MappingTheWeb //

Search engine optimization, natural linking, and trackbacks are good ways to drive free, qualified traffic. Visitors are usually genuinely interested in the content and may decide to add your blog to their RSS reader. This is great. But what if you want to drive even more traffic that may not be AS qualified, but has the potential to be interested in your content?

Huh? What does that mean? I’m talking about quantity rather quality. Obviously the aforementioned traffic streams will provide a consistent influx. But how do you drive extra, residual traffic?

After analyzing my web statistics on a regular basis, I’ve come to realize that MappingTheWeb drives a considerable amount of graphic via image searches. In other words, Google Image searches (most notably) provide visits.

Now although these visitors aren’t exactly qualified traffic, a small percentage will explore your content and find an interest in it. If bandwidth and hosting costs are not an issue, most blog owners would prefer as much traffic as possible - whether they become regular readers or not.

For this reason, I always tag my images very well. Providing a title and description in WordPress is quite easy. I do so for all uploaded images.

In most cases, I am uploading the logos of web 2.0 companies. These drive a fair amount of traffic, namely the YouTube logo. However, other graphics and pics squander some long-tail traffic, which adds up over time.

Therefore, a suggestion for blog owners who publish mostly text would be to add pictures, images, photos, and graphics. Describe them in detail. Check your incoming referrals and SEO stats. You should see some positive results.