I recently had a friend from a non-profit here in DC ask for some advice on how to drive traffic to their site.

My mind immediately began spinning like a top with SEO / social media / design and then I thought to myself it would be good to create a quick and dirty framework for driving organic Web site traffic.

Here are some of my initial thoughts on the topic – I’m hoping to refine these in subsequent postings:

Driving traffic to your Web site is about DAC:

1. Drawing first-time visitors to your site – You have to give people a reason to come to your site in the first place. People will stumble upon a site based on how well-connected it is in the following broad areas (organic):
   1. Search Engines and Directories – How well you perform in the search engines and whether or not you are indexed in directories.
   2. Affinity networks – Links from similarly-oriented Web sites.
   3. Media – Coverage in mainstream media and social media.
2. Attracting their attention – You normally have just a few seconds to make a first impression on a new visitor to your site and consumers on the Web are picky.  You need to immediately show that there is a reason to visit your site.  Both the content and aesthetics of your Web site should provide the first-time user with an ambiance that will assure them that they have not clicked-through to your site in error.
3. Converting them into a repeat visitor – This is the final piece of the puzzle.  Once the visitor has stumbled upon your site, spent a few minutes perusing the site, what is the draw to bring them back?  The draw should be both explicit and implied – explicitly, it would be good to offer alerts via e-mail as well as RSS; on the implied side of things, you should have fresh, valuable content – or an interactive element – that will give them a reason to return.

So that is a general overview for how to drive traffic to your site.  I think I’m going to try and jot down a framework for getting started in the next week or so…