by Gwendolyn Irwin
Anyone with an ecommerce site is looking for ways to get more Internet traffic. This is something that has been a problem since these types of sites first started up, and they continue to look for new ways to draw people to their sites. Some don’t even have to sell anything to make money, but the best money is indeed in selling something. Some of these sites don’t sell products, but they do have ad space that is affected by how many people come and view those ads, and sometimes a resulting sale, through a link, also means money for them.
To treat a “big” subject in the intensely summarized fashion demanded by an evening’s traffic of the stage when the evening, freely clipped at each end, is reduced to two hours and a half, is a feat of which the difficulty looms large.
—Henry James (1843–1916)
One way to get good Internet traffic is to advertise all over the Internet. Some do this with banner ads. Pop up ads used to be the preferred method, but now that so many have pop up blockers on their computers, these are just not as affective as they use to be. Some people are so annoyed with pop ups that they refuse to visit a site that uses them for advertisement. I would imagine that if someone is really interested in what they see, this type of advertisement would indeed generate some Internet traffic, but there are better ways to go about it that might bring in much larger numbers.
Besides straight forward advertising, one of the most popular and affective ways to get Internet traffic to a site is by being sure that the site will rank high on a search engine like Google. There are many search engines online, but this is the one that seems to have the most users. However, others have pull too, so a good site will find ways to rank high on each one so that they can pull in Internet traffic. Most do this by making sure they have content that is read and recognized by the search engines, and that also has good keyword density.
It was like being quite alone on the roof of the world. I felt that if I were to go to the edge and look over ... I would see below all that I had ever known; all the crowded cities and seas covered with ships, and the clamor of harbors and traffic of rivers, and farmlands being worked, and herds of cattle driven in dust across interminable plains. All the clamor and clatter, confusion of voices, tumults, and conflicts, must still be going on, down there—over the edge, and below—but here there was only the sky, and a stillness made audible by the brittle grass. Emptiness was so perfect all around me that I felt a part of it, empty myself ...
—Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968)
If you find that you are not getting the Internet traffic that you think you should be getting, you may want to turn to someone who specializes in building and maintaining sites online for help. They know the tricks of the trade, and they can tell you why your Internet traffic might be low, and what you can do to improve it. Also remember that it often takes time for new sites to take off, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t see great numbers right off the bat. Give it a some time before you start to worry.