I can't seem to get traffic to my website. What is the problem?

[FarrisFahad]

Let me tell you what I have been upto so you can get a better understanding ...

When I first started back in January 2015 I aimed to get a good backlink profile for a better ranking. But my problem is that I targeted the wrong keywords, and for that after a few months, eight to be exact, I stopped SEO because I was not getting a good amount of traffic, I was targeting 100 visitors a day and I got less than 10 a day. But I did not stop with SEO there. I continued but with an offshore company, Indian. And they built spammy links till the website ranking dropped. So I hired someone else, and they too started posting bad content for the sake of links which brought my ranking further down. Then and then only I stopped doing SEO, and I thought why not switch to Social Media???

I created a Facebook business page, and a Pinterest account. I did not want to spread myself thin working on all Social Media websites so I focused on those two. I saw that 9Gag had a lot of success with Facebook. And another website called 'dump a day' that had a lot of traffic from Pinterest.

So when I first started with Facebook I spent money on advertisement to gain 3500 likes. And I started posting funny pictures. But the problem was that less than 20% of my fans interacted with my posts, that's before Facebook brain algorythm. So only 200 - 300 views a post. And when I post a link it gets even worse, like 20 - 30 views and only a handful visit my site.

So after Facebook brain algo. the numbers where down, way down. And now eventhough I have 25000 fans, which I got from advertising not organically, the numbers are down. It seems like I can't catch a break.

And with pinterest I created a business account and started to follow people so they can follow me back, and it worked. Out of the 600 people I followed ~ 200 followed me back. So I started posting some content and I got some repins but nothing big, just a few. And I got frustrated and stopped because the engagement is very low.

So now I don't know what to do. I have tried SEO and failed. Tried Social Media and failed. I really don't know how people drive traffic to their website in a short time. I have been working on my site for well over 2 years and I still don't get organic traffic. It's either I pay to get traffic or my analytics data becomes flat.

What am I doing wrong?!?

[rproffitt]

Here's the one thing that stuck out to me.

I spent money on advertisement to gain 3500 likes.

This is simply a way to part you from your money in my opinion. I also read you want to be in the fake like market but that's a market that is well, to be avoided again.

As to funny images, Imgur and Reddit are tough acts to follow. Have you seen those two sites?

My advice. Focus on what your strengths are. Pivot to a new direction. Avoid get rich articles and schemes.

[happygeek]

The only people whose business benefits from people buying likes are those selling them. There are no quick fixes, there is no silver bullet. I've been writing about the Web from when it was first released onto the world (and writing about the Internet and online systems long before then) and what was true back then remains so today: content is king.

[FarrisFahad]

When I said advertise I meant using Facebook. I did not buy any fans. None of my fans are fake.

[happygeek]

Apologies. I read it as you responded to an advertisement to buy likes, rather than you used FB advertising and gained likes.

The bit about content being king remains true enough though. That said, organic growth is rarely quick and can be too slow to save a site even if the content is good. There's simply too much competition unless you are cornering a really niche sector of whatever market...

[rproffitt]

Just thoughts.

1. Watch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosedive Some folk are already there.
2. If you are competing with Imgur and Reddit, you have to find a way to be different.
3. I looked at your prior posts and find titles like "How do I create a website that sells social media followers?" That's a market no one I know wants to get into.

Finally, if you have been at this for years and it's not working, take the advice from Warren Buffett about the hole. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

[johnp72014]

Hello, I understand that your SEO and social media efforts failed. But it doesn't mean that you don't get success with them. You should try to generate informative content related to your niche. Make sure that the content is unique and valuable to your targeted users. Spread the content through blogs, guest posts, social media, infographics etc. By doing this you will get quality backlinks which will ultimately give you good ranking. Once you start getting noticed by your targeted users, you will start getting visitors as well.

[RileNelson]

That really is only ways to a part you out of your hard-earned money I think. In addition, I see you would like to become at the imitation just like economy however, that is clearly a marketplace which is certainly nicely, to become avoided again.