How to generate traffic to your site (SEO) [updated]
Isn’t that what ever website owner wants to know? Average daily site traffic is lower than we might anticipate – one figure I’ve heard recently, but can’t find any solid data to back it up, is 5 hits (visitors) per day. That’s ~150 per month. Not too bad. But not that great. Check out sites like http://www.alexa.com/ to find what some big sites get for volume. But all it really takes is one or two good visitors who return frequently – especially if your site is selling something that they want.
So how do we increase traffic? Well, in the world of web, this concept is generalized under a blanket term called SEO – Search Engine Optimization. There are many factors that go into an optimized site. And it depends on your audience, you target method of being found, etc etc.
It’s safe to assume that Google is your friend, when it comes to traffic. And so it [?they?] should be. With a roughly 80% market share in search engine usage, they definitely have some clout. So it would be wise to know how Google’s page rank works. And I don’t. But I know a little.
- Domain name should contain your main keyword[s] for your site.
- Site Title should contain your keyword no more than three times (three is optimum).
- Site Description should contain your keywords as many times as legible, but still be human readable and make sense.
- Your content should contain your keywords at a balanced level – not too many (that’s called spamming), and obviously not too few.
- Your content should be focused on one topic area. As soon as you diversify your site, your page rank just decreased.
- Your headings (<h1> tags) should contain your keywords.
- Inbound links. This is one of the biggest – getting other credible (and within same/similar topic) websites to link to yours – is a huge pagerank booster.
Now there are other ways to get to the #1 position in a search engine. Though, it’s not in the relevant position, it’s in the paid position. That’s right – “advertise”. (google AdWords). Bid against other people in the same keyword base to get your site Ad up there. The higher you bid, the more likely you’ll be at the top (under the Sponsored links section). Yahoo’s ads (formerly Overture) are the same.
There are some tools (nice list here) available for helping you do keyword research. Getting the right keywords and phrases is important if you are targeting to a specific niche topic or geographical area.
Hope this article is useful for someone out there searching around. There are plenty of similar articles. Finding info from several sources always helps me to feel comfortable about the info. Good luck with your SEO!
check out this link for an awesome toolkit to skyrocket your SEO! http://www.seo-elite-secrets.com
You can also Skip SEO, and get some paid traffic. If you need a short term, very high traffic volume scenario (like for a promotion), then read this post http://loklomedia.com/blog/2010/09/how-to-get-a-lot-of-traffic-overnight-to-your-website/
