This post is Part 1 of a 2-part series on getting some serious traffic to your site without it getting congested. Website traffic is your number one key to online success. Once you get the traffic to your site, the objective is to hook them in and get them to stick around, visiting other pages as well, and perhaps entering your sales funnel. True online success requires ongoing traffic, which means that you will have to work at it constantly. In this post, I’m going to tell you what you can do your site to ensure the best results from your traffic, and in the next post I’m going to share with you some of the best, proven (and several FREE) ways to get traffic to your site.
Let’s jump in and learn how to get your site prepped for the masses?
1. Make it Quick
Nobody likes to wait, so choose a good hosting package and design your site in such a way that it loads in under 5 seconds. If you’re on a basic hosting package (and even if you’re not) steer away from flash images and other bells and whistles that add little to no value and instead steal time.
Also be sure that your package offers sufficient bandwidth to handle all the traffic you are going to get. Most hosting companies offer flexible packages allowing you to upgrade as your traffic grows. It is usually instant, but be sure to monitor your site closely to ensure you don’t run out of bandwidth while you’re away for the weekend….
Learn more about choosing a reliable hosting provider.
2. Create a Balance
When designing your site, keep in mind how users view your a page and then balance the site accordingly. Most people first start viewing from the top left-hand side of the page, hovering there for a moment, and then start tracking tot he right.
Users don’t zone in on the images, but rather on the text, so while images are visually appealing, they should not be the focus of your site. Rather keep a fine balance with the objective of making the page flow.
When you remove unnecessary elements, you create a better flow, and important items will stand out. White space is the key to a quality website, and it makes it easy to navigate as well.
3. Background Check
Simple backgrounds make your text the focus, whereas busy textures can be distracting. If you decide to use a color background, be sure that it contrasts sufficiently with the text. Another good way to use a textured background and minimize distraction, is to layer a plain white text block over it, between the background and the text, to ensure the text is easy to read.
Be careful which colors you use, as brights can easily cause visual fatigue, which may cause the reader to leave your site. Again, this will vary by site, type of business, target market, etc.
Learn more about website design.
4. Optimize
Use high quality, relevant keywords to help your site rank well on the search engine results pages. Spending time optimizing your site will be well worth the effort. If you’re too busy to learn how SEO works, it may be an idea to hire someone to help you with it.
5. Update
One of the easiest ways to get more traffic to your site, is to regularly update your content. You need good quality content which can be search engine optimized and frequently updated, or added to. A blog is a great way to do just that, while at the same time building a loyal audience who will keep coming back to your site to see what you have to say. Additionally, search engines will love it too.
While there are many ways to get free traffic and make your site rank higher with the search engines, there are also some things to avoid right from the outset. Known as black hat techniques, some unscrupulous people sell traffic and other internet tricks to unsuspecting webmasters.
- Stay away from programs that promise huge amounts of hits in a short period of time. While it looks like you are getting lots of traffic, nobody really sees your site, because the owners of these programs simply upload your URL to a database and allow a list of proxies to ping your site.
- Never resort to spam. Spamming is the quickest way to ruin your credibility and losing all your traffic.
Now that you know how to prepare your site to for visitors, be sure to follow my blog. You don’t want to miss out on the next bumper post (mostly) free ways to get traffic to your site.