SmallBusinessNewz

Over the last year or two, I've written a number of articles about different ways to get traffic to your website. Here is something of a compilation of these concepts. Obviously search engine optimization is an important component, but I'm going to leave that out here.

Facebook

Some sites have been known to get even more traffic from Facebook than they get from Google. I suggest setting up a Facebook page. Compete recently found that demographics of Facebook users strongly resemble demographics of Internet users in general. Essentially, that means that people of all kinds are using Facebook. You have potential customers on Facebook.

Twitter

For some sites, Twitter is their primary traffic source. Now that Google is including real-time search in their search results, Twitter itself is getting more traffic. For newsy Google queries, newsy tweets are getting a lot more exposure. Twitter also has a way of making content go viral (much like Facebook does, only on a much more open and public level). 

LinkedIn

I spoke with entrepreneur Lewis Howes this week about LinkedIn as a traffic source. A lot of people see different advantages to that network, but often don't consider it a significant traffic driver. For Howes, its in his top five. He talks about ways to build your LinkedIn strategy as a traffic-driving tool.

StumbleUpon

Last year, WebProNews talked to Brent Csutoras about how to drive traffic with stumbleUpon. He said StumbleUpon is capable of sending anywhere from thirty to two hundred thousand unique visitors over a period of a week. More on that here.

MapQuest

MapQuest has a new geo-search engine, and is making improvements to its business search functionality. "We also have nearly 1 million City Search listings that provide a wealth of information and has the ability to drive traffic to the business web site," a spokesperon recently told me. "Businesses can offer very helpful information including menus, coupons, and more on their CitySearch listing.  Businesses should contact CitySearch to become part of the information feed." More on that here.

QR Codes

Have you considered creating yourself a QR (quick response) code that people can scan with their mobile phones? Think about what Google is doing. It's handing out stickers to businesses to put on their windows with codes that go to Google Place Pages. There are also ways you can make your own codes that direct users to your site. Then you can put that code in print media, signage, business cards, etc.

Blogs

You can still get a significant amount of traffic from blogs. Alice.com proved this a while back. The catch is that you have to do something extraordinary that acquires the attention of bloggers. Find ways to get noticed.

Pictures

A while back, we looked at some data from Hitwise that showed some photo searching habits. Including photos and optimizing content that includes photos can pay off in traffic, particularly in cases where photos are in demand. For example, if you can get photos of an event or of a brand new product that you are selling.

These are only a few ways to get significant amounts of web traffic, but each one requires some effort on you part. You have to work for traffic, and there are plenty of tools available to you to do that. However, don't just expect to slap up a profile or a piece of content and expect the traffic to come pouring in. It doesn't usually work that way.