How to Draw a Record Crowd to Your Website

As well as writing articles for this website, and for my business partnership, Grassroots Internet Strategy, I also have a personal blog related to something I’m very passionate about; Grand Slam tennis.

Due to the Australian Open and the lead up events, January is a massive month for tennis in Australia, and hence a massive month for my blog.

In comparison with January 2011 (when my tennis blog was new), my web traffic increased by nearly 1800% (up from around 1000 visits in Jan 2011 to nearly 18,000 in Jan 2012). Here are some of the things that helped me draw a record crowd.

1. If web traffic is important, create a lot of content

I published 32 articles in January which includes articles I wrote as well as guest articles written by others, photos and videos from YouTube.

Some of the Search Engine Optimisation advantages of creating valuable content are:

• Each article you add to your website makes it bigger, which gives it more Google authority.
• Each article gives other website owners an opportunity to link to you.
• Each article can be shared on Facebook and Twitter.
• Each article gives your readers a reason to visit your website again.
• Each article includes keywords, which helps your website appear more often in search engine results.

I created a lot of content in a short space of time for an audience who reads as much as they can about the topic in that short space of time but it’s important to note that if your articles are sent to a subscriber list, make sure you meet their expectations in terms of how much content they expect to receive from you.

2. Connect to people who want to read and share your content

Whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or wherever your target readers are located, connect to as many people as you can and get to know them. This increases the chance they will read your content and share it with their own network.

In the spirit of “do unto others as you wish they would do unto you”, it’s important that you share other people’s content, as well as your own.

And when someone does share your content, show your appreciation 🙂

3. Ask for input from the people you are connected to

You don’t need to create all your content yourself. Aside from sharing other people’s videos and guest articles on your blog, you can also create content by compiling other people’s input.

If someone is mentioned in your article, they are probably more likely to share it too 🙂

Here’s an example of an article where I compiled tennis fans predictions for what the outcome of the Quarter Finals would be.

4. Anticipate the information that people will search for and have it ready

This is particularly useful if you write articles about an event or activity that a lot of people will search Google for in a limited period of time. It could also work if there are significant changes happening in your industry that a lot of people will want to know about.

Step 1 in keyword research is to use the Google Keyword Tool to research the keywords that people search for. You can also look for clues in your Google Analytics. And, you can also use your own knowledge of your niche to anticipate what people will search for.

See which keywords from past articles have generated traffic from Google and use the information to create new articles focused on related keywords.

For example, I often write articles about the prize money that winners receive for a tennis tournament because I know from the past that on the day of the tournament final, and for a few days after the event, people search for that information.

Have the information published at least a week or two in advance, so that it can be indexed by Google in time for the anticipated searches.

5. Build links with other website owners who share your passion

There is a lot of link swapping amongst tennis bloggers. You’ll see the links to the “Tennis Blogs I Love” in the right hand column on my blog. These are all reciprocal links with blogs that I enjoy reading regularly. I get good referral traffic from these sidebar links where other bloggers have linked back to me.

Find out about new links to your website either from the referral traffic in your Google Analytics, or if you use WordPress you’ll get a notification in your comments (a pingback).  Similar to when people share your articles, when you notice new links to your website, show your appreciation 🙂

What other ways have worked for you in terms of dramatically increasing your web traffic?

Cheers

Melinda