Online PR Site Makeover |20+ Ways to Attract Traffic

Does your website need refreshing?

Are you attracting all the traffic you want?

Does your intent match your results?

Every website needs a review now and then. In this article by Barbara Rozgonyi, you’ll discover 20 tactics you can use to revitalize your website.

Originally published in October 2007, this post suggests 20 ways to attract more targeted traffic by refreshing your site. I wrote it while I was updating my company’s site. Now that I’m considering consolidating this blog with that site, I’m rethinking what I wrote. What would you add? Do you agree with these suggestions?

Online PR Web Blog Redesign Checklist

1. Study your current results to find out where visitors come from and how they find you

2. Weed out pages that don’t draw traffic – why list them if they don’t work

3. Slim down to the basics of who, what, when, where and why and answer all of the important questions right away

4. Write for your reader, not yourself, to draw them in and warm them up

5. Print out the pages, then highlight all the references to we and us and circle all the references from the customer’s perspective that say you [Hint: you want mostly all circles and very few highlights]. Talk more about “you” than “we” or “us.”

6. Add an opt-in form to gather customer data with a box for name and email address and then communicate on a consistent

7. Set up each page to be a mini-site that promotes one thing and one thing only, but integrates seamlessly within the whole

8. Page titles: pick up on keywords and title every page differently; think of the title as a browser headline

9. File names: separate words with an underscore when you save and be sure to list every keyword or phrase that’s relevant to your reader

10. Navigation: be consistent with links to every major page in the site from the central navigation bar

11. Review: ask clients, friends and colleagues for their feedback from a variety of browsers – what looks good on Internet Explorer may be mushed on Mozilla

12. Audio/Video: consider recording either audio or video to upload onto your home page so that your prospects can get to know you right away

13. Testimonials: add comments from customers about their experience with you – let them tell your story – video and audio testimonials are the best

14. Ecommerce: position credit card and approved logos where the reader can find them easily to let them know they can make a secure purchase and not worry about credit card fraud

15. Privacy: link to your privacy policy to assure your readers that you value their privacy and will not share their customer information with anyone, ever

16. Photo: place a professional photo on your site to show your prospects that there is a real person who cares about doing business with them

17. Bio: write a personal bio that talks about how you serve your customers and include a few personal notes to give it personality

18. Contact: set up a contact form to give prospects a way to reach you without calling

19. Phone Number: listing your phone number, in addition to or in place of email, gives customers and prospects confidence that they can contact your right away if they need to

20. Redirect: buy URLs that relate to each mini-site within your main site and then redirect the domain to that site to brand the page and identify the service or product in more depth for your prospects and customers

21. and beyond . . . thanks for adding your suggestions in the comment box