What is the most effective method for traffic generation?

I bet this is a question not just I seem to be forever behind but anyone else who wants to have a successful online business as well. Everything seem to succeed and fail with traffic and therefore traffic generation.

There are several methods to increase or gain traffic to your site but what is the long-lasting traffic which allows you to enjoy the freedom of this business? Because – if you stop (for a while) interacting with your users in social media because you are on holiday – who will then drive traffic to your website? Is there a way to generate “passive traffic”?

The good answer is – YES, there are ways to gain and generate passive traffic to your website. The problem is – it´s not easily done in an hour of work and you’ll be able to profit from it forever. But if you do it consistently it is not that much work. It will take time though.

As I said in another article - don’t put all your eggs into ONE basket or Google might hit you with their next update. But for additional traffic optimizing your website for the search engines (like Google – not just Google) is a great idea. It won’t cost you much time if you do it with each and every article you write but in the long-run the results are just amazing.

Here is the proof that SEO is traffic generation worth your time:

*NOTE: the images look small but if you click on them a new tab opens and you can view them in large size*

Have a look at the Digidesignresort traffic in November, 2010 – I know, it´s a shame after working hard for over 2 years but it seems I did something wrong. I did not count on optimization – I “just” interacted with the users in several forums, posted our products and pictures everywhere but I did not optimize the site for the search engines.

Now have a look at the traffic just two months later – amazing, isn´t it?

Ok, so here is my “secret” – actually it is not a secret or I would lie to you – traffic generation is work like in each and every business and not a magic button you need to search and find to push and make millions. I optimized my blog posts.

You might have expected something GREAT – I´m sorry, it was just that simple. In December 2010 I generated an advent calendar – one tutorial per day scheduled on the WordPress blog from December 1st to 24th, every day a video was posted and sent to the users to learn more about Photoshop Elements and digital scrapbooking.

So what happened was that on the one hand I increased the content on my blog enormously with posting a new article every day. On the other hand I optimized these posts with the help of a little WordPress plugin called SEOPressor to increase search engine traffic.

Here are the results again from the search engines – still, I like to show you the increase over an amount of 10 months as SEO will just help you in the long run.

November 2010 – without search engine optimization:

January 2011 – with optimized posts and SEO on these posts:

… and August 2011 – because of summer of course less traffic but in fact an increase of traffic from the search engines

So the magic tool is SEOPressor?

I’d say no – but it´s a big help. SEOPressor shows me at a glance what I need to do to optimize my post. It shows me how good it is – in % and what else I need to do to increase my post further. It is just a big help and for sure an aid to memory. You can do it without the tool but it is much easier and obviously more effective to do with it.

Another thing you need to consider. Usually such an increase of traffic won’t arise from just one way to generate traffic. At this timeframe my mum started working for the site – she did a lot of backlinking (you can see the amount of referring sites also increased). And again the warning – SEO is just one way but shouldn’t be your only way for traffic generation.

If you are looking for a big help for traffic generation check out the plugin here.