Posted by Jennifer Horowitz

People are always wondering what they need to do to really grow the traffic to their website.  A lot of people ask what they should do and what order should they do it in.  Here is a little blueprint to help guide you and keep you on track.

It’s important to recognize that there is a lot to do and it can’t all be done at once.  The first step is taking stock of where you are at.  What areas are you lacking in?

Here’s a quick checklist of everything you should be doing to promote your site.

1.    Get your site optimized (make sure the code is clean, fast loading, keyword rich and optimized for the engines)

2.    Set up a Blog (WordPress hosted on the same server as your site is the best set up)

3.    Create a Twitter account and start building followers

4.    Create a Facebook Fan page (and invite friends, family, followers, colleagues etc to become a fan, post a Facebook badge on your site and Blog)

5.    Feed your Blog into your Facebook page so that your Facebook Fans are seeing your great content

6.    Write Blog posts that are “article style” and then tweet them out to followers (by article style I mean content that is informative and not self promotional so the article directories will accept it)

7.    Syndicate the articles you posted on your Blog to article directories (once they have been spidered on your site)

8.    Add content that is keyword rich to your site in addition to your Blog

9.    Explore PPC and other advertising sources

10.    Repeat  steps 6, 7 and 8 (as well as building Twitter followers which is mentioned in step 3)

11.    Build joint venture relationships and find affiliates to promote your services as relevant.

12.    Market to your mailing list on a regular basis through newsletters, a series of emails such as a “mini course” and special offers.

I know it’s a lot, but there are pieces of it you can outsource.  Do the best you can and work at it consistently – getting a little bit done every day is better than not doing anything.

Tips:

Articles/Blog posts don’t need to be really long.  If you are syndicating them they need to be at least 400 words.  It’s often easier to write shorter articles.  If you have a lot to say make it a multi-part series.

It’s possible to do all this without taking over your whole day.  Set time frames for each task and set a timer.  Only work for the allotted time and when the timer goes off, move on.  Even small bits will add up over time and its better than doing nothing – which is what most of us do when we are overwhelmed.

Use Google Alerts to stay on top of hot topics in your industry.  It can help make it easier to pick topics for articles and Blog posts.

Keep a running list of topics you want to write about.  A lot of times it’s hard to get started when you don’t know what to write about.  Refer to your list and pick a topic and then get writing.

Not sure how to optimize your site or if it’s optimized already?  Request a site review and proposal so you can see where your site stands and see what the costs are for getting the site optimized.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 8:30 am and is filed under Promote, SEO. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About the Author: Jennifer Horowitz, Director of Marketing for EcomBuffet.com has been helping clients grow their business by increasing traffic and improving conversions for over 10 years. Jennifer is widely published, and has spoken at SEO Conferences and trainings. For more information and for a free downloadable book on SEO (Optimization Step By Step: 2010), visit EcomBuffet.com.