My first steps on Route 66 and building traffic for your website

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For my birthday a few years ago I visited Chicago. A lot of my followers asked me why I decided to visit Chicago. Of all places. My simple answer was – why not? I’d never been to Chicago, and figured some deep dish pizza would be an appropriate way to celebrate my birthday. Why not. If air travel is free, why not see some city you’ve never been to?

Chicago is known for many things, but it’s also the start of the famous “Route 66”. There was a time when roads across America were ‘paved’ with dirt. Simple two lane paved roads would eventually follow and the famed Route 66 took folks on a hill strewn ride across the country.

As more and more Americans started to travel across the country, the demand on these roads increased. Today the road system across the United States continues to expand and grow – with additional traffic and demand being added to the infrastructure day after day.

When it comes to traffic building for your website you may find the process similar to the expansion of America’s road system. When it comes to traffic building on the Internet, you never start with a proverbial dirt road. It works the other way around. First, you build a highway and wait for traffic to catch up.

When you first start out, you may find that traffic to your website is slow. Initially, no one seems to be able to find their way from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ (your website), which can be discouraging at times, but persistence is key as typically traffic will build organically over time.

Building additional traffic to your website starts with solid Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies, which could be compared to building a roadmap to your site, to help people find their way. SEO strategies tell potential visitors where to exit the digital highway and enter the private domain of your site. A sitemap provides them with an easy to navigate map, which allows them to discover where they need to go on your page.

Online traffic is always heavy. Without some help in finding your location there will be a whole lot of potential customers that will pass you by, going as fast as they can and miss your carefully created website altogether. Today, there are online business owners that seem to believe traffic building for their business is about simply developing a website and turning on the welcome sign. It doesn’t work that way. The idea of “build it and they’ll come” expired a long time ago – you’ll need to put in some serious effort after you build it. If you do, they’ll come. Are you ready?

Traffic building for the web is all about building a road. Make that road so unavoidable that the buying public can’t miss it. Make the signs very clear, make the map (in this case the search engines) highlight your business address so you rank well amongst your competition. Last, but not least, do your potential clients a favour and make sure the final destination (your website) is worth visiting and spending time on.

Here’s your action plan:

Build a website – a few might accidentally find you.

Build a road – the masses may wonder what’s at the end.

P.S. Questions, comments, compliments? Join the conversation and text me: 604-210-8668. I’d love to hear from you.

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