Website Traffic - the Keys to Online Financial Success

Every website owner knows that website traffic is the key to financial success. Whether you sell products or run affiliate ads, traffic to your website is the most important aspect of making money on the Internet. But before you can generate the traffic you need, like any business, you need a business plan that states your dreams and goals.

The Dream
This may sound a bit silly or unrealistic, but without "dreams" or goals, how do you expect to reach them? Write down your goals and dreams first, no matter how unreachable they may seem. Taking the steps to try to reach them will certainly put you ahead, so don't limit yourself. Write down your "dreams" in order of importance that of course is relevant to increasing your website traffic.

For example:
1. I want to make 10 million dollars or more a year from my website alone.
2. I want 100,000+ unique website visitors a day.
3. And so on...

Creating Good Content...and lots of it!
The more website content or web pages you have will increase your websites search engine saturation. The more web pages you have indexed my the major search engines, the more opportunities for your website to be found in search results. Always create content that is relevant to your website's subject matter. Most traffic comes from Google, and Google loves "organic" pages. They should be readable in the real world, and the best way to do this is to "write like you speak". I suggest creating the organic content for your website first, then begin "tweaking" it using the next step before you upload the web pages into your server. For information on creating Title and Meta Tags for your website which is equally as important, but this tutorial will focus more on getting your website traffic, and less on the aspects of "on-page search engine optimization".Do the Research
There are many tools and resources online that can help you with "tweaking" your website's content, but only the best that I have found will be mentioned. So what do I mean by research? You need to find the keywords that people "actually" search for to find websites with your subject matter or niche. Since Google is where most search traffic comes from, I find their tools are the best. Use Google Suggest and Google Adwords Keyword Tool to find keyword suggestions for your website. Google suggest works by typing words into the search box, and as you type, suggestions come up. Write down any relevant combinations you try show find. This tool also show the number of search results for that keyword or phrase. The less the result pages, the easier it is to rank higher. So I recommend finding several with low search results as well as some highly competitive keywords. The Google Adwords Keyword tool allows you to type in a word and find many search keywords and phrases related to that word. Once these terms are collected, reread over your content and replace and/or change words occasionally with the keywords that fit. Just make sure it is readable because your website visitors should always come first.

Get Indexed
The old way of submitting your website to search engines isn't very efficient, so submit and forget. The best two ways to get your site indexed is one, submitting a sitemap XML file to Google using Google Webmaster Tools. The second way which includes all major search engines is to join forums related to your website's niche. You can create a "Profile Signature" from the user control panel that has your website address (URL). If the forum is indexed by search engines, they will follow your website URL in your posts when they update their index. Be sure to contribute to forums and don't spam. Keep your URL out of posts except for your signature. Besides, contributing will generate website traffic from your signature link from forum users in your post.

Reach Out and Socialize
There are many other ways to get traffic besides search engines (Google being tops). Deciding what to do next may depend on your website's niche. If you write articles well, add them as part of your content and submit them sites that allow you to submit articles, like Digg. The other options out there are the all to famous social networks like FaceBook and MySpace Although these social networks can generate a lot of traffic, your website's niche can be a factor. They do not provide targeted traffic, so if your website sells toasters, it's unlikely you will get visitors that will buy. Yes, they may eat toast, but most of the users still live with their parents...who already own one. "All kidding a side", if your site sells iPhones for example, then this is your target audience.

So to sum up...because you have a lot of work to do, there are many ways to increase your website traffic. The traffic generating ideas mentioned here do work, they just take time and we all know that nothing great comes easy. So be patient, diligent, experiment and the website traffic will increase. Good luck!