If you
have a web site, I know that you have
already realized that a site doesn’t
promote its self; you realize that a site
must contain
real information, be
promoted, stay
up to date and continually
expand for many months before it
will attract visitors automatically.
Let’s
pick apart the previous statement. First,
when I say that your site needs to contain
real information, what I mean is, your
site is going to have to provide your
visitors with some kind of unique value
or useful information.
Unique,
high quality information will keep your
visitors clicking and have them coming
back for more later on.
That
brings me to the next key point…
If your
site has unique information and you feel
that it is ready for visitors then you
are going to have to ask people to visit;
sort of. You’re not actually going
to ask them to visit, instead, you are
going to let them know where they can
find the information that they have been
looking for.
Wait.
Do I mean that you aren’t going
to target everyone in the world as a site
visitor?
Yes
and no.
First
and foremost, you are going to target
people that are already interested
in what your site has to offer. For instance,
if your web site is full of great information
about rare coffee then your target audience
will be coffee drinkers. You could break
that down even further by targeting coffee
drinkers that enjoy the tastes of the
different types of coffee beans.
Let’s
move on; assume that you’ve already
had visitors come to your site and enjoy
your information. We’re also going
to assume that they will visit again,
although, this is most often not the case.
There are ways… I’m just about
to tell you a little bit about getting
visitors to come back over and over…
so…
We’ll
move on to staying
up to date.
When a
visitor returns to your site for an additional
visit and everything is the same, they
are going to be less likely to return
again. Each
time they come to visit and find nothing
new, your site becomes less and less useful
to them.
So,
to solve this dilemma, do one thing…
Update!
Add
new content to your site and make changes
often enough to keep it interesting.
If a visitor returns to your site and
finds new information, it’s like
they are visiting for the first time all
over again. You
gain credibility and your visitors
know that your site is growing.
That sheds
light something else that I was mentioning
earlier…
Continual
expansion
A web
site that continually expands will keep
visitors coming back and attract new visitors
by word of mouth or links from other sites.
This will build your credibility; your
visitors will know
that you are a trustable source
of quality information.
Remember
earlier when I asked if we weren’t
going to target everyone in the world
and I said ‘Yes and no,’?
Let me expand on how continual expansion
affects the visitors that aren’t
part of your target audience.
If your
site is continually expanding, you will
slowly gain more and more visitors that
are not exactly interested in your
information…
You’re
going to be attracting your target audience
– and – attracting visitors
that are just finding an interest in your
given topic. Also, you will receive visits
from people that are simply doing research,
people that saw a link to your site on
another site, and, if the subject is coffee,
you are even going to get visitors that
hate
this timeless, hot, liquid of goodness
(or is it bad?)…
Why
do I want visitors that may not be interested
in my content?
Because,
even if the visitor is not interested
in the information that you provide…
if you show them that you have a continually
expanding resource with a large amount
of high quality information, they
will respect you and recommend your site
to others.
