Targeted Traffic, Increase Targeted Traffic by Utilizing SEO

Site traffic will always be important to any web page and the services or products that the page offers, however, the traffic is not the means in itself, but rather an opportunity to get your message heard. As such, it is imperative that a website receive targeted traffic in order to maximize conversions. Targeted traffic, in a general sense, is traffic that is interested in a website’s content and what products and services it offers. For example, a website selling antique wooden furniture will ideally attract targeted traffic such as consumers interested in purchasing antique furniture. There are many ways a website can attract targeted traffic. They might attract targeted traffic by offering visitors content that interests them, by using keywords to achieve a good listing on the search engines, or advertising on sites that target similar markets.

Other, more reliable ways of getting targeted traffic include buying traffic, borrowing traffic, and recycling traffic.

Currently, buying traffic is the quickest way to receive targeted traffic. It involves buying advertisements from the large search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. For example, Google employs a system called Google Adwords. Any marketer may open an account for a 5-dollar activation fee. The advertisements will appear in Google within approximately 15 minutes. These advertisements appear along the right side of a results page of a web search done on Google.

Overture.com also sells traffic by the click (called pay per click), though they make marketers wait 3 to 5 days before appearing on the network while the advertisements run through an editorial review process. Most other search engines follow the same basic model of charging marketers for targeted visitors (or targeted traffic), who click on an advertisement for further information. However, not all search engines run an editorial review.

Borrowing targeted traffic from other websites is another option. This is achieved via “endorsed mailings” and “reciprocal linking.” Some websites maintain a list of subscribers, which are members of a website that continually receive updates pertaining to content and services. If a site has made a deal with another website, they will send out an email to all subscribers, listing reasons to visit this other site. A prominent link on a website with subscribers may lead to increased traffic on another site. These methods of receiving targeted traffic sometimes involve paying a commission to another website’s owners, agreeing to offer a similar mailing, or providing them their own link on your website. Occasionally, all three will be utilized.

The most economical way to receive targeted traffic for a website is recycling traffic. This involves turning one-time visitors into regular and repeat visitors that are directed to multiple websites over time. This can be done by attracting website visitors to sign up for a newsletter, auto-responder sequence, or some type of mini-lesson to learn more about a subject or service. Contact is kept up through regular articles, special reports, and recommendations enticing visitors back to the website and any others in the same network. Out of the three methods of receiving targeted traffic, this remains optimal since it is the most affordable and has the best returns on time and money invested. Also note that it remains possible to redirect and recycle traffic from an expired domain to an active website.

Moreover, targeted traffic can be generated without the use of search engines by employing blogs, podcasting, link buying, web directories, social media (examples being Myspace or Netscape), online press releases, email marketing, or other forms of online public relations.