There are mainly two ways to draw high traffic to a website:
One way is to use PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising, such as Google AdWords. PPC will drive you targeted traffic instantly without having to wait for your website to organically rise through the ranks. The only drawback is that it will cost you money (as much as you are willing to pay), but there are some techniques to drive more clicks for less money.
To learn how to use Adwords in a way that will drive you a lot of traffic for less money, I suggest the Google Cash guide. Another recommended guide is Rich Jerk guide . It teaches many useful web marketing techniques in a very humorous, sometimes arrogants but effective way.
It is not recommended to try Adwords campaign without any basic knowledge. If you make mistakes (such as choosing the wrong keywords, the wrong countries or the wrong ads) Google will penalize you by rising your clicks cost, so don't even consider to try a campaign before reading an expert Google guide.
The second way to draw traffic to your website is to use Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO requires more work, and some patience. It won't drive you traffic instantly but it has a great advantage over PPC - once your site is optimized and reach a top place in organic search engines, you will receive tons of traffic for free! and for the long term!
Plus, organic search results are considered by most people as more reliable than sponsored results, so they drive more sells because people are actually looking for the products more actively.
A well optimized site would take several months to reach a top position (depends on the keywords used and the level of competition).
Gaining a high rank is done by analyzing the competition's sites SEO properties for your main keywords, and trying to copy their methods and do a little bit better to out rank them.
There are 2 types of search engine optimization techniques:
1. On-page Optimization
2. Off-page Optimization
On-page factors include:
Title - The title of the page should include your main keywords and be as short as possible to give them more weight.
Header Tags - You should include your main keywords within header tags, particularly the H1 tag which is usually simply the title of your content. Other keywords should appear in sub-headings, which are your H2 tags. You should also bold and underline these titles containing your keywords.
Keyword Density - You should include your main keywords as often as possible without making the content seem spammy or nonsensical.
Meta Tags / Descriptions - You should use meta tags to write a description of your webpage's content. This will not appear on the actual webpage, but in the description in the search engine results. It should be compelling so visitors click on the link to your site, as well as including your main keywords for optimization purposes.
Image Tags - If you have any graphics on your site, you should include your main keywords in the alt tag of each image. Offpage Optimization:
While onpage optimization is still something you should do, it's NOT what will get you high search engine rankings. It's the offpage optimization factors that will. This can basically be summed up in one word- LINKS.
Google, and most other search engines, place great emphasis on both the quality and quantity of inward links to your site. You want to get as many links as possible, but you should place more emphasis on getting quality links from sites similar in subject to your own, and from pages with high page rank (PR).
Off-page parameters include:
- Which websites link to you
- The number of websites linking to you
- The PR of the website linking to you
- The page title of the website linking to you
- The anchor text used in the link linking to you
- The number and type of links linking to the website that's linking to you
- The number of outbound links on the website that is linking to you
- The total number of links on the website that is linking to you
- Whether or not the websites linking to you are deemed by Google as an authority website
Doing search engine optimization can be done manually, but it is very time consuming.
There are several programs that automate SEO processes, such as
This software will allow you to analyze your competition for any keyword, and will tell you what sites link to them, their respective PR, how valuable each link is in terms of SEO, contact address of link partner and much more. This will enable you to contact these good link partners yourself and get them to link to your site as well.
The software will also allow you to find link partners for any keyword of your choice, as well as checking that all your current link partners are still linking back to you. It will also tell you where you rank in the major search engines for any given keyword.