Driving Traffic to New Website

[allaboutdaycare]

Hello,

I have a new website which serves as a directory for daycare centers. One of the features of the website is testimonials that parents can leave about the centers they use or have visited to assist other parents in making a right decision on where to send their children.


I am having trouble finding a way to drive traffic to the website. I have paid an email blasting online firm to send out 2 million emails targetting parents and offered a raffle to win an Ipod. Out of 2 million emails, only one thousand visitors came to the site and only 10 testimonials were left. Obviously the return on the investment and effort was not there.


Now I am trying to figure out what I did wrong and what other methods should I try to accomplish this task. Obviously my budget is very little and paying some firm to manage this for me is not affordable.


Kory

[site removed] Please add it to sig, can't add to body of the post

 

[StackCash]

Hey Kory,

That sounds like a great idea for a website. I'm still learning a lot about driving traffic as well. I would suggest reading threads in the SEO forum. There are a lot of good resources there in terms of building links to your site and ramping up traffic.

One thing I'm learning everyday is that everything takes time. Try to view link building and increases in traffic as a daily activity, rather than a set-it-and-forget-it type of deal.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

---------- Post added at 04:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:13 PM ----------

Oh...and most SEO link building strategies cost very little, if anything, as long as you can put some consistent time into making it work.

 

[Ungifted Marketer]

Getting visitors you need a plan of attack rather than a quick fix .. could i recommend maybe Shane Melaugh's backlink battleplan (i think its being updated to v2 at the moment u might need to register interest )

 

[JohnKC]

How much did you pay for the 2 million emails?

 

[lowriderSTi65]

Well, you can try some basic promoting of your website, like flyers. I did this with a website of mine and it worked...2000 visitors in its 6th day of 'life'.

 

[QuarktheCat]

Here's an idea out of left field.

If you make physical flyers like the prior post suggested, create and include a QR code for your website on it.

Google "QR codes" if you don't know what they are...

 

[jamesr84]

Hi Kory...

my advice is: Optimize you website for search engines, and the traffic will definitely come..
use an expert SEO and try not to use black hat SEO or any bad techniques..

SEO will increase PR of your website, increasing PR will increase the visibility of your website in the search engines..

sending emails is not the right choice - I believe -.. since your email will be treated as spam..

 

[alberto10]

I don't have any concrete ideas as I am struggling to get traffic as well. Thanks for posting this though, as the answers have helped me.

[url removed]

 

[Webcash]

From what you're saying this was not a successful campaign. May i know the price for this blast?

 

[Replacemyscreen.co.uk]

Nothing beats adwords (well for me)

 

[johnben1444]

Have you researched if there is the market for your kind of daycare on the internet. My connection is kind of slow due to heavy down pour destroying many equipments, i would have checked that out for you.

You can use "Google keyword tool" to know if there is market for your service.

Then pick a number of keywords that are low competition but generates not less than 2 ,500 global searches.

Next, optimize your site for it and start building back links.

Create a blog for your site if there isn't one now and start making useful post.

Use social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace to find people within your area/state and places likely to be interested in your offer and promote your site there. You will have to learn how to use this effectively too without violating their TOS.

If you have some money to throw around, you might want to try Pay Per Click service offered by Google, Yahoo, MSN and Facebook. You get real and instant visitor from this.

Offline ads can not be underestimated. I only wish, i reside in places like U.S just to actively participate in this and tell people that, the money is actually in the offline world more than they think it is on the internet.

Distribute flyers that contain link to your site within your area.

You can do more by paying local stores within your territory to include your flyers in their clients package.

Classified ads are great way to showcase your services. Find a good classified ad paper within your state.

There are also classified ads on the internet that you can try like Craiglist and inetgiant, they target state and towns in U.S, you will see result from this too if you know how to go by it.

There are many forms of way to promote and drive traffic to your site using the offline method. I even recommend this method for your kind of business, looks like its not going to be tool functional starting from the internet.

Hope this helps.

John
Nigeria

 

[FitGal]

Johnben is spot on with his advice. I would only differ in that I would include keywords with a lower search volume.

I would find keywords that have at least 1000 searches and are low competition. Then add articles to the site to optimize for them.

Since you are specifically looking to help people find centers, you will want to make sure your keyword choices reflect.

 

[Dan277]

Getting visitors you need a plan of attack rather than a quick fix .. could i recommend maybe Shane Melaugh's backlink battleplan (i think its being updated to v2 at the moment u might need to register interest )

Hi. Can you give me some more information on Melaugh's backlink battleplan please? I've had a look on their website and it doesn't make it clear how it works. Thanks

 

[Replacemyscreen.co.uk]

Hi. Can you give me some more information on Melaugh's backlink battleplan please? I've had a look on their website and it doesn't make it clear how it works. Thanks

If you go ahead with the service please leave a review because am interested in this too.

 

[artistictouchbhm]

I recommend starting a PPC at the start, while building your organic links. Afterwards you should be able to to get off of PPC and be listed through organic

 

[Networknow2012]

Try Traffic Swarm

 

[artistictouchbhm]

I wouldn't use software to drive traffic. Your asking for your website to be sandboxed at that point.

 

[Snide]

When i started my oldest site back in 2009 i used autosurf trafic on it to get it higher in ranks, but if you would use autosurf you wont have any ads on it since it could affect the ads negativly

 

[sharycea]

There are many ways to drive traffic to your website. I agree that you must implement a plan. Some very effective ways are link building, writing articles, posting to hub pages, social networking and more.

 

[JamesQ]

I agree with the majority of what has been said. Put together a plan of action that includes SEO, content, social media and email campaigns and you will achieve your targets if you are able to add value in everything you do.