Driving Targeted Web Traffic With Web 2.0 Platforms
Anyone can make a website, but there is an art and science to getting people to visit it, let alone buy something from it or click on an ad. Fortunately, there are many so-called “Web 2.0″ tools that anyone can use to drive targeted web traffic to their site. Many are things you can do right now, so let’s not waste any time.
First off, let’s explain what Web 2.0 is, since many of you reading this are undoubtedly wondering what this thing you’ve heard so much about actually is. This is a term which refers not to a single entity but rather a set of ideas about the design and the functionality of websites. It’s an approach which emphasizes interactivity and dynamically updated content. Some of the web platforms which fall under this umbrella include blogs, social bookmarking sites, social networking and social media sites. These sites are all easy to use and all can help you to drive a lot of targeted web traffic.
Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are sites which you may already know about. Social networks have a tendency to wax and wane in popularity over time, but right now these are the two biggest sites of their type. Both of these sites are also popular with businesses as ways to bring in more targeted web traffic to their sites. With social networking sites, you can make a profile which gives other users information about you, your business and why they may want to come check out your website.
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 haven’t set up a page on these social media sites, you should do so right now. It only takes a few minutes and it’s very easy. You don’t have to worry about decorating your page or getting all the popular gadgets on it. In fact, gadget overload on a Facebook page connected to a serious retail website is not a good thing. Once you’ve established your pages on these sites, look for people you know, and when you find them, add them as friends. It’s easy to find former classmates and co-workers, and chances are you have a good dozen people already in your life that have Facebook pages that you can add as friends.
The immensely popular social media platform Twitter is something you should already be using (if not, sign up right after you read this, even before you create your social networking profiles). Among its many uses, Twitter is an easy way to add updated content to your Facebook and MySpace pages, among others. Just go to the settings tab in your Twitter account and then down to account and select the “you can also add Twitter to your site here” option. This will give you the option of adding your Twitter feed to your social networking profile pages, Blogger blogs and more. Twitter will provide you with code to copy and paste on to these pages and that’s all there is to it! After doing this, your Twitter posts will automatically be added to these sites as you make them.
Social bookmarking sites are sites like Digg.com that allow people to highlight web content that they like and share it with the rest of the world. Can you bookmark your own pages? Sure. Just set up an account at Digg and follow the directions for “Digging” a particular page. If other people have seen your page, or go to your page and like it, they can add their support to your Digg, which will encourage other people to check it out too. A page that gets a number of Diggs also gets increased targeted web traffic.
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 only a few of the large number of different ways that you can leverage the opportunities presented by Web 2.0 to drive targeted traffic to your site. There are plenty more you’ll want to try later, but the above ideas can get your new online business up and running and on its way to success.
Best Wishes to you. B. L. Marlow
B. L. Marlow writes some cool stuff including a book on increasing targeted web traffic using Web 2.0 tactics. For a limited time, you can grab a complimentary copy by going to his internet marketing strategies site.