Organic Traffic Ideas from Eldervantage, LLC

How do you get traffic to your website without paying for it?

Offline strategy

You should be using your existing customer relationships and customer infrastructure to gain more traffic to your website. Is your website on your business card? Is your website on your checks? Your invoices? Your website should be listed on every form of communication possible. This may seem basic and you may doubt the value, but it will bring more results than you realize.

Do you spend a small fortune advertising in the yellow pages?

Stop! This is an absolute waste of money. That same money goes farther on the web, which is where consumers are finding products and service providers. Generation X and Y barely know a phonebook exists. Your consumers – seniors, still use the phonebook. Increasingly, however, they are also looking online. Moreover, it is often a caregiver that finds you.

Are you a member of a social networking site? Social Networking is now, and will increasingly be in the future, a huge part of the Internet landscape. People, online or off, gather in groups and associate with individuals who share common interests. Social networking sites will soon exist for nearly every conceivable niche. Try LinkedIn or MySpace Groups for business contacts and watch for social networking for seniors as it becomes more prevalent. One site early to the party is Eons, started by the founder of Monster Online.

Be helpful!

There are folks all over the web who have questions and need information. It is how Google has made billions. But virtual human contact is what information gatherers crave, not just search engine results. There are a host of places and a host of ways you can be of service, which, in turn, will be of service to you.

Yahoo Answers
Askville
Message Boards like AARP
Edit Directories like DMOZ

But it is important not to go to a website with the sole purpose of giving your sales pitch. That’s not what folks want to hear. They want their questions answered. Once you add value to their lives, then you may be able to get their ear for your offering that, based on their question(s), would benefit them.

Write Articles

This is also an SEO technique, as an article containing a link to your website, found on another website, is good for your search engine rankings. Here is something not many others will tell you – being a member of a small niche is not enough. Your content must be truly original, with an element of an idea not yet heard, or at least not heard in the way you present it. Society now values standards, norms, and standing less than ever. Society follows the best, most original ideas. This is true whether you split the atom or invent a new way to do paperwork that shaves 12 seconds off the process.

To sum it up in three words: Be Relevant Online. There may be a learning curve, but it is worth it.