Website Traffic - Is yours diversified?
by Warren
(NY)
Life is a joy being at the top and you just hope things keep rolling along smoothly.
Suddenly your Google ranking drops off the charts. As your traffic diminishes, so does your income. What do you do now? You have relied solely on Google traffic. You will be struggling now.
Let's hope that this never happens to you. Better yet, let's plan so that if it does, it won't be the end of the world.
Now how do we do that? All throughout our adult lives are we hammered with truths about saving for retirement, risk and return profiles. We are constantly lectured on how important diversification is and the benefits on being diversified.
Guess what? If you are managing your site properly, it too should function and be protected like an investment/ nest egg. It too should have a diversification mechanism built in to protect both its traffic and income stream. You should diversify your traffic/income as much as possible. If Goggle ever decided not to send you love, diversification would ensure that the world does not end.
So how do we actually diversify?
The first step in the process involves determining how your traffic is derived. What kind of traffic numbers do you have over the last week, month, Year? Is your traffic search engine derived or referrals based? If you don't currently have a way of obtaining traffic metrics for your site then we need to work on this first. I highly recommend the Google analytics tool. In terms of analytics, it is a great place to start. It is also free and easy to implement.
Not only does it tell you which search engines provide your site with the most love but it also provides a country break down, time spent on your website as well as a host of other statistics.
Now, once we have our analytics in place and we have reviewed the data, we are ready to diversify.
If your website is new you will probably find that most of your traffic is referral based. As your site ages you find that more and more of your traffic becomes search engine driven. The goal is to strike a nice balance.
Here are a few things that you can start working on today:
1. Building Brand. Brand awareness is probably one of the most important business concepts out there. You need to be able to distinguish your website/product from the thousands of others. So what are a few things that you can do?
a. Work on developing a product slogan, product signature or logo.
b. Consider marketing your products differently? concentrate on a different delivery system.
c. Remember to market your website/business locally as well as nationally.
Branding is the development of product awareness among today's potential users. It helps us create word of mouth product awareness. Face it, when we look at any product for the first time, what often initally counts most are the recommendations from family and friends. Building brand helps you to become that household name that family and friends recommend.
2. Create a Facebook or Twitter page for your blog and or website. Add friends that are interested in your niche. You would be surprised how much exposure can be obtained through friends.
3. Ensure that you are listed in multiple directories including Yahoo, DMOZ, and JOEANT.
4. Forums - Look to participate in several niche related forums. Make sure that you participate in those where you are allowed to leave links. A wide audience is important. Remember to leave your links in different sections of forums.
5. Pay Per Click advertising (PPC)- If done properly, this can be an excellent form of targeted marketing and will help you build brand. In order to effectively utilize PPC, your website must provide value. There is nothing worse than paying for advertising and driving traffic to your website only to discover that you don't offer what visitors actually want.
Website traffic is extremely important to any site. Make sure that you manage it accordingly. Analysis and statistical metrics should be a part of your weekly routine.
Don't just make a website, build a business!
