How
To Get Traffic from Google
and Yahoo
How to Get Search Engine Traffic
Of all the traffic
my websites have generated the past few years
(literally millions of visitors) ONE traffic source
stands head and shoulders above the rest...
Search Engine Traffic.
Specifically, traffic from
google.com and
yahoo.com - the leaders in finding things
on the web.
The traffic is top quality. These people are finding
my sites on their own, so they are my best potential
customers. And the traffic flows continually regardless
of my advertising budget.
Considering the highly targeted nature of this
traffic and the fact that it flows to me virtually
without cost, search engine traffic simply cannot
be beat.
So today I want to discuss how YOU can maximize
traffic from search engines. And no, I do not
have a trick or overnight solution. If you are
looking for that, you can stop reading now. But
what I will share with you today WILL increase
your search engine traffic. It will take some
time but believe me, it is well worth it.
So let's go... The first thing to consider is
how the best search sites determine where to send
their clients -- the searchers. It does not happen
by accident. In fact all search engines have complex
algorithms that determine how they rank sites.
But after all the smoke clears, I can point directly
to ONE essential component that leads to ever-growing
traffic from the major search engines...
QUALITY.
Or more precisely, this equation is my formula
for success with search engines...
Quality Content + Quality Links = SE Rank, Traffic
and Sales.
Quality is what matters most to top search sites
like Google and Yahoo. They want quality results
for their searchers. And this ultimately translates
into YOU providing quality to them.
Read that again. It is important to understand.
As a webmaster, quality is something you need
to be very concerned with.
There are two specific areas where quality really
counts...
a) Quality of Content AT your Website
b) Quality of Links TO Your Website.
Let's talk about this in a bit of detail.
Quality Content AT Your Site
A quality website with solid, reliable and substantial
content will always do better than sites trying
to "trick" their way to good ranking.
That's why the major search sites have such a
huge market share -- they provide quality search
results. Websites that qualify as such are usually
the first sites presented in their search results.
There is no secret to this. And providing quality
content takes work. I do it by writing articles
like this. And you can do it by writing articles
for your niche market. If your site focuses on
collectibles, then write an article about a specific
collectible every week. In a year you will have
52 keyword-rich web pages (or more) that will
help grow traffic to your website. In two years
you'll have 100+. And this content is the cornerstone
of your website.
I've been writing about this aspect of web marketing
for seven years now. And I can remember a few
years back when all those single page sales letters
were blooming all over the web. "Who needs
content?" these new experts were writing.
Where are they now? Sure, some of them are making
a few dollars but most have fallen by the wayside.
Why? Because they do not contribute to the very
nature of the web... information.
Let's face it, nearly ALL people online are here
to get information. Not many people want to pay
for it either. After all, you can find in-depth
information on any subject imaginable. Sure, you
sometimes have to pay for the best quality information,
but if you surf long enough you can get to the
truth of any subject using the World Wide Web.
If you are a website owner, the paragraphs above
translate into a simple strategy. Feed the search
engines that provide this valuable content. Create
content for your niche market. Grow a website
that is information rich and the visitors will
come. It may take time but they will come.
Of course, there are ways that you can move the
process along a bit. The best way is to show search
engines what your content is about and how important
it is. This is done by building...
Quality Links TO Your Site
You may have heard of the importance of getting
other sites to link to yours. So let's cover this
a bit. Yes, getting lots of links coming to your
site is important. But the QUALITY of those links
is even more important.
I will not get into Google page rank or any other
specific algorithms on any search engine. The
fact is, NOBODY is privy to that specific information.
But I can say for sure, based on experience, that
the quality of links coming to your site is VERY
important.
When it comes to the actual links, quality is
measured primarily by these two factor...
a. What sites link to your site
b. Exactly how they link to you
The first one is the toughest nut to crack. Getting
quality sites to link to yours is not easy. Naturally,
the first step is to have a quality site yourself.
More proof of my advice above. And once you have
a quality site in place, you can start building
links to it. I'll get into exact strategies for
that in a minute. First I'd like to cover (b)
from above -- exactly how sites link to you.
For sure, text links seem to be better than banner
links. And text links filled with your best keywords
are better than any old text link.
For instance...
If you were trying to build links to your, let's
say... fishing related site, how other sites display
links to yours is extremely important. To decide
what you want those links to say, you need to
research keywords a bit. The word "fishing",
would seem obvious but it undoubtedly has a ton
of competition. So a better idea is to find more
specific words. You can do that by entering your
main keyword into the tool at
www.WordTracker.com or at
Overture's keyword suggestion tool. And you'll
get a list of related keywords. This particular
test showed me that the keywords "fishing
tackle" or "fishing lure" get quite
a bit of searching as well. So those would be
a better choice of keywords to use in your incoming
links.
(If your site does not offer such equipment, you
can still offer "information" on these
topics.)
But how do you decide what those other webmasters
will write when they link to your site? That's
easy. You do it by giving other webmasters the
exact code they can paste into their sites. I'll
show you how at the end of today's tip.
Now back to actually
getting those links to your site...
Getting Links
Earlier we talked about the importance of having
quality sites link to your website. And that's
not an easy task. In fact, getting quality sites
to link to your site takes a bit of originality.
You can't just slap up a "link to us"
page and hope the job gets done.
Many webmasters simply search the web and then
email related sites asking for a link swap. In
my opinion that is too time-consuming and tedious.
There are lots of other ways to grow the number
of links into your site. There are many automated
solutions available such as link farms and the
like, but be careful with those. Many such networks
are not search engine friendly and using them
can actually hurt your site. You have to be careful
when selecting a link strategy.
Your link strategy should include a way for people
to get a link from your site to theirs, as well
as create a link from their site to your site.
And if you can automate the entire process you'll
save lots of time.
With all this in mind, I set up my link strategy
using a type of directory. You can see it (as
well as grab a high-profile link)
here.
What you'll find there is my "Internet Marketer's
Resource Directory." Basically, it's my link
swap strategy. And it works quite well. It generates
a few dozen quality links for me every week, which
would take quite a bit of time and energy if I
were to do it manually. And the hundreds of link
swaps it has helped me gather, as resulted in
lots of traffic to my site, not to mention improved
search engine ranking. I wish I had set it up
when I was first getting started online.
Building a link strategy at your website is an
important step that will help you more than you
realize, especially as time goes on. So make it
one of the first of your Internet marketing steps.
Once your link building infrastructure (something
like the above example) is in place, you need
a few ways to get webmasters linking. Below are
a few strategies I use. I invite you to emulate
these strategies at your site...
1. Pre-license all your best stuff.
As you create your own tips, articles or content
for your website or email newsletters, consider
pre-licensing it to others. Pre-licensing it for
others is as simple as including a short footer
after your work. It looks something like this:
"You have permission to reprint what you
just read. Use it in your ezine, at your website
or in your newsletter. The only requirement is
including the following footer..."
*Article by YOUR NAME, visit www.YourWebsiteUrl.com
for more original content like this.
Getting the idea? This takes no extra work on
your part since you already write the article.
A simple footer like that lets you pre-licensed
it to the entire web. Your links will be growing
continually with no extra effort. There are lots
of websites in need of decent content. Supply
it and you can benefit greatly - if you do it
right!
Note: If you need to see this strategy in action,
visit my
Internet marketing articles archive.
2. Bribe webmasters into linking up.
The next strategy that can work very well is the
"bribe". In a nutshell, you simply give
something of value away to anyone who links to
your site.
When done correctly, this strategy can be extremely
powerful. All you need to get started is a few
text links that people can use to link to your
site, and a way to automate all aspects of the
"bribe".
Again, my implementation of this strategy is tied
in with my link building
directory.
That link generating tool bribes my visitors into
linking to one of my sites by offering two distinct
rewards:
a. Marketers can secure a link from my site to
THEIR best Internet Marketing Resources in my
high-profile directory.
b. When they reciprocate with a link to my site,
they get a free book just for participating.
Note: The tool that automates my link building
strategy is called
LinksManager. It allowed me to create my directory
in a few hours and it automates the entire "get
links" strategy for me. It sends automated
emails to all new submissions, checks their site
for reciprocal links, sends email reminders if
they don't reciprocate, and even gives away my
book when reciprocal links are verified. When
visitors link to my sites their links are set
up directly and not through the system. So it
is search engine friendly. I've been using it
for a few years now with great success. And no,
I'm not an affiliate. ;-)
Feel free to fill my directory with your best
Internet Marketing resources right now. You're
sure to get lots of visitors from the directory
as other BizWeb eGazette subscribers do the same.
;-)
Oh yeah, and after you submit your listing, pay
special attention to the page that pops up. It
is where I give other webmasters the exact code
they can paste into their sites to link to mine.
You should use a page like that at your site as
well. It makes linking very simple, even for new
webmasters. In fact, feel free to copy the layout
of that page and customize it with your own keywords
and links for YOUR site.
In Closing...
OK, so is everything in today's gazette all you
have to do to move your site up the ranks of the
major search engines like Google? Well, not really.
There are lots of other consideration such as
the Title of your site. Your title needs to include
your best keywords as well. And so does the text
of your pages. But I'll save the details on these
for another day. For now, get busy building quality
content and quality links. They are two keys to
the success of your website.
That wraps up today's tip! If you take one lesson
from it remember, QUALITY CONTENT AND QUALITY
LINKS will bring you lots of targeted website
traffic.
Article
used with permission from Jim Daniels. Jim's free
guide to website marketing and his website promotion
help site show you how to get low-cost website
traffic and make money online.
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