May 20, 2009 By 5 Comments

Increase Web Traffic: Part 4 of 4

Like we discussed in Part 1 of this series, links are great to increase search engine rankings, which in turn drive traffic; but people also follow links.  In the online space, there is a new market that your company ought to target in addition to your customers, the linkerati.

When developing your link building campaign, I recommend a three-pronged focus on awareness creation, customer generation, and getting the attention of the linkerati.

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1 Create Great, Unique Content
Search engines love to see fresh content, that is to say, content that is newly added or updated.  Partner this approach with quality link acquisition to not only help your site rank higher in the SERPs, but to additionally snag the attention of the linkerati.  The linkerati have throngs of followers who apply a constant pressure for great content; if you can provide the linkerati with the content they are looking for you’re doing them a favor, and in return, they will link to you.

Search engines give so much value to links because they are natural indicators of quality material; downside is you might have to literally ask a site to link to you if they don’t do so on their volition.  While this seems daunting, remember one great link can change your Web presence.

Creating content that your customers want to read is just as important.  When writing content, keep in mind (courtesy of CopyBlogger) the 3 C’s:  Be Clear, Concise, and Compelling.

2 Create a Site / Blog to Which People Want to Link
What about your site, which will ultimately be the virtual carrying case of your content?  If it was last redesigned in 2003, chances are your site bears the equivalent of wood paneling or avocado shag carpet.  For the love of all that is holy, upgrade.  Being on the Web and working with new clients I see my fair share of sites and if yours isn’t aesthetically strong then people are just unwilling to link to you, especially the linkerati.

3 Go Out and Get Links
Remember when I said one great link can change your site’s power?  I hope you do, because it was only two paragraphs ago.  Well that’s why you need to be proactive and ask people for links.  If you think your site has something of value to offer their visitors, suggest a link.  Want proof, I submitted Part One of this series to one of my favorite blogs and they picked it up; the resulting traffic was so significant I won a contest here at SageRock (and a $25 Amazon gift card).

Of course, we don’t want to stop at just one link.  Sure, some links are better than others, but there are hundreds of ways to get new links pointing to your site.  Going out and being active in your space can pay dividends; commenting on other blogs, for instance, will not only tally another link in your favor, but it will offer you exposure and credibility on the subject.

Filed Under: Featured, SEO Tagged With: increase web traffic
April 22, 2009 By 1 Comment

Increase Web Traffic: Part 3 of 4

Now we are on a roll!  The focus of Part Three is how to increase Web traffic from the search engines.

To give you some ball park stats on search engine market share:  Google holds approximately 65%, Yahoo about 20%, MSN about 8%, Ask has about 3%, and all the others hold the remaining 1-2%.  Why is this important?  Because in a perfect world your Web site analytics should reflect these percentages.  If they don’t, then you may be missing out on part of your target market.

If you remember, Part One stated you may increase search engine traffic through natural optimization or Paid Search.  Which one is better?  Well, that’s a bit of a trick question.  On the surface, natural seems better.  It is free and all, it elicits more clicks, and, believe or not, studies show that the conversion rate is nearly equal to that of Paid Search.  It is, however, the combination or mix of both that I think works best.

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As the graph illustrates, there are really two ways for increasing this kind of traffic: pay more or become more relevant.  It might not be the best philosophy, but you can always throw money at it (think Target).  Logic follows that the more you pay, the more your ads display, the more users see the ads, the more likely they will be to click on your ads, the more you’re likely to see conversions, and on and on and on.

Strategies for increasing your relevancy are also pretty basic.  Ensure you offer what you’re selling (you would be surprised how many miss this point).  In other words, if you’re a car dealership trying to sell flip flops, and flip flops are never mentioned on your site, ta da! It’s not relevant (and Google gets less money, yeah, I went there), which lowers your quality score.  So, if you’re selling a Ford F150, then I would be sure to include “Ford 150″ on my landing page.  You’re using landing pages, right?

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Google has something like 288 parameters that comprise their algorithm, working together to determine what pages get ranked where and for what terms.  No one outside the Google bubble knows exactly what these parameters are; I don’t, nor would I want to, have a clue what they all could possibly be, but there’s a general idea of what these parameters measure and how they impact your rankings.

DOMAIN NAME is the same as your Web site address, which is the same as your URL.  I’ve personally noticed that it carries a lot of weight.  If you want to rank for a specific phrase that gets a lot of traffic (think foreclosures.com or shoes.com) then really think about your domain name.  It isn’t everything, but it is one important part.  There are many online businesses built around a powerful domain (again think shoes.com vs. zappos.com)

ON-PAGE optimization refers to title and Meta tags, clean URLs, H1 and H2 tags, content, technical structure, et cetera.  I recommend using WordPress as your optimization tool; it makes it almost impossible to mess up (with the right plug-ins).  For example, while researching to write this four-part series, I knew I wanted to target “increase Web traffic.”  If you look at this page, it’s in the title tag, URL, H1 tag, and also in the content.

GOOD CONTENT has to be unique and, for the engine’s benefit, repeat the exact phrase you are targeting (“increase Web traffic”).  While optimizing content, however, don’t think solely of the engine’s satisfaction; it’s more important that users will read and appreciate it.

LINKS come in two shapes, on the page and external.  You can control intra-site, page links; you are writing them in, after all.  In this post, I will be sure to link to increase Web traffic back to my first post.  I will also ask my co-workers to give me a link or two :-)

If you follow these simple strategies and do the right research you will start to notice an increase in your search engine rankings.  In fact, research is the foundation for all of this.  Make sure you are targeting phrases that make sense, but also that will bring in some good traffic.  I use Google Keyword Tool among others, which provide statistics on how frequently a term is searched for and how many other Web pages compete for placement under that term.  The last piece of the puzzle relates to gaining off-page (or external) links, a topic with which we’ll conclude this series next time.

Filed Under: Featured, Paid Search, SEO Tagged With: increase web traffic
March 11, 2009 By 12 Comments

Increase Web Traffic: Part 1 of 4

Whoa, buddy. Before we discuss how to increase web traffic, we need to back track a bit and understand where this traffic originates. Part One of this four-part series goes into the sources behind web traffic, with parts two through four bringing focus on how to increase web traffic.

To start, don’t give me that “Well-it-has-to-be-quality-traffic” shpeal. There’s nothing wrong with traffic; when did just good old, eager-to-please traffic become a bad thing? I know the argument for “quality” traffic, but this series might just change your view. You give me traffic and I’ll show you how to get something out of it, but maybe that’s the sales guy talking.

To what I’m sure is your stunned amazement, I’ll tell you that traffic does not hail from fairies or magical genies (unless you’re really, really lucky), but instead from three, yes only three, places.

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The first is direct traffic, which is when visitors directly type your URL in the address bar. I would also classify when someone types your brand name in the engines as part of the direct category — we don’t want to give the engines all the credit (greedy little engines). Like I mentioned, we’ll get into more ways of increasing traffic in parts two through four, so briefly, you can increase direct traffic both online and offline, basically it comes down to branding and referrals.

The second (these are not in order of importance) is from the search engines. There are two ways to get this sought after traffic: 1) optimize your site to show up in the SERP, or 2) pay for it.

And my personal favorite: links. Search engine spiders follow links, and so do people. Essentially, you can capture wide audiences via the linking medium. Keep in mind, too, that not all links are created equal; and how you link is just as important as to where you link. Some links are tough to get, but I’ll show you why it’s worth it and how to get them.

Don’t know which of these you like best? Well, I’ve got great news because you don’t have to choose just one; you can implement strategies for all three. So, stay tuned for upcoming posts on how to increase web traffic.

Filed Under: Featured, Paid Search, SEO, Social Media Tagged With: increase web traffic, web marketing