INSCMagazine: Get Social!

By Carol Trehearn

Designing and building a website is fun. It’s definitely difficult, especially when you’re just starting out.

After taking the time to carefully craft a website to a standard that you can be truly proud of, it can be hugely disheartening when it doesn’t bring in the kind of traffic that you were hoping for.

Do not despair though, remember, when you launch a website you are competing against billions of other pages, many of which have been up and running for a significant amount of time, many of which have the power of corporate PR machines behind them, and others which are offering a service that you simply can’t.

Raising your website’s profile takes work; unfortunately, simply building an incredible website won’t get you there. Having great content will mean that once people become aware of your site, they are likely to keep coming back, but you need to get them to notice you to begin with. Below are some of the key things you need to do to raise the profile of your website.

Raise Your SEO Score

You can advertise a website just as you would any other product or service, and traditional advertising methods can yield some worthwhile results. However, the majority of web traffic is generated through search engines. Think about it, when you want to find something online where’s the first place you go? Most of us head straight to Google and we rarely look past the first few results.

Statistics from Google support this notion as the first 3 search results will receive nearly all of the traffic generated from a search. That’s 3 websites out of all the ones found for any given search term. If you want your website to be successful, then you need to brush up on what SEO is and how you can make it work for you. A comprehensive guide is beyond the scope of this article but check out this excellent guide to get you started.

Varied Content

The more high-quality content your website has, the more likely it is to appeal to any given visitor. Whether your website is dedicated to a single, specific subject, or to a range of similarly themed subjects, you should aim to vary your content as much as possible. For example, if your website is dedicated to video game reviews, then you will be competing with a large number of other sites who are doing the same thing. Make your site stand out by also reviewing and analyzing older games alongside the current ones, this is something that most of your competitors aren’t doing. Check out apexbeats.com for an example of a varied website.

Interaction

Adding interactive elements to your website is another way that you can dramatically increase the traffic to your website, and will make new visitors more likely to keep coming back. Interactive elements can take the form of browser games, although if these would be out of place then they are best avoided, but the most effective kind of interactions are social. Adding the ability for visitors to comment on articles, or even a forum or message board where they can discuss things with other users, helps to nurture a community feeling.

Raising your website’s profile is all about encouraging repeat visits and standing out from your competitors. Get creative and ask yourself what would make you want to keep coming back to your site.

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