Hits (Site Promotion)
About
Two words associated with how often one’s site is frequented are hits and visitors. If I visit one’s site, I am a visitor. If I click on 5 pages and refresh 3 times, I’ve just given the site 8 hits. A visitor is a unique impression while a hit is any impression to the site.
The number of hits and visitors can be useful in a number of ways. first, and perhaps foremost, it can help to gauge a site’s popularity. It can also show how well a site is advertised and how well tools like meta tags are used as well as how well the page is ranked on a search engine. Of course, the more visitors, the more rewarding it is to have and maintain a website and the better the chance for positive and constructive feedback.
Because these reasons, website owners are always looking to expand their reach, draw more visitors and keep their current visitors coming back. Webmasters may use any of the following means to promote their sites.
Search Engines
By using a meta data such as keywords and description on one’s site, search engine will pick it up easier when their bots surf the web and index content. Relevant and complete meta data will bring more relevant search results, thus more relevant visitors.
One’s site can be added to a search engine’s database manually as well. The links below go directly to the submission page
Yahoo, a popular website and portal is often considered a search engine when it is, in fact, a web directory. Directories will be discussed below.
Directories
Directories are link databases, usually divided into categories. There are paid directories and free directories. Personal site directories are almost always free and all a site owner needs to do to be listed is apply and place a link to the directory on his or her site. However, if one wanted to join a pay directory, one also has that option. Yahoo! is actually one of the larger link directories on the internet, so large, in fact, it appears to be a search engine but all the results are sites within the directory. Click here to add your site to Yahoo!
Link Exchange
Link exchange, often known as affiliation, swaps or sibling sites is the act of 2 parties agreeing to display a link to the other’s site on their own site. This increases the exposure for both sites. Generally webmasters do exchanges with sites of a similar nature as their own. Because site owners are promoting these sites, they may be picky about the sites they accept to do link exchanges or affiliation.
Exchanging links can help to improve search engine placement and, in effect, search engine results; although, link exchanges are generally not used solely for this purpose.
Member Services
There are several different types of online services which exist to unite personal (and their owners) and/or boost hits. These services are generally offered for free, by other personal site owners. The restrictions and requirements vary between each service; some are elite or semi-elite, accepting only sites of a certain quality, whereas others cater to specific types and styles of sites. However, generally one needs to be a member to reap the benefits of these services (such as having one’s link displayed) and, usually, one must link to the service.
Each type of service generally share many characteristics although most of the sites shares a few commonalities. Below is a brief list with descriptions of the different types of services which exist for personal sites
- Webring
- a chain of sites, generally related to a certain subject, which link to other sites in the ring.
- Clique
- a list of people or sites which have something in common (interests, beliefs, styles, names, physical appearance, history et cetera)
- Fan/Hate-listings
- a list of people who are fans of/hate a certain subject
- Button Rotations
- (also known as banner rotations or exchanges) a service which allows members ot display on their site a link to other sites in the rotation as well as a link to the rotation itself
- Comment Sites
- Blog owners can use these services to boost comment to their blogs; members are required to post at other blogs (usually certain blogs or a specified number of blogs) in return
- Top Site Lists
- lists of generally similar sites, the rank of which is base on votes in and out (and sometimes reviews and ratings) for individual sites
- Award Sites
- Site owners can apply or be nominated in different categories on award sites and will link to the award sites so visitors can place a vote for the personal site
Active Advertising
One way to gain hits is by actively advertising one’s site any and everywhere one may go. Forums, chat rooms, e-mails, IMs, networking sites so on and so forth are all open target for advertising. However, many sites will restrict how much and how often one can advertise to combat spam. Understandably, a forum may require one to be an active member before allowing one to plug one’s site. It’s a good idea to consider whether plugging one’s site will be appreciate before doing it and having to face the consequences.
Making an Appearance
One way to draw visitors to one’s site is to be visible on the web, especially in places where other with personal sites congregate. Forums, chat rooms and communities are not only places to have fun and make friends but to network with similar people and sites and to make oneself known. Often times, people will be more willing to visit someone’s site if that person’s personality makes a lasting impression – either good or bad – than if the person simply plugs his or her site.
Also, almost every site on the web which one can join with member profiles (communities, forums, networking sites et cetera) have a field to enter one’s site URL. Doing this once will allow visitors to see one’s URL when viewing one’s profile or, commonly, all of one’s forum posts, for the life of the profile in the future. One can accumulate many hits this way without realizing it because one is not actively advertising one’s site.
Make Connections
One of the easiest way to lure visitors to one’s site, it to visit their sites. Quite simply, schmoozing on the web is as effective as it is face to face. Making connections is part persistence and part lasting impression. One should make the rounds of personal sites and be sure to comment on blogs, in guestbooks, and on tagboards. Asking questions, e-mailing sites owners, reporting errors and participating in activities (not anonymous ones, obviously) are a good way to cement one’s name in the site owner’s mind and will make him or her more likely to visit one’s site and return the favour. Additionally, spending time on similar sites can be inspiring and give someone a more objective view of personal sites and what works and what doesn’t.
Retaining Visitors
Gaining new visitors is not the only goal when it comes to hits; one will also want to keep current visitors coming back. This means a constant effort to improve and maintain one’s site and also means taking advantage of all the advice given in this website primer because keeping visitors is not just one effort but an effort made in many areas of website ownership. However, there are some general guidelines to keep one’s visitors from straying:
Updates
Content should be changed when necessary. Some content will need to be updated more frequently than other content. A blog is a great way to let visitors into one’s mind but also a way to show visitors that the website is constantly being updated. For sites without blogs, a mailing lists or RSS feed can help to keep visitors updated and remind them of a site’s existance.
Layouts A stunning layout is likely to bring back visitors, especially if layouts change frequently but a pleasant layout which is also functional will please visitors who are more interested in site content.
Interaction Allowing a visitor to voice his or her opinion via comments and polls and letting visitors participate in contests and games will help your site to make a lasting impression and, hopefully, will draw visitors back for more.
Content Not only does content need to be updated, but it needs to exist. A personal website should, obviously, have content about yourself but providing content which interests visitors (such as things to do, read and download) will bring them back for more.
