Get Pageviews

Yes, everyone and their brother's sites have tips on how to get 'hits'. Some people have brutal ones that make you and other people suffer, some have honest ways to get pageviews. I will try and be honest with you.

First of all, there is a clear difference between a hit and a pageview. A hit is something that loads on your page, and a single person visiting one page on your site can create a large number of hits. Every image that loads is one hit on a page, as well as one for the actual page itself. So, trying to determine the number of visitors to your site with a number of hits is impossible.

A pageview is a count of a page's/site's visitors. A visitor generates one pageview per page on your site, and with an accurate stats system, you can see which pages are the most popular on your site, as well as being able to have an accurate count of visits.

If you want an accurate stat tracker, I strongly advise that you use Nedstat. Not only is it extremely fast-loading and unobtrusive, but it gives detailed and accurate results that are up-to-the minute.

Anyway, you wanted to know how to get the actual pageviews.

First of all, you need a good attitude. Know that you aren't going to get tons of visitors immediately, and don't try to. The best possible way to get the word out is word of mouth, and if you are dedicated to your site, you will get visits. Remember that the quantity of visitors coming to your site is nothing when you consider the individuals and how much they enjoy their visit. If you give them a reason to bookmark your site and want to come back, they most likely will.

That doesn't mean you can't remind them. The code below, when copied into the html where you want it on your page, will create a link (or provide a shortcut) for the visitor to bookmark your site.

Bookmark SITENAME to make returning visits easy.<br>
<script language="JavaScript">
//This code is for IE v4 or better
if (navigator.appName == "Microsoft Internet Explorer" && navigator.appVersion >= "4.0")
{document.write("<U><SPAN STYLE='color:blue;cursor:hand;' onClick='window.external.AddFavorite(location.href, document.title);'>Add this page to your favorites</SPAN></U>")}
//This code posts text if not
else
{document.write("Hit CTRL-D to bookmark this page")}
</script>

A positive, honest way to get people to check out your site is to participate in message boards and forums and/or 'surf' other peoples' homepages and leave a nice comment in the guestbook or tagboard (you might not want to do both, unless you have two different messages). You can find a forum that interests you and participate there, and other than getting some curious visitors to your website, you can make a few friends along the way. There are message boards that people visit to ask and answer questions about specific topics - if you are helpful, people will probably come to your site (don't tell them to, just give them a link in your signature - more on that later). When you sign people's guestbooks/tagboards, at least act like you are genuinely interested, and comment on a specific part of the site that you enjoyed. NEVER tell them to visit your site; as long as you leave a nice comment and your url, the webmaster will probably be more than happy to visit.

While you are surfing others' sites, if you notice a free-for-all links page, add your link! Don't pass up an opportunity when it's offered to you. ;)

Have a signature. A signature is just a simple tag to end an e-mail or message board post. Mine is:

-Adrienne
http://www.adriennewolter.com/

Most free e-mail services allow you to set up a signature automatically, or you can just type it (that's what I do :P). Always include your first name (or web alias) and your url. You can add your e-mail address too, for forum posts.

Have meta tags. Search on google (google is a webmaster's best friend) to learn about them, as well as how to make them. Put them on your main page at least. In this way, you need only apply to a few search engines and the other ones will find you on their own. You need not apply to both google and Yahoo, either - Yahoo uses google's resources, so if you apply to google, you're in both of the top search engines (a good deal, if you ask me). Be honest in your meta tags, if you include keywords for something you don't have, it will only make people frustrated.

As well as having meta tags, always have page titles that contain a lot of keywords, as well as alt tags on all of your important images.

For your actualy site, you want a memorable name, preferably something that helps your visitor remember the URL. You don't want a site hosted on a stupid host (*coughExpagecoughAngelfirecough*). A 'stupid host' (dun dun DUN) is one which limits what you can do (Expage) or has enough ads to make a visitor want to leave immediately.

For the actual site design, make sure every page gives you a way to go back home. Avoid bright backgrounds (ESPECIALLY ANIMATED ONES - NEVER use animated backgrounds! Ever!) that make it hard or impossible to read the text, unless you can put a solid color table behind the text. With text and the color behind it, do not burn people's eyes out - avoid neon and white on black.

You should have a layout - it helps organize your content. If you can't make one, or don't have time to, you can download one to use (search google). All of the large sections of your site should be accessable in two or less clicks, and every single page of content should be accessable within three.

You want to offer your visitors something to take with them, and hopefully link back to you. Free layouts, graphics, adoptables, etc. Give them a reason to stay - something to look at or to read. Reading material probably shouldn't be the same 'reads' that are on everyone and their brother's sites... write something of your own. Post up humourous instant messages with your friends. Write memoirs. Show that you care about your audience and you'll do wonders. ;)

Good luck!