Here’s a quick checklist of tips on improving site traffic (in no particular order):
- Submit URLs to search engines and web directories to start the ranking process: Technorati, Google, Alexa, DMOZ.
- A good domain name and targeted meta tags can help improve search engine rankings. Keep your tags relevant to your data.
- Check your site validation from time to time.
- It would not hurt to keep a banner ad of search engines on your website to boost your own ranking.
- Trading links and advertisements with other web sites similar as yours will bring you more web site traffic.
- Linkbaiting will tempt viewers to place links to your website from other websites. One of the most important features of site engine optimization is to find a way out to attract all potential viewers. Common ways are providing information, humor, or digging in controversy.
- Post your ad on free classified advertising sections, free link sites, free yellow pages directories, free bulletin boards, basically use every FREE opportunity.
- Pay close attention to the statistics regarding unique/repeat visitors, length of stay of each visitor, number of hits, traffic ranking, search keywords, most popular pages of your site and so on. Restyle and grow your blog/website accordingly.
- Search engine spiders are unable to read images. If you have text on an image, make sure it gets highlighted with a mouseover, else the content is meaningless for search engines.
- Check how your website looks in different browsers and check for different screen resolutions. Make sure your pages don’t take too long to load. Aesthically pleasing, easy to navigate and content-rich websites are likely to get more hits and repeat viewers.
- Start networking, both online and offline through social and business networking sites, online communities and forums, discussion and chat rooms which fit your personality and business models.
- Think globally, if your site has a universal appeal, the better. If you are familiar with other cultures and people around the world, use that experience to optimize your links.
- If you are a good writer, submit your articles to e-zines: goarticles, ezinearticles, ideamarketers, contentdesk
- Show interest in other people’s work and leave comments or feedbacks. Good comments usually open doors to your own site.
- If you have a business, do make a newsletter for your clients and keep them updated about your latest offers. Even if you are not a business owner, you need to constantly add to your viewers’ curiosity. Be creative.
- Set up a survey/opinion poll on your website. Ask questions which are irresistible and compel your audience to vote. Ask for reviews of your own work and share your opinions with others too. Communicate freely with your target audience.
- Observe what your competitors are doing and act ahead of them.
And of course don’t forget to write a blog on this topic yourself!!
Sitemaps include even those pages which do not get indexed by natural crawling, so if some of the pages of your website lack content or link juice, they will get trapped by a sitemap, and might adversely affect your ranking. Extensive sites can be bailed from this, as some of their valuable pages which would otherwise be left out by natural crawling might get benefit by added scrutiny.