How to Drive Website Traffic That Converts

If you ask any blogger, content marketing professional or web entrepreneur what their #1 priority is, the answer you will get most of the time is, generating website TRAFFIC!

Indeed, traffic is like the magic wand that opens the door to online riches. Unfortunately, many of us are getting it wrong every way when it comes to generating traffic.

You must know this:

TRAFFIC on its own does not guarantee riches. To get the best from every piece of traffic you generate, that traffic must be the right kind of traffic.

Many a time I’ve heard a lot of online marketers talk about TARGETED traffic but I’ve also discovered that many who advocate this go on to suggest the wrong places where to get that targeted traffic.

For example, the last time you were told to drive targeted traffic to your sites and business blogs where did you go looking for that targeted traffic?

My guess is, other SIMILAR or related sites/blogs, right?

But did you take into consideration that 99% of those sites and blogs are nothing but other businesses trying to drive the type of traffic you are aiming to drive to your sites?

Did you consider the fact that these are marketers like you, who even when they visit your site or blog are only looking to drive more traffic to their sites and blogs?

Indeed, those similar or related sites and blogs are good for link building but not what you will call TARGETED  traffic.

This is where you are getting it wrong 99% of the time!

Targeted traffic is simply this:

Getting visitors who already want what you're selling to your sites or business blogs!

It’s as simple as that. If you are not driving that type of traffic, no matter the high traffic stats you are getting, it will amount to nothing!

web traffic failures and how to overcome them

So, how do you drive this type of targeted traffic?

1.    What Is Your Product?

This is indeed the biggest determinant of how much success you will get from your traffic generation tactics. This could be a physical product, digital product or a service. Whatever that may be, it should be able to meet the needs of your target audience whether it is healing a pain or answering a question. This will be much easier for you if you create your product in response to an existing demand.

Recommended: Hey Blogger: What really is your product?

2.    Who Is Your Perfect Prospect?

This is where many online marketers get it wrong, greatly. As mentioned above if you’re driving mostly other internet marketers who are looking for customers for their businesses, you will end up broke! Your perfect prospect is that person who is online with her credit card in hand ready to buy what you are offering or who is online researching more information about what you are offering.

There are different tools and products out there that will help you determine your perfect prospect. But if you have created your product in response to an existing demand as in #1 above, you would have known your perfect prospect from the beginning.

3.    Where Do You Find Your Perfect Prospect?

From my experience online, I have discovered that this is the biggest problem for many online business persons. This problem is biggest if you are in the internet marketing niche. I’ve also seen this among entrepreneur bloggers. In these markets, I’ve discovered that everyone is looking for the same prospect as you are. That blogger who is coming to your blog to post a comment is, most times, doing it because he/she expects you to return the “favor.” Any time you fail to return the favor that is the end of that traffic! (#1 Commandment of Blogging: Thou shall commit to post comments on my and I'll do the same on your blog if not if not, count me out!)

Recommended For Further Reading: Hey Blogger, Please Quit!

This is also the case in the make money online niche.

getting target website traffic

This is why I am always wary of traffic generation tactics that advise you to use keyword phrases that are related to your business to build connections on social media sites like twitter, Google plus etc. Matter of fact is, most of those whom you connect with on the social media sites using those keywords are nothing but other marketers who are looking to create customers for their own businesses.

Just think about it, how many times have you connected with someone on twitter or LinkedIn only to be sent a link promoting some product or service similar to what you are marketing?

I’m sure you get my point here, right?

Now, I'm not advocating that you stop blog commenting or networking with other marketers on social media sites. You definitely can build relationships that will be of benefit to you later on from such connections. But never you regard such as your perfect prospects.

The point here is, 99% of the time, your perfect prospect is not using the same keyword phrase you have in mind! The secret in targeting your perfect prospect is in thinking like your target prospect and using the same lingo they are using!

And that brings us to…

4.    What Are They Using To Look For What You Are Offering?

As mentioned in point #3, your perfect prospect is not looking for you with what you think they are using. Again this is where about 80% of the keyword research guides out there are misleading you.

Indeed, keyword tools like the free Google adwords tool are very good when you are looking for your perfect prospect. But unfortunately, most of the results you get from the Google Adword tool, for example, are what some other marketers are using to do keyword research.

These are not looking to buy but to sell!

Over 80% of marketers doing keyword research use Google every month.  When you use the Google adwords tool for your research, all of these figures are returned. They may look good but in reality, they are not what you want.

This is why the Google adword tool is faulty for keyword research.

To know what your perfect prospect is using when they are searching for your offerings, it is better to use ecommerce sites like eBay, Amazon and Clickbank.com. The good thing is that there are plugins and keyword tools that will help you determine what people are using to find such sites or in searching within such sites.

Recommended: Small Business Blog Marketing Failures And How To Overcome Them!

Conclusion

Whether you are paying for your traffic or using free methods to drive traffic to your business sites or blogs what you should look out for is your “visitor value.” This will help you determine where and what to spend your money and time on.

Indeed, some traffic generation techniques pay over a longer time than others. Go for such techniques rather than the ones that happen only once. This is the simple reason I am a big advocate search engine optimization.

No traffic beats organic traffic any day any time.

This is one aspect internet marketing you must commit to learn as a blogger or content marketing professional. And as a web entrepreneur if, by any means, you lack in-house resources to effectively create SEO optimized web content for your sites and business blogs, you should get the services of an experienced SEO web content writer to help you write some. This way you will be able to position your sites and blogs to drive the right kind of traffic over time.

Ditch the idea that any traffic is good traffic. That is a recipe for failure. Many businesses who took that route have failed woefully. If you have too much of the wrong kind of traffic you will end up as another statistic in the dotcom trash can. But you cannot fail because you have too much qualified traffic!

Over to you: What is your idea of targeted traffic? Can you give an insight into your experiences in driving traffic using similar sites? Share with us in your comments.

Photo credit: Flickr.com

11 Comments
  1. Hi Chadrick,

    Super breakdown here, 1 I can relate with. One of my cash gifting blogs received upwards of 2600 visitors a day a few months ago. Great. Unfortunately, few of these folks opted in to my website, and fewer converted. I received a massive ego boost but not much else.

    Using SEO combined with social media networking is the quickest way to drive a targeted number of folks to your blog or squeeze page. I cannot stress how important it is to be social. Robert Kiyosaki notes how rich people build networks and everybody else looks for work. How true.

    People who gain wealth simply surround themselves with massive networks of friends who help them gain wealth, by introducing them to prospering opportunities, promoting their work and expanding their presence.

    You gain friends by being a friend. Promote people aggressively. Post comments like…um…this one 😉 Make a major league impact on everyone you meet each day and you cannot help but to build a massive, responsive network of friends around you.

    This will help your SEO quickly as your social shares blast through the roof.

    Thanks Chadrick,

    Ryan

    • @Ryan Biddulph,

      You have made this real clear enough. I’ve always wondered what is going on when a spike of traffic and yet nothing is happening in terms of ROI. Of course, money is not the only thing but like I said, if we are in business then every relationship should be handled in that light.

      I quite agree that social media traffic is one that any business should aim for especially in these days. I also did a post sometime ago on how to combine SEO and social media sites for traffic generation.

      Thanks for the comment.

  2. Hi Chadrack,
    Same as myself, the main thing I’m always aiming for is traffic, this is the most important thing that will determine your blogging success.

    My own definition of targeted traffic is also same as the definition you gave here. Since i started blogging, one of the most popular traffic generating advice i always get is Visit similar blogs and comment, be the first to comment also.

    Yes, i’m a big fan of blog commenting but i do my own on a different reason….. Building relationship with the blogger.

    Think of it, just like you said, those other bloggers coming to your blog are also looking for traffic and if you just focus on that type of traffic alone then, you will not make a dime with your blog.

    This is the main reason why Internet marketing and blogging niche blogs are not doing so well with Adsense, this is because those people visiting you are also bloggers who are already very familiar with adsense and therefore, will never click.

    I think we have to start seeing the truth my man.

    Thanks for sharing.

    BTW: Seems like your comment luv is not working.

    • @Theodore Nwangene,

      This really a good analysis of the situation. I personally also believe in the idea of building relationships with other bloggers. But like I mentioned in the post, business relationships goes beyond social connections, You must understand that business networking is not a new thing. It has been an age long concept. But one thing that is sure is that such relationships is aimed at more business.

      I advise such relationships but you need the skills to turn those relationships into your own good. In fact, from the beginning you need a plan to make the best use of those relationships.

      BTW. Yea, I noticed that for sometime now. It was a result of a plugin. I have taken care of it.

  3. Chadrack,
    I love this quote “TRAFFIC on its own does not guarantee riches” Looking for traffic in the right source will bring riches.
    Many look for traffic in sources that are not related to their products, which leads to high bounce rates and just waste of time. No one is perfect, the only thing we can do is to keep learning
    I agree with all your points.
    Thanks for sharing Bro.

    • @Oluwaseun Babajide,

      I agree with you, no one is perfect! We’re all learning in one way or the other. What we must not forget in our learning is that there is so much advice online. It is our responsibility to choose what to work with. Thanks for the comment.

      • @Chadrack, I agree with you too.. Too many stuffs online. New bloggers have to be careful what they read and who they trust. Most of these people write about what they have no experience on..

  4. @Boca Raton,

    It’s a pleasure that the post resonate with you. Thanks for stopping by.

  5. Thanks for these tips, clearly I’ve been wrong all the time by focusing only of traffic!

  6. I am a freelance writer turned blogger. I have written on a wide variety of topics in the past and continue to do so on my own blog as well.
    Which is why I have a multi-niche blog. It is more like a magazine for avid readers.
    I am beginning to get almost 2000 organic visitors a day now. I have not monetized it yet- though I will be publishing some reviews in the coming days.
    Does a multi niche blog mean that I might never ever be able to get success with affiliate marketing (because the readers who came searching for an article related to technology might not want to read about fashion and so on) inspite of producing stellar content and putting in lots of dedicated effort?

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