.

So, if you want traffic to your blog, you need to do two things: Provide content and acquire links. This ebook is designed to show you some great ways of doing both. The end result should be higher traffic numbers for your blog.

CONTENT

A blog is nothing more than a vessel into which we place content. Content refers to the materials presented in the blog. Content is so critical to the success of a blog, that we are going to address it first and look at it in isolation from all of the other traffic-producing strategies you can implement. Although there are blogs dedicated to podcasting, video casting and photography, this ebook will operate from the assumption that the bulk of your blog’s content will consist of text.

The subject matter of your writing can be critical to your blog’s traffic potential. The quality of your writing, the uniqueness of your perspective, the frequency with which you add content to the blog and the way the content is presented will also make a difference.

SUBJECT MATTER

Blogs that tackle a specific and limited range of concerns generally tend to outdraw those with a more scattered approach. Blogging within a particular niche is usually the best way to experience success. However, there are limits to specificity. If one chooses a subject area that is too limited, the potentiality for high-volume traffic is reduced. Alternatively, if one opts to blog in a well-covered subject matter they risk getting lost in the shuffle and not finding a regular readership.

There is no secret formula that will yield the perfect niche for your blog. There are, however, some guidelines you can follow when selecting a blog topic that will help lead you to a choice that has good traffic potential.

First, remember that you will be revisiting, updating, tweaking and researching the topic of your blog for as long as you decide to maintain it. Thus, it makes a great deal of sense to choose a subject matter in which you have a keen interest and a developed knowledge base. You may discover that there are a lot of people looking for information on widgets and that there are few great sources for that information online. However, if you don’t know a lot about widgets and find them a complete bore, you will probably have a hard time maintaining the site over the long run.

Second, remember that there are two different factors you must consider when trying to choose a topic with real traffic potential. You will want to write about something in which others are interested. There must be a group of people out there who are regularly looking for information on your topic. That is a necessary factor. However, you must also consider how many other sources of information are out there already. It can be very tough to break out in a competitive field.

You can get an idea of the competition and interest levels by using any of a number of freely available online tools. One tool I have found to be invaluable and easy to use is Nichebot at http://www.nichebot.com. It operates almost like a search engine: you type in the word or string in which you are interested and it then supplies you with a breakdown of how many people are searching for that phrase (and related phrases) every month. It then provides you with an indication of how many sites online contain the words in your search phrase. It even goes so far as to express the ratio of sites to searchers, making determinations of a niche’s viability relatively simple. Nichebot offers some additional tools that can make subject selection easier.

Ideally, you will find a hot topic with little competition. However, that is far easier said than done! One could spend days plugging possible subjects into Nichebot without finding a wildly underserved group of searchers for a topic in which the blogger has an interest. However, it does a great job of letting one know what they might be up against in terms of competition and occasionally you can discover some very interesting gaps in the information market.

Third, remember that although finding an underserved niche will make your life easier, it is not necessarily a requirement for success. There are some people who will tell you that operating in a competitive sector is great. After all, you know in advance that there are hordes of potential visitors on a hot topic. All you have to do is give them a reason to come to you instead of others. That is, of course, easier said than done. However, if you are up for a challenge and believe you can offer something that will truly separate you from the rest; you may consider blogging in a competitive field.

QUALITY & UNIQUENESS

There are many things you can do to produce content that really have no direct relationship to the quality of your blog, and you should consider pursuing them. However, nothing will turn a blog into a success like high quality content.

Good content creates a readership. Those repeat visitors can be the lifeblood of a successful blog. Additionally, other people who operate blogs notice good content and web sites and they will often link back to your quality posts. This creates a direct traffic stream from those links, as well as adding to your total cache of backlinks, which can help in search engine results.

People will come back to a site they know provides grade-A information or that touches them in some way. Humor sites that are not funny do not get repeat visitors. Sites about technological advances that contain inaccuracies do not develop a readership. Blogs that are littered with grammatical and spelling errors seldom generate massive traffic.

Effective writing is key to a successful blog. It is beyond the scope of this ebook to outline what makes a writer entertaining or informative. Most of us, fortunately, have an idea of what separates the good from the bad. Writing effectively may take more time and effort than simply spewing forth a few posts to your blog, but the end result is worth the extra energy.

In addition to writing well, you should strive to produce unique content that will distinguish your blog from others. This includes choosing topics that are interesting, opinions that are compelling, and doing whatever else is necessary to capture and hold a reader’s interest. You need to give people a reason to choose your blog over others in the same field. You must provide them with something they cannot get elsewhere.

This raises the subject of re-blogging. Re-blogging occurs when a blogger provides a synopsis of what someone else has written (perhaps even with an excerpt) and then adds a small amount of personal commentary. Re-blogging can be effective in two circumstances. If your blog is operating primarily as a news aggregator and a means of providing readers with an edited compendium of potential items of interest, it is a natural fit. Second, if your commentary somehow illuminates or provides an interesting twist to the original content it can also be effective. Too often, however, reblogging is nothing more than repetition of what could be found elsewhere and fails to impress readers.

Instead of relying upon re-blogging, a successful blogger will generally try to stay on top of his or her chosen field and will become the initial source of exciting information and opinion. It is fine to share the remarkable work of others--making sure that information gets out to everyone is one of the great things you can do with a blog--but it is even better if you can make yourself into a primary source of quality, unique content.

UPDATING CONTENT

People like new information. If they are interested in your topic, they want to see more information about it as often as possible. Search engines mimic people in that regard. They absolutely adore frequently updated sites. They reward blogs that provide frequent updates with better locations in search results. Providing regular content is one of the best ways to appeal both to your human readers and the search engine robots that will lead even more real people to your blog.

There is no magic number of posts per week you must add to your blog. However, the general rule of thumb is that more is better. Some bloggers will update their blog several times per day. Others will provide one weekly update.

Finding the right patterns will be a byproduct of experimentation, combined with your own personal time limitations and interest levels. I personally recommend updating a blog at least a few times per week. If you can update more frequently, do so. However, make sure these updates offer something of value. Writing for the sake of writing may help with respect to fooling search engine spiders, but it will undoubtedly antagonize real readers so much as to render the strategy useless.

Those who make a living online will tell you that “content is king.” Content is what brings people to any site. It is what keeps them there, too. It is also the favorite discover of every search engine spider. The more content you have, the better off you are going to be.

Some niches may be so underserved that a blog can continue to successfully generate traffic with infrequent updates. However, more competitive fields will require more and more content to stay afloat.

Updates can vary in length. Generally speaking, however, extremely short posts will have less value (both to the search engines and readers) than more involved writing. However, the desire to provide more lengthy and meaningful posts will need to be balanced against usability considerations, which we will discuss later. Many will argue that content additions that “weigh in” between 250-600 words are optimal.

KEYWORDS & CONTENT

Search engines operate on keywords. Put simply, keywords are the words for which people are searching. By making sure you use these keywords in your content, you are more likely to be discovered.

Thus, you can produce some pretty remarkable traffic jumps by using the keyword phrases people are typing into Google. This is obvious, but it does bring up a few interesting questions.

How do I find which keywords are popular for searches in my niche? There are a variety of free online tools available to help with keyword research. Earlier, we mentioned Nichebot, which does an admirable job of showing what phrases and keywords are in “high demand.” A quick Google search for “keyword finder” and other similar phrases should provide you with some other options. There are paid services, like WordTracker, that also assist in keyword research, but free options remain available.

How should I use the keywords once I have found them? This is a subject of some debate. The question about how many times keywords should appear in order to trigger a positive response from search engines is a constant topic of argument in the search engine optimization field. Some will argue that a keyword should be used enough to comprise 3-5% of the total text in any post.

Others will argue that a higher density is necessary. Some will maintain that keyword density is not as important as producing content that contains the keyword and related relevant terms.

There are a few ways of making sure your content does its job when it comes to keywords. One is to carefully monitor your use and to write posts around popular keywords related to your topic. Another is simply to focus on turning out good, relevant content and assuming the volume of your output and its overall quality will produce desired keyword results. Generally speaking, the best strategy for most bloggers probably lies somewhere in the middle of those extremes. By producing content with an understanding of keywords while not compromising its integrity in an effort to stuff every post with popular search terms, one can usually be relatively successful.

One should strive to make use of their primary keywords in the titles of their blog’s posts. They should also attempt to use those words and phrases, along with keywords of secondary importance within the posts themselves. There are free keyword analyzers available online that will give you breakdowns of keyword density for your posts. It makes sense to check your work against these at least occasionally to make sure your content is working its hardest to get you that coveted search engine traffic.

One should beware of overusing keywords. Search engines grow smarter all the time, and the days when one could get real results by stuffing keywords onto a page without rhyme or reason are gone. Remember that the search engine algorithms are designed to reward sites that are using keywords in a valuable context. They are able to discern that an endless stream of keywords is probably nothing more than an effort to fool their robots.

CONTROVERSY

Nothing gets noticed quite like the controversial. If you are looking for a way to get some attention (and, thus, traffic), it is possible to do so by taking controversial stands on issues related to your topic. This can get you noticed in a hurry!

However, utilizing controversy as a means of generating traffic is not usually a reasonable long-term strategy. First, how controversial can you be on a regular basis? If your blog’s success is based upon your willingness to take outlandish or controversial positions, you will put yourself in a position where you are forced to either constantly one-up yourself or becoming boring by comparison.

Second, intentionally taking a non-mainstream perspective just to get some attention risks alienating a portion of your potential audience. You want traffic, but you would probably prefer that not all of it came from people who want to argue with you! If you have a strongly held position that might create some controversy, don’t feel as though you have to hold back. Self-expression, after all, is what blogs are all about. However, you probably should not fall into the rut of using wild claims or inflaming rhetoric to drive traffic to your blog. Instead, concentrate on authoring relevant, quality, thought-provoking content.

CONTENT USABILITY

Usability, as it relates to online endeavors, can involve everything from site structure to color choices. With respect to written content, we will primarily be concerned with constructing posts that comport with readers’ preferences and expectations for written materials.

Internet readers tend be “scanners.” They generally scan a page or post and then make a determination as to whether or not to invest more time and effort in reading the material carefully. If their scan does not provide them with something to grab their attention and interest, they are more likely to click away than they are to continue reading.

Thus, content should be offered in a way that is easy for users to scan. It should also be provided in a way that encourages online reading. What does this mean in terms of practical considerations?

One should offer text in a size that is easily read. They should also offer content in the form of shorter paragraphs and make use of “white space” to make scanning easier. Long paragraphs are not as well-received as shorter ones.

The choice of a font should be based on readability rather than on whether or not one feels it possesses some greater aesthetic value.

Content usability is important and any blogger truly interested in maximizing the comfort and value of the user’s experience. That attention to detail can increase repeat visitation and total page views.

BONUS TIPS

1. Show Off! Although your blogging software will archive your old posts, they probably won’t be seen by visitors who didn’t find them via a search engine. That might be fine in some cases, but occasionally you will have written a real gem that you would love to keep right up in front for all to see. If you want to encourage visitors to take a longer look at your blog (and to keep coming back for more), consider creating a blog “highlight reel” on your blog’s sidebar. You can provide a few links directly to some of your best work and maybe even provide a tempting excerpt along with the link.
2. Write it down! Writers are often in the habit of having a notepad and pen around at all times. It’s a good idea for a blogger, too. Frequent updates are important for a blog’s traffic success, and there is nothing more frustrating than experiencing a case of “blogger’s block” when you sit down in front of the keyboard. If you have an idea for a great post, make a note of it somewhere. If you don’t, you are sure to forget the idea when the time comes to add more content to your blog.