With Google being one of the most trafficked sites on the global web, it makes sense to listen to them whenever they give out traffic tips.
Maile Ohye, a Google employee, advised website owners to “create unique and compelling content on your site and the web in general.”
More specifically, Maile gave these two bullet points:
- Start a blog: make videos, do original research, and post interesting stuff on a regular basis. If you’re passionate about your site’s topic, there are lots of great avenues to engage more users.
- Participate thoughtfully in blogs and user reviews related to your topic of interest. Offer your knowledgeable perspective to the community.
The first bullet point highlights the importance of blogging with a passion for your industry. This will generate more traffic because, over time, passionate people stand out from the crowd and attract other fans of the industry.
However, if you don’t have a lot of existing traffic, you’ll have to do some promotion. Don’t fall the trap of “build it and they will come.” The web is too crowded with billions of websites to just start a blog and hope people find you. This is what Maile’s second bullet point is all about.
You need to find out where your target audience is. Then, go to one of those sites and become a valuable contributing member. Your reputation will grow as an expert. Many people will become interested in you and visit your site.
After an extended period of promoting yourself, maybe a year to two years, you can scale back on promotion because you’ll have a critical mass of repeat visitors that will drive traffic for you through word of mouth.
But that initial marketing push is critical to gain traction and brand yourself as an industry expert.
