People talk incessantly about 'gaining more website traffic', but they rarely mention that a site really needs targeted website traffic. The only way to have a successful site is to court targeted website traffic -- or people who keep coming back to your site, visiting one page after another. Targeted website traffic includes people who are actually interested in what your site offers. They have been 'targeted' for that very reason. For example, when you look at a book ad on Amazon.com, they show you books other people bought who also liked the one you were looking at. That's because it is reasonable to assume that if you're interested in the first one, you'll be interested in others like it. They are targeting a fantasy fan for their fantasy books, instead of trying to sell them to random people. That is what you need to do as well.

Targeted website traffic and guaranteed traffic are not the same thing. You don't want to attract just anybody and everybody to your site. You want a specific client -- one that will benefit from your information or product, ultimately becoming a loyal customer. Internet loiterers, while harmless, do nothing for sales. You might have a hundred people visit your site, but only ten of them actually buy anything.

One good way to get targeted website traffic is to use keywords. Think of the person you want on your site. When he or she is looking up something on the internet, the person uses particular words to do that, right? If they need fuzzy dice to hang from their rearview window, they will type certain things into the search engine in order to find those fuzzy dice.

This is where psychology comes into play. Do they type in 'fuzzy dice', 'car dice', 'hanging dice', 'rearview mirror dice', 'fuzzy car dice', or none of the above? What if they can't spell right and type 'fuzy dice'? What if they don't know whether 'rearview' is supposed to be one word or two? You want the money from the 'rear view mirror dice' people just as much as you want the others. Keywords are all about improving your odds.

So what else are you selling along with your fuzzy hanging rearview mirror car dice? You can't get targeted website traffic if you don't know who you're targeting, so figure out just what kind of site you have. Should car dice should be sold at a car accessories site, a weird gifts site, or a kitsch site? They should be sold on a site that has other merchandise that will appeal to the fuzzy dice people-like fuzzy steering wheel covers, or even animal print clothing, if it's a retro shop. That approach will get you more website traffic.

Getting people to visit your site and buy what you're selling is similar to playing the stock market: You can make some educated guesses, but it's all a risk and a gamble. That doesn't mean you should ignore trying to improve your odds, though -- targeted website traffic will definitely help. When you tempt people who want what you have, they'll buy.