If you build it, they will come…..to your website.
By“If you build it, they will come.”
Unfortunately, these words are SO far from the truth. You cannot expect to put up a website these days and people will just magically show up.
One thing people may not realize is, a search engine goes through your website, cataloging valuable words, phrases and content. When someone searches for a term in Google, what is actually going on? Well, the person is saying, “Hey Google, what do you know about XYZ?”
Google, of course, knows very little about xyz, but he's been to LOTS of websites. Some of them, about XYZ. In fact, Google has cataloged all the sites it knows of about XYZ and when you ask about it, it tells about the ones it found. From the most valuable, to the least valuable. Google has it's own artbitrary way of determining value, but they are always striving to make sure it's fair and valuable. For instance, let's say you wanted to do a site about boats. Well, let's say you used only one word. Boats. Over and over again. This does not make you the most valuable authority on boats. It makes you a spammer! The content saturation of the page is such that there is nothing but boats. That cannot be valuable to anyone.
So, you should start to realize that a small amount of content does not a website make. You'll have to increase the amount of valuable information you have on the site.
Another thing to consider is to “narrow” your field. If your topic is too broad, you will run the risk of direct competition with businesses have have more longevity, more resources and brand recognition already set up to work against you. Ingraining yourself to a smaller audience can actually allow you to capture a larger market share than if you had tried to cover a broader topic. I always like to use “running” as a very broad topic, and “barefoot” or “minimalist” running as the niche.
This is a “nice start” but isn't going to have internet traffic bursting down your door. You have to get out and “drive traffic”. A website is a nice repository of information and a great sales counter and interface, but it is NOT the salesman in your workforce. You need to get your information out to where people are already talking about your topic. Is your topic barefoot running? At a minimum you need to get into a discussion with runners. All the better if you can find people already talking about BAREFOOT running.
Even if you get out there and let people know about your website, you still have to entice them to come. Either you are directly giving away information in your discussion that incites people to see what else you have to say, or you offer something of value they want. This is a tricky technique—essentially you are bribing people to come to your site. Make sure that it's an appropriate time and forum to offer someone something. Just popping into a discussion and and saying, “Hey guys! I'm giving away free marshmallow people at my site! ‘Kay thanks BYE!” is NOT the right way to make friends. You need to develop relationships in the community, contribute to discussions and then let people know that you have a wealth of resources back at your site. Typically, this is done either through a signature file in back-and-forth types of discussions, article or comment.
Don't neglect local connections! They can prove easier to reach than a national audience.
