Traffic Generation Strategies

Introduction

• Sherman from Life Marketing shares strategies to generate traffic to websites.
• Notable successes:
  • 180,000 monthly visitors to his main website.
  • 5,000 monthly visitors to a separate business, Life Accounting.
  • Website ranked in the top 15,000 globally by Alexa.
• Focus on both organic and paid traffic methods.

Major Traffic Channels

• According to Google Analytics, major traffic sources include:
  • Social Media
  • Referral Sites
  • Paid Search
  • Organic Search
  • Email Marketing
  • Display Ads
  • Direct Traffic

1. Social Media

• Paid Advertising: Fastest way to drive traffic.
  • Example: Facebook ads led to 365 clicks, resulting in 152 sales ($15,000 revenue).
  • YouTube ads initially used for visibility; reduced over time as organic growth occurred.
• Importance of creating valuable content:
  • Engaging content can lead to organic growth and higher ROI.
• Recommended to focus on two platforms for effectiveness:
  • Major platforms: Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter.

2. Referral Sites

• Definition: Sites that refer visitors to your website.
• Sources of referral traffic:
  • Business Directories: Ensure presence on relevant directories (e.g., Yelp for restaurants).
  • Public Forums: Engage in discussions on sites like Quora, Reddit, and Yahoo Answers.
  • Guest Posting: Contribute articles to popular blogs, include links back to your site.

3. Organic Search

• Definition: Free traffic from search engines.
• Strategies:
  • Write SEO-friendly blogs to rank for high-volume keywords.
  • Use Google Search Central to learn best practices for SEO.
  • Signals to Google: backlinks, time on site, bounce rates, click-through rates.
• Time Frame: Achieving top rankings can take 6-12 months.

4. Paid Search

• Definition: Ads run on search engines to gain traffic.
• Example: Google Ads can provide quick visibility.
  • Average cost per click varies by keyword competitiveness.
• Recommendation: Get certified in Google Ads to avoid wasting money.

5. Display Ads

• Definition: Traffic generated from ads displayed on other websites.
• Good for remarketing to website visitors (e.g., targeting users who viewed pricing pages).

6. Email Marketing

• Cost-Effectiveness: Generates high ROI compared to low email tool costs.
• Use tools like MailChimp or ActiveCampaign for newsletters and automated campaigns.

7. Direct Traffic

• Definition: Visitors arriving at the website by typing the URL directly into the browser.
• Indicators of brand awareness and effectiveness of marketing strategies.
  • Example: Life Marketing receiving 22,000 direct hits per month.

Conclusion

• Summary of traffic generation methods reviewed.
• Encouragement for audience feedback in the comments.