Building Targeted Web Traffic Using Web 2.0 Technologies
Making a website is not all that much of a challenge. Really, anyone can build a website and put it online; the challenge is to get people to visit – and if you want to get your visitors to make a purchase or make some other sort of action, you need to familiarize yourself with the methods which can be used to influence consumer behavior online. There are a number of things which you can use to drive targeted traffic to your site using Web 2.0 platforms. Since quite a few of these are things you can start doing almost immediately, let’s get started.
First, the phrase Web 2.0 is not one specific thing, but more of a concept that people want to use web pages that are interactive and dynamic, as opposed to static pages that dominated a decade ago. Web 2.0 tactics for increasing targeted web traffic to your website include using social media sites, social bookmarking sites, and blogs. These are all easy to use, and require varying amounts of time dedicated to them.
Social media sites are the ones you hear about most in everyday conversation: MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter primarily. No doubt a new one will come along in another year or so and be the next hottest thing, but right now these are the ones that people use most to drive targeted web traffic to their websites. On these social media sites, you have what amounts to a sociable resum that lets people know who you are, what your site is about, and why they should go there.
In order to make sure that other users of the social networks stay interested in your page is to keep updating the content regularly. If someone comes to your page and sees you haven’t updated it in six months, they’re not nearly as likely to visit your site. Online, people are looking for the latest information, so you need to make sure that you stick to a regular daily, weekly or biweekly update schedule.
If you don’t have a profile on one of these social networks, the time to make one is now; since it only takes a couple of minutes, just go ahead and set one up right now. It’s not essential to install all of the many add-ons available or to decorate your page right now. You can do this later; and it is easier than you think to overdo it with the bells and whistles and actually lose potential customers. When you have your profiles set up on these two popular social networks, start searching for people you already know – there’s probably quite a few people in your life who use Facebook or MySpace already.
Twitter allows you to automatically update your MySpace and Facebook pages. From your Twitter account, click on “settings” in the upper right. In the Account tab, scroll down until you see “You can also add Twitter to your site here.” If you click on it, you’ll see options to add MySpace, Blogger, Facebook, and other sites. Once you choose them, copy and paste the code onto your other pages and Twitter updates will post there as well. This is a great timesaver.
Digg and other social bookmarking sites allow users to share content they find interesting with others. You can set up a Digg account in a matter of minutes and in case you were wondering, you can use Digg to bookmark your own pages – there are instructions on the site to do just that. Of course, what you really want is for other users of these social bookmarking services to add your content to their Digg accounts, which helps to drive targeted web traffic to your site.
Blogs have come to be practically expected from new e-commerce sites, and that’s a good thing. If you have a blog on your website, you can easily allow people to subscribe to it with their RSS feed. If they do this they’ll be notified whenever you update your blog, which you should do regularly. Don’t be overwhelmed by the concept of blogging. Nobody expects a literary masterpiece, and shorter blog posts are generally preferable to longer ones. Just keep it casual, like this: “Hey, we just wanted to remind everyone that we’re now selling the mondo-gadget version 3.0 in six colors for just $19.99. You should check them out!” Using the process described above about putting Twitter on other sites, you can automatically put Twitter updates on your blog, too.
These are just a few of the things you can do to leverage Web 2.0 tactics to get targeted web traffic to your site. It would take a book to describe all the techniques available, but these can get you started.
Best Wishes to you. B. L. Marlow
B. L. Marlow writes really great stuff including a book about increasing targeted web traffic using Web 2.0 concepts. For a limited time, you may grab a complimentary copy by going to his internet marketing strategies site. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service
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