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This subject of how to increase blog or website traffic has been asked many many times. People ask me things like, “How can I increase my website traffic? Don’t give me a book about it, just give me the main points.” It really all depends on how you have optimized your site. Have you integrated good SEO? Did you just write an article but didn’t even care to use keyword selector tools? If you’re having problems increasing site traffic and don’t do anything about it, chances are that it’s just going to get worse. So start improving the way you blog and you’re guaranteed to get more traffic in the future. Here are 5 simple steps that WILL guarantee an increase of web site traffic.

1. Write for your readers AND for Google, Yahoo, etc.- If you’re just writing your articles without using any keywords, don’t expect to get more site traffic. If you plan to get visitors from search engines this is really important. You don’t need to advertise on search engines to get traffic. But you can use search results to get traffic. Use keyword selector tools to find long-tail keywords that will help you with your SEO. Just remember, the more keywords you have, the more likely the article is going to be on the first page of a search result.
2. Don’t just write for search engines. Write for your readers.- Yes, this is contradicting what I have just said in #1. But if you think about it, it’s true. Got readers going to your site? Are they coming back tomorrow? The next-day? Next month? Keep writing those good articles and expect them to come back. Not only can loyal readers bring guaranteed traffic, but they might also show their friends how cool your site is.
3. Participate in blog communities. - My blog is still in it’s development stage (but it’s already getting lots of traffic love), and you’re might be too. A good way to start exposing your blog is to sign up and participate in blog communities. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Ever heard of MyBlogLog? BlogCatalog? Bumpzee? If you don’t know any of these communities I have just said then you’re really missing out on a lot. All bloggers should know about them. If you’re already a member for one, two, or even on more than what I have just told you, then you should be doing good. What you need to keep in mind though is this. PARTICIPATE. Blog communities were made for you to be…well, part of the community. Make sure you’re even “alive”. The more people you’re active in participation the higher your chance of getting to the blog community’s front page.
4. Have other bloggers be part of your own blog. - Make your own community in your blog itself. Have contests, guest blog posts, surveys… and make sure your readers even have the chance to communicate with you. I have noticed a lot of blogs that don’t have some sort of “Contact Me” form. It’s like their reading a robot’s blog. Making your blog/site fun can bring more traffic than you think. For example, John Chow has recently had a contest by giving away a couple of his PC games. It worked like this: just post a comment on that blog post, and he will randomly pick 2 winners from the comments list. The next thing you know there’s over 200 comments on that one single post.
5. Be the first to break the news. - This is something more focused on 3rd party sites. If you are one of the first people to find something that should be “big” in the internet, quickly write about it and submit it to Digg. You should already know about Digg right? Anyway, if you’re article is legit and interesting expect hundreds and hundreds visitors in the next few hours. In fact, you don’t even have to write about news to make the front page of Digg. Try this. Go to Digg after you read this post, and check out the Top 10 Topics in the front page. As you can see most of them are unusual (even stupid) articles that have made it out to the world. If you got something to show that you think is going to be popular, submit it to Digg.

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