Introduction:

Welcome to the How to drive more traffic to a website guide. If you are reading this, you are probably an owner of a small business or website and are looking for ideas on how to promote it online. You might have tried Adwords, Facebook ads and other forms of online advertising, but you are yet to see a good return on your investment.

This guide will teach you how to drive traffic to your website using white hat SEO methods. You will learn about off-page and on-page SEO techniques and how they can help you improve your search engine rankings and in turn get more visitors to your website.

Chapter 1. On-Page SEO

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO refers to all the Search Engine Optimization techniques that you apply directly to your website. The purpose of On-Page SEO is to make your website as search engine friendly as possible. This will help search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo! understand and index your website easily.

Why is On-Page SEO important?

If you have a poorly built website with little to no On-Page SEO, you will not get good search engine rankings even if you spend a lot of money advertising your website. On-Page SEO is really important if you want your website to rank well in the search engines.

Things you should know about On-Page SEO:

• Keyword Density: Using the same keyword too many times in a paragraph is considered spam by search engines. Use the keyword phrase once in a paragraph and a few times in the page.

Ex: Driving traffic to your website can be easy if you use the right SEO techniques. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

• Latent Semantic Indexing: Sometimes, using your keyword too many times in a paragraph can actually work against you. Search engines can sometimes interpret your text to be Spam if you use the same keyword too many times in a short paragraph. In order to avoid this, use the Latent Semantic Indexing technique of repeating keywords.

Ex: If your keyword is ‘New York City’, you can write something like, “New York has so much to offer from the bright lights of Times Square to the bustling streets of New York City”.

• Keyword Location: Place your keywords in your first paragraph and in your heading tags. Also, place a few instances of the keyword in your text.

Ex: If your keyword is ‘New York City’, you can write something like, “Welcome to New York City. This bustling metropolis has so much to offer from the bright lights of Times Square to the quaint streets of Brooklyn”.

Chapter 2. Off-Page SEO

What is Off-Page SEO?

Off-Page SEO refers to all the Search Engine Optimization techniques that you apply to other websites in order to get backlinks. The purpose of Off-Page SEO is to get other websites to link back to your website. A single backlink from a high quality website can increase your search engine rankings substantially.

Why is Off-Page SEO important?

If you have a poorly built website with little to no Off-Page SEO, you will not get good search engine rankings even if you spend a lot of money advertising your website. Off-Page SEO is really important if you want your website to rank well in the search engines.

Things you should know about Off-Page SEO:

• Link Building: Getting backlinks to your website is called ‘Link Building’. You can get backlinks by reaching out to other website owners and asking them to link to you. You can also write blog posts and articles and use the ‘No Follow’ attribute for backlinks to avoid getting penalized by search engines.

Ex: You can ask other business owners in your niche to put a link to your website in their website’s ‘About Us’ page. You can also create a blog or forum and include your website’s URL in your profile page to get a backlink.

Chapter 3. Topic Research

What is Topic Research?

Topic research is the foundation of all SEO. If you don’t pick a niche that has search demand, you are never going to get any traffic. Topic research will tell you what keywords and topics are most likely to get you results.

Why is Topic Research important?

You are not going to get any traffic if you pick a poorly performing niche, even if you do everything else right. You need to research keywords, long before you start setting up your website and content.

Things you should know about Topic Research:

There are a lot of keyword research tools available. Some are free and some are paid. Most SEO experts recommend using more than one tool to find the best performing keywords. Here are some tools to get you started:

• Google’s Keyword Tool
• SEO Book’s Free Keyword Tool
• SEO Chat’s Google Adjective Tool
• Ubersuggest
• KeywordShitter

Chapter 4. Website Setup

What is Website Setup?

Once you have chosen a niche and done your research, it is time to set up your website. Your website is your online presence and the first impression that you make on visitors. Your website should be easy to use, intuitive and look professional. It should also load quickly and be accessible from all devices.

Why is Website Setup important?

If you set up a website that is difficult to use, people are not going to like it. If they aren’t going to like it, they aren’t going to use it and you will not get any traffic. If you set up a website that doesn’t look professional, people aren’t going to take you seriously. If they don’t take you seriously, they aren’t going to trust you and you won’t get any traffic.

Things you should know about Website Setup:

There are two types of website setup – HTML and CMS.

1. HTML: HTML is short for HyperText Markup Language. If you want full control over your website and don’t want to pay for a ‘real’ website, you can use HTML. HTML is easy to learn, but can take a long time to manually code everything.

2. CMS: CMS is short for Content Management System. With a CMS, all you have to do is enter your content into pre-defined sections and the CMS does the rest.

Chapter 5. Technical SEO

What is Technical SEO?

Technical SEO relates to the technical setup of your website. This includes things like your server requirements, ensuring that your website is ‘robots.txt’ed and not blocking access to search engine spiders, having a clean URL structure, using the right http headers, etc.

Why is Technical SEO important?

Even if you do everything right from a content and marketing standpoint, but your website is set up poorly from a technical standpoint, you will not get any search engine traffic.

Things you should know about Technical SEO:

1. Choose a Good Hosting Company: It is important to choose a good hosting company. Your website is going to get a lot of traffic and if your hosting company sucks, you website will often go down. This will cause you to lose a lot of traffic and potential customers.

2. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): A content delivery network acts as a middleman between your visitors and your hosting company. If a large number of people are trying to access your website at the same time, a CDN will send the majority of these people to a ‘copy’ of your website on a different server, thus preventing your server from crashing.

3. Keep Everything Up to Date: It is important to keep everything up to date. If you don’t, your website is going to be less trustworthy and visitors won’t like it. This will cause them to leave your site and you will lose search engine traffic.

4. Don’t Use Frames: Although frames make your website look fancy, they are not good for SEO. Google doesn’t like them and will often not include content in frames in their search results.

5. Use a Robots.txt File: If you want to prevent search engines from accessing certain parts of your website, you can do so with a ‘robots.txt’ file.

6. Keep It Simple: Although you might be tempted to use flash and other fancy features, you should avoid them. Keep your website simple. Not only are fancy websites harder to navigate and use, but they look less trustworthy to visitors.

7. Use Good Quality Images: If you want to use images on your website, make sure they are good quality. Poor quality images make your website look unprofessional and won’t impress your visitors.

8. Make Sure Your Site Is Easy to Navigate: Although you might think that your website is easy to navigate, others might not think so. Have others (preferably people from outside your target audience) try to navigate your website and see if they can do it. If not, you will lose a lot of visitors and search engine traffic.

9. Make Your Site Stand Out: Although your website needs to be simple and easy to navigate, you also need to make sure it stands out.

Have a free SEO audit for your website

Chapter 6. Social Media Marketing

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing involves using social media platforms to market your website or business. This involves creating a social media profile related to your business, and using it to interact with potential and current customers.

Why is Social Media Marketing important?

If done correctly, social media marketing can be an extremely powerful tool. When done correctly, you can reach a large amount of people for free.

Things you should know about Social Media Marketing:

1. Be Yourself: Although you want to seem professional, you don’t want to seem too formal. Social media is all about creating a personal connection with your audience. People are more likely to trust you and do business with you if they feel like they know you on a personal level.

2. Interact: You should try to interact as much as possible with potential and current customers.

3. Listen: You should also try to listen. Pay attention to what people say about your product or service. If you do this, you can easily adjust your marketing strategy and improve your brand.

4. Consider Paying for Advertising: Although social media is free, you may want to consider paying for advertising. Although more expensive than other forms of marketing, social media advertising is targeted and very cheap if you have a small budget.

5. Be Professional: Although social media is personal, you still need to be professional. You don’t want to share too much about your personal life or go on rants about things not related to your business. This will not only make you look unprofessional, but it will also make potential and current customers mistrust you.

6. Create a Company Page, Not a Personal One: Although social media is personal, you should still create a company page rather than a personal one. Potential and current customers are more likely to do business with you if they can directly interact with your brand.

7. Always Be Testing: You should always be testing your social media marketing. Try to A/B test your posts, and try out different headlines and images. This is the only way you will find out what types of posts your audience enjoys viewing and interacting with the most.

8. Make it Easy to Share: Make it as easy as possible for people to share your content. If you make it easy for them to share, they will do it. This will help spread your content, and therefore your marketing, much further.

9. Join Discussions: It’s not only important to create discussions, but to join existing ones as well. This shows that you are an active member of the community and want to interact with everyone.

10. Be Transparent: If you do something wrong, admit it. People appreciate honesty and it will help your image rather than hurt it.

Chapter 7. Email Marketing

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is the process of creating emails to be sent out to a mailing list usually for the purpose of marketing.

Why is Email Marketing important?

Email marketing has the highest conversion rates when compared to other forms of marketing. If you can create an email that gets attention and clicks, you can potentially receive a lot of profit.

Things you should know about Email Marketing:

1. Consider Using a Template: There are many websites that allow you to create an email template for free or a small fee. This will allow you to format your emails consistently and make them look more professional.

2. Consider Getting a Newsletter Signup: One of the most important parts of an email marketing campaign is getting people to sign up for your newsletter in the first place. You can do this by having a signup on your website, or at the end of every blog post.

3. Send Out Newsletters: Once you have a sizable list, you can send out newsletters. Try to send one out at least once a month, and never more than two times a month. The key to a good newsletter is providing useful content that your audience will enjoy and find valuable. If you can do this, they are more likely to look forward to your newsletters and click the links within them.

4. Track Your Results: Just like any other marketing campaign, you want to track your results. This will allow you to see what kinds of emails get the most clicks and conversions and what doesn’t. You should try different things and always be testing to see what works best.

Chapter 8. Event Marketing

What is Event Marketing?

Event marketing is any marketing strategy that involves promoting your business at an event.

Why is Event Marketing important?

Even though the internet has drastically reduced the impact of event marketing, it is still an important marketing strategy. Many new and existing businesses try to cut corners by not attending events where they could be networking and generating revenue.

Things you should know about Event Marketing:

1. Don’t Overlook Conventions: Many people overlook conventions and instead focus on things like blogging and online ads. However, conventions can be a great place to meet people, generate revenue, and promote your brand.

2. Always Have Business Cards: You never know when you are going to meet someone who could become a valuable connection. Always have a stack of business cards on you so you can exchange information immediately.

3. Bring (or Send) an Employee: You should always go yourself if possible, but if you are stretched for time, at least send an employee or hire a booth model. Having some form of representation is better than nothing.

Chapter 9. Offline Advertising

What is Offline Advertising?

Offline advertising refers to any type of traditional advertising that is not online or on television. This includes print ads in newspapers and magazines, as well as billboards.

Why is Offline Advertising important?

Offline advertising still plays a large role in some industries. If you can find the right niche, offline advertising can be a very powerful tool.

Things you should know about Offline Advertising:

1. Print Ads: Print ads are one of the most common forms of offline advertising. They tend to be fairly cheap and widely seen. The only problem is you have to pay in bulk and you don’t really know how many people actually saw your ad.

2. Billboards: Billboards are exactly as they sound, a billboard is a large advertisement placed on a billboard. These are usually seen from highways and often have great visibility. The most common problem with billboards is the fact that the cost can add up quickly, especially if you have a lot of them.

3. Radio Ads: Radio ads are a great way to target a specific demographic. You can reach a certain age group more easily than with other forms of advertising. The issue with radio ads though is you have very little control over who is hearing your ad.

4. TV Ads: Television ads are very expensive and you probably won’t have enough money to consistently buy ad time for a long period of time. That being said, if you have a limited budget, this is the best way to get your brand in front of a lot of people.

5. Smart Placement: Perhaps the best way to spend your advertising dollars is on smart placement. If you have a small business, like a furniture store, you’re better off buying ad space in the Yellow Pages rather than spending the same amount on a billboard people will see as they drive by at 60 miles per hour.

6. Keep It Simple: When creating your ad, remember, less is more. You don’t need to fill every inch of your billboard with text. This is especially true if you’re making a billboard. Try using only a few words in big lettering to catch the driver’s attention.

Chapter 10. Public Relations (PR)

What is Public Relations?

Public relations, also known as PR, involves establishing a positive relationship between your company and the public.

Why is Public Relations important?

PR is one of the most important aspects of your business because if the public doesn’t like your company, it won’t do business with you.

Things you should know about Public Relations:

1. Know Your Audience: When establishing a PR campaign, you first need to know who you are targeting. Is your product aimed at children, young adults or senior citizens? You will tailor your PR campaign differently for each demographic.

2. Advertise: Once you know your audience, you need to advertise. If you’re marketing to children, television and radio ads would be best. If you’re targeting senior citizens, maybe a billboard or pamphlet campaign would work best.

3. Be Creative: There are so many ways to reach the public, you just need to be creative. Consider setting up an event at a local mall where people can come and see your product in person.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many things you need to consider before launching your product / website . By following this guide, you will have a much better chance at launching a successful product / website. Once you have read this guide, please pass it on to someone who might find it useful. Thank you for reading and good luck!