I don't understand traffic. Can someone help?
Okay, I've come to the realization that I just don't understand the concept of traffic, and it's really bothering me. I mean, at this point, I can go through all the classes WA has, and I'm still not going to get any traffic to my site. I've been at this for over 3 months, now, and I'm still not getting any traffic to my site. So, I really need help, but I honestly don't even know what to ask. I mean, how do search engines actually work, as far as quotes or no quotes, word order, etc. The keyword tool here at WA automatically puts quotes around every search term, but I never search like that. Do people search like that? When I look up a keyword using the keyword tool, and it brings up a google search, I don't really understand why the top results are there and my site isn't. Like, do you have to have the exact keyword in that order in your title, or just in the first paragraph, or does word even matter?
Part of my problem is I'm the kind of person that really likes a lot of information. So, I feel like I need an intimate knowledge of how search engines actually work. Do I, or am I over analyzing? Why is there no traffic going to my site!!??
Recent Comments
12
People don't put normally quotation marks in when they search. They are for your benefit So you can base your ad campaign to target "How can I learn..." in preference to "Where can I find.." Assuming the first one is used more often.
You can also target phrases that get traffic but don't have a lot of competition. Can be the difference in being page one for 500 people vs page 20 for 5000.
Thank you for all the constructive comments, everybody! I have a better plan of attack now :)
I don't think the problem is your understanding of the concept. you just need suggestions on how to get more traffic. i don't think you have a weird niche. I'm not personally interested in ball room dance. But even as an outsider I think your content is good.
One thing you might consider is rewriting one of your site articles or a creating brand new one and posting to Streetarticles. (Don't send one identical to content on your own site)
You can also do some offline advertising by putting your site up on bulletin boards in areas where dancers (or those with an interest) will likely see them.
You don't need an intimate understanding of the inner working of search engines because they periodically change anyway. The two main things are keywords and content. The keywords are the words people use to find your information. The content is what you show them when they get to your site.
Just remember the search engines rank you based on both.
Yeah good point - you can't build a business and be profitable overnight - it takes time and patience, and persistence - and as is mentioned here in many training sessions, don't give up because you may just be on the cusp of becoming a success.
Please view this as constructive - with your ballroom dancing site - what are your plans for monetizing it? I'm a guy - I'm not a dancer - I danced at my wedding... job done!!! :) However, I would think that you could possibly target dance studios, who may pay for referrals - or links to dance outfit suppliers (I'm sure Amazon has them for example), and dance shoe providers.
I hope that helps,
Mark
Hi.
Traffic can come from anywhere. If your content is good, and gives a unique angle on something, then you can get traffic from web search results (Google, Bing etc). That's organic traffic.
You could also get traffic from commenting on other sites in your niche. If you can add some value to the conversation/page/post then people will start to become curious about you - and may follow your profile link (normally your name, which may lead to a profile with links to your website). This is great traffic - as if you can build that, then you start to become known as an authority in your niche - and that then leads on to the next point.
Guest posting/outreach. If you can build a good reputation, you can really use that to help you - by approaching other blogs/sites in your niche, and asking to post something on their blog. That will of course have a link back to your blog - which can help you a lot. You can reciprocate by letting others guestpost on your site. It all adds up at the end of the day.
You could also try paid ads through google adsense and FB ads and others.
I'm not 100% about adsense - but FB ads let you target people who follow specific FB groups (eg. authors, certain FB fan pages etc), as well as a host of other demographics (age, marital status, job, income etc etc etc).
At the end of the day though, the only thing that will put you to the top of the search engine results, is by having better content than anyone else on the particular idea you're posting about. Relevant backlinks will definitely help - but getting those really depends on you having good quality content to begin with.
I hope that helps?
All the best, Mark
Unfortunately, I'm still not getting any organic traffic. Maybe I just picked a weird niche.
What's a backlink? Is it when you link back to another article you wrote on your own site? I've done that once, but how does it actually help if you're not getting any traffic to begin with?
SEO feels like a foreign language.
That was a good answer by Mark. I would pick your 4 favorite social media platforms and start working those as well. Create a seperate account for your website on each platform. I'm not saying pay for ads. Just post at least once a day on all four. It also doesn't have to be something you published on your site. Just anything related to your niche (always post images or video) with a short caption. Geoff.
Social will also get you more visits, which Google likes. Google will rank your posts higher if they are getting more traffic that doesn't come from search engines. It tells them your info is useful.
It comes down to content. Exactly. Without it, it is difficult to make an impression on people out there.
Cheers Geoff.
I agree - post as much as possible, and follow/like/comment on other pages, pinterest sites, FB pages, instagram etc etc as much as possible.
If you share good content related to your niche, then the people running those sites/pages will end up doing the same - which will open up a whole new audience to you.
A back link is when someone from another site, posts a link to your site. That gives you some authority, as someone trusts your content enough to link to your content, rather than someone elses. The more that happens, the better - and backlinks (as I understand) count for a big chunk of how far up the search engine results you are shown.
The more people linking to your site, the more authority it gains - as long as it's from sites in the same type of niche. Don't go buying backlinks from fiverr etc - they have absolutely no authority, and will only damage your search engine results.
Let me know if anything me or Geoff has said still isn't clear - we'll be happy to expand further if needed.
All the best, Mark
See more comments
Like any businesses, we need to have people coming to our site by regularly creating great contents before they get to like it and eventually buy from within.
You can either buy traffic to your site by using Ad, Or using Good keywords for Google ranking on top page to bring in free Organic Traffic, but that take time.
You need to note that there are thousands of people hoping to rank on top of Google everyday. So it is normal that it is going to take time before you can actually see traffic to your site.
Regards Sadie.