In my consulting practice, the thing my clients ask me most often about marketing online is, "how do I get people to find my website?"

Generating traffic for your website is simple - but it's NOT easy. Let me explain what I mean...

There are multiple tactics that you can - and should - use to make people aware of your website and to encourage them to visit. Each one of these tactics is very simple to do - BUT you can't just do one. That's where it gets tricky - and why I say that driving traffic is simple - but not easy.

You MUST take advantage of a variety of tactics available to you to drive traffic to your website because these tactics have a cumulative effect. Each one builds upon the other, helping to raise your ranking with the search engines, establishing you as THE "go to" expert in your field, and raising awareness with your potential customers so they come flooding to your website to buy your products or services.

While there are dozens of tactics that you can use to drive new traffic to your site, to be effective you need to focus on a few key items first. Become a master of those tactics, then move on and add additional tools to your toolbox. I've listed below the tactics that I recommend to my clients that they start with and master first.

Before you jump into the list though, remember - all traffic is NOT created equal. You don't just want any visitors to your site - you want visitors who are interested in your products and services. I've seen far too many small business owners spending time - and money - getting traffic for the sake of traffic. Bad move. Sure, you get to see your site visitor count increase, but it's a waste of your time - and theirs - if the visitors you are driving to your site aren't interested in what you have to offer.

Knowing who your target customers are, specifically, before you embark on any traffic-generating program, will dramatically increase the chances that the new visitors you drive to your site become new customers for you. The more you know about your target customer, the better your chances of driving those new customers to your website with these techniques below.

 

 

So now - the 10 Things You MUST Do to Drive Massive Traffic to Your Local Small Business Website:

# 1 List Your Website with Search Engines & Directories

Google alone attracts more than 250 million searchers every day. 3,000 people PER SECOND type something into the search box and visit someone's website. And that's just Google - it doesn't include all the searching done on Yahoo!, MSN, Ask and all the other smaller search engines. It only makes sense with this many people searching on the web, that you would want to list your website where the people are looking for what you sell.

# 2 Use Article Marketing to Your Advantage

This has been one of the most successful ways of driving traffic to my website that I've found - and the good news is, it's free! Don't worry - you don't have to be the world's best writer to put together useful, readable articles that your potential customers will read. Whatever your industry, there are thousands of electronic newsletters (or e-zines) that are hungry for articles they can use to publish to their subscribers. There are also hundreds of directories where you can publish your articles - some of them are extremely popular and will result in your article being seen by hundreds or thousands of potential customers.



# 3 Publish Your Own E-Zine

This is another way that I've found to be hugely successful in driving new prospects to my website. By publishing my own e-zine, I can stay in touch with my current customers easily (and cheaply!), and market my new products and services to them. A secret to using your e-zine to drive traffic to your site is to always be adding new content that your customers want to see. Things like free articles and reports, discount offers on your products or services or special""subscriber-only"promotions are great ways to use your e-zine to drive visitors to your site.

# 4 Advertise in Other E-Zines

Once you have your own e-zine, look in online e-zine directories for other e-zines that your target customers likely read. Check to see if these e-zines accept advertising. If they do, you can purchase ads for your business in these e-zines, or offer to do an ad "swap" where you advertise in their e-zine in exchange for running an ad for their business in your e-zine. I recommend running at least 3 ads in a row so that you can get an accurate picture of how ads in that e-zine work for you.

# 5 Pay-Per-Click Advertising

 

 

Because so many people use search engines to find what they are looking for online, implementing a pay-per-click ad campaign for your small business is one of the easiest ways to put your website in front of those searchers. With pay-per-click, you bid on keywords that are associated with your business that your customers would likely use to find your products or services. And, you don't pay for your ad until someone actual clicks on it to visit your site.

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