Having a website or blog of your own puts you in control of something that can become bigger than you had imagined, or it can languish in irrelevance depending on how well you do the job of attracting readers. It’s all about traffic – a word we have been using for years to describe vehicles on public roads, and therefore it makes a lot of sense when describing internet visitors. What webmasters and businesses need to do to ensure the success of their website is to direct traffic to their website by giving people a reason and a chance to visit their website, or by purchasing web traffic (which is often the best way for a brand-new site, or one for which other methods have failed).

If you have a website, it stands to reason that you will want people to know about it. There is no way they can visit a site they don’t know about, so it is important to promote your site well. The problem for many people is one of practicality – how do you let people know about your website, and do so without spending too much money?

Some people will stop at nothing to make their website popular, up to and including visiting numerous internet cafes and visiting the site from as many different IP addresses as possible. While that is an extreme example – it does happen, though – however there are other things that people will do under the impression that it will improve their SEO and get their Google hits skyrocketing, only to later find out in the fullness of time that this really is not the case, and in some cases will result in long-term damage to their website (such as being banned or penalized). So what are these traffic mistakes – and why should you avoid them?