How to Build A Steady Web Traffic?
By Kevin Allman
How to Build Web Traffic Daily
I - Introduction
II - Web Directories
III - Search Engines - Rankings
III - Link ahoy!
IV - Messageboards and Forums
V - Conclusion
I - Introduction
The one thing that webmasters wish for is a steady flow of web traffic to their website.
My aim with this article is to give you a few ideas for bringing web traffic to your website. Once your web traffic is up and flowing, what you do with the web traffic is up to you.
First and foremost, web traffic mainly comes from the following areas; in no particular order
1. Web Directories
2. Search Engines
3. Link ahoy!
4. Discussion Boards/Forums
We go into each of these in detail below.
II - Web directories
A web directory is not my favorite medium for building web traffic; but it can be useful to build PR which can help to achieve better rankings in the Google Search Engine. PR (range of 1-10) is one of the factors Google uses to rank its results when someone does a search. Basically, with a higher PR; it is believed that your listing should rank better than those with other PR.
With a quick overview about PR; PR is determined by how many backlinks you have, and the quality of those backlinks. The more backlinks you have from quality websites you have, the higher PR you will generate; and as a result; better rankings.
Thats the beauty about some web directories and link pages. According to how high the PR values are for the webpage where you want to place your link; your webpage PR value would increase. If you could manage to get many links on various PR6 websites for example; your PR value should increase and your rankings should get better and should drive more traffic.
How to find web directories you ask? Its a simple task: All you need to do is to go to www.google.com and type in your keyword and the word directory For example, if the keyword was 'Cat', the search term would be Cat directory' are various Cat directories should come up.
III - Linkahoy!
Ebaumsworld is a very popular website for finding jokes. It currently enjoys over 750, 000 unique visitors a month. Yet, on typing jokes' and performing a search, ebaumsworld is not present in the top 100 results. How then can Ebaumsworld enjoy so much web traffic a month?
Ebausmsworld mainly achieves this through backlinks. Interestingly enough, on doing a backlink count with Google, Ebaumsworld chalked up 9,550 in backlinks.
Now lets face reality: Manually creating 9,550 backlinks by manually going to web pages and submitting your link is a very tiring task.
The only way to create so many genuine backlinks is by having GOOD CONTENT.
After studying major websites, I've found that they are two great ways of creating this:
1 Media/Downloads
2. Articles
With Ebaumworld.com, their key is loads of media, not necessarily article writing. Web surfers are attracted to downloads and media in general; It's a much welcomed difference to all of the text found on web pages.
Once you start to create a number of articles and media/downloads, you will find that persons start to visit your website more regularly to check for more media/downloads; Your web traffic will increase especially when the articles and downloads are really great ones.
The added advantage with articles as well, is that you can post them on other related websites. By doing this, you can create numerous backlinks by including your link at the end of your article.
Search engines love Article content; but we'll go more into Search Engines in the next section.
IV -Search Engines
Search engines are great for driving web traffic if you can get into about the top 30 results for popular search terms. With Google, rankings depend largely on backlinks and PR.
In addition to these two variables; another variable is Onpage Optimization.
Onpage optimization is basically the editing of your HTML code so that its ideal for placement in search engine results.
This editing may including the editing of meta tags, descriptions, keywords and content realignment.
Quick tips for Onpage optimization for web traffic
1. Use H1 header tags
Make sure that this tag contains your keyword.
2. Use H2 tags.
Largely taken as a subheading, make sure this also contains your main keyword;
3. Evenly spread keywords
Also, with regards to the content, try to make reference to your keyword regularly, but not too often. Try to mention it evenly throughout the document. This is where the article writing from the previous sections comes in handy. With your articles, make sure that
There are numerous other Onpage Optimization tips I can give you, but I go into that more in the Optimization tips article HERE.
V - Discussion Boards/Forums
Discussion forums are a great way to get your message out and generate even more web traffic.
To find these forums use your keyword and the word 'forums' with www.google.com
For example, Cat forums'. Make sure that you keep a log of all of them. You'll want to be making regular posts here.
On registering, try to include your URL and a brief description of your website in your signature. If you make regular posts on the forums, and change signatures every once in a while to reflect what's going on at your website, you will have a steady stream of visitors.
For example, an example signature could be Catland.com How to make cats happy' article just posted 12/34/04'.
On these boards, you will also realize that there are several recurring questions new persons ask.
With reference to the Cats forums; there may be a question which you find reoccurs 'How should I groom my Cat?'.
If you can create an article to answer each of these questions, you can always post the link to your article everytime a newbie asks question. This will drive fresh users to your website and once your website has in great content; will ensure repeat user and more web traffic.
VI - Conclusion
There are always new ways of finding means of developing web traffic. Offline promotion such as developing business cards can also help. You've only just begun your journey! The last thing I want to say is that fresh content ALWAYS brings return vistors; keep adding content; and your visitors will return time after time.
With that said I wish you all the best with your web traffic quest!
Kevin Allman is a webmaster with over ten years Internet experience. He runs a Search Engine Optimization website at http://www.pzeta.org/seo_global/ which contains many articles on how to optimize your website.
The Four Smartest Ways to Spiral Your Website Traffic
Copyright 2005 Log Cabin Rustics
People are paying pretty significant dollars for website traffic these days. Pay-per-click charges of $1-10 are not uncommon for top search terms. Multiply that by the 300 unique visitors per day that my log furniture website gets, and you are talking at least $300 per day, or $9,000 per monthdepending on how many days are in the month.
There Must Be Some Easier Way
While pay-per-click may be a good business model for your website, there's nothing like free traffic to lay the foundation. My log furniture site used to get 100 unique visitors per day before it started fetching in 200, and now 300 on an average basis. The personal goal here is 1,000 unique daily visitorsbut 10,000 would also be welcomed!
Following are some of the best ways we have found to grow website traffic:
#1: Website Optimization
A local business magazine recently ran an article calling SEO (search engine optimization) the equivalent of hocus-pocus. The author of the article, who apparently worked for an SEO firm, described optimization as a somewhat shady activity that's impossible to get a handle on. I say Baloney!
SEO is not pseudo-science. It is a very tangible and real way to increase website traffic. If you haven't taken care of the basicse.g. making sure your website has a relevant title, focuses on the right keywords, avoids practices that are disdained by the search engines, etc., you can be sure that, once found, your website will not rank as highly (or get as much traffic) as it otherwise would. Begin your traffic-garnering efforts by making sure your website is up-to-snuff.
#2: Publish Helpful, Relevant Content
Publishing helpful articles on the Net with a link back to my log furniture website seems to result in traffic spikes nearly every time. Notice the emphasis is on helpful articles. There is plenty of useless drivel out there by people who are being paid $5 to write an article. Not to insult anyone, but I spend 2-8 hours on the articles I writedepending on how much research is required and how technical the article isand that costs more than $5.
It doesn't seem to matter what you write about. My topics so far have included SEO, the simplicity of Amish life, improving your bottom line, and understanding Google operators. The key is to make them relevant, short and helpful.
#3: Add more products to your website
Our experience has been that adding more products to the website helps us to come up in the search engines more often. A person who finds a rustic night stand at our site might notice that we have log bunk beds. Somebody who is shopping for an unfinished pine dresser might not be thinking of rustic furniture at all, stumble across one our products, like the whole site, and end up furnishing their cabin. Each product is like a fishing line cast in the sea. The more well-described bait you have out therethe more fish will bite.
#4: Improve your website conversion rate
Five years ago, we used to get one log furniture order for every 100 website visitors. Now it seems like closer to one order for every 300 unique visitors. Part of the reason for this, we believe, is that the web has become more competitive. But we also pay attention to our conversion rate.
We are in the process of making a change right now that might really help. Someone pointed out that when you click on an item to buy it within Miva Merchant's standard interface, there is no confirmation that the item has been added to your shopping basket. This might lead some customers to believe that the website isn't working properly. They might not be savvy enough to check the shopping basket. They might even leave the site without ordering (perish the thought!)
These glitches can really hurt website sales. We went to the Miva Merchant site for third-party modules and found a script that displays the shopping basket after each item is added. We purchased the script and install, and are watching to see how it affects website sales and conversion rate. Our guess is that this will have a positive impact on sales.
Conclusion
Obviously, there are a lot of other ways to increase website traffic. The four listed above are a great place to start. If you're not into SEO, find somebody who is. If you are paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars of month for pay-per-click traffic, it may be wise to divert enough of those dollars to ensure that your website is the traffic-snagging, profit-generating machine you intend it to be.
How to Improve Your Search Engine Rankings
by Kit Elliott
When people think of search engine optimization, they immediately think of time consuming very tedious tasks that are way beyond their capabilities. That might be true if they put no time and effort into it. I do agree that improving search engine rankings in competitive niche markets require a good deal of knowledge and expertise. It's TIME to learn the basics of how to improve your search engine rankings. There is huge need for search engine optimization experts, but most websites don't find themselves in a very competitive niche market. Many websites can achieve top rankings by applying my optimization basics. All you have to do is put in the time learning and applying them.
Let me lay out the basics of search engine optimization. You can find a professional to do it but some professionals charge thousands to even get your foot in the door. Others have you fill out lengthy quote requests and tell you they'll be back in about three days with a quote. Then you wait for three days, and no email shows up. It might be worthwhile trying these basics out before paying an expert.
Please Note: If you feel you haven't achieved the results that you want, then try some affordable SEO experts who have more knowledge and expertise in their field.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search engine optimization is the process of coding a website to achieve top rankings in the search engines. You must concentrate on the website's most relevant keywords. These relevant keywords are the key phrases that people are most likely to type into the search engine to look for websites. These websites must present their products and services within a twenty second period to ensure that the visitor locks into their site. Let me give you a scenario that happens far too many times. Let's say you are looking for a great hosting company. You type in your favorite search engine and enter a few keywords: cheap hosting. You get thousands upon thousands of websites. What the search engine displays to you makes you decide whether or not to click on it. When you finally decide to click on it, how many times have you seen Google adwords throughout the whole left side in no particular format? How many times have you seen affiliate product advertising on the whole right side in no particular format? Goodbye! What could have been an easy sell turned out to be an easy click out of your website. This is not what you are trying to achieve.
The first step for search engine optimization is to choose the most suitable keywords for your site. Make a list of the most suitable keywords for your site and then split one or two of them to each suitable page within the site. One keyword per page is preferable, but two per page is not so bad. Sometimes it is useful to split a large page into two smaller pages so that a different keyword can be targeted on each page.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Matching keywords to a page's content is essential. A search engine robot and spider has caught on to all the tricks. Don't try to outsmart it.
Basic Search Engine Optimization Structure is vital to your success.
An obvious and overlooked aspect of search engine optimization is to make sure that search engine spiders can actually crawl to all of your website's pages. If the spiders and robots can't find them, then they won't get indexed, and we've wasted a lot of time on search engine optimization. Make sure that your navigation structure of your website is strong. Would you build a mansion on a one inch foundation? Probably not! Then why build your website mansion on a weak foundation. This means that all of your pages are linked together on every page. When the spider crawls throughout your website, it will crawl to all of the pages and back again. If there is one broken link, this could affect your search engine rankings!
Don't forget the not so obvious:
Robots and Spiders can't see links embedded in Java and most times Flash. When a spider and a robot crawls over your website, it only reads the text, and those embedded links are invisible to the spiders and robots far as search engines are concerned, they don't exist. Let's make a promise not to use them.
How many times have you clicked on a link and looked at the URL, and it contained about 32 extra letters and numbers in it? Google won't spider any URL that looks like this. Avoid using dynamic URLs.
Make sure all pages link to at least one other page. Links to pages that don't link out are called "dangling links". Google founders, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, once wrote about Dangling links
"Dangling links are simply links that point to any page with no outgoing links. They affect the model because it is not clear where their weight should be distributed, and there are a large number of them. Often these dangling links are simply pages that we have not downloaded yet..........Because dangling links do not affect the ranking of any other page directly, we simply remove them from the system until all the PageRanks are calculated. After all the PageRanks are calculated they can be added back in without affecting things significantly." -
extract from the original PageRank paper by Google's founders, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page.
It is good to structure the internal links so that targeted keywords are reinforced. For example, organize the links so that a topic's sub-topic pages link to the topic page with the right link text (see below), and vice-versa.
Off-page elements
Link-text ahref="url">Type in your link text
This is one of the two most important elements for good rankings. The link text can be on pages within your website or on other websites. Either way, it is essential. Your main keyword should be the text link or included in the text link. When possible, include the target page's main keywords in the link text, but don't use the exact same link text for every link that links to a page.
I always use Google as the example since they are the number one search engine today. Google attributes link text to the target page and attributes it as actually being on the target page. It treats its presence as being an important element of the target page. Links carry more weight if the text around them is concerned with the target page's topic and keywords.
On-page elements
The Title tag title>Type in your title words here
This is the second of the two most important elements for good rankings. Make sure that the page's keywords are contained in this tag, and place it near the front. I like taking the actual main keyword and placing it by itself with a period behind it and then explain the Title Tag. For example, let's say I own Google and I've reached the Adwords page. I would title it like this:
Adwords. Google's Adwords offers a pay per click solution for all your advertising needs.
The target keyword is "Adwords". Each page's Title tag should be different to the Title tags on the site's other pages.
The Description tag meta name="description" content="a nice description"
Most search engines display the description of your website so it's important you write an appealing description for your page and fill it full of the keywords that are contained within your actual site. Remember that list of keywords that you should have listed for your website. A search engine spider should see every one of those keywords in your actual page. Your Description tag should have most of those words. Google doesn't display the Description like they used to do but that's what I love about Google. They always keep the SEO's guessing what's next? Just when you think the robots and spiders don't care for the description, Google displays it.
The Keywords tag
meta name="keywords" content="some keywords"
I was just reading a popular keyword site that delivers the best possible keywords for your website. Then, they say enter each keyword and separate them with a comma. Do not separate these words with a comma. There is no need to separate them because the search engines ignore the commas. The words in the Keywords tag were never treated as keywords by the search engines; they were treated as text on the page. I keep hearing that the keyword tag is not as effective as it used to be, and then I'll click a link and it says it's an absolute. My advice to you is to put plenty of relevant keywords into the tag and include the keyword once at the front, and a second time further along the line. Do me a favor and do yourself a favor? Do not repeat a word more than 5 times. If you do, the search engines will think you are spamming them and they will drop you quick.
The H tag
Hn>Insert your headings or your titles of your text here
Notice the . The H stands for headings throughout your text and the "n" stands for the text size from 1 to 6. The smallest is 6 and the biggest heading size is 1. H tags are given more weight than ordinary text and, the bigger the H size, the more weight it receives. So include the target keyword in H tags at least once on the page, and two or three times if possible. Also, place the first H tag as near to the top of the page as possible.
Bold text
Bold text is given more weight than ordinary text but not as much as H tags. As much as is reasonable, enclose the keyword in bold tags when it appears on the page.
Text
The body should be easy to read with a very clean layout. Remember when I visited the hosting sites, and they have Adwords on the left, and they have the affiliate products on the right, and their actual text or body is 10 inches below. Let's cut out all the extra stuff. Treat your website as an entity. When you do that, buyers will remain on your website. Perfect! You have achieved your goal of getting traffic to stay.
In your text, use the main keywords as often as you can on the page without messing with this clean user-friendly layout.. Use the term once or twice very early in the page's body text and as often as possible throughout. Reword small parts and even add sentences to make sure that the keyword is well represented in the text.
In all probability, each word in the keyword will be found on the page separate from the keyword itself. This is good. In fact, if they are not there on their own, add a few of them through the page.
Alt text
img src="url" alt="Type in text that will show up on images on mouse over"
Alt-text is simple. Blind people have speech synthesizers that read pictures. The only way the blind person will be able to hear the picture is if you included the Alt-text. This is the text you see on pictures when you mouse over it. Guess what? Include the keywords in the alt text of all images on the page. Not to mention that this could definitely help your search engine rankings.
Summary
Make a list of keywords for your site. Rank the popularity of the keywords because that's what your visitor will type in the Search Engines.
Make sure each page of your website has at least one major keyword and split some pages if necessary
Make sure the links and link text contain your target keywords If possible, organize links from other sites to suit the target keywords and their pages.
Organize all the on-page elements to suit each page's target keyword.
Relax and shoot for number one rankings.
Kit Elliott is the author of The Traffic Toolchest. His ethical approach to marketing makes him one of the top experts in his field. His highly anticipated book Super Affiliates Guide to Riches is expected to launch by mid-August 2005 at http://www.superaffiliate.com . Check out The Traffic Toolchest at http://www.thetraffictoolchest.com to get over 70 valuable marketing tools.
The Secret To Getting Indexed In Yahoo
by Halstatt Pires
Getting indexed in Yahoo has become very difficult in the last few months. The indexing robot, Yahoo!Slurp, has become erratic. For some sites, the robot will view all pages, but only add a few to the Yahoo database. For other sites, sub-domain listings actually start disappearing! So, what's the secret to getting indexed?
Pleasing Yahoo!Slurp
The secret to getting indexed in Yahoo involves constant updates to your site. The updates, however, have to be done on both the site and through Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. Here's how you go about getting indexed.
The first step is to start a blog for your site. You can build a blog on your site or use a free service. I prefer blogger.com because it is easy to use, but you can use whatever you like. Once you have your blog up, you should make entries that correspond and link to content on your site. For example, I will post this article on my blog, Moshing Search Engines, and link it to the article page on MarketingTitan.com.
To supercharge the impact of the blog, you should also link to a site map on your site. If you don't have a site map, make one in HTML. The Yahoo robot will definitely follow it and index the pages. Don't rely on the xml site map strategy Google is promoting.
Once you have the blog up with content posted, you must turn the blog into a real simple syndication feed. Again, you can use your own system. I prefer to use a free service because I really don't have the time to waste on such things.
Feedburner.com seems to work find and is simple to use. Opening an account with Feedburner is so easy, I am not even going to explain it. At the end of the process, feedburner will kick out the link for your RSS feed. Here's where the magic begins.
If you have a yahoo email account, you need to access you're My Yahoo page. If you don't have an account, get one! Once you are on the My Yahoo page, do the following:
1. Click the add content link in the upper left hand under the search box.
2. When the new page opens, click the Add RSS by URL link on the right of the Find Content search box in the upper section of the page.
3. Enter the exact link provided by Feedburner and click add. Do NOT add the url for your blog.
4. Click the My Yahoo tab at the top of the page and refresh the page.
At this point, you should see your feed at the bottom of the page. If you don't, be patient. Yahoo is sometimes slow, so just try it again in an hour or so. When the feed is added, you should see the name of your blog and the title of each post under it. Yahoo can take up to a day to add new posts, so don't panic if they don't show up immediately.
Once you've completed the above, Yahoo will follow the links in the blog and index the pages on your site. If one of the links goes to a site map, you are in business. As an added bonus, Google will do the same thing. Let's look at an example.
We are currently building NomadJournalTrips.com, which has been up for about a month. Roughly 10 to 20 pages are being added each day. Nomad Rick's Ramblings is the blog for the site and the feed is included on four My Yahoo pages for various email accounts. Yahoo has indexed 95 pages and is about four days behind the page additions. Google has indexed 151 pages and is adding to the index every day. The blog and RSS feed are solely responsible for getting these pages indexed this quickly.
Depending on the size of your site, the process can take a few days or a couple of weeks. Every time you add new content, slap it into your blog with links. In no time, you will be taming Yahoo!Slurp.
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