The Field of Dreams Web Site Myth

“Build it and they will come.” Cast your mind back to 1989, to the days when Kevin Costner was a stone hottie, and the whispered mantra of Field of Dreams comes drifting back. “Build it and they will come.” True for a fictional baseball diamond, soon to be populated by a ghost team, not so true for your brand new or newly redesigned web site.

So how do you get people to visit your site? And what do you need to do to start ranking in Google? Here are a few tips:

Add new relevant content as often as possible. A blog is a great way to accomplish this. And Google loves blogs, though only if they’re updated fairly regularly. Don’t think you can launch your blog, write three or four posts, and sit back and let it pull in the traffic. It can be a lot of work to keep up on your blog posting, but if you’re looking for web traffic and better Goggle rankings, there are few better ways to get it.

If you’ve added a blog, claim your blog on Technorati. It’s free. Also check out the article “20 Essential Blog Directories to Submit Your Blog To”.

Increase your exposure by commenting on other people’s blogs. Do a Google search or visit technorati.com to find relevant blogs. The more traffic the blog gets, the better.

Submit your site to free directories. Do a Google search for “free directory submission”. Also search for free directories in your profession. A word of caution: Google will penalize you for linking to sites that use shady techniques, like link farms, or (most times) sites that sell links. Reciprocal linking (where you link to someone in return for their link to you) is also depreciated in Google and not worth your time. Install the free Google Toolbar and take notice of Google’s assigned Page Rank for the directory sites you visit. Submit your link to sites with a good page rank (3 or higher, or if your site is already established, higher than the rank your site currently has).

Search for competitors sites. Find out who is linking to them (search in Google for link:www.yourcompetitorsitename.com). Try to get links there yourself.

Create profiles for yourself on other sites and link to your web site. Linked In is great for this, just be sure your profile is public. Many people also swear by YouTube (if you have relevant video to post), Facebook and MySpace.

Find out a little bit about search engine optimization. It’s worth your time. The best site I’ve seen for this is The 15 minute SEO list. It’s clear, easy to understand, and incredibly helpful.

Have faith — if you work at it, people will come to your new site. It takes time and effort on your part, but site traffic begets traffic, and your efforts will pay off.