5 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Yola Website

Congratulations on your new website! You’ve opened yourself up to online audiences around the world. So how do you make sure the right ones find you and keep coming back?

This post gives you an introduction to five effective strategies.

#1 – Get Social!
Extend your web presence by setting yourself up on major social media sites.
Remember always to link back to your website!

Seven key sites to join are:

1. Facebook – Create a personal Facebook profile, with privacy set to “public,” or set up a business page.
2. Twitter – Set up a personal account and a business account, open to anyone and everyone.
3. Pinterest – Start a personal Pinterest page and one for your business.
4. Linkedin – Complete a personal profile and a connected page for your business.
5. Google+ – Set up a personal page or business page. Make your stream public.
6. Foursquare – Set up a personal account and create a business page.
7. Flickr – Set up a personal account or log in using an existing Yahoo or Google account.

There are also loads of niche social networks out there, like the ones listed in this article.

TIPS
– Yola Silver and Gold users can publish their website to their Facebook page.
– Yola Online Store users can sell through their Facebook business page.

#2 – Create Content
Keep your Yola website well stocked with fresh, relevant content. You’ll give visitors a reason to keep coming back and to share links to your site. You’ll also raise the rankings of your site on search – Google and other engines give higher points for content freshness, focus and volume.

Yola gives you tools to help keep your audience tuned in and coming back, like audience alerts using Social Sharing, Facebook sync with automatic updates, and the Tumblr Widget in Sitebuilder.

So start stirring up excitement and traffic by adding new content, and link back to it from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social places!

TIP
– Add the Yola Share Me widget to enable users to share your content by simply clicking “Tweet,” “Like” or “+1.”

#3 – Be an Active Online Participant
Stay active in the online social circuit. Connect to, follow and interact with people, groups and organizations in online venues such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs and forums. Play nicely with others and build up your online reputation, avoiding overt selling or spamming.

And whatever you do, remember to include a link back to your website. It will direct interested readers to you and help with your search results.

TIP
– In your email signature, include your website URL and invite people to connect with you on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

#4 – Mind Your Marketing
Online and brick-and-mortar outreach and marketing will help drive traffic to your Yola site. Explore tried-and-true methods such as web advertising, email marketing, printed promotional materials, search engine optimization, business directory listings, and contests and giveaways.

Yola helps you market your site results with:

• Traffic Builder, an SEO tool that comes with the Yola Gold package
• Automatic search-engine submission of your sitemap to major engines
• Advertising credits for Google and Facebook
• Integrated email-marketing tools, Constant Contact and Mad Mimi

 TIP
– Whenever you create online content, finish with something like: “If you liked this, please link to it or send it to a friend.” Maybe it’ll go viral!

#5 – Flex Your Expertise
If you use your Yola site for business, there are a variety of ways to attract visitors interested in your area of focus. Options include writing for an industry publication or blog, participating in specialized business communities, and offering your expertise to journalists and peers.

And, as always, include your website address with your signature!

Want to Learn More about the 5 Strategies?
Bookmark this page and check back for links to the next five posts in the series. Each will focus on one strategy, providing practical tips and helpful information.