Sharing Your Content To Increase Traffic on Your Website or Blog

In my post, “How to Get Even More Traffic to Your Website”, I talked about different tactics you can use to increase the traffic on your website or blog.

One of the strategies I mentioned in that post was listing links to your original content on other websites. Here’s what I said:

No matter what the subject, there are many targeted communities online. Many of them have a spot where you can share content and this is where you should share links back to your site.

For instance, my target audience is the small-to-medium business community. There are many sites that serve this community and every time I write a post, I make sure to add the link to the appropriate spots on these sites.

I went on to add:

In addition to online communities, social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are excellent places to share your content and drive more traffic to your site.

In this post, I’m going to dive into detail on this strategy. Why? Because this approach is the primary way that I drive traffic to my site and I want to share it with you.

Using this strategy increases the impact of every piece of content you create and greatly improves the effectiveness of your inbound marketing efforts.

So, without further ado, here’s how I share my content to increase the traffic on my website.

How I Share My Content to Increase Traffic on My Website

As I mentioned above there are two steps to implementing this strategy:

1. Sharing links to your content on other sites and communities, and
2. Sharing links to your content on social media sites.

Before we take a closer look at these steps, I want to mention two key points that you need to keep in mind when sharing your content on other sites and via social media:

What’s in it for Me?

Whenever possible, don’t just post a link to your content – make sure to include some text that details the benefits to be gained by following the link. This approach will increase the number of clicks your links receive because folks get the message that this content will be useful to them.

As an added benefit, while posting your links can be seen as being promotional, if you accentuate the benefits gained by reading your content, it’s more likely that you’ll be rightly perceived as playing a helpful role by supporting your potential and existing customers (and that’s a primary goal of inbound marketing).

Don’t Be a Spammer

When posting links on other sites and communities, remember that you need to be relevant. Do not post links to content that has nothing to do with that community or audience.

That’s called SPAM (just like email) and, aside from the fact that doing this can lead to you being banned from certain sites and social media networks, it’s the quickest way to ruin your online reputation.

Step 1: Sharing Links to Your Content on Other Sites and Communities

The key benefit to sharing links to your content on relevant sites and communities is that you are able to target a very specific audience.

Sharing with a targeted group increases the chance that your messages will be read and your links will be clicked, thus increasing the traffic to your website.

Of course, to be able to use this approach, you need to find appropriate sites and communities where you can post your content.

For example, my target audience is the small-to-medium business community. There are many sites that serve this community and every time I write a post, I make sure to add the link to the appropriate spots on these sites. A few examples are:

• Business Exchange
• BizSugar
• LinkedIn Groups

To find sites and communities that serve your target audience you should hit the search engines. Search for the types of keywords that you use when writing the content on your own site and you will find the sites and communities for which you are looking.

A couple of other places to look for potential spots to post links to your content are BlogRank and Alltop. Both sites display the sites in many, many subject areas, many of which have spots for community discussions and contributions.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when implementing this step of the content sharing strategy:

1. Make sure to learn and follow the content sharing rules on each and every one of the sites on which you share your content. Many sites have specific areas for folks to share their content and some even limit the number of links you can post over a certain time period. Ignoring those rules can get you banned.
2. Don’t post links to your content multiple times. This can be perceived as spamming. Post your links in each appropriate spot on a site one time and leave it at that.
3. Post your content in relevant spots. Again, you can be perceived as a spammer if you post content that is not relevant. Just because a site targets your audience, the content you post on some days may be more relevant to one part of your audience than the other. Be thoughtful and provide value in the spots where it will mean the most.
1. For example, if you create content about writing and one of your pieces is about writing children’s books, feel free to post your link on community sites that target writers, but make sure to post in the spot set aside for authors who write children’s books.

Step 2: Sharing Links to Your Content On Social Media Sites

The key benefit to sharing links to your content on social media sites is that you are targeting an audience that is already interested in what you have to say.

Sharing with an already-engaged audience increases the chance that your messages will be read and your links will be clicked, thus increasing the traffic to your website.

When I add a new post to my blog, I use the process below to spread the word via social media. In order to illustrate this in detail, I’ve included the exact link sharing text I used for my September 9, 2011 post, “Matt About Friday: The “How To Design an App for Your Business” Edition”.

1. I post the link to the Matt About Business Facebook page along with some text explaining the benefits gained by reading the content. Example text:
1. Wondering how to design an app for your business? This tool from Bizness Apps is the one we’ve all been waiting for!
1. Note the italic text. This means that I “tagged” this company within my update. Tagging is a great way to expand the reach of your Facebook updates because when I tag another page, my update also appears on their page (if they choose to show it).
2. I schedule 3 tweets (using HootSuite) spread throughout the day. This way, if a follower misses it one time, they have more than one chance to learn about the post. Example tweets:
1. Use this tool to design an app for your business – no coding skills needed: http://ow.ly/6pVvm #smallbiz #smallbusiness #mobilemarketing
2. Wondering how to design an app for your business? This is the tool you’ve been waiting for: http://ow.ly/6pVX4 #smallbiz #smallbusiness
3. Want to build an app for your business? Learn how: http://ow.ly/6pWhg #smallbiz #smallbusiness #mobilemarketing @AppSumo
1. In these example tweets, note the text that starts with a # sign. These are called “hashtags” and it’s a common way for people to search on Twitter. Since many folks follow certain hashtags, using them assures that I show up in these targeted Twitter streams.
2. Also, note the text starting with the @ sign – this allows me to mention specific users to either catch their attention or to give them credit for the content. These tweets show up as “mentions” for that user.
3. I post the link to targeted LinkedIn groups along with some text explaining the benefits gained by reading the content. Example text:
1. Wondering how to design an app for your business? This post reveals the tool we’ve all been waiting for!
1. As I mentioned above, I use LinkedIn because that’s where my target audience (small-to-medium sized businesses) hangs out.

One Final Word…

As I also stated at the end of my “How to Get Even More Traffic to Your Website”, you need to remember this important point:

In the end, increasing the traffic to your website is only the first step in achieving your goals online. Once you figure out how to get site traffic, you need to learn how to convert that traffic into paying customers. Conversion is where the rubber hits the road and all your hard work pays off.

Weekly Link Roundup

Each week, I collect the 10 best posts that I’ve read and share them with you here.

These posts focus on small business solutions or resources online (or both!).

Enjoy!

How to Create a Powerful Call to Action: As I mentioned above, website traffic means nothing if you do not convert it into paying customers. Here are some solid tips on how to do just that.

4 Steps to Selling With Social Media: Another great post on how to convert social media traffic into paying customers.

Picking A Host for Your Small Business Website (Infographic): A bunch of useful information on the different types of hosting available for your website including the pros and cons of each.

Title Tags: The Ins, The Outs, The Hows, The Whys: Everything you wanted to know about title tags and how they can be used for search engine optimization (SEO).

Why Facebook Wants Your Business to Build an App: Having your own app on Facebook may be the best, and soon only, way to get found on that site.

50 Online Tools That Will Help You Boost Productivity and Earn More Money: I always enjoy online solutions and tools roundup posts – here’s a good one for you to explore.

New Study: How Online Marketing Drives Growth and Profitability in Professional Services Firms: A handy summary of the information gathered form a survey on the effectiveness of online marketing in driving lead generation and sales.

How to Get Started With Google+ Pages for Business: Yep – pages are now available for businesses on Google+. Get the 411 in this post.

Social media disaster recovery: A first responder’s guide: How to handle a social media screw-up before it blows up in your face.

5 Steps to Successful LinkedIn Advertising: There’s a lot of useful information out there about Facebook ads, but this is the first decent post I’ve seen showing how to use LinkedIn ads effectively.