SEO What is your main way of getting traffic to your site?

[Cedric]

Every forum needs a steady flow of traffic to thrive, but how do you make that happen? Are you relying on good ol’ SEO, social media promotions, paid ads, or something else entirely? Maybe you've got a unique strategy that sets your forum apart?

 

[Cpvr]

I currently rely on SEO and social media to drive traffic to my forum. In addition to that, I receive traffic from a few other websites on Neocities, as well as a couple of forums. Right now, there’s about 6-10 Neocities sites are directly linking to my forum.


Generally, I get around 10-30 visits per day from social media, while search engines send me about 80-200 visits daily. I focus on diversifying my traffic sources to maintain a steady and consistent flow of visitors.



For promotion, I actively use Threads, Reddit, Quora, Bluesky, and Twitter. If it’s possible, I’ll try my best to share my forum on any platform that allows it.

I also submit to my forum to online directories and other forums to get more visibility & to enable it to be seen by more users. I believe by adding it to directories and other forums its a great way to attract new users. I like adding my forum’s link to my signature as well.

 

[Senkusha]

I'm mostly relying on signature curiosity, but many of the forums and platforms I've been to really frown on self-promotion. So, I'm using simple and catchy text links, just optimistically hoping that somebody will bite. I'm not too versed in SEO and as an internet user myself, I think the last time I actually went looking for a Web Directory for a specific subject was like 1998

 

[1stop]

To retain and attract new traffic, community engagement is very important. When we create high quality and relevant content, it will make the community vibrant and active and that is one of the ways to encourage users to share your site with others.

 

[Cpvr]

To retain and attract new traffic, community engagement is very important. When we create high quality and relevant content, it will make the community vibrant and active and that is one of the ways to encourage users to share your site with others.

You’re right, community engagement is everything if you actually want to keep traffic and grow. But here’s the thing: just saying “create high quality and relevant content” sounds good on paper, but it doesn’t mean much if you’re not actually putting in the legwork behind it.



It’s not just about content , it’s about connection. You’ve got to be out there starting real conversations, listening to what your community actually wants, and building around that. If you’re just posting for the sake of activity, people are gonna see right through it. Engagement doesn’t come from just being active, it comes from being intentional.



The community vibe and energy? That’s what makes people stick. It’s when members feel like their posts matter, like they’re part of something that’s actually moving. That’s what gets them to share your forum. Not because you asked them to, but because they want to.


So yeah, content is important. But without culture, without actual engagement backing it up? It’s just noise.



What kind of stuff have you seen spark the best conversations in your space lately?

 

[Ravenfreak]

Recently I subtly dropped a link to one of the articles I've written on Thee Zone about my favorite cartoon and it's ending. Someone brought up a thread on the subreddit and I actually did get a few upvotes so people most likely visited my site. I know the OP mentioned that they would take a look at it whenever they got the chance, so I've used Reddit to help get some traffic to that site. I've used Reddit in the past for Gex Forums as well and it helped. Though I don't recommend spamming links of course, I've taken the advice I've read from one of the threads @Cpvr posted but I can't remember which one it was lol. Also post exchanges have been helping too.