Bi » Search Engine

Proven Insider Tips to Get More Web Visitors Quickly and Easily

Bi — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:44:19 +0000

Believe me, in spite of the current financial turmoil, there hasn’t ever been a better time to generate an online income stream! And yet it seems that so many budding Internet marketers are finding it hard to break through VNB – the “Visitor Numbers Barrier.” When I started, I thought there was some magic elixir or secret technique that would transform my visitor numbers! If only I could find THE ONE successful method! Well, this article is to let you know that while there may be hundreds of ways to get visitors to your website – I’ve selected some of the techniques that work best for me. And they can work for you, as well. Because, if there IS a secret of success, it is this: “Don’t rely on ONE way to generate traffic. Become familiar with MANY.” Better to have many visitor doors to your website, rather than just one, don’t you think? I’m still surprised how many serious Internet marketers neglect the basics. And one of the most basic ways to improve your visitor traffic is to be absolutely certain that your website is listed by the search engines. Don’t trust the search engine spiders to do your work for you. All the major search engines have detailed and easy-to-follow instructions on site submission, as well as how to create and submit site-maps. I don’t think Facebook needs a great deal of introduction, does it? But you can mine value for Facebook if you look for opportunities to include your website on information that you provide. Then, there is what I call the secret power of blogging: search engines LOVE blogs. The search engine spiders thrive on novelty and change, and if you write or post a new entry to your blog every day – or every other day – the search engines will recognize what is going on and begin to rank your website blog higher than a website that doesn’t change its content from month to month. And a high ranking means visitors to your site. Don’t forget that you can leverage your signature in online communities or discussion groups. If your product is specifically niched, then you know that there are loyal and relevant online communities or discussion groups who want to hear from you. And, your forum signature could be a goldmine once you have thought through the best way of expressing your product’s unique feature so that readers find your website irresistible. Would you like your web address to be seen by ten million people in ten minutes? Well, it’s possible – if you’re careful! Because there are three kinds of people: those who love Google Adwords, often known as Pay Per Click, those who hate it – and those who haven’t tried it. Many people just go nuts trying to get their advertisement absolutely perfect. And, if you don’t read the small print, you could find that your budget is exhausted quickly. But if you follow the guidelines and budget sensibly you could attract many, many hundreds of paying visitors on a daily basis. Do you remember those kid’s stories where the fairy Godmother tells the child to repeat a word three times for magic to happen? Well, here’s that word: “eBay”, “eBay”, “eBay”. There – I’ve said it. eBay is perhaps THE most underestimated visitor generating resource. Ignore eBay at your peril. There are many, many resources available on the web where you can discover how to sell products on eBay. Until recently you could sell digital products (i.e. eBooks, which you can download) but the rules have changed and currently you can only sell physical goods, so your eBook will have to be on a CD. Personally, I think it’s a good move, and opens up many possibilities. Don’t forget that Ezines and Newsletters are the Grand Daddy and Grand Mommy of all website visitor attraction and list building activity. The thing is this – Ezines and Newsletters work! If you love your niche product, you’ll have LOTS to say about it, and there will be people who want to hear what you have to say. I built a subscriber of almost 3,000 with a business coaching Newsletter. Another way to get visitors to your websites is to write an ebook. I’m not embarrassed to say that we’re not talking great literature here. We aren’t talking about the Pulitzer Prize. We’re not even talking more than, maybe, 30 pages, double spaced, and size 12 font. But the fact is this: your eBook will attract visitors to your website single-handedly. Later, you can provide your eBook to affiliates so that they send visitors to your site as well! If you’re more of an audio expert than a novelist, why not create a podcast? Uh? Well, a podcast is a series of audio files that is distributed over the Internet to iPods and other music players and personal computers. This is the future – and it’s fun! The fact is, everyone loves information but don’t always find printed pages the best way to get it. If you can provide the same information that can be played on an iPod or similar media player, or a mobile phone, you’re offering a higher value product. You needn’t start from scratch – you can plug your product or service almost immediately by converting your existing articles or eBooks into .mp3 recordings. (.mp3 is the industry standard audio format that is widely accepted for iPods, mobile phones etc.) Remember, you have, on your hard drive, stuff that you have written, or will write, that you can add value to by converting it into an .mp3 recording. Again, it’s the basics that are often the key to increasing your visitor traffic, so you might need to shine your light on your meta tags. (To put it briefly, a “meta tag” is used by search engines to allow them to more accurately list your site in their indexes. To be honest, it works most of the time, but not always! Search engines are always changing their methods, and some use Meta tags a lot, while others don’t, but I would not want to neglect this technique. It is a small piece of the mosaic that completes the whole visitor traffic picture. How many times have you wanted to speak your mind? Well, now you can – and it’ll help drive visitors to your website. How? Leave testimonials on other people’s sites. This won’t take you a second, but your web address will be around for years. Go for it. It is so simple, and so little done. Another technique I used to attract visitors was to write a priority email to customers with an attention-grabbing subject such as “The Top Ten Myths In Your Industry.” Or, provide something like this as a freebie. Make certain that there are clear links to your website, and a compelling reason for the reader to visit. Finally, I don’t think YouTube needs much introduction! It’s simply one of the largest websites devoted to online videos covering every single subject you can think of – and more! So how can you use the power of YouTube to get more visitors? Simply this: upload a video of you talking about your niche. Many cheap digital cameras have a video option – and you do not need a high-end movie camera. You could get a friend to film you. Or, you could use a built in camera on your PC or Mac, if your model has one. Aim to talk for not much longer than 10 minutes maximum, and sign off with your website address. Again, this is much easier than you would think. Remember, so many people focus on one traffic building technique, and one only. I hope I’ve shown you that there are many ways – and you should have fun with all of them.

My best to you. (James Gladwin)

Ten Ways to Get Web Traffic Fast

Bi — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:12:44 +0000

There are several ways to get website traffic fast and free, and I’m going to share ten niche ways with you.

Article Submission

You don’t need to be an award winníng expert on the topic you are writing about – just pick an area that is related to the theme of your website, do a bit of research using a search engine and before you know it you will have more knowledge on that subject than most. Write in a relaxed, straightforward way. And, of course, when you add your details at the end of your article, make certain that you include your web address as well.

URL Submission

This sounds so obvious, yet so many people overlook it. Website URL submission is about getting more links to your website to help your website get ranked high on major search engines, thus getting more visitor traffic by, well, submittíng your website URL to the major search engines. You can buy or subscribe to software that will do this, but it is quite possible to get a good return by submitting manually.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a way for internet users to store, classify, share, search and discover Internet resources that they find useful. Since social bookmarks are saved online, users are able to access them from anywhere – at home, at work or while travelling.

These lists can be accessible to the public by users of a specific network or website. What you need to do first is register with a social bookmarking site which allows you to store and tag bookmarks. Most social bookmarking services allow users to search for bookmarks which are associated with given “tags”, and rank the resources by the number of users which have bookmarked them. This means that other visitors and members of social bookmarking sites can search for resources by topic, category, keyword, tags, or popularity to see what others have saved. As a user, social bookmarking sites let you find useful, informative resources through pages that have been tagged because others have found them to be valuable sources. Voila – more web traffíc. Free.

Forum Posting

Forum posting is a hands down alternative to paid advertising methods. For just a few hours of work every week, you can capture batches of interested leads everyday. The more forums you contribute to, the more you will gain traffic. If you are an active forum poster, you will also get a good feel about the kind of products that are hot on the market.

Please don’t overlook the forum signature or commonly called resource box – it’s a powerful free advertising tool for you. What you must do is edit your forum signature. Basically, a curiosity inducing one-liner and a link to your website is great. Once you have edited and saved your signature, it will appear at the bottom of all your comments in the forum discussions. That means, the more you participate in the discussions in the forums, the more people see your semi-ad written on your signature. I promise, this will encourage people to visit your website, and hopefully buy from you.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is one of the best ways to get the word out about your website and can be done with very little technical expertise and therefore is easy to start up. If you have a product or service you believe in, visit a site such as Clickbank and open an account. Follow the simple instructions to gain affiliates – and traffic.

Press Releases

It’s a fact that a well-written Press Release can dramatically improve your sales, expose your company to the masses, and greatly enhance the image of your business or products. Publicity is the most cost-effective web traffic building marketing tool there is, and, surprisingly, web traffíc can be generated by ink and paper!

Classified Ads

Again, it’s easy to associate Classified Ads with yesterday’s technology, but they are extremely cheap and a one line product or service description, together with your website, will pay dividends.

Blog Comments

If you are an avid blog follower, you have to include Blog Commenting in your web traffíc arsenal. You will almost always find a “comments” link at the end of each post. Good blog commenters add to the discussion and are known as knowledgeable, informative, friendly and engaged. Join them!

FaceBook

Don’t forget that you can use Facebook to its full potential to attract more visitors to your website. You can get away from just interacting with your school or college friends and start interacting with people within your industry or other industries that you want to get into.

An easy way to do this is to join groups that interest you as well as make friends with people that you want to get to know. Fill out your profile (fully) – the best profile on Facebook is a complete one.

Videos

Finally, why not make a video and post to video sites too! This is not a Warner Bros. effort! Your PC or Mac may well have a webcam, or you can borrow a camcorder or Flip. Write a brief script – lights- camera – action – and upload to YouTube. (Just remember to be sure to link it back to you.)

Well – there you are. Not all of the ten suggestions I’ve outlined may appeal, but if you select three or four, stick with them, and implement them on a regular basis, you will see your web traffíc grow significantly. My best to you. (James Gladwin)

Blogs, WordPress and Google

Bi — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:49:37 +0000

It’s no secret that a continually updated website with new content being added regularly stands a good chance of doing well in Google. One of the long standing methods to regularly expand a site’s content is through the use of a blog.

While there are numerous platforms to choose from for managing a blog, few can compare with the immense flexibility offered with WordPress, and at a cost of free, the price can’t be beat either.

Google likes fresh new content, and setting up a blog on your site, assuming it is updated often with interesting and relevant material, can be one of the best things you can do to help out your search rankings. The beauty behind WordPress is that there is a wide array of totally free plug-ins you can easily install that will make your blog totally search engine friendly.

The following are some basic guidelines and essential plug-ins you should consider when you install your WordPress blog.

Template Design

The first configuration you need to do is work on customizing the design template to match your existing site. I suggest finding a template that matches as closely as possible to the look you are going for then work on tweaking its graphics, colors, and other particulars till you achieve the desired appearance.

Most of your changes will occur in the header.php, footer.php, index.php, and page.php files in the theme editor, however, the theme you install will dictate which files actually need to be updated. You will also need to make some adjustments to your CSS file. These changes all involve working with code and graphics, and are most likely left to a professional.

Once you have your design set up, the rest of the customization is considerably less technical. The following are suggestions that most people can do themselves and you probably will not need an expert to help you here.

Settings

Permalinks

The next thing you need to do is customize your URL’s. You do not want the default post URLs (“pageid=#”) as they are simply not search friendly and you want your default names to have some meaning to them. While you can customize your URL’s with various plug-ins, you may not always think to do this, so be sure to have a default you can live with.

Under the settings tab in your dashboard, clíck on permalinks. Here I suggest choosing one of the settings that includes the post name. Including the month and year is totally optional as it will have little to no impact on your search rankings, but you definitely do want to include the post name.

WWW or no WWW
With WordPress, there is no need to worry about the www vs no www redirects. It is handled for you, but you do need to select which variation you want, and it’s very simple to do. Under “General Settings” you will see two fields; one for “WordPress address” and the other, “Blog address”. Ensure that both these fields include the “www” (or not), whichever you prefer, and that’s it. (I always recommend using the “www” version of your URL as most people linking into your site will use it, and this will help keep a consistency among your site.

Required Plug-ins
There is an almost endless supply of free plug-ins out there that you can add to your site ranging from photo galleries and spam protection, to social media integrators for Twitter, Facebook, Digg, and others. While many of these others will benefit your blog and search rankings, the XML Sitemap, and SEO plug-ins are truly essential.

SEO Plug-in
When setting up your new installation, the first plug-in you need to install is one that will allow for totally customized title, meta description tags, and page URL’s. There are a number of tools that do this ranging from the widely popular “All in One SEO Pack” to a relative newcomer “HeadSpace2″.

While I personally have yet to try HeadSpace2, it is high on my líst, as it has been recommended by many industry professionals as the best WordPress SEO plug-in. For any new blog installation I highly recommend this plug-in be installed right away.

XML Sitemap Plug-in
To the best of my knowledge, HeadSpace2 does not have an XML sitemap option, and as such I highly recommend “Google XML Sitemaps” . This plug-in will automatically generate XML sitemaps for you on the fly and submit it to Google every time you add, delete, or update a page or post. This helps ensure that Google has the latest information at all times. It’s a very simple plug-in to install and configure and once setup, you can forget about it and it will do the job for you.

A well optimized site loaded with relevant content can do very well in Google if setup correctly. The power of WordPress can make this process incredibly easy so all you have to worry about is writing those great articles and selling your customers. The plug-ins and functionality of WordPress are endless and when installed correctly can make the optimization of your blog considerably easier, increasing your chances for top rankings. (Scott Van Achte, 2009)

How Much SEO Do You Need To Get Top Rankings?

Bi — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:34:16 +0000

Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions, perpetuated by industry SEO experts, is that a website must follow perfect SEO strategies to get top rankings.
While adhering to simple common SEO standards does help the search engines both find and index your site more quickly, it doesn’t guarantee by any stretch of the imagination that following those SEO guidelines will propel your site to the top of the rankings.
If only search engine optimization was that easy!
No doubt, there are some SEO faux pas that will do harm to your site’s rankings, especially in Google, the ultimate hall-monitor all puffed up and ready to pounce on any misbehaving webmaster.
Things such as keyword stuffing, keyword spamming or linking out to bad neighborhoods such as link farms, pharmaceutical or gambling sites may get you blacklisted.

But how much SEO do you need? How much search engine optimization do you need to get top rankings? Do you need a whole lot or do you need very little SEO?

Actually, after 10 years of marketing online, the answer to that question varies depending upon what you’re trying to accomplish with your SEO efforts? If you’re operating an online business in a very competitive (read lucrative) market, SEO will be high on your agenda as you go about annihilating your competition.
Even if you’re an ordinary webmaster or website owner you’re probably fussing over your rankings in the search engines. The higher the rankings you achieve for your chosen keywords; the more traffíc you will get. Good quality traffic that converts well into loyal subscribers and fans of your site.

Many webmasters and companies spend thousands of dollars each month in order to get their keywords and sites up to the top of the líst. If you’re into affiliate marketing, your daily income will rise and fall almost parallel to your rankings.

Now, if my earnings go up, I know automatically my rankings have gone up, usually in Google. If my earnings go down, I know my rankings have gone south. Some times even a drop or rise of one place on the first page SERPs will affect how much you earn.

Obviously, because of this fact, SEO or how well I am optimized for the search engines is extremely important to me. I am constantly building quality links and quality content for my sites.

Some keyword battles you win, some battles you lose. I have been fighting some keyword battles for over 3 or 4 years now! But how much SEO is enough? How much SEO should you do with your sites?
Many webmasters make sure all their on page set-up or lay-out is done exactly to what the SEO experts say you should do. This is not a bad idea. Make sure your Title, URL, Headlines, Keyword Density… are all laid out right. These are things we can control and adjust to meet the SEO standards.
Other SEO or ranking factors are much harder to predict, many of them are simply out of our control.
How other sites link to us, what they put in the anchor text, what they say about us… simply things we can’t control.
I believe the over-riding reason why your site is listed at the top of any rankings has to do with the number, the quality and the quantity of sites linking back to your page. The higher the number of related quality one-way links you have flowing back to your site, the higher it will perform in the rankings. Your anchor text is very important (underlined part of a link); it must contain your keywords or variations of it. The content on the linking page should also be related to your chosen keywords.

Get this part right and you will get high rankings.

Or at least this has been my experience – all the other ranking factors do count but this is the over-riding factor in my opinion.

Another major ranking factor lately, has been the importance Google is placing on social media links. Get your content to the first page of Digg with lots of diggs and it will rank high in Google. This is not surprising when you consider the nature of these social bookmarking sites… it really is an actual “vote” for the quality of your content. Getting Delicious bookmarks has a similar positive effect.

Another prominent factor, from my observations, is having your major keyword in your Domain Name. Use hyphens if you want but having those keywords in there, does help rather than hinder your rankings.

Now if you’re wondering about how Google ranks pages or your keywords…. Google has around 200 ranking factors (with filters and penalties thrown in to make all our lives interesting) which it uses to rank your keywords/pages. This is still the best online resource that lists all of Google’s ranking factors: www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/google-ranking-factors.htm

Now the question still remains, how much SEO do you need? How much time should you spend at optimizing, building links, worrying your head off over the latest Google Itch?

The answer always comes back to quality content. Create a site that has quality content and the SEO will take care of itself. People will link to your site, you will get bookmarks in all the social media sites, Google will find your content and rank it. Your SEO will grow naturally as your site grows. Keep building more pages, keep targeting more and more related keywords in your niche or subject area and you will get higher rankings.

Now, of course, some webmasters are a little more aggressive in how quickly they want their rankings to rise to the top of the search engines. Here’s something you can do if you want to go into the SEO battle full-force.

1. Download SEOquake and place this free SEO toolbar plug-in on your Firefox (or I.E.) browser.

2. Go to Google and type in the keyword or keyword phrase you’re targeting with your site or content.

3. Select the number one ranking and observe how many pages it has indexed, PageRank, how many backlinks it has, age of the site… and so on.

4. Then use the page info button and study all the on-page factors this site has and notice what it’s doing with its page and keyword density lay-out.

5. Check all the backlinks this site has in the different search engines. Copy or try to get the same backlinks for your site that your competitor has acquired. Then get more backlinks and/or higher quality backlinks than your competitor.

6. Watch your rankings rise…

Just a few more words of wisdom and we’re done. Some battles will be too tough to fight, the competition will be so stiff you just can’t compete. Other battles will take a long time; months, even years before you rise to the top. Your best bet is to choose long-tail (multi-worded) keywords that have little or no competition. You can rise to the top within days, even hours. The sweet thing is this: long-tail keywords are often the most lucrative and bring in the most sales. For in the final analysis, you just don’t want SEO, you want smart SEO. And you will quickly learn, most times you can often out-smart your competition, even if you can’t out-rank them. (Titus Hoskins)