Almost anyone who starts a web site (including bloggers) will eventually look into methods of growing traffic levels. The desire to get people to visit a site has spawned an entire industry — there are countless blogs, message forums, books, e-books, podcasts, and conferences focusing on the challenge of promoting a web site. But before you worry about the nuances of an entire industry you must understand the basics… how do web sites get traffic? Let me tell you…
Three of the most basic ways in which a web site gets traffic are:
- Natural search engine results.
- Referrals from elsewhere on the Web.
- Advertisements.
Natural search engine results
A natural search engine result is a visitor who arrives at your site via a search engine results page listing. Search engine results pages, or SERPs, are the matches found by a search engine in response to a person’s query. When someone searches for “data recovery” and finds my article on recovering deleted photos from a digital camera’s memory card, I have received a visitor through natural search engine results.
The exact method used to rank web pages for search terms varies between search engines, and each one keeps their exact formula a closely guarded secret. There are many theories on how to rank well for your keywords — some work, some do not, and others work for a short time until the search engines modify their algorithms.
Referrals from elsewhere on the Web
Referrals are the result of another page on the Web linking to yours. If a blogger writes about one of your articles, their visitors may find your site through that blog post. If you include a link to your site in your message board signature, other forum users who notice your postings may visit your site. In general, a link to your site that appears on another web page acts as a referral for you.
Incoming links may also help improve search engine rankings. The specifics of how search engines interpret links is of course not public information, but it is generally understood that obtaining links from other sites, particularly authoritative sites on similar topics to your sites’, is beneficial to both traffic and search engine rankings.
Advertisements
A third basic way in which web sites get traffic is through advertisements. One of the traditional methods of driving visitors to a web site is to purchase advertising space elsewhere on the web. Some common types of advertising found on the Web are banner ads, pop-up ads, pop-under ads, flash advertisements, and text links.
Bonus method: Direct visits
Thought I was done, didn’t you? A direct visit occurs when a person makes a conscious, pre-mediated decision to visit your site. They sit down at the computer (or take out their mobile), fire up their web browser, and enter the address of your web site. I hesitated to include direct visits in this article’s “3 basic ways” that websites get traffic because it is often a result of the other methods discussed in this article… a person will usually first discover a site through search engines, word of mouth, advertising, or from the other sites they visit. If they like it enough, they may return on their own.
Is that it?
As I said, web site promotion is a very large industry. Its entirety could not possibly be condensed down into a few short paragraphs. These are just a few very important basics you must know in order to understand the big picture of how traffic flows on the Web.
