Creating a site or community is one thing. Growing it is something else and won't happen overnight. What are some strategies you’ve used to bring in visitors and boost traffic?

 

Whether it’s SEO, social media, word of mouth, contests, or something else, what’s worked best for you? Do you have any tips or tricks that helped get people through the door and keep them engaged?

 

Let’s share ideas and help each other out—drop your thoughts below!

For one forum I had in 2009, I simply submitted it to some SEO site and days later I saw guest activity explode, I mean really. Also, creating a new skin that's easy for everyone's eyes helped this too.

 

My current forum once had a "minimal" theme which saw a quicker rate of guests becoming members but sadly it's gone now... but I hope to have something similar in the near future :)

For one forum I had in 2009, I simply submitted it to some SEO site and days later I saw guest activity explode, I mean really. Also, creating a new skin that's easy for everyone's eyes helped this too.

 

My current forum once had a "minimal" theme which saw a quicker rate of guests becoming members but sadly it's gone now... but I hope to have something similar in the near future :)

Unfortunately, many directories in the past made big promises but often delivered little in terms of results. Today, achieving a conversion rate above 1% is considered quite fortunate.

I think the best way to attract traffic is to post details about your forum/blog/website in the Forums

For one forum I had in 2009, I simply submitted it to some SEO site and days later I saw guest activity explode, I mean really. Also, creating a new skin that's easy for everyone's eyes helped this too.

 

My current forum once had a "minimal" theme which saw a quicker rate of guests becoming members but sadly it's gone now... but I hope to have something similar in the near future :)

What was the SEO site called? Was it a directory? In 2009, it was a great era, especially if you submitted a post on Digg or StumbleUpon and it went viral. This method could easily attract a bunch of backlinks to your website and boost your traffic.

I primarily depend on signature advertising. Seeing as my forum is a resource board for a specific type of forum software, I post like crazy on the official support board and I think my signature brings in a lot of visitors/members that are looking for resources since the forum software no longer has an official resource board.

 

I also post my forum in advertisement forums, where welcome.

 

The SEO for my site isn't the best, but according to the Google Search Console I sometimes receive clicks and a decent amount of impressions.

What was the SEO site called? Was it a directory?

I honestly can't remember... it was a long time ago.

 

By the way, I did submit my other old forum to StumbledUpon years ago and got a lot of visitors as soon as I did that, but nothing else came out of it.

I honestly can't remember... it was a long time ago.

 

By the way, I did submit my other old forum to StumbledUpon years ago and got a lot of visitors as soon as I did that, but nothing else came out of it.

If you’re on Reddit, these are some good subreddits that you can promote your communities on.

They allow promotion on them. Stumpleupon was worked for me back in the day too as did Digg. I remember getting a lot of backlinks from both sites and a lot of traffic.

 

Another thing that works is releasing a press release. You can either release a free one or a paid one and that’ll get you more backlinks & a lot more visibility as well.

 

List of Reddits where you can promote, ask for feedback or get beta users for your startup!

 

While this might not be complete, add your own. Just mention other reddits and I'll add them below:

 

r/SaaSSales

r/SaaSMarketing

r/zerotosaas

r/TestMyApp

r/startups\_promotion

r/startup\_resources

r/Startup\_Ideas

r/SideProject

r/SaaSroasting

r/newproducts

r/microsaas

r/micro\_saas

r/indiehackers

r/indiebiz

r/IMadeThis

r/SaaS

r/webdev

r/hwstartups

r/smallbusiness

r/promotereddit

r/freepromote

r/Business\_Ideas

r/Entrepreneur

r/startups

r/roastmystartup

 

r/StartupLaunches/

Social media is a huge one but you also keep it updated. If you're not going to update it, then there is no point in creating the social media. Word of mouth or other forums work well too. I used to make some posters a post them around in my town too. That seemed to get some peoples interest.

Social media is a huge one but you also keep it updated. If you're not going to update it, then there is no point in creating the social media. Word of mouth or other forums work well too. I used to make some posters a post them around in my town too. That seemed to get some peoples interest.

 

If you don’t have the time to update your social media accounts or want to save time, you can simplify the process by automating it.

 

 

Especially with tools like dlvr.it.

https://dlvrit.com/

 

By including your forum’s rss feed, it’ll auto post to your social media accounts for you.

 

[HEADING=1]Auto Share from Anywhere[/HEADING]

Auto post items from RSS feeds, ecommerce sites, photo sharing apps, social networks and more.

 

[HEADING=1][/HEADING]

 

[HEADING=2]It’s like having your own social media marketing team[/HEADING]

dlvr.it scans your RSS feeds and other trusted content sources for new articles, blogs and photos. We auto post the latest items to Twitter, Facebook and your other social media pages right on your schedule.

Great topic, sadly now a days after Google core updates, no matter what I do, I do not get any traffic on my blogs websites. I used to have a lot of traffic, now everything fails as the SEO has gone dead , thanks to the AI tools which k*lled bloggers like me badly.

I do not see any more hope in the near future if I would ever attract new traffic to my sites, but let's see, things change and might the SEO change too in favor of website owners!

Engaging content.

 

My strategy is to create topics that strike emotion and make people want to respond to them.

 

I try to use a mixture of controversy and copywrite.

Great topic, sadly now a days after Google core updates, no matter what I do, I do not get any traffic on my blogs websites. I used to have a lot of traffic, now everything fails as the SEO has gone dead , thanks to the AI tools which k*lled bloggers like me badly.

I do not see any more hope in the near future if I would ever attract new traffic to my sites, but let's see, things change and might the SEO change too in favor of website owners!

When did your traffic from Google start declining? Is your blog still receiving any traffic?

 

 

Which core update affected your blog? Was it the March update?

 

 

How is your backlink profile? Do you have backlinks from diverse and authoritative sources?

When did your traffic from Google start declining? Is your blog still receiving any traffic?

 

 

Which core update affected your blog? Was it the March update?

 

 

How is your backlink profile? Do you have backlinks from diverse and authoritative sources?

 

After Google’s March update, things took a serious downturn for my blogs. I have two blogging sites, and my pet blog was getting a ton of traffic before this update hit. Towards the end of March or early April, my traffic completely plummeted.

 

Right now, I’m working hard to fix things, improving my SEO strategies. Both my on-page and off-page SEO aren’t bad, and one of my posts used to get over 100K views regularly. It was consistently ranking 2nd or 3rd on Google.

 

But now, when I check, none of my posts are even indexed anymore. I’ve had to manually submit them for indexing, which is frustrating. Posts that used to dominate search rankings have vanished entirely.

 

It’s driving me crazy how Google seems to favor big platforms like Reddit, Quora, and major media outlets. If you search for something as simple as “the best banana in the market,” Forbes might pop up at the top, even if it’s unrelated to their niche. On top of that, the rest of the search results are filled with sponsored ads.

 

Honestly, it feels like blogging as we knew it is over. I’ve wanted to give up so many times, but every week, I find myself coming back, hoping for some kind of recovery. So far, though, there’s been no light at the end of the tunnel. :rolleyes:

Engaging content.

 

My strategy is to create topics that strike emotion and make people want to respond to them.

 

I try to use a mixture of controversy and copywrite.

Do you have a blogging website? Or you are working only on forums?

It’s driving me crazy how Google seems to favor big platforms like Reddit,

That isn't a surprise though. Google has invested loads into Reddit:

 

https://fortune.com/2024/02/23/reddit-60m-deal-google-search-giant-train-ai-models-on-posts/

Promoting on social media, and post on forums including my signature link are what I do daily new attract new members.

That isn't a surprise though. Google has invested loads into Reddit:

 

https://fortune.com/2024/02/23/reddit-60m-deal-google-search-giant-train-ai-models-on-posts/

 

You are so right, they made a big deal and for sure they will always favor them no mater what :(

Promoting on social media, and post on forums including my signature link are what I do daily new attract new members.

I am also all over social media, sharing links of every new post or blog I make but I do not see the difference and at pintrest I have monthly around 30K monthly viewers but they also like kind of dead, no one comes to the blog. I think we as a bloggers we are on ventilator. :(

If you don’t have the time to update your social media accounts or want to save time, you can simplify the process by automating it.

 

 

Especially with tools like dlvr.it.

https://dlvrit.com/

 

By including your forum’s rss feed, it’ll auto post to your social media accounts for you.

How cool is that! I had no clue this thing existed until now! Thanks for that =)

You are so right, they made a big deal and for sure they will always favor them no mater what :(

 

I am also all over social media, sharing links of every new post or blog I make but I do not see the difference and at pintrest I have monthly around 30K monthly viewers but they also like kind of dead, no one comes to the blog. I think we as a bloggers we are on ventilator. :(

The more you post your links the better. I don't do it for big traffic, but every little bit of traffic helps. Also when you link your site on more sites with do follow links it helps you get more of a boost in search engines, and get more traffic from SEO.

The more you post your links the better. I don't do it for big traffic, but every little bit of traffic helps. Also when you link your site on more sites with do follow links it helps you get more of a boost in search engines, and get more traffic from SEO.

Thanks for your input, yeah you are right and I am doing the exact thing but again the traffic now a days do not come as it used to be. Everyone is busy doing tiktoks and instagram hahaha I have over 160K followers on tiktok, my tiktok grew super fast within a couple of months. I make travel vlogs too. So I post short travel clips on Tiktok and my almost every video goes viral and in my bio I put youtube link but no one comes from tiktok to my youtube, my youtube is small and from tiktok I get almost zero traffic even I have big tiktok account. I think things have changed now, driving traffic to own website is a dream :(

My primary focus is to create content that can be found on searches. SEO is the most valuable method to bring in traffic. Secondly, my focus is to create shareable content, content that a lot of people are willing to share across multiple social channels. Having shareable content can bring in a lot of traffic

SEO is mostly ignored by search algorithms anymore, keyword stuffing is long gone, back link ranking has diminished values, even link farm sites don't work like they used to.

 

With the advent of high density a.i. algorithms operated by the site aggrigators like search engines, the only real thing that will give your search ranks any muster will be understandable common-phrase content tuned to the subject. Ai will be looking for that to give your page relevance to search users.

 

I think focusing on relevent content will benefit being found in searches, and hopefully convert some traffic. And maybe some word of mouth or back links will organically happen.

 

But I hate manually spamming websites.

Edited December 19, 2024Dec 19 by CTS

SEO is mostly ignored by search algorithms anymore, keyword stuffing is long gone, back link ranking has diminished values, even link farm sites don't work like they used to.

 

With the advent of high density a.i. algorithms operated by the site aggrigators like search engines, the only real thing that will give your search ranks any muster will be understandable common-phrase content tuned to the subject. Ai will be looking for that to give your page relevance to search users.

 

I think focusing on relevent content will benefit being found in searches, and hopefully convert some traffic. And maybe some word of mouth or back links will organically happen.

 

But I hate manually spamming websites.

Backlinks are still a core component of search engine ranking, especially when they come from relevant, authoritative websites. While link farms have been ineffective for the past 7-8 years, and keyword stuffing is no longer a valid strategy, backlinks from high-quality sources remain a strong ranking factor.

 

 

SEO is not ignored by search engines—it’s simply evolved. The key to success today lies in creating content that aligns with user intent and addresses the specific needs and queries of your target audience. Search engines are now much better at understanding context, so producing content that answers questions and provides real value is crucial.

 

 

 

Additionally, technical SEO elements such as header tags, alt tags, and title tags remain important. They help search engines understand the structure and relevance of your content. Optimizing these elements ensures that your content is properly indexed and more likely to rank well for relevant searches.

I think the best way to attract traffic is to post details about your forum/blog/website in the Forums

What particular forums? Do you have tips that you’d like to share with upcoming forum owners? What methods have worked for you?

These days I just run a blog and it doesn't matter to me if it gets traffic or not, if people want to look at it and comment on my posts, they are more than welcome to but I am not bothered if it fails to receive a ton of traffic. I am not going to create any advertisement threads or try to actively promote it except for putting a link back to it in my profile / signature on whatever forum I am on. I suppose I created it just go give my online friends a little window into my world, to maintain a presence online. It's just for fun.