10 tips (short of a complete redesign) to help increase traffic to your website.

1. Add new content regularly – articles, how-to guides and upcoming events are great. Video and audio have become very popular recently. Both are great ways to deliver your message to visitors.

2. Increase your inbound links – these are links pointing to your website from other websites, directories, social networking sites etc.

3. Submit your site to online directories – such as yellowpages.com, local.com, kudzu.com there are many others. These are portals that have existing traffic and sometimes you can increase visits just by getting listed. Most have a paid service for premium placement, but not recommended.

4. Publish some articles for mass consumption and submit to article directories

5. Join online communities and message boards related to your services and become an active member sharing information and insights with others.

6. Start a blog – Post often, once a day is best but at least once a week to keep visitors coming back.

7. Build an email list and start sending out newsletters to subscribers. Newsletters don’t have to be long, but should be entertaining and informative. I recommend sending email newsletters once or twice a month.

8. Build your social network through online properties such as myspace, facebook, twitter and others. These social networking platforms are quick to learn and easy to build relationships with like minded people.

9. Make sure your website’s code is W3C compliant. Here is an easy to use tool to help you determine if your website’s HTML is up to standards. http://validator.w3.org

10. To learn more about increasing traffic to your website read this article I wrote a while back http://andrewhall.com/keyword-research – great information for the do-it-yourselfer.

Keep your website fresh and attractive. If your site is outdated, spend some money to bring it current. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have an attractive website. Creative graphics, informative videos, interesting banners will all improve your visitors experience.