Growing A Website

So, you just started a new website, and you want it to grow. How do you increase traffic and exposure. How do you increase the ranking on the various search engines like Google and Bing?
Well, some developers would say that the best approach is to flood the Internet with expressions of the site. For example, create a Facebook page and Twitter account for the site. You might also make sure you submit the site to the search engines. But, in building websites for over 20-25 years, I've noticed that along with those other suggestions, one of the best ways to increase a website's profile is with incoming links. This will require that other websites post a link from their site to your site. In the old days, there were entire networks of link sharing. Link sharing sites are still out there, but I'm not certain how effective they are anymore.

FIGHTING SPAM

Another issue to consider as you grow a website is false positives. This is where you see an uptick in traffic but in reality it is just spam; bogus hits from various spammers trying to syphon off some of your traffic. Russian IPs seem to be the most troublesome spammers. Take a look at Spamhaus for more information about how to fight spammers.

CONSISTENT PRESENCE

One way to ensure traffic to a website is with a consistent presence. The website site address should remain constant. Don't constantly change website addresses. Don't keep changing sub link addresses either. Don't delete sub links without redirection. Don't constantly change the structure, format or even cosmetic looks of the site. This means you should take some time testing the structure and look of the site before you go public. While you might like to rearrange the furniture from time to time, users prefer you keep things familiar. Think about how frustrated people become everytime Facebook rolls out a new policy or structure change.

MOBILE SITE

With the ever increasing use of mobile devices, a website that does not operate well on a mobile device is simply wasting time. There are a few mobile emulators out there that allow you to see what your site might look like on various devices. I like http://www.mobilephoneemulator.com but even here it is always best to try your site on actual mobile devices. Friends and family are used to me bugging them to see what sites look like on their phones.

CROSS BROWSER CONSIDERATION

Nothing is worse in website development than finding out all the hard work you put in to designing the site and yet it fails to render how you expected on various browsers. It might look great in Firefox and Chrome but look like poop in Internet Explorer. This is because the different browsers use different coding or engines to run them, and thus often render HTML, CSS, and other code differently. So make sure you check out what your web page and its sub pages look like in various browsers. The best way is just to actually navigate your site with different browsers, but you can also try sites like http://browsershots.org.

CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT

I saved the best for last because we often remember the last thing before the first things. Perhaps the number one thing to do to help increase traffic to a website is to have content. If your website doesn't have much content, it won't make much of a footprint in the worldwide web. You need to have various kinds of content, such as text, audio, video, images/pictures. Interactive content is also very important. People like to do something when they go to websites. If a website is nothing but an electronic newspaper, it will not retain or generate visitors. An interesting example of an interactive, dynamic website is Panda Express menu/meal builder for gourmet Chinese food. This website allows you to choose items to build your meal, and as you do, it shows the nutritional information of each item and totals the information from all selected items. You are doing something at the site, not just looking at pictures and prices.

I hope this little advice post has helped you at least think about things when developing a website. Now why not take a break and get lunch ;-)