In a recent blog post, I asked if you get too much traffic from Google. My point was that if you rely too much on one source of traffic, you are at the mercy of that one source. A change in the algorithm or anything that drops you in the rankings can wipe out 30%, 40% or more of your web traffic, perhaps overnight.
So what can you do? Diversify. Get visitors coming to your site from many different sources. You can do this by getting lots of incoming links and by using social media effectively. When I checked the stats for several of my sites, here are some of the places I found my visitors are coming from–how many of these do you use?
Content on other sites: I make guest posts on other blogs, and submit articles to article directories and non-competing sites in my niche. Each piece of content includes a link to my site. This is good for increasing search engine rankings, as well as bringing people to my site through the links.
Links from other sites, just because they like me: There are many sites that link to me because they like my site or they want to send people to a specific resource or article. The link may be from their blogroll, or a resource list. Although this is harder to control (it usually just happens) you can ask to be included in an appropriate directory or resource list.
Social media and bookmarking: I have profiles on several social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, and I am actively involved in those communities. I may Twitter a link to a new blog post, or others may do so, sending people to read what I have written. Or people may come to my site to learn more about me before friending or following me. You can automate sending new blog posts to all of your social media profiles, so that new content shows up as soon as you post it. That is an easy way to get more readers (and commenters) to your blog.
StumbleUpon users give thumbs-up or thumbs-down to pages they visit. When you get even a few “stumbles” it can mean more traffic to your site as your page will then be recommended to other StumbleUpon users. StumbleUpon is not a major source of traffic for me, but it is for many sites.
There are also sites where stories can be submitted and voted on by other users. Digg is perhaps the most famous, but there are many others. I like Small Business Brief for business stories, and I get a surge of traffic when one of my stories is elevated to the home page. Tip: Do not submit only your own pages to social media and bookmarking sites. Submit content you find that will be useful to others, and occasionally submit something from your own sites.
Directories: Although submitting to a lot of directories is not necessarily a good use of your time, I find that I get some traffic from DMOZ.org as well as from several blog directories. With just a little preparation, you can submit your site to multiple directories in just an hour or two.
Publicity: I still get visitors from a couple of television stories I did a few years ago. The TV stations put the stories on their websites, with links to my site, and I see at least a trickle of traffic from them. (They referred many more visitors when the stories were fresh.) When you get publicity, ask the reporter if the story will be on their website, and if they will link to you.
Join the conversation: Make comments on other blogs in your niche, post to forums, and answer questions on sites such as Yahoo! Answers. Give good information, and people will want more.
