How Would You Like Your Blog Traffic – Rare or Well Done?

Guest Blogger Week continues Remarkablogger with Patricia Mayo of ComHacker and Nowsourcing.

photo by Andrzej Pobiedzinski

Traffic strategies are like a good steak. You can set up your blog to sizzle for a couple days and get those rare traffic spikes, or you can let it simmer on low for a while and go for visitors that like a more thoroughly cooked flavor.

Every restaurant you go to will offer both – and if you want to please your future customers, you should too.

The Quick Sizzle

Social media has the potential to draw in traffic spikes that will crash your server. If handled properly, you can turn these visitors into readers for a chance to convert them into customers.

My point is not to teach you how to snag the attention of social media. Many bloggers have already done a great job covering the topic of setting StumbleUpon on fire, while Maki at DoshDosh has an entire category on social media marketing, and Skellie has all kinds of tips for getting noticed.

Instead, I’m going to show you how to tailor these campaigns so they draw in buying customers – in just a moment.

Simmer For a While

Search engine optimization through your blog content brings in long term traffic – or as bloggers call it, “the long tail.” It takes good keywords with dense popularity in your content, and backlinks with uniform and optimized anchor text in order to get noticed in search engines.

That means having long blog posts – which doesn’t exactly translate into the type of content that snags social media. So how do you get the best of both worlds and buying customers?

Only The Finest Ingredients

You know what keywords draw in buying customers instead of just window shoppers – use them! Stick to the same set of keywords throughout your blog, or rotate a set of 4 or 5 keywords for a couple weeks at a time.

For social media, think outside the box for a moment and figure out something on the topics of your buying keywords and cook up a few specialty dishes for this type of visitor.

Note that I said “a few” – not every blog post is going to front page on Digg. Don’t expect it, and don’t put all your eggs in one basket!

Dessert, Anyone?

Make the portions small but delicious so they want more. Going for the long tail and that quick social media sizzle will help you have a balanced menu ready so you can attract and keep buying customers.

Last but most certainly not least – the last page most of your new visitors will see before they go is your About page. Make sure this not only makes a great impression, but helps them come back into your site and blog with a call to action or a tantalizing trail of chocolates leading them back inside.

Visit Patricia’s blog for more great tips on how to get results from your efforts online. Patricia is also a Social Media Strategist with NowSourcing and freelancer specializing in search engine optimized web copy that sells, short form ad copy that gets clicks, and search engine ad campaign research and optimization.