Trendy website promoting strategies. Do they really pay-off?

written by K. Lewis, www.ewomanweb.com

I admit, I frequent many of the SEO / website building / web info. forums that are out there. Many of them tout the same thing when it comes to promoting a website / link building/ obtaining more sales. In general, the question asked is "how can I get more links" or "how can I increase my traffic". The popular responses are "write articles and submit to blah, blah, blah", "submit to social bookmark sites such as...", "ask for links to your site from other complimentary sites", " post comments on blogs", "include your site in your signature file of forums", and "submit to directories".

I did a little experiment with one of my newer sites. I tried out these techniques, refraining from spamming, to see how much traffic I would get over a few months. Well, the results didn't really surprise me, but perhaps some of those who ask the general link related questions will get a better understanding as to why some popular tactics are not the best tactics.

1) I wrote a couple articles and submitted to a few of the big article 'clearinghouses'. While I thought my articles were well written, and of a popular topic, only two other sites (that I am aware of), included my article within their site. In the past four months, these two sites referred two visitors to my site. I did receive a backlink from one of these sites, however. Not a very well ranking backlink, IMO. Probably won't mean anything down the road.

2) I played around a bit with the social bookmarking concept. I participated in one of those "stumble my site and I'll do yours" trends that are so popular on (that forum that thinks linking is the be-all-end-all to site promotion). The result: I received a few new social bookmark friends, a few reviews of my site (identical reviews at that), and about 50 new visitors to my site - over two weeks time. Since then, my traffic has gone back down to where it was before I did this. No backlinks received from this practice.

3) I asked a few complimentary sites to include my link. I could almost hear them laugh, as my site "does not have enough PR to be of value". What the...! These sites are more interested in what I could do for them rather than the value of my content for their visitors.

4) I like to post a comment on blogs in which I have an interest. Meaningful, useful comments. I do this to provide additional info., not in the hopes to receive a backlink. Anyway, I did post on a few do-follow blogs (or so they claimed), but I did not get a lick of traffic.

5) There are a few forums in which I participate, and provide useful knowledge to my peers, that allow signatures to include links to websites. I have only received a few referred visitors in the past 4 months.

6) I submitted my site to several directories, Yahoo, and DMOZ included. While the big ones are slow to respond, I do not have any data to report. The smaller free directories do not supply any traffic (as I suspected), but I do have a few backlinks. Not much value in these backlinks either, IMO.

So, the moral of my story: I wasted a lot of time for little - and I do mean little - results. I am going to continue with the good old fashioned & time-tested methods of providing quality content for my visitors. Additionally, I have made certain the site is optimized for functionality and usability.

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