SEO: Google's Next Big Move

Will your website be ready, or will you be playing catch-up six months too late?

ovember 2003 might go down in history as the month that Google shook a lot of smug webmasters and search engine optimization (SEO) specialists from the apple tree. But more than likely, it was just a precursor of the BIG shakeup to come.

Google touts highly its secret PageRank algorithm. Although PageRank is just one factor in choosing what sites appear on a specific search, it is the main way that Google determines the "importance" of a website.

In recent months, SEO specialists have become expert at manipulating PageRank, particularly through link exchanges.

There is nothing wrong with links. They make the Web a web rather than a series of isolated islands. However, PageRank relies on the naturally "democratic" nature of the web, whereby webmasters link to sites they feel are important for their visitors. Google rightly sees link exchanges designed to boost PageRank as stuffing the ballot box.

I was not surprised to see Google try to counter all the SEO efforts. In fact, I have been arguing the case with many non-believing SEO specialists over the past couple months. But I was surprised to see the clumsy way in which Google chose to do it.

Google targeted specific search terms, including many of the most competitive and commercial terms. Many websites lost top positions in five or six terms, but maintain their positions in several others. This had never happened before. Give credit to Barry Lloyd of SearchEngineGuide.com for cleverly uncovering the process.

For Google, this shakeup is just a temporary fix. It will have to make much bigger changes if it is serious about harnessing the "democratic" nature of the Web and neutralizing the artificial results of so many link exchanges.

Here are a few techniques Google might use (remember to think like a search engine):

1. Google might start valuing inbound links within paragraphs much higher than links that stand on their own. (For all we know, Google is already doing this.) Such links are much less likely to be the product of a link exchange, and therefore more likely to be genuine "democratic" votes.

2. Google might look at the concentration of inbound links across a website. If most inbound links point to the home page, that is another possible indicator of a link exchange, or at least that the site's content is not important enough to draw inbound links (and it is content that Google wants to deliver to its searchers).

3. Google might take a sample of inbound links to a domain, and check to see how many are reciprocated back to the linking domains. If a high percentage are reciprocated, Google might reduce the site's PageRank accordingly. Or it might set a cut-point, dropping from its index any website with too many of its inbound links reciprocated.

4. Google might start valuing outbound links more highly. Two pages with 100 inbound links are, in theory, valued equally, even if one has 20 outbound links and the other has none. But why should Google send its searchers down a dead-end street, when the information highway is paved just as smoothly on a major thoroughfare?

5. Google might weigh a website's outbound link concentration. A website with most outbound links concentrated on just a few pages is more likely to be a "link-exchanger" than a site with links spread out across its pages.

Google might use a combination of these techniques and ones not mentioned here. We cannot predict the exact algorithm, nor can we assume that it will remain constant. What we can do is to prepare our websites to look and act like a website would on a "democratic" Web as Google would see it.

For Google to hold its own against upstart search engines, it must deliver on its Page Rank promise. Its results reflect the "democratic" nature of the Web. Its algorithm must prod webmasters to give links on their own merit. That won't be easy or even completely possible. And people will always find ways to turn Google's algorithm to their advantage. But the techniques above can send the Internet a long way back to where Google promises it will be.

The time is now to start preparing your website for the changes to come.

The Fatal Attraction of Online Marketers

Suppose you were offered 263 links coming into your website from 263 other websites all in one fell swoop. Everybody knows that the more inbound links you have, the higher you will rise in the search engine rankings.

Suppose further that these were real links from real websites that actually sold real products and services - no cheap FFAs throwing come-ons on a street corner on the bad side of town.

Suppose further that this offer included the reciprocal linking code for all 263 sites that just had to be cut and pasted into your website. Piece of cake.

Does it get any sexier than this? Are you drooling yet? Does the sweet perfume of "ka-ching!" float around your head? Is this love at first site?

Well, no, it's actually a fatal attraction, one you had best resist. One that could infect your website with deadly communicable diseases.

I resisted this very offer not long ago, and you should resist anything similar. Here's why:

1. The link pages on these sites are essentially link farms. The more links on a page, the less value they have in a search engine's eyes, especially when you start approaching or even passing 100 links. And don't expect any direct traffic from this kind of link, either.

2. There is a technical term for identical pages within a site or on multiple sites. It is called "duplicate content", and it is strictly verboten by the search engines. Here is what Google says about them: "Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content."

3. Do some quick math. You have 289 outgoing links, 263 of them are labeled "bad neighborhood websites" by the search engines ... so bad that they might even have been banned. What do you think will happen to your rankings?

Sadly, many webmasters fall for such tantalizing come-ons without thinking carefully about what the repercussions might be.

There is a lot of truly bad advice floating around the Internet on how to trick the search engines or find a short-cut to high rankings. This is one example of how following poor advice and hopping into bed with the wrong partner could kill your business.

Here is a good rule of thumb. Two's company. Three's a crowd. Four or more will get you arrested. OK, so I just made that up, and it's not very elegant. But it will keep you from falling for that inevitable offer with the come-hither eyes and the deadly communicable disease.

Three things you should NEVER DO

Three things you should NEVER do even if some slick-talking "expert" tells you it will cost you only $499 and will guarantee you gaggles of customers)

A webmistress asked me recently how much I would charge to optimize her site for the search engines. I took a glance at her site, and the first thing I found was a hidden link to an association she was part of.

I asked her why the link was there. She told me it was "for the search engines." It never ceases to amaze me how much really bad - I mean absolutely horrible - advice is floating around the Internet.

She never did hire me, but she did walk away with one free piece of advice that I now share with you: "Remove that link ASAP." Hidden links and hidden text are big trouble and something you should never do.

A hidden link is simply a link the search engine robots would follow, but is not visible to the naked eye. It could be a one pixel by one pixel graphic the same color as the background. Hidden text could be keyword written in the same color as the background.

If a search engine detects text in the same color as the background, it might penalize or even ban your site. In fact, one search engine expert has even suggested that if your background is, say, white, and you have a black table with white text on your page, that search engines would read that as hidden text (white background, white text) even though the text is clearly visible in the black table. Hmm. I will have to revisit my own site's colors.

Why are hidden links and hidden text bad? Because they try to cheat the rules. Cheating is bad, and search engines do not like playing with cheaters.

Duplicate pages are also a no-no. Search engines like original content made for human visitors. Five pages with the same article are seen as spamming, even if you did change "bicycle repair" to "fix your bike" in the second version and to "bike repair" in the third.

I was asked to exchange links with four websites this one person owned. The sites are very wholesome and I believe the webmaster is too. But the link pages on each website are identical: same introductory text and same links in the same order with identical wording each. All it would take is one complain to get all four sites banned, or at very least, severely demoted at Google and other search engines.

Needless to say, I turned down the offer, so that my site would not be associated with a "bad neighborhood".

Why are duplicate pages bad? Because they try to cheat the rules. Cheating is bad, and search engines do not like playing with cheaters.

Doorway pages are also bad. A doorway page is a page carefully designed to do well on search engine results, but is never meant to be used by humans. Often there is then a link to a website or there is some form of redirect.

Why not just optimize your site for the keywords you want, rather than try to trick the search engines? It probably will cost you less to hire a good search engine optimizer, and your website will not get banned.

I was approached by someone offering a combination of doorway pages and link farming (another no-no!). He did not call them by those names, even insisting they were not doorway pages. He wanted a few hundred dollars a month. There's nothing like your friendly neighborhood mortician coming to call when business is slow and bearing his own special brew for you to sample.

Why are doorway pages bad? Because they try to cheat the rules. Cheating is bad, and search engines do not like playing with cheaters.

By the way, "doorway pages" should not be confused with "entry pages". I get lots of my traffic entering through one or another of my articles. But these are real articles with real content, designed for human eyes and optimized for the search engines. This is a good tactic, because it adds content (which is what search engines are looking for).

Hidden links and text, duplicate pages and doorway pages are just a few of the "clever" tactics that can land you in the "Search Engine Slammer". If you spend much time on the Internet, you'll be approached about many others sooner or later.

Here is a simple question to ask yourself: "Would this be helping the search engines deliver the best results, or would it be trying to cheat their rules?" If it feels a little funny, don't try it. Or ask someone who knows.

Search engines are your friends. Be nice to them, and they'll be nice to you. You might just land yourself a berth atop Mount Google.

The 52 Top SEO Tips II Here Are more 10 Tips o SEO

From the obvious to the "Hey-I-never-thought-of-that-great-idea-before", here are 10 of the top 52 tips on how to optimize your website for its turbo-charge rocket ride up the search engine rankings.

Be bold.
Use the tags around some of your keywords on each page. Do NOT use them everywhere the keyword appears. Once or twice is plenty.

Deep linking.

Make sure you have links coming in to as many pages as possible. What does it tell a search engine when other web sites are linking to different pages on your site? That you obviously have lots of worthwhile content. What does it tell a search engine that all your links are coming in to the home page? That you have a shallow site of little value, or that your links were generated by automation rather than by the value of your site. Here is an example of deep linking, in this case to my personal happiness workbook.

Become a foreigner.

Canada and the UK have many directories for websites of companies based in those countries. Can you get a business address in one of those countries?

Newsletters.

Offer articles to ezine publishers that archive their ezines. The links stay live often for many years in their archives.

First come, first served.

If you must have image links in your navigation bar, include also text links. However, make sure the text links show up first in the source code, because search engine robots will follow the first link they find to any particular page. They won't follow additional links to the same page. You can see this in action at the link to the home page on this web site monitoring page

Multiple domains.

If you have several topics that could each support their own website, it might be worth having multiple domains. Why? First, search engines usually list only one page per domain for any given search, and you might warrant two. Second, directories usually accept only home pages, so you can get more directory listings this way. Why not a site dedicated to gumbo pudding pops?

Article exchanges.

You've heard of link exchanges, useless as they generally are. Article exchanges are like link exchanges, only much more useful. You publish someone else's article on the history of pudding pops with a link back to their site. They publish your article on the top ten pudding pop flavors in Viet Nam, with a link back to your site. You both have content. You both get high quality links. (More on high quality links in other tips.)

Titles for links.

Links can get titles, too. Not only does this help visually impaired surfers know where you are sending them, but some search engines figure this into their relevancy for a page.

Not anchor text. Don't overdo the anchor text. You don't want all your inbound links looking the same, because that looks like automation - something Google frowns upon. Use your URL sometimes, your company name other times, "Gumbo Pudding Pop" occasionally, "Get gumbo pudding pops" as well, "Gumbo-flavored pudding pops" some other times, etc.

Site map.

A big site needs a site map, which should be linked to from every page on the site. This will help the search engine robots find every page with just two clicks. A small site needs a site map, too. It's called the navigation bar. See how the second navigation bar at the bottom of Last Minute Florida Villas is like a mini-site map?

There you have it: 10 of the 52 Top SEO Tips, a free tip sheet that comes with Don't Get Banned By the Search Engines:

There is a lot more to search engine optimization, and there are always more details when looking at an individual site. But these tips should help any website significantly improve its rankings.

Five SEO Tips To Improve Your Search Engine Ranking

SEO Tips I
Beyond that, here are my top five tips for making your website easy for those "gazillions" to find it.

http://www.seo-writer.com/reprint/five-seo-tips.html

1. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but search engines don't read pictures. Make sure your key search terms are written out in text, not part of a graphic title you hire somebody to prepare for you. That also means you should not just show pictures of toys, but also write out the names, and possibly a keyword description with the title.

2. Have several pages of articles related to your website's topic. Use a different keyword search term for each article. For instance, one article might use frequently the term "safe toys for babies", while another might use the term "baby safety".

3. What's the URL of your website? Your name won't help you there. Your key search term will. In this instance, I might pick www.baby-toy-safety.com, for example (if that is one of your top keyword phrases). Hire somebody who knows what he is doing to develop the right keyword strategy for you BEFORE you choose your domain name.

4. What's the title of your page? I don't know how many times I see titles such as "Article" or "Contact us". Don't expect the search engine robots to get all excited about that term. And don't expect anybody to search for that term, either. Much better to title your page "Free article on safe toys for babies" or "Contact the *Baby Toy Expert* today". By the way, this is the single most important place to include your keyword phrases.

5. What about that navigation menu that appears on every single page of your website? Does it say "Contact the baby toy expert?" Or "about the baby toy expert". Or links about baby toys?" Need I say more?

If your website is about life insurance, you have little hope of hitting the front pages of any search engine. "Life insurance" is such a competitive search engine marketplace. Unless, of course, people are searching for a very specific and rare niche. Even then, I suspect you will need much more than these five tips.

In fact, there are dozens, if not hundreds of things you can do to win the search engine race. These top five search engine optimization tips are a great start, whatever your website is about.

How Search Engines Connect Sellers and Buyers

Maggie knows how to find what she wants. She lets her fingers do the walking - not in the Yellow Pages, but at Google.com. She wants to learn about bread baking, and you have just written Bread Baking Made Simple, and you sell some great baking tools. The good news is the Google and other search engines exist for one simple reason: to help Maggie find your website.

Google will show Maggie 534,000 resources on "bread baking". Unless she fails to find what she wants on the first page, or top 10 results, she will never find your website listed 124th in the results. (Actually, if she does not find what she wants in the top twenty or thirty results, she is likely to refine her search to "easy bread baking" or "home bread baking").

How do you get into the top 10 results so Maggie can find your website? You might have heard a lot about "search engine optimization" and "ranking analysis" and "algorithms". It all sounds very complex, but it really works on a simple 1 - 2 - 3 principle.

1. A search engine will show Maggie only resources (websites) it has on record. So make sure to submit your site to the key search engines and directories. You do not need to hire somebody who will charge you big dollars to do this. Nor should you fall for any of the auto-submit software or services. This should be done by hand, and anybody can do it. You can do it yourself.

2. The search engine will rank highest those websites it feels are most "important". This means you have to show that your website is most important. There are a few simple things you can do. First, make sure you have content. Text content equals importance on the Internet. Links, both coming in and going out, are key. Connectivity equals importance on the Internet. Get listed in the major directories (DMOZ.com, Yahoo.com, Zeal.com, JoeAnt.com, etc.), as this also is a measure of importance.

3. The search engine will show Maggie the most "relevant" high-ranking resources. Google might rank http://TheHappyGuy.com relatively very high, but it is totally irrelevant to a search for bread baking. How does a search engine know which websites are most relevant for Maggie's search? By the number of times "bread baking" shows up in text on your web page. By the variety of ways it shows up on your page. By number web pages you link to and that link to you with the words "bread baking" included.

Are you ready to roll? Possibly. Some of this you can easily do yourself. But there are three places that are worth spending money to help all the Maggies out there find your website and your book.

The first is choosing the right keywords. It might look simple, but "bread baking" might not even be the best keyword phrase to focus on. It might be "easy bread baking" or "home bread baking". The most searched terms might not be the best, nor the term with the least competition.

The second is to prepare a link strategy. The "link exchange" pages that are getting more popular each day are also becoming less effective each day. Here are just a few of the linking factors that will affect whether Maggie discovers your book:

* The total number of incoming and outgoing links
* The importance of the sites you link to and from
* The relevancy of the sites you link to and from
* Which pages on their sites and on yours are being linked
* What you include in the incoming and outgoing links
* Where on the page the links are placed
* How many links are on those pages
* How many pages are linked to or have outgoing links
* The ratio of links to content on the pages involved

You can implement the strategy yourself, but it is worth hiring somebody to put it together for you. Ask the person what factors she would consider when building a strategy for you. If she does not mention several of the above, your money is better spent elsewhere.

The third place to invest is to have somebody knowledgeable review your html code. Chances are that you have missed numerous opportunities to let the search engines know your website is relevant, and possibly some opportunities to show it is important.

Cyberdust, ruined, or busted? Web Site Traffic is the Engine Necessary to Make Money Online

Web site traffic is the life blood of any web site and is critical to the success of any online business.

Without it you can’t make money online or generate leads. Targeted traffic is simply traffic from sources and locations that are relevant to your site. If you have looked into generating traffic, you have probably seen offers of 100,000 hits for $50 or whatever.

Not too often will such tactics work. You really need to find your niche, develop a product that will interest them, and get into the environments where these prospects will be active online.

Web site traffic is becoming increasingly more expensive to develop. Regardless, it is still critical for a small online business to know where traffic is coming from and understand what people are doing when they visit their web site. Web site traffic is essential to having a thriving online business for the long haul.

Web site traffic x conversion = results (i.e. money)

Web Site Traffic is the life blood that determines whether or not your site makes money or lays dormant collecting dust, ruined, or busted. Without traffic, you have a pretty site you can show off to your mates and fellow entrepreneurs but not one that will put money in your pocket.

What if you do have a good site, a great product, a solid business plan already in place? Where exactly do you go to build consistent traffic to your web site?

BLOGGING

Web site traffic is partially generated by search engines and more web site traffic will be directed to and from blogs if the blog itself ranks highly. Blogs get much attention from Google and many other indexes hungry for new, user generated content.

Blogging has become a part of day-to-day life. People have taken to share their views and opinions and post their comments online. Blogs and RSS feeds go hand in hand. Since more people are into blogs, website owners are finding that this has become a valuable tool in getting website traffic. Regardless of the source, Web site traffic is a necessary condition for success in making money online.

ONLINE FORUMS

Daniel Stouffer - Forums are an excellent medium to get increased web site traffic. It’s simple to execute traffic building from forum. You simply ask a few questions you need answered, answer a few questions you have the answers for, or make comments about topics you have knowledge about. This is a simple formula as long as you don’t “spam” your postings. Keep you marketing speak out of your posts and leverage your signature line for your short marketing pitch.

Find forum owners with a lot of members that are discussing many issues related to your product or service. This is a good bet and effective starting point. You can get a good, broad distribution of your name, product, and knowledge without having the members feel you are spamming.

Forums are really meant to be conversations about certain topics. Inserting advertising into a topic such as issues facing our low carbon economy just doesn’t make sense. Keep on topic and you’ll be fine.

ORGANIC SEARCH ENGINE RANKING

Search engines are text based and dominated by content. The new computer algorithms are looking for repetition of keywords, relevant content, and combinations of statistical numbers for ranking purposes. There is no reason why writing for search engines should be incompatible with company objectives.

Search engines tend to look for particular Web page content construction when “spidering” and indexing Web sites. The absence of certain attributes, or the over-prevalence of keywords, can seriously impact your ability to achieve Web site listing and your subsequent ranking success. Keep your web site content on topic to your service offering and focused on the needs and wants of your target prospect.

If messaging is focused squarely on your prospect, your organic search rankings will benefit as a result.

ARTICLE MARKETING

Article marketing is a super and cost effective way to broadcast your message and knowledge around a certain particular. The articles typically contain a sample outline about a topic with a specific audience in mind. Case in point is this article itself. The general topic revolves around making money online through the effective use of traffic building tactics.

Often, the article reader will just skim the content in order to find something of interest - Making money online EQUALS lots of traffic PLUS many free sources of traffic like traffic exchanges PLUS effective marketing messages targeting to the needs of your prospects.

Article marketing is a strategy that involves writing articles that are optimized for certain keywords. Articles are often keyword driven with an emphasis towards the marketer’s area of knowledge or service offering. The keywords that you optimize your articles for should not have too many competing keywords, pages, and products thus enabling you to get quality position in the search engines.

Content is always the bait for visitors. The better and more useful the content, the more likely prospects will check out your resource box (hint, hint), and decide to jump over to your website. Content that does not help the reader, involve the reader, or help support your web offering is just going to be fluff and of little value.

TRAFFIC EXCHANGES

Free web site traffic is initially labor intensive when it comes to traffic exchanges but the investment of your online marketing efforts will bring you longer term success online. Online business owners who seek increased web site traffic hope that their web site is a favorite in the internet community. Recent surveys have indicated that the internet population now exceeds one billion people and web site marketers who crave a significant piece of that lofty figure are always searching for more visitors.

Online customers look for more than a name and number when they need goods or services. Use traffic exchanges as a method to provide free Internet advertising to show prospects your business information and services. Build up your reputation and your trust level with the surfing members and you won’t have any trouble generating traffic to your site.
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4 Easy and Proved Ways to Pull in Traffic to a New Website

The reason so many people fail online so quickly is because they don’t get traffic, at least not enough of it.

The problem is, people end up spending money on advertising without making much (if any) profit back, or they simply spend too much time trying to get free traffic and burn themselves out.

Of course, once you’re successful you can pay someone to get you the traffic, but how do we get out of the never ending cycle of trying to get traffic without wasting time and money?

Well, I am going to start with the fundamental tasks that you should focus on first, then we’ll take it from there…

1. Directory submissions.

This can be achieved using automated submission software or can be done by hand. It’s a little dull but will result in lots of back links to your website for better visibility in the search engines. This is pay off as you add more content and back links to your site.

2. Social bookmarking.

This is about submitting links to the major Web 2.0 social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Propeller and Reddit (to name just a few). The great thing is you can use software such as socialmarker.com to make the process far easier. You can also buy inexpensive software to automate the whole process.

The benefit of social bookmarking your content is so that you gain back links from these authority sites (which is essential for being found in the search engines) but also, if you content is worthwhile and interesting, you increase the chances of your submission being passed around other readers really quickly, which can of course result in a lot of traffic to your website.

3. Back links.

Back links are the backbone of getting your pages listed high in the search engines. The more people link to your site naturally (i.e. without being paid or listing your site in some sort of link farm where the site linking to you is junk), then the better your rankings will be in the search engines. Not to mention the direct traffic that will come from the actual links from other sites too.

4. Collaboration.

Most people want to be the “one person wonder” or the sole entrepreneur in their business, which is fine. However, don’t underestimate the sheer power of teaming up with other well established websites directly and offering your content, help or other services in exchange for some exposure to your own website.

The classic “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” effect comes into play here and trust me, it works like a charm providing you genuinely approach people to help them first.

There are of course, many other ways to start getting traffic to your site such as writing articles like this one, or getting involved with many of the Web 2.0 properties out there online today. The more social you become with your website at other people’s parties, the more people will come to your party when you come to tell them about it…just like real life isn’t it?
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Generating Online Website Traffic

The Truth About Generating Online Website Traffic

It is easy to build a website these days, with many of the free blogger networks offering everything from ready-made templates to HTML tutorials. It is that easy, but generating traffic to your website, well that’s another matter. With almost anyone propping up a website or two, getting the right amount of attention will take some effort on your part. It is, in a way, similar to a bookshop seeking customers. With many new ‘bestsellers’ vying for shelf-space, the only way these books get picked up is as a result of ‘getting the word out’. That phrase is the key to generating a healthy dose of internet traffic to your website. The major handicap that most internet marketers face is a lack of internet traffic, mainly because they failed to get the word out.

So let’s say that you have managed to get the website up and running, now the only thing left for you to do is to go on a marketing binge. Getting visitors to your website is the objective, that’s a given. So with that in mind, there are a few things that you can do to ensure that you achieve your objective.

You can start by incorporating a feed on your website, try ‘feedburner’ ( a google tool that allows blog owners and podcasters the ability to manage their RSS feeds and track usage of their subscribers), as that seems to be the popular choice and it is free to use - which is an additional incentive. The point is that any time you add fresh content to your site, it gets converted into a ‘feed’, making it possible for many feed subscribers to access it immediately. The whole idea behind the ‘feeds’ is that it makes content available to multiple internet users and provides content in real time, allowing you to garner some valuable traffic in the process. Now feeds are just a small step in the right direction. You will need to make sure that your site url is posted to the various search engines out there thereby increasing your site’s reach.

But the above method is utilized by nearly every webmaster and may not get you the huge increase in traffic that you are looking for. So here are a few additional strategies.

You can visit other websites; provide comments to blogs resulting in valuable one way links. You can utilize some of the paid traffic sites to increase your traffic. Though webmasters do use the paid traffic option as a marketing tool, it works only if the traffic provided is real and not one delivered by ‘web robots’ (used for web-spidering at a much higher speed than humanly possible). It’s essential that you check out the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page of the ‘paid traffic’ site to see if the site in question provides this source of traffic. If they do not, then you can be sure that the traffic delivered by such sites is not that beneficial.

Article marketing, now that’s a method that works seamlessly. The traffic generated by way of posting articles to some of the major article directories is so effective that webmasters have started using it for affiliate marketing, another cool way to make money as long as you are able to generate the traffic. But here is the catch, you need to be able to write well, for it is only a good article that will generate traffic. In addition to the directories, you can try your hand with some of the classified sites such as google and ebay OR utilize the benefits of google ad sense.

There is no doubt that marketing online will take a little effort on your part and it will be sometime before you can see some meaningful results. However at the end of the day, having worked through some of the approaches listed above, you should be able to generate a healthy dose of internet traffic to your site.
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Generating Online Website Traffic

The Truth About Generating Online Website Traffic

It is easy to build a website these days, with many of the free blogger networks offering everything from ready-made templates to HTML tutorials. It is that easy, but generating traffic to your website, well that’s another matter. With almost anyone propping up a website or two, getting the right amount of attention will take some effort on your part. It is, in a way, similar to a bookshop seeking customers. With many new ‘bestsellers’ vying for shelf-space, the only way these books get picked up is as a result of ‘getting the word out’. That phrase is the key to generating a healthy dose of internet traffic to your website. The major handicap that most internet marketers face is a lack of internet traffic, mainly because they failed to get the word out.

So let’s say that you have managed to get the website up and running, now the only thing left for you to do is to go on a marketing binge. Getting visitors to your website is the objective, that’s a given. So with that in mind, there are a few things that you can do to ensure that you achieve your objective.

You can start by incorporating a feed on your website, try ‘feedburner’ ( a google tool that allows blog owners and podcasters the ability to manage their RSS feeds and track usage of their subscribers), as that seems to be the popular choice and it is free to use - which is an additional incentive. The point is that any time you add fresh content to your site, it gets converted into a ‘feed’, making it possible for many feed subscribers to access it immediately. The whole idea behind the ‘feeds’ is that it makes content available to multiple internet users and provides content in real time, allowing you to garner some valuable traffic in the process. Now feeds are just a small step in the right direction. You will need to make sure that your site url is posted to the various search engines out there thereby increasing your site’s reach.

But the above method is utilized by nearly every webmaster and may not get you the huge increase in traffic that you are looking for. So here are a few additional strategies.

You can visit other websites; provide comments to blogs resulting in valuable one way links. You can utilize some of the paid traffic sites to increase your traffic. Though webmasters do use the paid traffic option as a marketing tool, it works only if the traffic provided is real and not one delivered by ‘web robots’ (used for web-spidering at a much higher speed than humanly possible). It’s essential that you check out the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page of the ‘paid traffic’ site to see if the site in question provides this source of traffic. If they do not, then you can be sure that the traffic delivered by such sites is not that beneficial.

Article marketing, now that’s a method that works seamlessly. The traffic generated by way of posting articles to some of the major article directories is so effective that webmasters have started using it for affiliate marketing, another cool way to make money as long as you are able to generate the traffic. But here is the catch, you need to be able to write well, for it is only a good article that will generate traffic. In addition to the directories, you can try your hand with some of the classified sites such as google and ebay OR utilize the benefits of google ad sense.

There is no doubt that marketing online will take a little effort on your part and it will be sometime before you can see some meaningful results. However at the end of the day, having worked through some of the approaches listed above, you should be able to generate a healthy dose of internet traffic to your site.
Garry Macdonald & Kieran Smyth provide marketing success systems to help you significantly boost your business profits. Want to learn more about how to develop amazing marketing strategies? Claim Garry & Kieran’s popular Free Marketing Magic Report identifying marketing strategies you can implement immediately guaranteed to explode your sales, available at: =>

http://www.professionalsinmarketing.com

Ways to Increase Page Views and get Targeted Traffic to Stay on Your Site

You cannot build a successful internet based home business unless you are able to get targeted traffic to visit your website and stay on it long enough so that you can get your message across and act on it.

A websites’ level of success is related to the number of page views it gets each day. Page views are generated by unique visitors who surf onto your site and check it out in order to find the answer to information they are looking for on how to do something.

Enticing visitors to click through the pages of your website is a great way to keep them there and the more time they spend the more likely it is that they will get your message and take some action.

There are four easy steps you can use to increase page views:

1. Use proper highlighting and formatting.

The style and appearance of your site is very important. If your website has great sections of hard to digest text, people will surf away as quickly as they got there.

You can increase the length of time they spend on your site by highlighting all the keywords and phrases. White space is not something that you need to worry about as generally, highlighted text that has white space around it is more attractive to the human eye and makes for easier reading and scanning of the page.

2. Put a site map and article teasers onto your main page:

A site map makes it easier for visitors or search engines to navigate your website.

You can also increase page views by placing excerpts or teasers from other pages of your site onto your homepage and link each teaser to the relevant page. This will help to encourage visitors to click through to the next page. It is also an excellent idea to provide a site map to make it easier for people as well as search engine spiders to navigate your site.

3. Unique well written content is crucial to getting visitors to stay:

People are hungry for good quality information and this is one of their main motives for surfing the internet. Content is king when it comes to the internet more so than anywhere else. If your site is able to give them the information they require, they will be more than willing to check it out and more likely to bookmark your site for return visits and recommend it to other people. Your content is also more likely to get picked up by the search engines which will dramatically increase the number of people who visit your website.

4. Keep the copy short and simple

When it comes to website copy, short and simple is best. Give the information in short concise easy to read paragraphs. People have short attention spans on the internet. No one will read a thousand word articles. People generally tend to scan articles rather than read them. They will only read an article from start to finish if the style and content are so good that they can’t help but read everything.

Above are the four steps that you will need to implement in order to increase your page views and get people to stay on your website long enough to get your message across.
Michelle Jayes is a home based business owner who lives in Johannesburg South Africa. Her website is aimed at finding viable internet marketing ideas that include a FREE website setup and a thirty days training course. You can learn more at http:www.Online-Income-Business.com

How to Get More Website Traffic & Convert Visitors into Buyers in Just 3 Steps

he sheer number of e-commerce websites that exist today is enough to overwhelm any consumer and make the Internet marketing challenge for business owners seem insurmountable. Bob Regnarus, also known as “The Leads King,” has made a successful business out of helping business owners drive more traffic to their websites and inspire visitors to buy once they get there.

Bob was selected to offer his web marketing expertise in “Start Your Own Information Marketing Business,” a new book from the Information Marketing Association. This new book is an essential how-to guide for anyone interested in starting an information marketing business, and features insight from 12 of the biggest names in the industry. In it, Bob shares his secrets for maximizing online sales through search engine optimization and more.

Here is the Leads King’s 3 Basic Phases to Getting More Website Traffic and Sales Now

1. Understand What You Really Need from Your Website

Determining what your website can and cannot do is the first phase. Setting the right expectations for a site can help businesses invest their time and effort into marketing to target customers. The point is to avoid wasting time on people who will never become customers.

Remember your website should be a lead generation tool. So, you want to focus on targeted leads that are a perfect match for the products and services you provide. Make sure you build an opt-in option on your website’s landing page. This is where you make an offer in order to collect contact information from visitors. You might offer free, valuable information such as access to a newsletter or a complimentary lesson or session. This is important to your strategy for making building your list and starting a customer relationship that leads to more sales.

2. Build an Attractive Site With Your Objective in Mind

The second phase of a web traffic campaign is to build or alter a website so it fits the new strategy for generating sales leads and attracting target customers. An attractive website is easy to understand, and is interesting and engaging. It does not mean you should spend money on expensive graphic design or Flash animation - in fact Bob strongly advises you not to waste your money on elements that will not directly help you increase your website sales conversions. Instead, focus on communicating to visitors what your business offers and why they should be interested.

3. Drive Additional Traffic Through Advertising, SEO and Promotion

The third phase of the campaign is to make it easy for potential customers to find your website through search-engine optimization (SEO), article marketing, pay-per-click advertising and other advanced promotional tools.




Investing in online advertising is crucial to promoting your website, but there are also many low-cost strategies. Effective SEO tactics include creating external links, regular website updates and keyword saturation. Other little known channels for driving website traffic include promoting sites through blogs, articles and press releases. According to Bob you don’t have to be a technological wizard or a marketing genius to improve your search engine ranking and generate traffic to your website.

Follow Bob’s step-by-step directions and you will get more website traffic and sales. To learn more about SEO opportunities and discover how to create effective advertising campaigns with search engines look for more advice from Bob in Start Your Own Information Marketing Business. This information marketing how-to guide is available in bookstores now.


About the Author:

Robert Skrob, President of the Information Marketing Association teaches new entrepreneurs and small business owners how to build 6 and 7 figure income information marketing businesses simply by modeling top experts like Bob Regnarus. Now you can get his FREE Video revealing how 5 info-marketers easily created and marketed fast-selling products & how you can too. Get free access now at http://www.infomarketingstartup.com


Generating Online Website Traffic

The Truth About Generating Online Website Traffic

It is easy to build a website these days, with many of the free blogger networks offering everything from ready-made templates to HTML tutorials. It is that easy, but generating traffic to your website, well that’s another matter. With almost anyone propping up a website or two, getting the right amount of attention will take some effort on your part. It is, in a way, similar to a bookshop seeking customers. With many new ‘bestsellers’ vying for shelf-space, the only way these books get picked up is as a result of ‘getting the word out’. That phrase is the key to generating a healthy dose of internet traffic to your website. The major handicap that most internet marketers face is a lack of internet traffic, mainly because they failed to get the word out.

So let’s say that you have managed to get the website up and running, now the only thing left for you to do is to go on a marketing binge. Getting visitors to your website is the objective, that’s a given. So with that in mind, there are a few things that you can do to ensure that you achieve your objective.

You can start by incorporating a feed on your website, try ‘feedburner’ ( a google tool that allows blog owners and podcasters the ability to manage their RSS feeds and track usage of their subscribers), as that seems to be the popular choice and it is free to use - which is an additional incentive. The point is that any time you add fresh content to your site, it gets converted into a ‘feed’, making it possible for many feed subscribers to access it immediately. The whole idea behind the ‘feeds’ is that it makes content available to multiple internet users and provides content in real time, allowing you to garner some valuable traffic in the process. Now feeds are just a small step in the right direction. You will need to make sure that your site url is posted to the various search engines out there thereby increasing your site’s reach.

But the above method is utilized by nearly every webmaster and may not get you the huge increase in traffic that you are looking for. So here are a few additional strategies.

You can visit other websites; provide comments to blogs resulting in valuable one way links. You can utilize some of the paid traffic sites to increase your traffic. Though webmasters do use the paid traffic option as a marketing tool, it works only if the traffic provided is real and not one delivered by ‘web robots’ (used for web-spidering at a much higher speed than humanly possible). It’s essential that you check out the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page of the ‘paid traffic’ site to see if the site in question provides this source of traffic. If they do not, then you can be sure that the traffic delivered by such sites is not that beneficial.

Article marketing, now that’s a method that works seamlessly. The traffic generated by way of posting articles to some of the major article directories is so effective that webmasters have started using it for affiliate marketing, another cool way to make money as long as you are able to generate the traffic. But here is the catch, you need to be able to write well, for it is only a good article that will generate traffic. In addition to the directories, you can try your hand with some of the classified sites such as google and ebay OR utilize the benefits of google ad sense.

There is no doubt that marketing online will take a little effort on your part and it will be sometime before you can see some meaningful results. However at the end of the day, having worked through some of the approaches listed above, you should be able to generate a healthy dose of internet traffic to your site.
Garry Macdonald & Kieran Smyth provide marketing success systems to help you significantly boost your business profits. Want to learn more about how to develop amazing marketing strategies? Claim Garry & Kieran’s popular Free Marketing Magic Report identifying marketing strategies you can implement immediately guaranteed to explode your sales, available at: =>

http://www.professionalsinmarketing.com

Six No-To-Low Cost Profit Tactics For Your Website

I’ve seen some crummy sites. What about you? How could they make any money? A poorly done website ruins credibility and runs visitors away before your site has had a good chance to present your offer.

Having spent 35 years in retail furniture we learned that if you want to sell top end furniture fast enough to make money each month there are several things retail store managers have to do to make it in today’s world.

First - The store has to be clean. The floor, the walls, the actual furniture itself, and, the bathroom! That’s where our comparison falls apart as there is no bathroom in a website.

Second - The store has to “make sense”. The arrangement of the inventory, the signage, the bedspreads on the beds, and the logic of store branding logos, posters, and policy signs has to look professional as well. The overall look has to be clean and “feel right”.

Third - What about colors! The ladies in this business know things about color and what goes with what than most men would never know.

In furniture stores the colors need to be those that are popular in furniture today, not last year. I wonder how that applies to websites?

Fourth - The salespeople have to speak clearly and without obvious defects in their speech habits. It’s the same with websites. In retail stores the salespeople need to be clean and spiffy and give their full attention to the customer in order not to appear disinterested.

You can see where this would apply in websites to pictures of people, like in testimonials, and scrupulous attention to detail and spelling.

Spelling! There’s a biggie. It deserves a section of it’s own. It is said that a potential customer’s enthusiasm will notch down a bit for every misspelling and grammatical error. It pays to proofread!

Experts suggest that you should have another person do your proofreading for you, since you are not as likely to catch all of your own mistakes.

Fifth - The sales area has to be kept neat and businesslike, but not barren and empty. Like the rest of the place, it has to be neat and clean. It should be easy to purchase!

Sixth - One last thing, in our stores we always strove to have the best music possible playing in the background and it had to sound good everywhere in the store. We had it at a level high enough to be heard well but not so high that it made it difficult to converse.

In the website world that might compare to having clean, easy to understand audio and video. Hmm…is there a place for appropriate background “score”?

Your business website should come across to your visitors as a professional site with which to do business. It should be welcoming and help them around in order to make the sale as easy as possible.

Your website says a lot about your business, so you need to make certain it is saying positive things.

If you want to make sure your website isn’t falling short on the details of general houskeeping, find a few sites that are trying to do something similar to what you are attempting, and use them for comparison sake. That’s a good place to start.

And my favorite! Keep it simple. My sales pages start at the top and go to the bottom. How are you going to lose your vistor with that?

Keep it simple, kill off the clutter, make it easy to read, and don’t allow spelling and grammar errors. Your customers will like that and be more inclined to buy.

Oh, one last thing. Ask for the sale. Don’t waffle here, be strong. You know what you want them to do, and, if your copy is any good, it contains many benefits for your visitor. Customers want those benefits (like more sales, higher conversion rates, and fewer returns) and they are willing to pay to get them.

Be very direct, but smooth. Say to the customer… “Click this button and when you get to Paypal check that the quantity is correct and that the price is right. If it is, continue with your purchase and start profiting from an improved website right away!

Thank you for your business!
Riley West has trained retail management for 30 years. Starting in 2006 Riley began studying Internet Marketing methods and Web Page Design. Go to his popular blog today and you’ll receive a FREE MONEY MAKING PDF, A NEW, FREE EBOOK, and a good READ too! Go to :=> http://www.makinganinternetmarketer.com

Marketing your Business on the Internet - The Basics

Even if you know how important it is to market your business on the internet, you don’t have thousands of dollars to spend each month, and you may not be an expert on Search Engine Optimization or Keyword Advertising (yet).

This article is about using consistent, free (or cheap) marketing strategies that you can start using today to make a difference in your business.

The Goal of marketing your business on the internet is to get consistent traffic to your site from your target market.

The three key words to remember about internet marketing are Consistent, Targeted, and Smart.

Consistent marketing practices will help you build a trusted presence on the web, and catch people who visit the same sites regularly. New people are always suspect, and you may not start to get results until you’ve been around long enough for people to trust you.

A Targeted strategy will focus on the type of person who is most likely to be interested in your product or service. If your ideal customer is a truck driver between 40 and 50 years old, you should not be marketing to young single moms on Myspace.

Smart marketing means using the tools the big kids use. Find out what successful marketers are doing to get such high traffic and do what they do. My mentor Walter Hailey always told me that “It’s easier to copy genius than to create mediocrity.”

It will take time to create the kind of web presence that will generate consistent traffic (and revenue) for your business, but as long as your effort is targeted, consistent, and smart, you will attract quality customers without spending thousands of dollars or hundreds of hours of your time.

Let’s get down to specifics - what can I start doing in my business tomorrow that will put me on the path to generating more traffic for my site and putting more money in my pocket?

I will assume that you already have a website for your business, and a professional email address with a unique url (not generic like yourname@gmail. com or business@yahoo. com). If you don’t have one yet, you can get one free from Google. Your next step is getting your business name, image, and content onto the web where your target market will find it and become a customer/client.

There are three main categories of marketing strategies to investigate as you are creating a marketing plan: Networking, Blogging/Article Writing, and Advertising.

1. Social or Business Networking.
Become a part of a networking community where you can build your own profile or web page and interact with others in the community. There are a ton of networking sites on the internet, some of which are mostly for socializing about niche topics, others are more focused on doing business. Choose 3-5 networks to join, and make sure all of them are connected to each other, and back to your website.

Here are a few to get you started: Facebook, Myspace, Squidoo, Twitter, LinkedIn, Direct Matches, Shmoozii, Biznik

2. Blogging and Article Writing.
They go together like peanuts and raisins. Every article you write for the blog should also be published on the web to as many article directories as possible, with your link included in the resource box. The more places your link appears on the web, the better. Update the blog frequently, put an RSS feed on your website and social networking profiles, and tell your friends about it. Search engines love fresh, new content that matches keywords, so including keywords in the blog content can help searchers find you.

For the beginner blogger, Google’s Blogspot is a good way to get started. Wordpress, Squarespace, Typepad, and Thoughts.com all have great templates and can be set up in a day.

As for Article Directories, you can submit by hand, but I wouldn’t recommend it. People getting real results with article writing have an automated service that submits articles to hundreds of directories automatically. I have found two: SubmitYOURArticle (web-based) and Article Submitter Platinum (Software). They are not free, but they are worth it if you choose article writing as one of your marketing strategies.

3. Advertising using Adwords, keywords, pay-per-click, or traffic exchanges.
A much less personal approach, advertising can give you access to a huge number of people for a relatively small cost - and most sites have free trials or sign-up bonuses that can help you create an ad that works before you start paying for it. Use the same keywords that are on your website and blog in your advertisements, and search engines will like you even more.

My short list of Advertising sites would include: Adland Pro, Bananapile, ReaLook, Spiderjump, and HitsFrenzy. Also look at Clickable - a service that can manage advertising campaigns on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others simultaneously.

Using a few of the services from all three of the above categories in tandem will create a tight web to capture your customers and send them to your site. As long as you update Consistently, Target your campaigns accurately, and be Smart about where you spend your money and time, you can see results in a little as a few weeks and secure your long-term success.

Best of luck with your research, stick with it, and remember that even in the tedious moments, owning your own business is so much better than going to work at 9am in a job that doesn’t fulfill you.

Do Good and Be Well.

Colin Turner has been an entrepreneur since the age of 17, and is a regular blogger and writer about home based businesses. He has become a mentor and trusted source for information on Internet Marketing for Home Businesses. http://www.marketingsystemforsuccess.com

How To Gain Traffic Using Search Engines and Keywords

For those of us who are running an online business certainly know that it’s not easy to gain traffic to our websites. It requires plenty of tedious work, consistent action, and a desire to make our online business succeed.

There are many ways to get traffic to your website. Some people suggest using a plethora of traffic generating methods. I suggest to find just one way, become very good at mastering this one method and use it over and over again. Learning all the different ways is fine, but keep in mind that the learning process itself will take time in which you could be implementing a traffic generating method that you already know.

In this case it only makes sense to find one method that you think you can master and just stick with it. That way you will optimize the amount of time you have to spend on your online business towards gaining that much needed traffic. Trust me, you will not make any money if you can’t get traffic to your website.

If you want your online business to succeed long term and would like traffic to come as cheap as possible, you’ll want to utilize the power of back links. Back links are simply links on others websites that point back to your website. The more back links you have, the higher your website and websites pages will rank in the search engines.

This is a very important concept to know for any internet marketer. Your goal should be to use a method where you are constantly picking up back links on a daily basis. When you combine those back links with keyword research and search engine optimization, over time you will begin to see your traffic drastically improve. Here’s an example of how I get traffic two ways using one method…article marketing.

The first thing I do is my keyword research. Ill write down a list of about 10 or so keywords that get a decent amount of traffic and very little to moderate competition. Once I have compiled the list, Ill write an article using one of the keywords and post it on my blog. Then I will write another article and submit it Ezine Articles using the same keywords as a hyper link in the authors resource box.

Over time I’ll see that page slowly move up the rankings for those keywords. The more back links I have pointing at that page, the higher and faster it will move up the rankings. I will rinse and repeat this process for all of the selected keywords until I have reached page one for each. It may take a month or more to do. Then I will select another 10 keywords and repeat the process all over again.

You can see how powerful this method is over time. After a year of this process you can be ranked on page one for over a hundred keywords all of which will bring targeted traffic to your website.
Matt Helphrey - Are you looking for guidance, direction, and free training on how to Make Money From Home? Sign up for Matt’s free mini course at http://www.livelifetothefullest.biz

Get More Click Throughs To Your Website: Best Resource Box Lures

ou’ve just written an eloquent, intelligent, and enlightening article. Your title is great, your topic is timeless, and the quality is top notch.

But wait a second–you’re not done yet. You need to create a resource box that will get the reader from your article on over to your website.

Article marketing is not just about the article–having a compelling resource box is crucial to your success!

Remember, you shouldn’t be talking about your own website or business in the article body, but you can (and should!) talk about your business and website in the resource box. Along with your name, brief bio info, and your website URL, you need to give the reader a reason to hop from your article on over to your website.

When you give the reader a great reason to click the link in your resource box leading to your website, you will generate more traffic to your site, which is what you’re after, right?

Use one of these top 7 resource box lures, and you’ll maximize your click throughs:

1) A free e-book

Your free e-book should be on the topic of your website (as all your articles should be), so any reader who likes one of your articles would be interested in a book with additional info.

In your resource box, be sure to say that the e-book is free, as anything free is very attractive to readers! If the e-book is of a longer length (let’s say 50 pages or so), you might want to put that bit of info in your resource box as well, as it lets the reader know that it’s a significant amount of info (and that would be more of a lure).

Your e-book doesn’t have to be of epic length though–even a book that is only 10 pages long and jam packed with helpful information would be valuable to a reader.

2) A newsletter

If you have a newsletter, you already have a wonderful reason for readers to click through to your website from your resource box. Instead of saying “For more info, visit my website”, it would be more effective to say, “Sign up for a free newsletter offering weekly tips on this topic” and then give your website URL.

3) An e-course

An e-course is basically a series of emails that teaches the reader something. It’s different than a newsletter because usually e-courses are of limited duration and are very specific in what they teach.

They’re effective because people love to learn, especially for free!

In your resource box you could say, “Claim your free 10 part e-course on [some specific aspect of your niche]” and then give your website URL.

4) In depth content

Most articles are limited in length to about 1500 words or less, so it’s hard to get super in depth in your article content.

Since you’re an expert in the topic of your website, why not create a page on your website that offers a continuation of the information you condensed in your article?

5) A great product or service

This is an easy one–if you’ve got a unique, stellar, stand out type of service or product, you have a build in reason for folks to click through to your site. Be sure that you explain in your resource box what your product is and what the benefits are. This approach works best if what you’re selling really is unique and there aren’t a whole bunch of other folks with the same type of product or service.

6) A discount

People LOVE feeling like they’re saving money and getting a good deal (the only thing people love more is getting stuff for free!). If you have a product based site, you might want to come up with some sort of offer that will allow your readers to get a discount on a purchase.

7) A blog

To be an effective resource box lure, the blog must be well-tended, offering fresh and useful information on the topic of your website. It depends on your niche, but I think a blog offering mostly ‘how to’ posts is most attractive to readers. A blog not only gives readers a reason to click through to your website from your article, but it also gives them a reason to continue visiting your site–you’re offering a steady stream of useful content, which is quite an incentive!

Now you’ve got 7 ideas for resource box lures that will give readers a reason to hop from your article over to your website. For each resource box, you only need one “lure”, but you can switch things up and try different reasons to click through for different articles.

Experiment and see which lure works the best for you!

Steve Shaw

- Want to drive even more traffic to your website with article marketing? You can save time and increase your exposure by using an article submission service like SubmitYOURArticle.com - distribute your articles to hundreds of targeted publishers in an instant. For more information go to=> http://www.SubmitYOURArticle.com

The 7 Effective Methods Of Getting Targeted Traffic

I never believe in buying traffic. How do you think visitors come to know me? Did they pay to know me? Most probably they subscribed because of a free download in the first place. You may not remember how but YOU are the traffic. You are targeted because I hit your hot button correctly.
There are enough free resources out there on the Net to keep one busy with getting traffic, but here are the only 7 most effective methods: search engine optimization (SEO), link exchange, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, article submissions, blogging, viral marketing and massive giveaway events.

Search engine optimization is the practice of optimizing your pages for the search engines so that your pages are optimized for the search engines to be searched with the most optimized keywords. You get the idea? SEO English is a bit like tongue twister. If you know the exact keywords your business or industry is famous for, you increase the density of those keywords in your page.

Actually, I don’t understand why some folks make SEO sound so complicated. On the other hand, other folks say SE spiders are so smart at discerning quality of content such that SEO is really much ado about nothing. Moreover, SEO English is just so unnatural sometimes and abuse may constitute as keyword spamming, unless you know the secret to writing it ‘fluently’. SEO is absolutely crucial in niche markets where competition in SE listings is not hot.

Exchanging links with like-minded webmasters create a network for increased traffic distribution. Interested visitors are free to visit your site when they see your link on other people’s sites. SEO targeted towards Google is only half the battle. Its PageRank tool measures your page’s link popularity and ranks it higher according to scale. The more links pointing into your site as opposed to pointing out, the merrier.

* PageRank looks at pages, not sites.

Pay-per-click advertising is all about how much you are willing to pay the PPC program for a high listing so that visitors take notice of your link and visit it. You incur the bid price you set for yourself for every visit (click). Considering ROI, this is particularly useful when you are selling a product. Security features are in place so there’s no point being trigger-happy if you don’t like some sites.

Article submissions can give you an amazing amount of traffic, but only if you use the method right. You should make sure the content you’re submitting is easily understandable, and only covers one or two points, leading the people back to your site with your resource box. Most importantly, you need to make sure that your article is interesting, compelling, and of course, informative. Once you’ve submitted these articles to several article directories, you’ll probably see a marked rise in link backs, traffic and more.

Blogging is a free way to make sure that you’re reaching traffic in all regions of your niche. It has come up in stature from its days of being simply a place to ’share’ with your friends and is now a valid, and often well used promotional structure for a site-or even a basis for the site itself. Using WordPress especially can mean that you’ve got an easy-to-promote, amazingly simple to update site structure that allows you to build and maintain effortlessly. As a traffic generation tool, it is also a good way to create, maintain and direct traffic to your site. The more you blog using popular search terms related to your niche, the more intensive you’re practicing SEO as the archiving system of the WordPress blog script is absolutely well suited for Google indexing. Try to post on alternate days if not everyday.

Viral Marketing is everything and anything to do with propagating your name and URL through giving away free e-books, reports, article and e-zine submission, classified ads etc. But this is only by technological means. With people, we are talking about word-of-mouth.

Massive giveaway events come once in a while but they are really the biggest source of opt-in subscribers for anyone who participate in them. The organizer announces a proposal to carry out such an event, inviting contributors to submit a product of their own or one with resell rights to be given away for free. When the event begins, anyone and everyone can download all these exclusive products as long as they opt in. It’s very easy to get 1,000 subscribers in a week.

Of course, the organizer gets the most numbers, but he also puts in the most work to make sure the web server doesn’t collapse due to traffic overload, the gifts don’t go missing and the event proceeds on schedule.

Awareness and application of the 7 above traffic generation methods slowly but surely builds a good list of followers who are willing to patronize us.

Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com