The 3 Reasons Your Traffic Is Struggling
Somewhere along the way, most of us get to the point where our site just isn’t having the success that we want it to have. I’ve been there myself, and I talk to others all the time who are right in the middle of it.
There are three big things that could be holding you back.
Your Content is Forgettable
Is your site unique and/or better than other sites in the same niche? If not, you’ll always be swimming upstream — trying to get people to visit your site when there’s really no reason for them to. It’s a loser’s game (unless you’re just a really strong swimmer with a stubborn streak).
Get a few people who are familiar with your niche to give you an honest opinion. If your content just isn’t as good as it needs to be, either fix that or do something else that you can be great at.
You’re Ugly on the Outside
Ok, your content is great. Now what? Your site has to look good too. The Craigslists of the world aside, you’re crippling yourself unnecessarily if your site isn’t easy on the eyes and easy to use. Most people won’t hang around to see your inner beauty — your outer appearance has to match or they’ll just click away. Good design can have a stunning ROI.
You’re the Great Unknown
If you’re creating great content — and looking good doing it — then your problem is that no one knows about you. It’s time to start working hard on generating traffic to your website. If you’ve truly taken care of the first two things, it shouldn’t take long to get that snowball rolling.
Be careful, though: Lots of people think they have a great site that looks good, but they’re fooling themselves. Compare Campus Squeeze with College Humor or Cracked.com, for instance. Think they’re all equally good? Sucker explains why they’re not.
Spend some time getting some honest opinions from your target audience to verify that you’re on the right track — or to discover what you need to do to get there.
Peter Davies
August 6, 2009
at 5:31 am
Some good points in your post there.
I would add to the list – position yourself next to someone who is getting large amounts of traffic.
I believe that if you do the right things, provide quality, have a good site then you also need to position yourself by associating with people who are succesful so you will gain credibility in your marketplace.
Richard Darby
August 8, 2009
at 1:17 pm
The great catch 22 the unknown trying to get traffic….im trying all of the standard routes at the moment , articles,blog commenting ( go figure) so i hope to get floods of traffic soon!
Watch out Shane my blogs on its way !!
seriously though this is a great read and a blog i will benchmark
best regards
richard
Matthew Robert Payne
December 20, 2009
at 3:21 pm
I am just getting my site professionally done to look good. Your article agrees with this
Tom Lindstrom
February 19, 2010
at 6:45 am
Solid post! It feels like how the blog/website looks is a lot more important than the content itself.I realized this when I redesigned my blog (purchased a WordPress premium theme) and removed most of the ads.The traffic has gone up a lot after I did the changes. When it comes to getting more traffic, doing trackbacks is really effective.
The Secret to Building a Website Worth $1M » Ask Shane.org
July 28, 2010
at 4:11 pm
[...] do you need to work on? Check out The 3 Reasons Your Traffic Is Struggling and Are You Sure You Have a Great Website?) TAGS: Rick Latona « Hyperlocal Social Media [...]
Peter
July 29, 2010
at 1:04 pm
The other reason: you have a million other things to do, and zero time to spend on your website. Hey Shane, how’s it going? I was steadily building up traffic for a while, but had to focus on other things, so now it’s plateaued a bit. It’s just lack of new content. Once I get past a few major lifetime events, I have all confidence that I’ll be back to creating fun content, and the traffic will flow. Cheers!
Shane
July 29, 2010
at 1:06 pm
Ha! Yep! I know all about that one