7 Simple Tips for Getting More High Quality Traffic
Since I’ve been marketing on the Internet for more than six 13 years now, both as an employee and a freelance copywriter, I’ve learned quite a few things about generating traffic.
In fact, TRAFFIC was one of the first subjects I ever dove head-first into — even before copywriting.
This is not to say I’m a traffic expert; far from it. But I have picked up a few simple tips for getting more traffic, starting today if you want.
Tip #1: Read blogs that are similar to yours. If you read a blog post, leave a relevant comment. Make sure you fill in the comment form with your website URL. Every time you do this, you are creating a small trickle of traffic back to your site. (Time Investment: ~2 minutes per comment.)
Tip #2: The faster you leave a comment after a blog post has been published, the better. In general, those who comment first get more traffic than those who comment last. If you are first to leave a comment on a new article on a popular blog… and the blog owner pings his list… you will then benefit from the spike in traffic to that particular blog post. Hint: An RSS reader will usually notify you when a new blog post is published faster than the blog owner can send out an email. (Time Investment: Zero additional minutes; just be alert.)
Tip #3: While you’re at it, if you really like the blog post that you just left a comment on, submit it to your favorite social media networks. If the post proves to be popular with your friends and followers, you will get more traffic to your site than you would otherwise. I personally like to use Buffer so I can submit blog posts and articles to all my profiles at the same time. (Time Investment: ~20 seconds per blog post if you use Buffer.)
Tip #4: Get an account at Gravatar and upload a selfie. Since most people don’t use Gravatar and are “faceless” so to speak, you will automatically get more attention (and traffic!) anytime you leave a comment on a blog where Gravatars are displayed. (Time Investment: 5 minutes total, then you’re done.)
Tip #5: Anytime you publish a new blog post, make sure you include a high quality image. Why? Because Facebook and LinkedIn will pick up your image anytime one of your readers shares your post on one of those networks. Social media posts that include an image are much more likely to generate clicks, likes, and retweets than those that don’t. Note: Only use images you have the right to use. I personally pay for royalty-free images from Fotolia.com and 123RF.com. (Time Investment: ~2 minutes.)
Tip #6: Make sure you’ve added share buttons to your site so it’s easy for visitors to share your posts. I have tried many different social media plugins over the years, including ShareBar, AddThis, ShareThis, and Sociable. Right now, I’m currently using Sumo, which offers a free suite of tools for growing your blog’s traffic. Sumo includes the really slick social sharing buttons you see on the left side of this page. (Time Investment: ~7 minutes to get your free SumoMe account and add the share buttons.)
Tip #7: Build relationships with influential bloggers in your market. This takes time. Leaving comments and participating in their communities can help you get noticed. When the timing is right, offer to write a unique high quality guest post specially for their audience. When you do this, the blog owner will usually let you link back to your own blog in one or two places. This will help you build quality backlinks and rank better in Google. (Time Investment: ~2 to 3 hours a month to write one good guest blog post.)
All of these traffic tips are simple, relatively fast, and easy to implement. Not to mention, they’re all FREE.
If you implement all of them, and you consistently do what I suggest every week, you will create a stream of predictable traffic that grows steadily with time… guaranteed.
-Ryan M. Healy
EDITOR’S NOTE: This blog post was originally published November 25, 2008. It was completely rewritten March 18, 2015.
