It is no secret that web traffic is the pinnacle of website promotion; without a steady flow of visitors to your page or blog, the reason for creating content seems a bit moot. There are literally thousands of tips available out there that suggest specifically how you should go about attracting new visitors, but not all tips are created equally. Some may lead to negative SEO rankings for you, while others may simply not work. We have put together five of the best tips you can utilize to increase page visibility and drive new traffic to any site.

Update With Useful Content

This may sound like a no-brainer to you, but I cannot count the number of times a webmaster has wondered why there is no traffic coming to their site – only to find that the amount of content available on the site is quite pathetic. You will not be on anyone’s radar if your content is copied from other websites or if you only have a few articles posted. Modern sharing mechanisms on the web allow for content to spread virally – if you have something in which there is interest, chances are that it will be seen sooner or later. By making sure you have loads of fresh and unique content, you will begin to see the number of people visiting your site increase.

Use Pinging Services

Particularly useful when your site is still relatively small, using pinging services can get your updates indexed by search engines quickly. Why should this matter? Generally, search engine spiders crawl the internet looking for updates. The more established your site is, the more often a search engine spider will “stop by”. For sites just getting started, you can use pinging tools to initiate those updates manually instead of waiting for the spiders to revisit your page. You must be careful not to ping articles or your website too much, though; doing it any more than once per page or article per day may lead to downgrades in search engine algorithms for your site.

Social Networking

As briefly mentioned prior, there are sharing mechanisms that allow you to spread the word about your site to people all around the world. You will want to make sure that there are social sharing buttons for sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg and others on your site; if a certain visitor likes your page and wishes to share it, then all of their friends will be able to see it as well. This is one of the best ways to expand your site’s profile – it is also never a bad idea to have your own social networking profiles for your site.

Keyword Usage

Just as important in driving traffic is the proper usage of keywords in your pages and posts. You will want to establish the proper keyword density and research which keywords are best for you to use; using just any keywords will not do. It should be obvious that any keywords used must pertain to the topic material of the website, or else you can risk having your site penalized by Google and others.

Advertise in Small Doses

Including your website address in your email signature, setting up a targeted ad campaign on Facebook and posting on forums related to your subject are all great ways to get the word out about your site. These impressions may not seem like much but they certainly will add up over time.