Believe it or not, using SEO, or Search Engine Optimization to increase website traffic is not a difficult task. And it’s not rocket science, either. If you follow these 5 easy SEO tips below, I can assure you that you will definitely see a nice increase in traffic to your website.
1.Proper Keyword Research
SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) works best with thorough and extensive keyword research. Researching keywords are often rushed because the researcher often comes to the table with preconceived ideas or are in a rush to come to conclusions quickly. As one who has done a lot of research myself, the trick is to take the time necessary to cover all the bases and to keep an open mind. An open mind?
Yes – often your research will turn up something you never considered. Sometimes these little “finds” are real gems and if you hurry or are not thorough, you can miss the best stuff! Also, remember to keep a spreadsheet with your numbers – searches, search results, etc. This will save you time by not having to duplicate your efforts.
One of my favorite tools is the Google AdWords Keyword tool. Google reveals all you could ever want when researching keywords. All that you have to do is ask the right questions. Sometimes this takes time. I can’t remember the number of times I started on a search for a particular keyword, and when it was all over, ended up with something that was totally different – but much better than I started with.
And, did I mention this tool was free?
You really do have to be meticulous – open up an Excel or an OpenOffice spreadsheet and record the following details;
Make rows for;
- The Keyword or Keyword Phrase
- Google Local Monthly Searches(exact)
- Google Search Results (search in parenthesis)
- A ratio (divide the Monthly Searches by the Search Results)
I like a ratio around.020. Depending on the niche, this number may be hard to hit, but keep trying. If you can’t get exactly that number, do the best you can and move on to the next keyword. Use these keywords in your articles and postings
2. Search Engines LOVE Original And Relevant Content
Google, Yahoo, Bing and the other top search engines are incredibly smart these days. They reward unique and relevant original content with higher rankings for the keywords used. But, be very careful not to over do things. In the old days (5 or so years ago) it was possible to “stuff keywords” into an article – meaning that a huge percentage of the words in an article were the keywords – and the search engines would react accordingly and reward with a top placement on the page. But now, most experts suggest you keep the density of your main words to no more than 3%!
Always use your main words in a natural and relaxed style in your posts and articles. Never use any phrases just so you can use your keywords. Many novices think it’s OK to copy great content and use on their blogs and articles. Not only is this illegal (it’s called plagiarism), the search engines will actually penalize your website and articles with lower rankings or even completely removing your post from their databases if they find out you’re duplicating others content!
3. Article Writing And Syndication
After years of being a great way to get your content out on the web, writing and submitting articles to article databases is still a tremendous way to attract traffic to your website. With the incredible popularity of YouTube and other video web properties, which are traffic magnets in their own right), writing great and relevant articles and submitting them to article directories for syndication is a solid traffic builder.
What is syndication? Here’s the simple explanation. You write an article, submit it to an article directory with a link back to your website. If your subject and article are in demand and well-written, another website publisher could re-publish your article – complete with your name as author and the link back to your website – to use on his or her site. Unlike the example above, this is not stealing content – by submitting your article you gave permission for syndication with the link back to you.
Syndication is a benefit for both parties – it can get you published on a popular website, and the one who publishes your article is getting great content for their readers It’s a win-win!
Article writing is easy and it’s a very effective traffic builder. This technique helps your website quickly get noticed by the search engines – sometimes within two days – which definitely helps the natural ranking of your website in the search engines
4. Social Bookmarking – Web 2.0 At It’s Best
Social Bookmarking is a “method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources ” (Wikipedia) Social Bookmarking “gets the word out” about your blog posts – and many more of your other Internet activities such as article submissions, Tweets, and Facebook postings.
You really should be actively involved with social bookmarking to promote you and your internet ventures. It’s free to join most Social Bookmarking websites like Digg, Kirksey, KoolontheWeb and delicious etc. Always bookmark your own articles, posts press releases at these hot web 2.0 properties.
I find that regularly bookmarking my posts and articles usually lead to higher and higher quality traffic to my website.
It’s a fact that social bookmarking websites are usually well optimized for SEO and are favorites of search engines in a big way. By bookmarking your posts and articles at a bookmarking site that has great popularity with Google, Yahoo and Bing can help to index your posts or articles quickly – sometimes within hours.
5. Video – The Next Best Thing Is Already Here
OK – I’ll keep this short since I’m not a video expert. But, based on the times I have used video to help increase traffic to a website, a video has given some spectacular results. I use YouTube to publish articles I’ve converted into video. Search engines definitely weight heavily videos in the rankings – just do a few keyword searches and you’ll see this in action with at least two videos on just about any search page you see.
Here’s exactly how I convey my articles to video. And the best part – it’s all free!
- Use OpenOffice Impress (like MS PowerPoint) to make a slide show of your article
- Cam Studio is a free screen capture software that will turn your presentation into a video
- Windows Movie Maker is a great way to edit and save your video for YouTube
- Download; your video to YouTube – make sure to use your keywords and a link back to your website!
