The Art of getting Website traffic

As the relevance of the web is increasing, so is corresponding desire to get maximum traffic. One can not forget the change in market dynamics where most of the information is available as free. Then in such a situation, how would a webmaster source its revenue to sustain the site? With the advent of sudden emphasis on cost cutting all around and the emergence of Google as the revenue model to sustain the site has changed the way a site functions as business model.
At one time there was a sudden emergence of breed of “get rich quick professionals” who would promise to get you many cross links, dummy pages, with kits and tools to befool a search engine spider to get you higher ranking; immediately followed by equal zeal by search engines to protect sanctity of its results and eliminate misleading tactics of web masters.
The strategies to gain traffic which were valid a few years ago may not hold good today. The only universally agreed principle that still holds good so far is the relevance of unique and richness of content.

If you are a webmaster, presently in the stage of building traffic, stop using shortcuts and I would recommend the following of these steps to get maximum traffic.
1. Appropriate Keywords: This is probably the single most important aspect to be taken care of. There are many tools available on the net to research on keywords. Inventory tool by yahoo can provide you good idea about the keyword searches made on yahoo. Unfortunately only about 20 percent of the searches are made on yahoo and Google where maximum searches are made provides no such data of searches made through it.
2. Domain Name: Getting a name that immediately stands for your business name or nature of your business. Though, now a days, it may not be so easy to get the desired name but you can be innovative or use various name spinner tools. Do not get a non-relevant name in a hurry or you are almost sure to see soon a new site with a similar theme but a better name. To the extent possible avoid a long name or name with dashes.
3. Host the domain immediately: After selection of domain name, make selection of keywords and hosting your first priority. Quite often getting the site made is rather a long drawn job, but be sure to write a small write up about you, your business the services it offers. To the extent possible, try to make it rich by appropriate keywords. This would help your site getting indexed faster.
4. Content: In fact this is first and foremost recommendation. Try not to disappoint your visitor. Make sure he gets all the relevant and unique content. Keep updating the content periodically.
5. Design: Keep the design simple. Avoid use of flash, frames or whistling frames that annoy the visitor. Keep the navigation simple and if your site has many pages, try to include site map too.
6. Fast loading site: Host your site on a good hosting provider server that loads the site quickly. Make sure that the images are optimized for web hosting that do not make loading of the page slower. Slow loading site may make you lose the customer before he is able to assess your site. There are many tools on the net and some on this site too, to help you check the load time of your site. Make use of them; they are free to use.
7. Optimized Site: Make the site easy to read and navigate. Avoid use of PDF files. Make your site with appropriate keyword density. Keep the global navigation bar at a prominent corner of your site and make sure that navigation bar is simple and represents concise layout of your site. Make sure that no page of your site should exceed 1000 words or so unless absolutely necessary. If so, you can think of splitting the article.
8. Headers: Try to present the information with proper use of headers, teaser paragraph and rest of the body. Make sure to avoid large paragraphs that may make reading a dull and dry affair.
9. Avoid Shady Tricks: Avoid shady techniques to attract business: Typically known as “Black hat Techniques” such as keyword stuffing, door way pages, invisible text, large exchange of reciprocal links exchanged with sites that are not relevant to your theme would not do any good to your site. Avoid them.
10. Submission to Search Engines: Make sure to submit to various search engines. Many on line tools can help you submit to these engines. Additionally do not forget to submit to manual directories as Dmoz.org or other directories in the same field.
11. Blog: Make a blog on your site that allows user interactivity to express their views or to seek further help / clarification on the subject.
12. Get Links from other reputed sites: This may not be so easy now days as most sites with higher ranking tend to sell the links. The best way to get the links could be making site rich with content or by submitting articles to various directories and blogs. Avoid reciprocal linking or linking with non relevant sites.
13. Study the site statistics: Do study them. Personally I find Awstats very useful and simple but of course there are many good programs and these are generally provided free by hosting provider as a package. These stats would give you good idea about what your visitors are looking for, the average time spent, the entry and exit page of your site, search query they typed in and search engine used by them.
14. Pay per Click Ad Program: You may not require ad program later on to get traffic, but initially during the growth period of the site, it may be a good idea to use one pay per click ad program.
15. Stay tuned with time: One favorite thing of past as link exchange or link farming is most hated thing of the day. Stay abreast with latest trends and SEO techniques and keep adapting with latest in the industry. On a lighter side, keep visiting this site regularly.
16. Press Releases: Definitely a very good step to issue press release. Make sure that release is unique for each site and release is well drafted and exhaustive that lsh and updatucidly explains to visitors about your site.
And once again at the cost of repetition that keep content fresh and updated.