Analyzing Traffic Trends
Once you have built a quality website and have a decent amount of content, it’s time to drive traffic to it. I put this post together to share some tips that I have learned over the years in regards to how to analyze traffic trends, find what works and what doesn’t, when to post new content and how to generate a solid and reliable traffic source.
Looking at the general scope of traffic trends, websites tend to generate more visitors in the winter months. Because it is so cold outside, most people stay indoors and thus, get on the computer more than they might in the spring, summer and fall seasons when the weather is nicer and it is more appealing to do outdoor activities. Advertising firms are well aware of this trend as well and some tend to only start new campaigns at the onset of these cooler months.
Moving in closer, there are also some weekly, daily and even hourly trends that you should be aware of to maximize the potential of your articles / reviews. I have noticed that traffic is the strongest on Monday and remains pretty steady throughout the traditional work week. Monday is a high traffic day because people are coming back to work from the weekend and are catching up on everything they may have missed over the weekend.
Traffic remains pretty constant throughout the week, again, simply because people are at work surfing the web rather than doing their jobs. This theory is further solidified by looking at the hourly traffic stats. Without fail, there is a sharp curve around 10:00 a.m. which remains elevated until 5:00 p.m which is roughly the time that most people are at work.
One would think that weekends would bring more traffic since people are off work and free to play on the computer, but that is not true. Weekends tend to be reserved for family time, gaming or other activities not associated with the computer and the Internet. Also, holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas are other times when traffic tends to dip down for the same reasons - people simply aren’t spending time at the computer.
How To Generate More Traffic To Your Site
The tips listed here are just a few that I recommend based on my findings with my product review website, but many of these same techniques can be applied to blogging as well.
Before trying to generate some serious traffic, you need to have a solid foundation. This means a well-designed and easy to navigate website and more importantly, some solid content. I will leave it up to you to decide how much content to start with before trying to drive traffic, but I would recommend at least a full month’s worth. This will give new readers something to keep them busy on their first visit and hopefully entice them enough to return.
Depending on the type of website you are running, you will want to check out other similar websites and see if they have a news e-mail address. This is extremely valuable for me, as every time I publish a new review / article, I send out a press release to my news contact list, which has close to 150 addresses on it. These sites receive my press release and then post a news blurb about it in their daily news section. This drives a lot of traffic to the review and can easily double or triple the amount of traffic I would get on a normal day so it is important to build your contact list with as many sites as you can.
This leads me into my next pointer, which is to have some type of daily news update in addition to your original content. Many sites on my contact list will only post news if you return the favor. Also, having a news section gives your readers a reason to check back daily, and sometimes multiple times a day depending on how many times per day you update this news list. For bloggers, the news listed here could be links to posts from some of your favorite blogs.
For bloggers specifically, one of the keys to generating traffic and participation on your blog is to visit and comment on as many other sites as you can make time for. Most sites provide a spot for you to post your site address which will certainly generate traffic from the site owner as well as other readers of said site. Participation and community involvement is absolutely key for bloggers.
Another good idea to generate traffic and more participation is to host a contest or giveaway. I have found that it is best to have a few prizes to give away, as this gives each reader a better chance at winning something. Cold hard cash works well, but if you don’t have any extra money to spend, you can try getting sponsors to donate some prizes in exchange for advertising. If this isn’t an option, perhaps you could give away a service like designing a logo or doing some HTML coding for free. The options here are pretty limitless, just make sure you are actually giving away something with value that your target audience would be interested in. If you do a giveaway, one idea is to have participants submit their e-mail address for inclusion in a newsletter. A weekly newsletter is a great way to drive targeted traffic to your site.
A newer but very important marketing tool that you should be taking advantage of is social networking sites, the “Big 3″ as I call them: Facebook MySpace and Twitter. Amass as many friends / followers as you can on each of these networks then use it to your advantage. Create a fan page for your site on Facebook and post updates to it each time you release a new post / article / review. Do the same with MySpace and Twitter, creating a bulletin post / Tweet with each new post. The possibilities here are only limited to how many friends you have, so the more the better!
It is important to remember that offline marketing can be just as lucrative as online promotion. Ideas here can range from promotional pens to custom t-shirts. I probably have close to 10 company promotional t-shirts in my closet that I wear on a regular basis. This is free advertising for the company and a free shirt for me; a win-win situation!
The last bit of information I will offer here today is to print up some business cards. This is vital, especially if you offer some type of service on your site. Business cards are great for networking at trade shows and other social gatherings of like-minded people. Often they are a requirement for admission as well.
These are just a few tips for analyzing traffic sources and generating some more traffic to your site. Let me know if you have any others that I should add to the list!
