Why isn't anyone visiting my site?
You've stayed up countless hours into the night, working away at your website. You've finally added the finishing touches and have opened it to the public! You can see it now! Hordes of people will come to your site and bow down at your feet and worship you, oh master of Awesome Websites! You sit back and wait; and wait; and wait some more. It's okay, you tell yourself, it's only been a day or two. But those days drag on, and you can't help but wonder why anyone isn't visiting your website!
Here are some helpful tips and suggestions that will, hopefully, attract more visitors. Best of luck to you all!
First Impressions
First impressions are very important. The first thing somebody will almost always notice about your website is the layout. If your layout is cluttered and unorganized, or has an obnoxious color scheme, it can turn visitors away before they even read one word. These things come off as tacky, immature, and even lazy. Who wants to read a blog or look at content on a site that blinds them and you can't even find anything? Keep it organized. If you're not sure, simple is usually the way to go. Another thing that often keeps visitors away is layouts with celebrities in them. First off, these images are almost 99.9999% of the time copyrighted and you just stole that image. If you stole that image for your layout, what makes them think you won't steal from their website?
Comment on Other Blogs
The World Wide Web is a huge huge place. There are millions of websites! How is anyone supposed to find yours if you don't promote it? I can't stress enough how important commenting on other people's blogs and websites is. When you comment on someone else's blog, the chances are high that they will comment back. That's one more visitor! If you keep it up, you may become affiliates, and even friends.
Always Return Comments
You may have a couple of visitors already commenting on your blog--that's great! But always return comments. It's not only polite, but it will keep them coming back. If they're commenting, it shows that they are interested in your blog, or like your content, or want to talk to you. So reply to them and get to know each other! You can make a new friend and you won't come off as rude or snobby. You don't have to reply that exact instant, but in a timely manner. We all understand that life can be hectic and busy.
Join Contests
If you have mad skills creating icons or layouts or other graphics, join a contest! This will put your website out there for others to see, and it will show off your work. Who knows, you could even win! Think of all the visitors that would attract!
Content
Now, depending on what your site is, content can and can not be important. If your site serves solely as a blog, you may not need any content at all, but if you are a graphics/tutorial site, content is key. If you don't have quality graphics or more than one tutorial, your visitors will be bored and won't be very impressed. Originality is also an important factor. If you're making graphics that look pretty similar to about five other sites, you're not impressing anyone. Now, quality is more important than quantity, but you still need a decent amount of content.
Be Consistent and Update
Some sites update once a day, others once a week. Whatever suits you is fine, but try to stick with it! If you're going on a hiatus and disappearing for a month, visitors won't stick around. What's the point of coming if they know that nothing new is going to be on your site? Try to be fairly consistent. Everyone knows and understands life can get busy, so hiatuses can be fine, but try to be consistent and update!
Here are some helpful tips and suggestions that will, hopefully, attract more visitors. Best of luck to you all!
First Impressions
First impressions are very important. The first thing somebody will almost always notice about your website is the layout. If your layout is cluttered and unorganized, or has an obnoxious color scheme, it can turn visitors away before they even read one word. These things come off as tacky, immature, and even lazy. Who wants to read a blog or look at content on a site that blinds them and you can't even find anything? Keep it organized. If you're not sure, simple is usually the way to go. Another thing that often keeps visitors away is layouts with celebrities in them. First off, these images are almost 99.9999% of the time copyrighted and you just stole that image. If you stole that image for your layout, what makes them think you won't steal from their website?
Comment on Other Blogs
The World Wide Web is a huge huge place. There are millions of websites! How is anyone supposed to find yours if you don't promote it? I can't stress enough how important commenting on other people's blogs and websites is. When you comment on someone else's blog, the chances are high that they will comment back. That's one more visitor! If you keep it up, you may become affiliates, and even friends.
Always Return Comments
You may have a couple of visitors already commenting on your blog--that's great! But always return comments. It's not only polite, but it will keep them coming back. If they're commenting, it shows that they are interested in your blog, or like your content, or want to talk to you. So reply to them and get to know each other! You can make a new friend and you won't come off as rude or snobby. You don't have to reply that exact instant, but in a timely manner. We all understand that life can be hectic and busy.
Join Contests
If you have mad skills creating icons or layouts or other graphics, join a contest! This will put your website out there for others to see, and it will show off your work. Who knows, you could even win! Think of all the visitors that would attract!
Content
Now, depending on what your site is, content can and can not be important. If your site serves solely as a blog, you may not need any content at all, but if you are a graphics/tutorial site, content is key. If you don't have quality graphics or more than one tutorial, your visitors will be bored and won't be very impressed. Originality is also an important factor. If you're making graphics that look pretty similar to about five other sites, you're not impressing anyone. Now, quality is more important than quantity, but you still need a decent amount of content.
Be Consistent and Update
Some sites update once a day, others once a week. Whatever suits you is fine, but try to stick with it! If you're going on a hiatus and disappearing for a month, visitors won't stick around. What's the point of coming if they know that nothing new is going to be on your site? Try to be fairly consistent. Everyone knows and understands life can get busy, so hiatuses can be fine, but try to be consistent and update!