3 More Website Traffic Strategies that Work 

Today I’ll continue my website traffic series by sharing three more traffic strategies that actually work.

Web Traffic Strategy #1: Web Push

You may have heard of web push but you’re not sure how it works. It’s fairly recent technology that can sound confusing on the surface, but really isn’t.

In a nutshell, web push brings visitors back to your site by offering a free notification of new posts, via a small button.

So last month I added a little web push button on this site you’re at  right now.

To set it up, I used a free service from OneSignal.com – while there are a handful of services that offer push notifications, such as PushCrew, and many server based solutions, I chose OneSignal because it was 100% free with unlimited subscribers and pushes.

And frankly, it was the simplest one I could find. Adding the plugin and button took me about 30 minutes in total.

So is it working?

Well, today I looked at my stats and at the 30 day mark I was pleasantly surprised to see 85 new subscribers in my OneSignal account. While that may not sound like a lot to you, it’s over 1000 new subscribers per year, all 100% on auto-pilot, and all 100% free.

OneSignal makes it very simple to add web push notifications using its Web Push API, which lets users choose to receive personalized push notifications from your web sites on their PCs, tablets, or smartphones.

Their site contains simple videos walking you through the setup procedure and it really is a breeze. After I set it up I tested it out by visiting my site from my smartphone and clicking OK when it asked me if I wanted a notification when new posts were added.

Now I am reminded how well it works every time I add a new post — I get that nice little notification sound on my Galaxy S5 along with a visual notification and link to my site. Cool! And people who accept notifications in their browser see my post alerts the next time they open their browser. So far I’m seeing a 10% click-thru rate which is higher than email marketing these days, so its definitely worth it.

If you’re not using OneSignal or another web push solution on your blog you’re missing out on adding more subscribers. Remember, some people may not want to opt-in via email, and some email subscribers may miss your emails in their sea of daily spam.

The bottom line is, OneSignal is definitely worth the one-time setup effort and remember, it’s completely free!

Web Traffic Strategy #2: Article Marketing

I’m sure you’ve seen a LOT of information about article marketing. Some of it is misleading, too. But it does have its merits so let’s learn the basics of what you need to know about this traffic strategy.

Basically, you write articles and submit them to websites along with your bio and link. And yes, it can stil work well of you do it correctly.

Here are some tips that can help you maximize your article marketing efforts:

· Most article directories are free. Others have perks for those who pay a monthly price – like faster article approval. Decide if premium services are worth it to you, in most cases it’s not worth the cash in my opinion.

· Work on developing your call to action. This is the small area at the end of your article that gets people to click through to your link. Don’t be boring and simply say something like, “for more information, click here,” because that’s not interesting enough to warrant a click. You need to pique curiosity!!

· Spread your backlinking efforts among many sites – not just one. Most marketers use EzineArticles.com for their article marketing – but there are many others, like ArticlesBase.com and ArticleCity.com – that you can use, too.

· Don’t put all of your content on directories – save a good deal of it for your own blog and site!

Article marketing can be done on a schedule that you create. You can outsource content to a ghostwriter and upload it under your name on the directories. Make sure it’s unique so that it gets approved. You can even outsource the submission to directories if you want to make it completely hands-free.

Web Traffic Strategy #3: Adwords

Beware, this strategy involves spending money, so you need to be careful.

Paid traffic can be a very scary thing for many marketers – even seasoned ones who have been around the block online for years! But you are in control, so don’t let it intimidate you.

With AdWords, there are various types of traffic sources available, including remarketing campaigns, display and search. In a nutshell, you’re paying for your ads to be put at the top of Google’s search results, and on other people’s websites in your niche.

In order to use AdWords, you have to know the rules. They don’t mess around – so if you’re caught breaking the Terms of Service, you could have your account banned forever.

Here are the basic steps involved:

· Go to AdWords and create an account. This involved picking a username, picking a currency, verifying your account, and setting up billing information.

· Create a campaign for your AdWords account. First you’re going to choose an audience. Where are they located? What language do they speak? Do you want to just advertise on Google SERPs or partner sites as well?

· Pick a daily budget. Warning: if you say you can spend up to $100 a day, they WILL find a way to spend your $100 a day. It’s vital that you only spend as much as you can afford, period. Nothing more – or you’ll go into debt very fast.

Now one thing to keep in mind – if your daily budget is just $20, and you’re maxing out on that, look to see if the investment is paying off for you. Are those click throughs resulting in sales? If so, how much? How much can you afford to raise your daily budget?

· Enter the maximum amount you’re willing to pay per click. Some niche markets have keywords that cost a lot of money (think $50 per click!) and some cost just $0.25. Just because you put a maximum, it doesn’t mean they’ll charge that – and it also doesn’t mean you get to beat out other advertisers for placement – there’s more that goes into that equation than bid price.

· Enter a list of keywords associated with your site that you want your ad to show up for.

· Set up final billing data and your account is ready to go live!

Now keep an eye on your ad campaign – don’t let it get away from you. If your target page (the page you’re sending people to) isn’t optimized, you’ll find out about it from AdWords.

Your ranking will fluctuate and you can tweak things in your campaign and on your site to get a better position in the SERPs. Paid advertising isn’t ideal, but it does offer a quick start to some traffic flow for a new site with no foothold in Google yet.

If you are completely new to AdWords then my best advice is to outsource the setup and optimization of your campaign to an expert. Here’s a fiverr gig I found today that you may want to consider contacting.