I want to share a little “trick” if you own a directory website that lists public destinations or places, and it may be able to help drive targeted traffic to your website.

In a fashion similar to Google, Facebook has something called “Places,” which includes the address, a map, phone number, website, and fields for other information that can help people learn about the place.  These public and sometimes private places are locations that Facebook users can visit and/or tag/check-in. In most cases, there aren’t owners of these places pages, so there’s no real moderation.

I’ve found that many dog parks are listed as places. When I search Google, DogPark.com listings are often in the top ten results, as are competing websites, and a Facebook Places listing. In most cases, the Facebook places listing has a field for “Add Website.” I’ve been adding the dog park url on DogPark.com to these dog park places listings, and it should help drive traffic to the website.

I think this could potentially be a good traffic opportunity for people who have directory websites that list public places and locations. It benefits the place and also benefits my website as well.

This may be an obvious piece of advice, but I think it’s valuable enough to share in case you are embarking on your own web development projects on good domain names. With Google’s recent updates, there is a focus on adding new content on a regular basis. Just as important, in my opinion, is that the content is relevant to current events and searches.

When you have a website to update, I think it’s key to post articles related to hot topics in that particular business. If you’re up for it, you should consider posting multiple articles on the topic so your website becomes known as an expert site on that topic, and you’ll likely see greater results and more traffic.

Interview experts who are smarter than you about those topics and include their insight to supplement your own knowledge. Experts tend to be happy to share their knowledge, especially if it will benefit their business. Not only will this give you great, unique content, but it will also likely get others to visit your site when they are searching for insight from that expert. The expert may even use his or her personal and business network to publicize your article.

To give you an idea of some “hot” topics I’ve written about lately on various sites of mine, here are a few links:

• Preventing canine flu
• Christmas tip for a dog walker
• Domain name price increase
• gTLD viability
• Black Friday sales in Lowell

Many people have websites that rely on Google as the primary source of traffic, and consequently, revenue. Some of my own websites fall into that category, with 80%+ of the traffic coming from Google searches. If there’s an issue with Google’s rankings, the traffic and revenue vanish like my morning cup of coffee.

Similarly, there are a number of domain industry blogs and websites that rely on Domaining.com as the primary source of traffic. Domaining.com helps drive hundreds of targeted visitors a day, but when there’s a problem with that website, there is no traffic as a result.

Unfortunately, Francois is dealing with some sort of malicious sql injection at Domaining.com. He is aware that Google Chrome and other web browsers are showing a warning message to people trying to visit Domaining.com, and he is working on fixing the issue.

Luckily for me, traffic is only affected minimally, but I know there are a few sites that are seeing considerably less traffic this morning.

I am sure Francois will have this fixed ASAP, but it’s a good lesson for people who rely on a single source of traffic. Any type of change in algorithm or other type of problem with that traffic source may cause significant problems down the line. Spend time cultivating other traffic sources and become less reliant on a single source, whether that’s Google, Yahoo, or even Domaining.com.

File this under common sense advice, but it’s something to keep in mind when using WordPress plugins. You should always be aware of how they work, what they do, and their current settings on your WordPress based website.

I have the Simply Exclude plugin used on a few of my websites. In fact, I essentially copied the meat of one of my sites to use as the base for my other sites. Unfortunately, I never checked the Simply Exclude plugin settings, and I had blocked a specific type of page on my site. Upon replicating that particular page over and over, I was creating pages that blocked search engines from seeing them. They aren’t critical pages or advertisers’ pages, but they are important.  Bozo move on my part.

The good news is that I caught this error and can advise you on not doing the same thing. The other good news is that upon allowing search engines to see those pages, I should see quite a jump in traffic. The bad news is that I was blocking certain pages for a long time, which probably cost me traffic and revenue.

Do yourself a favor when you develop. Learn about the features and functionality of all your plugins. Avoid silly mistakes like the one I made.