Creating Blog Traffic - Links, Blog Directories, and Search Engines

When I start a new blog, getting Google and other search engines to start sending visitors is high on my priority list. An enormous amount of blog traffic is driven by search engines. The fastest way to do this is to add links to sites that Google and the others regularly crawl. The alternative is just waiting -- often for months.

I immediately put a link from my company homepage, Demopoulos Associates, and a link from my "home" blog, The Ted Rap, to this blog. I also wanted people to be able to manually find my blog, and people visiting either of those might be interested in this blog. No sense in hiding your blog, but it's shocking how many people and organizations do! It's a common and silly mistake.

You can and should create a number of other links. This can be accomplished by adding your blog to "blog directories" -- it's fast, easy, and free. These added links will not only help the search engines find and index your blog, but will also raise your search engine popularity  (think "more traffic"). Every link is seen as a "vote of confidence." Much more on this when we talk about search engine optimization. Some people may also find your blog from blog directories, but from my experience this generates very few visitors.

You can find blog directories easily by searching on "blog directory" and similar, and probably waste an entire day registering with countless directories. There are a lot of blog directories, new ones started all the time, and old ones disappearing.

The following is a good list to register with - the search engines currently check these regularly. I registered this blog with them all (less than an hour of time required):

portal.eatonweb.com
blogexplosion.com (also a Blog Traffic Exchange I'll talk about in a later post)
blogwise.com
getblogs.com
blogarama.com
globeofblogs.com

It took Google 13 days to start sending Blogging For Business traffic. Just a trickle so far, but it's a start. I've had it happen within 3 days before, and I'm guessing that bloggingforbusinessbook.com being a brand new domain may have effected this.

Many bloggers and websites report that MOST of their traffic comes from search engines.I like to get them started regularly by taking the steps outlines above, instead of waiting several weeks or perhaps several months they might take otherwise to find your blog and start sending it traffic!

Comments

[Joerg Petermann]

I agree with you.
I'd like to write about your book for german readership. Can your send me an copy of the publisher?

[T Demop, Blogging for Business]

Hi Joerg,

The publisher is Kaplan, formerly Dearborn Trade Press (name changed 1 Jan 06). Available via Amazon and Barnes and Noble online now, or in USA bookstores in about 2 1/2 weeks. Now sure about the timeline for overseas.

I'd love a German review! Would love the book to be translated into German as well, and even Greek, my native tongue.