How to Get Traffic for Your Website

It is a full-time job keeping your site ranking high on the internet or even getting traffic. Just like for any goal, you must have a plan of attack. You cannot expect for your site to get traffic or rank high in the search engines without a plan. I have had sites go from well over a million in Alexa ranking, down to just under 300k in a matter of 3-6 months.

First know why you want to get traffic for your website. What you are presenting on the internet? Are you selling a product, service or do you just want to share your thoughts? You have to know what you site is presenting to the public before you can tell the public about it and have a positive effect. Think about this, how can you sell a car without knowing the features? Do you think you will be able to sell it for the price you want and when you want or are you going to just get the best offer that comes along whenever that may be? You have to  maintain the control as a seller. For your site to rank high and traffic to increase, you have to "sell" your site on the internet by telling the world what you are selling and what the features are. Here are some helpful tips;

Use 3-4 SEO Keywords for every post, page, category on your site. Use Google's Keyword Search Tool to help find the best keywords. Look for keywords that are of medium quality. Use Social Networking! This is just as good if not better than Word of Mouth. Use your close relationships to spread your thoughts, products, services, etc. Sign up to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google+, etc. and link them all so that when you post an article on your blog site, the article is pushed to all your social media accounts. Once your friends Like it, Re-Tweet it or +1 it, your article is then pushed to their friends and the process continues. Blogging consistently is the best thing you can do for free. If you are already using relevant keywords and you have your social media accounts linked to receive posts, all you need to do is set a schedule to post once a day, 3 times a week or at least once a month! The more frequent the better, but do not wear yourself thin. You still want to make sure you post quality content, not junk that is going to be ignored. You want to engage the audience and keep them looking out for the next blog post! Also, if people like what you post, they will tell their social network! Website Directories have been around for a very long time. This is a repository of sites that are categorized. Users who search these directories find sites based on how the site authors submitted the information. Although there are many software that suggest they can submit your site to hundreds of directories within seconds, its often best that you take the time to manually submit your site to directories that are in-line with your sites content. Two example of website directories are DMOZ and Yahoo directory. Backlinks are a very nebulous topic! Using backlinks can be very useful and effective. There are website administrators who pay to have their sites listed on other sites in order to generate the appearance of being an authority. It really does not do you much good to have a blog about Sam's Favorite Dog Whistles linked to a blog about The History of Art in the Colonial World. When you site is popular, others normally link to it as a reference. This is great as long as your links are coming from other relevant sites. Some sites that are popular for creating quality backlinks are EzineArticles, ArticleBase and ArticlesSnatch. Natural Links are comments on forums or social media sites that include a link back to your site.  Many sites allow you to leave a comment for a post. Most often you also are allowed to leave a link back to your site. As long as you are leaving a quality comment and not blatantly abusing the comments for spam, the site admin will approve your comment and you will have now added a link back to your site. This technique is great if you are blogging about something in your field (i.e.. Art) and you read an article on a colleagues site that you decide you want to comment on. That comment linked back to you site not only links both your sites together and but being that the content is relevant, your rank improves. This works the same for forums that request help from experts! I work in the IT field so many times, I will research problems on forums and sometimes I posts answers to problems others IT professionals post. Linking back to my site helps improve my site rankings and increases my credibility in my field.

Getting traffic for your website is not difficult but it still requires a structured plan and following the above steps. In addition to the steps above, don't forget to advertise the old-fashioned way! Don't forget to advertise on your cars, bikes, surf boards and on your clothing. Get people who are not on the web, back onto the web and looking at your site.

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Thought Leadership - The Future of SEO

SEO, as experts have said innumerable times, is an ever-evolving art and science. From the nascent days when SEO was a mystery for many, till now when SEO is a term everyone knows and uses, SEO has seen many changes. The past has historical purposes mainly so let's talk about present SEO practices. Popular SEO practices can be categorized broadly into two segments. The first one is optimizing a website itself for a better ranking, often known as direct optimization. The other one is to submit articles, contribute to blogs, and spread PR campaigns to get the leverage in an indirect way i.e. indirect optimization. The question is what to expect in the near future as algorithms and user habit is continually changing.

Search engine algorithms have seen major changes in recent days. The engine wants to find more relevant and vital information for the user. They want to put forward websites which can provide the user the information they are seeking, sites whom the user will trust and believe and sites which don't have spammy materials. The phrase which is becoming increasingly popular is "high quality relevant information". More and more stress is being put on the content itself and not on how well linked or hyped it is.

Now, if this trend continues, if relevant, clear, substantive and targeted content decides the ranking then providing such content is going to be the key of Search Engine Optimization from now on. And thought leadership is nothing else than that. If thought leadership takes over from traditional SEO practices then SEO will consist of incorporation, making strategy, conceiving the product and making money.

Thought leadership's proper use will serve two purposes if my guess is correct. Firstly it will ensure top rank for any website adopting it and secondly it will add a huge amount to the cumulative human knowledge which can be found online. If search leadership SEO practice is followed then the search engines will find what they want to offer to the user, relevant and useful content and in return they will reward that site with a higher rank. When the search engine algorithms improve further, if not already improved enough, then they will determine the rank by the comparative quality of content. If the rank is lower means the content quality needs to be improved. As simple as that!

It is amazing at the speed technology is evolving and presenting new business ideas, challenges and solutions to us. Thought leadership which is a relevantly new term has gained importance as a solution in the fast-changing SEO world. Search engine algorithms will get further modified, social media will interact and interfere with our daily lives more and user demand from a search engine will change to an altogether new direction, but looking at the fact that thought leadership is platform independent, this approach is going to stay for long.

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Why a Site Map Is So Important for SEO

A site map is something that every website should have to help them obtain high rankings on the SERPs. Increasing traffic to a website is always a smart thing to do. Therefore, web pages with site maps do better than those that do not have them. They also tend to outrank those websites that do not have site maps. Therefore, it is smart for business or a website owner to spend the time to learn how to generate a site map. This one action will help the business or business owner get more traffic and have better rankings on the search engines rankings.

A site map can help a person bring more traffic to their website. Pages on a website are far more visible when a site map is used to tell the search engines what web pages are available for public consumption. A search engine has trouble indexing a website if that website does not have a xml map. A xml map tells a search engine where all its pages are located and how to access them. Therefore, a search engine has an easier time finding all the pages contained inside a website.

Each page can rank for a different keyword or even the same keyword (in some cases) when a well formatted xml site map is used to direct the search engine spiders. Therefore, a map gives a website a considerable advantage over those websites that do not have a xml map. When a search query is engaged, the sites that do not have a site map become subject to the whims of the search engine. The search engines will attempt to find all the web pages on a website; however, they will usually be unsuccessful at this activity. The website will experience far as less traffic than it will receive if the issue continues.

A xml map can link your web pages together. Inter- site linking is extremely beneficial because (as stated before) the SERPs use the map to index every page on a website. Once every page is indexed, they can rank each page or appropriate keywords. Not only that, every page lends page authority to the other pages and allows the other pages to have greater authority. Greater search engine rankings are possible because the pages are linked together and they leak page rank authority amongst themselves.

Finally, there are some website owners who like to build a visual site map so that their visitors can navigate their site easier. It is vital to note that this is different from the xml map generated for search engine purposes. The truth is that a sitemap generated for search engines is generally not readable by a person who is untrained in reading xml files. The map does not make much sense in the context of itself. Therefore, a person trying to generate a xml map for their users is better off following a template (like a navigation bar). This allows the user to figure out where they are at all times and how to get to the next place remarkably easily.

In closing, a site map is something that every strong website should have because it allows the website to have better rankings. Therefore, a business or a website owner should spend time learning how to generate a xml map. A site map will help them make a lot more money in the future and will help the website gain competitive positions in the SERPs.

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A Preview of Some Effective SEO Techniques

Search engine optimization is about applying great marketing strategies and techniques to have a site visible on the first pages of search engines. Having a website set up and running is not all for anyone who wants to exploit the power of the internet in business. You will definitely have to do more than just that if you expect to beat all other competitors in your niche as they already have done what you might have done in the beginning. For this reason you have to learn some effective SEO techniques and apply them to your business' website. Below is a breakdown of the steps to follow explained in a layman's language.

First and foremost, your site will need to have a customized name, often called the 'keyword', and which relates to what your business is selling or offering. For instance, if your site deals with bean bags, then its name, which is also called the 'URL' will have the name 'beanbag' somewhere in it. This makes it easier for millions of internet users who are interested in finding bean-bag related information, as the search engines will only give the first priority to URLs which relate to bean bags.

Second step that follows naming of a website is its content management and its basic design. Simple factors such as the color of the website's landing page and page title play a big role in maintaining viewers' reading trends. Readers are either attracted or bored by this reason, which also determines the bounce rate of your site. Bounce rate is the rate at which visitors click on your site and exit its first page immediately. Lower bounce rate indicates positive progress of viewer interest in your site. Content management comes along quality of material and information display in your site. Only by maintaining your viewers or at least holding them on your site for the first few minutes you will be able to market your business through the web.

Third step involves building and maintaining links to your site. This is achieved in various means such as exchange of URLs through blogging and use of social media marketing tools. All sites that relate to a given niche compete for recognition by search engines. Though there are several factors that are considered by search engines in relation to page ranking, link building contributes most. Writing and submitting informative and quality articles to article directories is one of the best link building strategies. Such articles should contain your keyword and link back to your site's URL. The more articles you have submitted to article directories that relate to your site, the better you are as a candidate of search engine rank tests.

When all that pertains to search engine optimization is done and considered, be sure to have your site maintained and updated often. During maintenance, be sure to use ping tools such as 'ping-O-matic' to update search engines all over the internet about new changes to your website. Also make sure that you keep track of visitors' trends in your site by use of analysis tools such as the 'google analytics' as this will help you in decision-making before you decide on any next move. Your site should also be supplied with fresh content and advertised through social media and feeder tools such as the 'RSS' feeder. Finally, ensure that you provide a channel through which viewers and interested parties can contact you and you can respond appropriately. With these simple but effective search engine optimization techniques, you will be better placed in search engines' results.

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Improve Search Engine Ranking - Tips And Guidelines On SEO Optimization

If you want to increase the amount of traffic your website receives, it is crucial that your web address show up on the top results on search engines. You need to know how to improve search engine ranking of your website. This will greatly help in exposing your contents, your services and your products to many people who could be interested in them. Website ranks are usually determined by search engines through the use of certain algorithms. Certain criteria should be met by a website in order for it to reach the top.

Each search engine sets up a set of criteria that may be different from other engine's criteria. It general, it actually depends on the overall content of your website; on which the level of optimization done; on the popularity of your website. This process wherein you are tailoring a website so that it obtains an improved search engine rank is called SEO or search engine optimization. Below are some important points that you may use as guideline for SEO optimization.

Keyword Research In here, you need to settle on which searches you want your website to appear for. Find out how many people may actually be searching for the website. Various tools on the internet can help in this process.

Targeting Keywords The niche keywords to use or to target are those with low competition. Available online tools can be used to check and determine how competitive a keyword is.

Out-Of-The-Box Thinking Do not concentrate only on main keywords. In targeting keywords, you should remember that it does not involve going for the most popular. It is usually what conventional marketers do. Instead, it is about targeting the highly relevant keyword that will help you to succeed in your optimization campaigns and marketing.

End User Focus You may be doing all your best to impress and be noticed by the search engines that you could be setting aside your end users. You should also pay attention to your target market and be able to provide them with their needs. You should consider that they also have goals they want to accomplish and provide for their needs on your website. Relevance for certain keywords will count on the highly competitive and superior contents you add on the website. For each keyword you choose, write a 200-300 word article and add to your site for its daily update. Online engines will notice you if you do this the most natural way you possibly can.

Custom Titles/Descriptions Every web page in the website of yours should have its appropriate title and most fitting description. Using similar tags for each page of the site will not facilitate the searching engines in seeking out what the subject of every page is or how relevant every web page is in your site. There are two critical fields to consider regarding Meta tags. First is the title tag, the highly important tag in SEO. Each of the pages must have its distinctive title. Another is the description tag. To ensure that no tags are missed or no links are damaged within your website, you can make use of available inspection tools online.

Simple Structure Simplicity in the structure, URL and navigation of a website can greatly help online engines in following that site. Use the standard HTML for coding your website, as much as possible.

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Web Marketing Strategies: Do Your Subheadings Have 'Header' Tags To Help Your Web Pages Rank Higher?

Most of you know as part of your web marketing strategies you should be taking advantage of properly using your keyword phrase in your headline. What a lot of people don't know is that their subheadings should not only contain their keyword phrase but should also be defined by the 'h2' tag.

Understanding 'Header' tags for better web page optimization. The search engines pay special attention to any 'header' which is defined in the source code of a webpage by tags such as these: h1, h2, h3, etc.

The headline of your content would be defined by the 'h1' tag, after that you want to use the 'h2' tag for any subheadings rather than just making the font type bold. Adding this technique to your web marketing strategies will give you a little extra edge when it comes to ranking higher in the search engines.

If you have a WordPress blog as part of you web marketing strategies here is a quick explanation. Inside the administrative panel of a WordPress blog in the 'Add New Post' section the HTML editor will usually only show a single line of icons starting with 'B' which will make the highlighted text bold. In order to get the icon for the function that allows you to work with the header tags you'll have to click on the last icon on the right to get a second row of icons to appear.

When you mouse over this icon you should see the words 'Kitchen Sink' pop up in a small grey box, click on that and presto! You can now see and use the other functions of the HTML editor. The icon you are looking for will show as a box with the word 'Paragraph' in the bottom row to the left. Clicking on this will give you a drop down menu which will normally show you; 'Heading 1' and 'Heading 2' etc.

A note of warning when using the 'h2' tag in your subheadings as part of your web marketing strategies! You might find it makes your subheadings too big or too small. To address this problem is beyond the scope of this article as it involves understanding source code.

Make good use of the header tags as part of your web marketing strategies. You'll find it only takes 20 to 30 seconds to do this to further optimize your webpage. That is a very short amount of time when you consider your webpage could be up on the Internet for years.

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