Search Engine Optimization and Submission Articles
How to Get Search Engine Traffic
By Jim Daniels
Of all the traffic my websites have
generated the past few years (literally millions of visitors)
ONE traffic source stands head and shoulders above the rest...
Search Engine Traffic.
Specifically, traffic from
google.com and
yahoo.com - the leaders in finding things on the web.
The traffic is top quality. These people are finding my sites on
their own, so they are my best potential customers. And the
traffic flows continually regardless of my advertising budget.
Considering the highly targeted nature of this traffic and the
fact that it flows to me virtually without cost, search engine
traffic simply cannot be beat.
So today I want to discuss how YOU can maximize traffic from
search engines. And no, I do not have a trick or overnight
solution. If you are looking for that, you can stop reading now.
But what I will share with you today WILL increase your search
engine traffic. It will take some time but believe me, it is
well worth it.
So let's go... The first thing to consider is how the best
search sites determine where to send their clients -- the
searchers. It does not happen by accident. In fact all search
engines have complex algorithms that determine how they rank
sites.
But after all the smoke clears, I can point directly to ONE
essential component that leads to ever-growing traffic from the
major search engines...
QUALITY.
Or more precisely, this equation is my formula for success with
search engines...
Quality Content + Quality Links = SE Rank, Traffic and Sales.
Quality is what matters most to top search sites like Google and
Yahoo. They want quality results for their searchers. And this
ultimately translates into YOU providing quality to them.
Read that again. It is important to understand. As a webmaster,
quality is something you need to be very concerned with.
There are two specific areas where quality really counts...
a) Quality of Content AT your Website
b) Quality of Links TO Your Website.
Let's talk about this in a bit of detail.
Quality Content
AT Your Site
A quality website with solid, reliable and substantial content
will always do better than sites trying to "trick" their way to
good ranking. That's why the major search sites have such a huge
market share -- they provide quality search results. Websites
that qualify as such are usually the first sites presented in
their search results.
There is no secret to this. And providing quality content takes
work. I do it by writing articles like this. And you can do it
by writing articles for your niche market. If your site focuses
on collectibles, then write an article about a specific
collectible every week. In a year you will have 52 keyword-rich
web pages (or more) that will help grow traffic to your website.
In two years you'll have 100+. And this content is the
cornerstone of your website.
I've been writing about this aspect of web marketing for seven
years now. And I can remember a few years back when all those
single page sales letters were blooming all over the web. "Who
needs content?" these new experts were writing. Where are they
now? Sure, some of them are making a few dollars but most have
fallen by the wayside. Why? Because they do not contribute to
the very nature of the web... information.
Let's face it, nearly ALL people online are here to get
information. Not many people want to pay for it either. After
all, you can find in-depth information on any subject
imaginable. Sure, you sometimes have to pay for the best quality
information, but if you surf long enough you can get to the
truth of any subject using the World Wide Web.
If you are a website owner, the paragraphs above translate into
a simple strategy. Feed the search engines that provide this
valuable content. Create content for your niche market. Grow a
website that is information rich and the visitors will come. It
may take time but they will come.
Of course, there are ways that you can move the process along a
bit. The best way is to show search engines what your content is
about and how important it is. This is done by building...
Quality Links
TO Your Site
You may have heard of the importance of getting other sites to
link to yours. So let's cover this a bit. Yes, getting lots of
links coming to your site is important. But the QUALITY of those
links is even more important.
I will not get into Google page rank or any other specific
algorithms on any search engine. The fact is, NOBODY is privy to
that specific information. But I can say for sure, based on
experience, that the quality of links coming to your site is
VERY important.
When it comes to the actual links, quality is measured primarily
by these two factor...
a. What sites link to your site
b. Exactly how they link to you
The first one is the toughest nut to crack. Getting quality
sites to link to yours is not easy. Naturally, the first step is
to have a quality site yourself. More proof of my advice above.
And once you have a quality site in place, you can start
building links to it. I'll get into exact strategies for that in
a minute. First I'd like to cover (b) from above -- exactly how
sites link to you.
For sure, text links seem to be better than banner links. And
text links filled with your best keywords are better than any
old text link.
For instance...
If you were trying to build links to your, let's say... fishing
related site, how other sites display links to yours is
extremely important. To decide what you want those links to say,
you need to research keywords a bit. The word "fishing", would
seem obvious but it undoubtedly has a ton of competition. So a
better idea is to find more specific words. You can do that by
entering your main keyword into the tool at
www.WordTracker.com or at
Overture's keyword suggestion tool. And you'll get a list of
related keywords. This particular test showed me that the
keywords "fishing tackle" or "fishing lure" get quite a bit of
searching as well. So those would be a better choice of keywords
to use in your incoming links.
(If your site does not offer such equipment, you can still offer
"information" on these topics.)
But how do you decide what those other webmasters will write
when they link to your site? That's easy. You do it by giving
other webmasters the exact code they can paste into their sites.
I'll show you how at the end of today's tip.
Getting Links
Earlier we talked about the importance of having quality sites
link to your website. And that's not an easy task. In fact,
getting quality sites to link to your site takes a bit of
originality. You can't just slap up a "link to us" page and hope
the job gets done.
Many webmasters simply search the web and then email related
sites asking for a link swap. In my opinion that is too
time-consuming and tedious.
There are lots of other ways to grow the number of links into
your site. There are many automated solutions available such as
link farms and the like, but be careful with those. Many such
networks are not search engine friendly and using them can
actually hurt your site. You have to be careful when selecting a
link strategy.
Your link strategy should include a way for people to get a link
from your site to theirs, as well as create a link from their
site to your site. And if you can automate the entire process
you'll save lots of time.
With all this in mind, I set up my link strategy using a type of
directory. You can see it (as well as grab a high-profile link)
here.
What you'll find there is my "Internet Marketer's Resource
Directory." Basically, it's my link swap strategy. And it works
quite well. It generates a few dozen quality links for me every
week, which would take quite a bit of time and energy if I were
to do it manually. And the hundreds of link swaps it has helped
me gather, as resulted in lots of traffic to my site, not to
mention improved search engine ranking. I wish I had set it up
when I was first getting started online.
Building a link strategy at your website is an important step
that will help you more than you realize, especially as time
goes on. So make it one of the first of your Internet marketing
steps.
Once your link building infrastructure (something like the above
example) is in place, you need a few ways to get webmasters
linking. Below are a few strategies I use. I invite you to
emulate these strategies at your site...
1. Pre-license all your best stuff.
As you create your own tips, articles or content for your
website or email newsletters, consider pre-licensing it to
others. Pre-licensing it for others is as simple as including a
short footer after your work. It looks something like this:
"You have permission to reprint what you just read. Use it in
your ezine, at your website or in your newsletter. The only
requirement is including the following footer..."
*Article by YOUR NAME, visit www.YourWebsiteUrl.com for more
original content like this.
Getting the idea? This takes no extra work on your part since
you already write the article. A simple footer like that lets
you pre-licensed it to the entire web. Your links will be
growing continually with no extra effort. There are lots of
websites in need of decent content. Supply it and you can
benefit greatly - if you do it right!
Note: If you need to see this strategy in action, visit my
Internet marketing articles archive.
2. Bribe webmasters into linking up.
The next strategy that can work very well is the "bribe". In a
nutshell, you simply give something of value away to anyone who
links to your site.
When done correctly, this strategy can be extremely powerful.
All you need to get started is a few text links that people can
use to link to your site, and a way to automate all aspects of
the "bribe".
Again, my implementation of this strategy is tied in with my
link building
directory.
That link generating tool bribes my visitors into linking to one
of my sites by offering two distinct rewards:
a. Marketers can secure a link from my site to THEIR best
Internet Marketing Resources in my high-profile directory.
b. When they reciprocate with a link to my site, they get a free
book just for participating.
Note: The tool that automates my link building strategy is
called
LinksManager. It allowed me to create my directory in a few
hours and it automates the entire "get links" strategy for me.
It sends automated emails to all new submissions, checks their
site for reciprocal links, sends email reminders if they don't
reciprocate, and even gives away my book when reciprocal links
are verified. When visitors link to my sites their links are set
up directly and not through the system. So it is search engine
friendly. I've been using it for a few years now with great
success. And no, I'm not an affiliate. ;-)
Feel free to fill my directory with your best Internet Marketing
resources right now. You're sure to get lots of visitors from
the directory as other BizWeb eGazette subscribers do the same.
;-)
Oh yeah, and after you submit your listing, pay special
attention to the page that pops up. It is where I give other
webmasters the exact code they can paste into their sites to
link to mine. You should use a page like that at your site as
well. It makes linking very simple, even for new webmasters. In
fact, feel free to copy the layout of that page and customize it
with your own keywords and links for YOUR site.
In Closing...
OK, so is everything in today's gazette all you have to do to
move your site up the ranks of the major search engines like
Google? Well, not really. There are lots of other consideration
such as the Title of your site. Your title needs to include your
best keywords as well. And so does the text of your pages. But
I'll save the details on these for another day. For now, get
busy building quality content and quality links. They are two
keys to the success of your website.
That wraps up today's tip! If you take one lesson from it
remember, QUALITY CONTENT AND QUALITY LINKS will bring you lots
of targeted website traffic.
========================================
Article by Jim Daniels
.
Article used with permission from Jim Daniels. Jim's free guide to
website
marketing and his
website promotion
help
site show you how to get low-cost website traffic and make money online.
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