Recently I listened to an article on NPR’s afternoon show “Here and Now” about how click-baiting will affect the world of journalism. Click-baiting is when you use an eye catching picture or link that encourages people to click on it to view more info.It addressed some very good key points about how to drive traffic to a topic without being misleading or only having flashy images but no actual text. The key was to keep it balanced between attracting their attention and then providing them useful information that actually fit with what they were looking for.

This subject also has a lot to do with Search Engine Optimization, or “SEO”. The more people that click on your site and actually find what they are looking for, the better your search rankings will get. There are a lot of other factors involved, but this definitely plays a part.

Here are some great ways to drive traffic to your site and things to consider.

1. Make sure your content is easy to read and is on the right level for your audience. Also make sure you have the right balance of text and images. No one wants to see a web page that is one huge mass of text. On the flip side, if you have nothing but photos on your site, they may not actually understand what you do. Balance is the key.

2. When choosing images or graphics for your site you want to make sure that they are appropriate for your field and your audience. For example if you promoting a night club, construction firm, music studio or any other non-corporate business, you don’t want a bunch of images that are of people in business attire and board rooms. You want the images to communicate what your service is and who you are as a company. Even if you don’t have professional photos of your business, there are many ways to find stock images these days. A good design firm can really help you find stock images to clearly communicate your message.

3. Finally, how your site is designed is something you need to consider when talking about driving in traffic to your website. Many factors go into this, colors, images, placement of text, what font size you use, etc. The overall design can make the difference between someone coming to your site and saying “WOW! These guys are awesome, where do I find out more data?” and “WOW! I have no idea what these people do. Let me keep searching.”

In this day and age with the popularity of social media and the fact that many people use a website as a way to get into contact with a business, you want to make sure that you are doing the best thing to drive traffic to your site, but also remaining balanced and true to your audience.

Remember your website is not just something that you trick someone into visiting once. It is often your first point of contact with customers and your presence in today’s online world. You want to make sure that people find what they are looking for and tell their friends about how great your site is. If you use these principles and ideas when creating a website, it will go a long way towards helping you succeed in driving your traffic.