How Do I Increase Web Traffic?

Introduction
As our regular readers may recall last week was an extraordinary week for us here at Cape Cod Branding – a week of many firsts. To name a few it marked the highest number of visitors to our blog – CCB Buzz, the highest amount of web traffic in a given day, and above all the first time we hit over 1,000 in a single day, and over the course of the week we maintained over 1,000 visitors a day for the whole week. Although this week has really just begun, it has been phenomenal. First, we reached over 2,600 visitors in a single day. To top it all off we reached a total number of 10,000 visitors to CCB Buzz, all within 21 days of launching the site!

A former classmate from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Carey Business School had contacted me and asked how we ramped up so quickly. Since there was interest on his part, I thought others might be interested as well so I am providing the top three items that we here at Cape Cod Branding believe attributed to this. My plan is to touch briefly on each of these points for today’s discussion and then follow up at a later time and discuss each in greater detail.

Driving Web Traffic
When we launched CCB Buzz in early December I recall our traffic was in the single digits for about the first week. After a short time we ramped up quickly, double digits, and then triple. In my mind I had a goal of attempting to drive towards doubling web traffic every day. Initially this equated to something as simple as increasing web traffic from two hits to four hits, which of course does not sound very exciting and was the equivalent of watching paint dry. However over time as the numbers grew, so did our excitement.

That being said I thought about the top three things that got us to where we are today and they are the following:

1. Partnering – Two are better than one.
2. Content – Offer value to your readership.
3. Frequency – Post often.

Please keep in mind the following when reading this article and reviewing the accompanying WordPress screen captures:

1. The three items identified in this article are in addition to the Five Keys to Success that I identified in my previous articles titled the The Five Keys to Success Parts I and II and serve as a foundation for the more blog specific topical items of partnering, content, and frequency
2. The CCB Buzz blog was launched on 12/1/08
3. The screen captures were taken at approximately 1:30 PM EST on 12/23/08

Above all, keep in mind that there is not one set method of generating traffic – this is simply our view on the world. My thought is that there is a certain magic that takes place based on a convergence of factors; for me it was a mixture of partnering, content, and frequency but for you it may be different. Experiment a bit – try an approach, monitor the results, and then adjust if needed. Stick with it and enjoy yourself.

For today I just wanted to introduce the topic and identify the three items which I believe were instrumental to our success in such a short time. After the Christmas holiday I will delve deeper in each area providing a separate blog article for partnering, content, and frequency respectively.  In the meantime, Amy will be providing a feature of our first client at Cape Cod Branding which will be similar in scope to the first feature from Amy on Why We Started Our Business Cape Cod Branding.

Partnering, content, and frequency have been the formula to our success!

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding