The blogging phenomenon perfectly integrates into the second generation of web services known as Web 2.0 simply because this is the most convenient platform for all Internet updates. What is there for bloggers with Web 2.0? First of all, the whole aim of the new web-technology is to facilitate the collaboration and sharing of information between users, and secondly to increase the usage rate, i.e. visitors to your Internet site. So the next legitimate question that arises here touches on the best ways to attract traffic and a blog is a source of highly dynamic content for which the search engines have a large appetite.
Enter Social Media sites in great abundance, a significant component of the Web 2.0 presence. Of course the market leader is facebook, but there are many others, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and the list goes on. Gaining a presence on any of these sites is beneficial to a blog, but don’t think that it is possible to interact to the required level on all of them. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day, a better strategy is to simply post to the vast majority, ideally using submission software, and then to select one or two sites that fit with your subject and where you will find like minded people. These are the sites where you should seek to establish relationships and build trust with your Internet friends. It will need a little experimentation to find the social media sites that are your best fit, but worth that effort in order to establish a presence on that site and interact in a way that you can actually enjoy it.
First and foremost, we need to say here that with blogs, web information is no longer centralized in terms of authority, and also that the freedom to use and re-use material is limitless. From a certain point of view blogs become the real market, in which content is the transaction environment, in other words your view, perspective and opinion on a subject is what gives it a unique quality. Hence, Web 2.0 traffic tactics mainly gravitate around the optimization of blog articles for advanced search on the search engines, i.e. a significant proportion of traffic comes from search engines finding and valuing your content. Though it may be very tempting, don’t aim too high from the very beginning, it is almost impossible to get large numbers of visitors at the early stages of blogging.
The key to getting good traffic is perseverance and service quality. Content has to be re-freshed every week, if not more often, and in order to make that an easier task, it is often enough to change some of the content, even if you don’t replace it all i.e. by updating, rewording or adding information to an existing post .
With the large number of applications available with Web 2.0, you should also place a Google search box directly on the site, so that any user will find it easier to perform a search directly from your blog page. What’s in it for you? You make the user spend more time on the site and, consequently, you increase the chances of him or her returning to the blog in the future.
People are now more interested in blogs that have RSS feeds; so it is a good idea to let Internet users know that the facility exists as simply and easily as you can! Initially, graphics were the best means to indicate the presence of an RSS feed; the great advantage now is that you can adjust the colors used for this to the theme or topic specific to the blog itself. The system has been evolved to provide an easy to use way for accessing the RSS link, now all you have to do is insert the text and the color scheme and then a graphic pattern is generated automatically. Another recent alternative is to use a plugin or widget, depending on blog type, that places a RSS symbol in the address box of the browser. WordPress is particularly well suited to adding these types of features, with many options being made available through a huge support network of developers.
I use Feedburner for my RSS feeds and like that I can track my stats with them. Never thought about adding a Google search box to my blog – good info.
I do post fairly regularly but I have a few formats and different blogs running, you may also be interested in Moulin Website Designs
I use Google search on all my blogs and websites, just provides your visitors with another option if they can’t find what they are looking for on your sites and can help keep them on the site a little longer so they may just spot what they are looking for.
Aside from perseverance and service quality, i’d like to add that content is also the key to increase site traffic. From readers standpoint, they visit your site depending on your content. If they find it valuable and useful, more likely than not they will visit your site over and over again. They might even post your site into their Facbook’s wall and invite friends to check your blog thus increasing your site traffic. Thanks!
Hi Chris, content has always ultimately been king with respect to getting traffic. It doesn’t matter what tricks and techniques you use to get people to your site in the first instance, when they arrive they will only stay if they find what they arrived for and if it is presented in an interesting and communicative way. In other words never fail to deliver on the promise, whatever it is, products, services or simply information.