Free SEO Web Traffic Guide

You may remember my eBook about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and getting traffic to a Website called Web Traffic in Black & White which I released at the tail end of 2006 and updated in 2007? Well, not to worry because most (but not all) of the content is now available online for free! (If you're impatient to find out what it's all about hurry over to www.ultimatewebtraffic.com straight away.)

I took the decision to convert it to a website format for several reasons; but mainly because although the sales page was getting plenty of visitors, the conversion rate was very low. Is this because it was a rubbish product? Absolutely not. After all, how would a prospect be able to tell in advance? No, I think it is because there is already a plethora of freely available SEO information and some excellent Websites out there, so people are reluctant to part with hard earned cash in return for what may or may not be of value to them, and what they might be able to get for free elsewhere. Besides, I think my decision to develop The Ultimate Web Traffic Guide as a Website allows for growth and evolution of the site as it can be updated on a regular basis - something which a hard copy book, and an eBook, cannot.

I believe the site offers excellent SEO and Web traffic information primarily for newbies, but there are also some snippets which seasoned Webmasters may have overlooked. My intention when writing was to tell it like it is without fluff and filler, and present the information in an easy to understand manner. Have I succeeded? Well, that is for the reader to decide. You can learn about SEO right now at www.ultimatewebtraffic.com

How I got a 'Freebie' Website to Rank 3rd in Google after Just 3 Days...

The most important aspect of any Website is ensuring that it receives plenty of visitors and the best way of getting those all-important visitors is to make sure the site shows up in search engines – and preferably near the top of the SERPS (search engine results pages).

The example I am writing about isn't one of the most difficult SEO accomplishments – not like trying to get a site ranked for generic terms such as “insurance information” or “make money online”, but my brief was to build a new website for a local organisation and get their site to show up on the front page of Google when prospective customers searched for them by name.

You may be wondering why the website is making use of free hosting when 'proper' paid for web space under its own domain is far superior and offers more choice in the development of the site? Well, quite simply; it was because the organisation didn't want to spend any money if they could possibly avoid it. Fair enough, they are a charitable body and every penny counts. Anyway, mine is not to reason why and all that, but hence the freebie account.

So, where to start?

When starting any new site it pays to do some keyword research. In this case the main keyword phrase was obvious: It was anticipated that anybody searching for the organisation would type their name directly into the search engine. Of course, the site will eventually rank for other more generic keywords too, but it was decided that to be found by name was the immediate priority.

The first part of the process took part while creating the Website. I always use clean markup that passes the W3C validation standards. My preference for coding web pages is to do it 'by hand' with a text editor, so keeping the code 'clean' is easy. If you intend to do the same (and I recommend you do) then you absolutely must learn HTML.

When laying out the content of the Web page I used the organisation's name in an H1 title tag at the top of the page, in bold text in the first paragraph, in anchor text for internal links, in image alternative text and at the bottom of the page in the copyright statement. There are plenty of guides which go into far more detail about on page optimization which mention ideal keyword density, etc etc etc. I find these ideas have become too contrived, and although it has been important in the past, the search engine algorithms are becoming far more advanced. Personally, I believe that writing for human readers, but including keywords where it is natural to do so is the best way to optimize a Web page.

Once the page has been set up it is then a straightforward job to get the essential meta tags right. These are the meta description and keywords tags. Make sure the description is no more than 150 characters and try to make it appealing to readers as you would a short classified ad. You should also ensure that your meta keywords can be found in the actual page content – this will give them more weight unlike the tactics of a few years back when stuffing an abundance of loosely related keywords into the tag was routine practice.

To get a site indexed by the search engines really quickly, don't waste your time submitting your URL through the conventional search engine pages. Instead; anounce your new site in a blog post, or a press release or a syndicated article (remember to include the URL though!). Another sure fire way to get a new site indexed quickly is to buy a link on a high PR Website.

My tactic for the freebie site was to write about it on a couple of different blogs.

The most important part of SEO is what is happening off the page. Yes, it helps to format pages correctly and include relevant keywords in the right places etc. However, it can be seen that there are many sites that rank highly despite seemingly paying no attention to any of the on-page recommendations. The reason this happens is due to inbound links.

Ok, so it's not really a secret and most Webmasters know that it's important to get plenty of backlinks to their sites. However, one thing that many fail to realise is that in order to make the most of incoming links we need to make full and proper use of the anchor text in those links.

For example:

The most important keyword phrase at this point in time was the organisation's name, so an effective link would follow this format:-

<a href="siteURL">Oranisation Name</a>

Anyway, for the freebie site, I set up a links page so that there was somewhere to put reciprocal links, and then emailed the Webmasters of several related websites asking if they would be willing to exchange links. My email looked something like this:-

Hello,

I am contacting you regarding exchanging links with the new Wirral Mind website. As you are probably aware, Wirral Mind is affiliated to the National Mind organisation, and I expect the new website to quickly become highly ranked.

If you check out our links page at http://home2.btconnect.com/wirralmind/links.htm you will see that I have already added your link to the page, and I would be very grateful if you would reciprocate with a link to the Wirral Mind site.

Here is the HTML for linking to the site:

<p><a href="http://home2.btconnect.com/wirralmind/">Wirral Mind</a> - Supporting people on Wirral who experience emotional difficulties and distresses in their lives.</p>

Thanks in advance,

Tony Williams
Webmaster Wirral Mind

For the most part, I received a very favourable response – with the result that I quickly built up some important backlinks for the site.

The process of anouncing the new site and getting about 20 very important backlinks to it took me a couple of hours. I could have carried on building links and promoting the site, and for a commercial venture that is precisely what I would recommend. But I had other work to do, and besides, I figured that I'd done enough to fulfill the brief.

Just three days after the site went live, it was ranking third in the Google SERPS. The reason it wasn't at the number one spot was because of the national organisation's Website which has been around for a while and has naturally built up a lot of very important inbound links. I expect this situation to be remedied in time (but it would help if the site was hosted properly under its own domain).

But after 3 days I would call third place a pretty good result, wouldn't you?

Web Site Traffic Secret Uncovered

Where does web site traffic come from?

It is a question that leaves many new Webmasters scratching their heads in frustration and bewilderment. After all, traffic is the life-blood of any website and if your site isn't getting any then you have a problem. But it need not be that way because there is more than one solution and some are much easier to achieve than others.

The biggest secret to getting web site traffic is... wait for it..., backlinks. Yes, I know it's not much of a secret, but it is the type of inbound links and how you go about getting these all-important links that is important. Get it wrong and, at best, you will be wasting your time, at worst, you could actually damage the credibility of your Website. Alarmist I know, but true all the same.

How do you damage the credibility of your site? By procuring links from sites that have been given a black mark by search engines for using questionable SEO tactics such as hidden text or keyword spam. Such sites are known as 'bad neighbourhoods' and as the name suggests; should be avoided. In fairness, the search engines know that you have no control over who chooses to link to your site, so don't get paranoid about the idea, but do try to concentrate your efforts on links from good neighbourhoods.

So if backlinks are so important to the success of a Website then surely it would be worthwhile spending some cash to achieve the desired results, which begs the question: Is it worth paying for links?

The short answer is that it can be. But before you reach for your wallet you should be aware that some paid links are more effective than others, and there are of course plenty of ways of building backlinks for free. So, before spending any cash perhaps we should determine just what a 'quality' inbound link is.

A worthwhile, or indeed 'quality', inbound link is one that will add some value to your website. That value could be click-through traffic or page rank that will boost your own site's ranking in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages), but preferably; both. If you haven't already done so, then you should install the Google toolbar (you can find it at http://toolbar.google.com) so that you can check the page rank of prospective link partner sites. But be aware that page rank does not necessarily equal traffic! However, it can be a good indicator of a site's worth.

If you do intend to buy a link on another website then it is perfectly reasonable to ask the Websmaster for some evidence of traffic statistics. A quality site with a good amount of traffic should happily provide this information in return for a paid link. If not, then look elsewhere; it is their loss.

In conclusion: one way of building traffic to a website is to invest time and effort in building inbound links, or backlinks, from other quality Websites. Avoid 'bad neighbourhoods' and concentrate instead on getting quality links. Finally, if you are going to pay for a link then try to get some evidence of how many visitors the linking site is getting.

For more SEO and Web traffic building secrets check out: http://webtraffic.tdlwebs.com