20 Simple Ways To Get Massive Traffic To Your Web Site

I just love these articles that can tell a person how to drive traffic to their website, fairly simply and inexpensively. With great tips like these, anyone can increase their web site traffic. No, really they can!

Although many SEO/Marketing firms want you to believe that it's a bit of magic, really, it's just a matter of keeping current on the technologies and how to use them to your advantage.

Even if you don't want to, or have time to, do the work yourself, these methods won't cost you an arm and a leg to outsource them to your webmaster.

If you're not using at least 10 of the items on this list, get busy or pick up the phone and ask your webmaster about implementing them.

Here's the list (read the article for details):

1) Write articles
2) Social bookmark *everything*
3) List yourself in the best directories
4) Get yourself listed at: DMOZ dot org
5) Review
6) Offer a freebie on Craig's List
7) Create a "recommended by" list on your Delicious page
8) And speaking of your email signature line...
9) Lend a helping hand
10) Set up a social networking site
11) Make sure your blog has an RSS feed
12) Join relevant groups at Yahoo groups
13) Podcasting
14) Start a blog
15) Inbound links
16) Start an email newsletter
17) And speaking of offline efforts
18) If you have products to sell, why not get a store on eBay?
19) Load a video on YouTube
20) Make sure your site is converting this traffic into something

Link

Definitive?? List of Google Ranking Factors

I read two articles this morning, and while I'm not sure I agree with everything in them, they do represent A) SEO expert opinions and B) results of a 'study' on what influences Google's search engine rankings.

The first article: New Study on Google Ranking Factors does offer this disclaimer that is VERY important to keep in mind when reading these two articles:

I would not personally bank on either study by themselves but rather a combination of both with an emphasis on personal experience, trial/error and real world data analysis. There simply is no substitute for real world insights, practical experience and data.

The second list: Search Engine Ranking Factors V2, is much more in-depth and is commented by those SEO experts that participated in the survey. You'll note that there is some disagreement from the experts based on their own experience.

Important stuff here for all internet marketers and web site owners. If you're new to the game of SEO, I highly recommend reading both. If you've got that "real world insights and practical experience" these lists could validate what you've been doing, or help you clean up your act.

As a web designer/developer/marketer, I'll be sharing these with my client base. It can only help them to know why I make the suggestions about SEO that I do, without me having to rewrite the book on SEO myself.

Internet Marketing - Getting an Education

Since I started my new endeavor into running an article directory site, I have read dozens of articles submitted about Internet Marketing. Even though I've been doing web design and marketing for 7 years, I've still got a thing or two to learn.

While many articles rehash the same old information, there are a few gems to be mined from others written by folks who have been focusing on the marketing aspect of an Internet business.

And not only are there things I didn't know, there are things I did know that are changing. The point here is that even with 7 years in this business, there is always more to learn. I suspect there always will be.

Not everyone will be pleased to read about the effort they MUST put into their website to make it successful. It is NOT magic! It takes time and effort, and maybe a little cash to promote and market a web site. You CAN NOT just find a great web site designer, shell out some cash, and sit back while the money rolls in. Really, what kind of endeavor does work that way? Why would anyone think a web business would be any different?

If you have a web site, or are thinking of using one to market your goods or services, articles on Internet Marketing are a must!

Article Marketing Works

Here's how:

I wrote a series of three articles on Search Engine Optimization for web site owners, sent them out to my opt-in list and submitted them to article directories like Article-DirectorySite.com.

A lady from Florida called me because she is concerned with the SEO 'expert' she's paying for. She read one of my articles, followed the link to my web site, found my toll-free phone number and called me up.

After a brief discussion, she asked me to submit a proposal to her.

Article martketing works..and there's the proof!

Keyword Stuffing

A local whitewater rafting company came to me for some SEO advice on their self-made web site. What I found really surprised me. They were using keywrod stuffing to try and optimize their site.

Since I realize they didn't come up with that by themselves, there must still be a lot of misinformation out there about search engine optimization. So a word of warning to those who want to "go it alone": don't take the easy way out, don't assume the search engines haven't discovered every "black hat" technique written up.

For researching optimization techniques, be sure to get your info from reputable sources. Here's a couple good ones:

• CD WebMaker's Web Marketing Page (LOL, you saw that coming, didn't you?)
• Search Engine Watch
• Search Engine Guide

There are many sources of good info out there. When you find a technique you might want to try, do a search on that and see if it's black hat. Avoid those techniques at all costs!

Better SEO than CA

This week has been an SEO kind of week. I've looked at and read more articles, forums and blogs on SEO than I think I ever have, and I read a lot of stuff on the subject.

Everything I've researched this week, though, has only reinforced my stance on SEO. Which is, write articles, post to your blog, podcast and make sure your web designer/developer submits them to every corner of the 'net.

Got a new customer that had previously been working with a CA designer. After speaking to me and getting info on how I could help him promote his site, he asked the CAdude about podcasting and was told "Well, that's coming down the pipe. We could research that."

Wow, am I ever ahead of the curve. Hip, maybe?

In any event, we Coloradoans sure do love beating out ANYTHING from CA!

SEO and CSS for Hip Designers

Back again at the Canon Coffee Cafe. The baristas are very sweet and they let me work here as long as I want. It's not the same as sitting at home working in my underwear, but hey, I DO need to get out more.

Since I fried my modem on Monday, I've had time to write a little and got another newsletter/article/podcast done on SEO and CSS.

I found an article by James Kendal at webdesign.org about the subject and he says: "Hip designers and developers use CSS extensively to create beautiful, fully standards compliant sites."

It's true I do create beautiful web sites and it's true that they are fully standards compliant, but "Hip"? Moi? Wow.

And all this time I thought I was a pasty-faced computer geek.

Oh, yeah the article/podcast. Wanna read/listen? Here's the article. Here's the podcast. Enjoy and as always, your feedback is welcome.

That's it from the Canon Coffee Cafe. My modem is due in later today and I'll be back in my office working in my underwear - with any luck!

SEO and META Tags

They're soooo 1999!

Jill Whalen of High Rankings® is an internationally recognized search engine optimization consultant and has this to say about META tags:

"Changing or adding Meta tags on your site is neither a quick fix nor a slow fix. It won't fix anything and it won't have any effect on your search engine ranking."

It's true in 2007 that Google doesn't rely on Meta tags to boost your search engine rankings, but other search engines will use them as a starting point in categorizing, but not ranking, your site. That doesn't mean you should ignore Meta tags altogether when thinking about SEO, though. The keywords and phrases you use in your Meta description tag don't affect your page's ranking in the search engines but this tag can still come in handy in your overall SEO campaigns.

This is the top search result on Google for the term "CD WebMaker":

The text in red comes from the description Meta tag on my home page. The description given with a search engine result is what humans read that lets them know what the web page is about and attempts to convince them to visit the web site.

If you haven't put a Meta description tag into your web page, the search engines will supply their own description.

To determine what description is coded into your web site, or your competition's web site, see my video How to View Source Code.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)...

Keep Up or Shut Up!
That's what I really wanted to title this post, but, well, I'm doing SEO on this blog too.

Here's the occasion for this slight flame:
I spoke to a prospective client at length about SEO and a redesign of their website (FrontPage, YUK!). They are using Javascript navigation, table-based layout, fonts that can't be read by anybody but them, the list goes on.

After signing this 'client', their server guy, ok, I'm gonna name names here - Matt at Pioneer PC - feeds them a line about how PHP and MySQL are incompatible with their inhouse Linux server which also hosts their web site. Duh, PHP and MySQL were MADE for Linux! Since I'm not a server person, and do my best not to speak on issues I have no expertise in, I checked for sure.

Then, he has the gall to look up a couple articles on the internet and send them to the client. He tells me in a phone con that the site is SEO'd because the Meta tags have their keywords. Meta tags - geez that's about 1999 info there.

In the end, I lost the job, client is happy with the current site, I guess because the server guy says it's good. Hey, golly, what about the people who will actually use the site?

Having gotten that off my chest, I'm embarking on a quest to inform people about SEO in 2007. While I keep up with the industry and research the subject every single day, I guess my humble opinion is just not enough.

I'm putting out the call for SEO experts and their articles, so that when I talk about SEO, I'll have backup to prove my view. If you do REAL SEO, send me your articles for publication, I'll give credit where credit is due, and we'll help reinforce each other's position.

Pay-per-click Problems and Alternatives

I'm going to tell you what I think is wrong with Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and what my advice as a professional SEO is for alternatives.

Problems:
COST: With all the advertisers out there bidding up the price of keywords, it could run you as high $4+ for each click. That's pretty pricey for a small business. If you get 100 people to click the link in your ad, that's a cool $400. The thing to look at there is if those clicks bring you enough sales to justify that kind of ad budget.

CLICK FRAUD: Some reports estimate the percentage of fraudulent clicks that advertisers pay for as high as 40%! Don't think it's happening? Remember Enron?

NO-ACCOUNTABILITY: Since the search engines ask you to "trust them" when it comes to invoicing you for the clicks on your ad, it rings true that there is a HUGE margin for fraud. They are not required to provide any backup for their figures. That's right, no backup. If anyone else invoiced you for 100 items, you'd expect to receive the 100 items or ask for proof that they were actually sent to you. Hence, Google has agreed to a $90 million settlement in a class action lawsuit. Surprised?

So what's the alternative? Organic SEO and perhaps paid inclusion in directories.

Take the money you save from dropping that PPC campaign and pay a professional to optimize your site for the search engines, push your content out to your market, and garner those incoming links. While search engines make their money off ads, they cannot ignore a popular web site with good, relevant incoming links.

A couple engines offer a paid inclusion, some are pricey, others are not. They are worth looking into.

Building Link Popularity with Press Releases

The quantity of links to your site is used by the search engines (like Google) to rank the importance of your site. This measure of incoming links is called "Link Popularity". Press releases are a powerful way in which you can promote your site, service or product while at the same time increasing your link popularity.

Off-page SEO deals with external factors like the number of people linking to your page. Press releases are one way to obtain incoming links to your site.

In trying to determine the importance of a website, search engines have developed sophisticated algorithms that rank web pages for their quality. The largest factor in determining quality is the number of links to a web page. Quality websites are the most popular and
so have the most links to them. So to improve your standing on the search engine you need a higher link popularity.

Another very important factor in off-page optimization is the text used to link to your site. This is called the anchor text. Instead of using the words "Click here", you should be using your keyphrases to link to your site. The phrase "Custom Web Site Design" would be good anchor text for a link to my web site.

Press Releases

A press release is a written communication that you submit to journalists in the media. They are used to make announcements which are newsworthy. Press releaes are about NEWS. Announcing a grand opening, a new product or service, or employee promotions are news. Press releases aren't for customers or consumers they are for reporters, journalists who will use them as a starting point for a larger story or feature. Press releases written as sales pieces will be completely ignored.

How can a press release help with building your link popularity? Most of the free press release services are text-based which means you will not be able to add any HTML tags and so you can't add any links into the press release. However others allow you to also supply some keywords for that press release to make it easier to index and be found. When that page is viewed by someone, including the search engines, the keywords will be used to create links within your press release back to your website.

This means:

There is a one-way incoming link to your website
The incoming link uses the anchor text of your choice
The incoming link is within a natural context of the press release.

Traditionally, a press release is short-lived, it has a limited amount of time to make an impact on the media before it becomes old news and is replaced by fresh press releases. Some services allow you to buy a cheap upgrade, which means your press release will remain permanently in their system. This means that your "in context" links with the anchor text of your choice remain permanently for search engines to find and so help improve your rankings.

When preparing your press release you should optimize it for the keywords which are important for your site, product or company. This means that when someone searches for information in your industry, your press release will be seen as relevant by the search engine.

SEO For The Big Three

I am hoping that none of you read the title and were expecting
to rank on the first page of all three major engines next week.
Ranking highly on all three major engines takes time, patience
and a good few rounds of tweaking to get the perfect balance of
onsite and offsite optimization. Although, done properly it's well worth the effort.

Ranking your website highly on one of the "big three" search
engines (Google, Yahoo or MSN) is a daunting task let alone
ranking your website highly on all three. Three engines, three
algorithms, three different sets of rules - and yet there are
websites out there that have first page rankings across them all
– how do they do it?

While all of the major search engines use different algorithms,
the end goal of all three is the same: to provide the searcher
with the most relevant results available. It is this one common
thread that makes it possible for an SEO to rank a website
highly across all the major engines.

For example, if inbound links are given 0% weight then
insignificant sites will rank highly for high-competition
phrases. Many reputable companies such as Microsoft could lose
rankings for their own names so links must and will always hold
value. On the other hand, if links were to hold 100% weight
then sp@mming the search engines would be a simple matter and so
there are a limited number of possible variables in between
these extremes that this factor can have, no matter which engine
we are optimizing for.

That said, there are still three main engines with three
distinct algorithms despite common requirements. To clarify how
to optimize for all of them it's easiest to discuss them
individually first. Due to the way their algorithms work, it
is best to expect rankings on MSN first, followed by Yahoo! and
finally Google.

MSN

While MSN has the lowest number of searches performed on it,
ComScore's report back in July revealed that MSN searchers were
also 48% more likely to purchase a product or service online
than the average Internet user. A very important statistic for
website owners that sell online.

To rank highly on MSN one needs to build a solid sized site, a relevant theme
throughout the site that focuses on your primary keyphrases and a
good number of links. MSN doesn't (at this time) employ an
aging delay on links such as the one employed by both Google and
Yahoo! so the effects of the site and inbound links can be
picked up very quickly and with good SEO efforts one can rank
well within a few months on MSN for competitive phrases.

Yahoo!

Until recently Yahoo! acted very much like MSN, but now it's
leaning a bit more towards Google. Ranking a website well on
Yahoo! requires a solid-sized site with unique content and a
very good number of links.

Yahoo! does have some type of page value factor at play. Many moons ago Yahoo! was playing
with a PageRank-like calculation called WebRank. They even went
so far as to put out a beta toolbar testing it. This indicates
that there is a factor at play in the Yahoo! algorithm similar
to Google's PageRank – they just don't advertise what a specific
page's value is.

To understand what to expect from Yahoo!
one must understand that when you get a link to your website it
won't deliver its full value for a number of months. While the
exact number of months in unknown, it appears to be around 8
before it delivers its full weight, though it will hold some
weight from day one and this weight will increase as time passes.

To rank well on Yahoo!, you must optimize your site similar to
what you would do for MSN and you must build a large number of
inbound links and have patience as these links age. You will
not see a sudden spike 2 weeks after a large link-building
campaign. You will likely have to wait 3-4 months to notice any
significant effect.

Google

Virtually every webmaster and website owner is primarily
concerned about attaining Google rankings because of the
significantly higher number of searchers using it. Provided
that you are building your website following the best practices
of SEO (i.e. unique content, a sizable amount of content, and a
good number of incoming links), then your rankings are sure to
follow. However, because of the aging delay it will likely take
longer than for MSN or Yahoo! Google considers the age of your
links, your domain and even the individual page to be factors,
and the longer your page has been online the better.

Essentially, ranking a site on Google requires that you continue your link building
efforts on an ongoing basis to ensure that you end up with
more-and-more links, and that you update your content and add
content on a fairly regular basis (through the addition of a
blog for example).