Seven top tips for success

As a summary, here are my seven top tips for search engine success:
1 Find a great niche and create great content. Give your users
good reasons to come back and to bookmark, tag, and link to
your site. If you do only this and nothing else, your site will rank
well without any specific optimization activity. (See Step 1.)
2 Lay the right foundations. Host your site with a fast and flexible
provider, and structure the site symmetrically and with a logical
domain name, directory structure, and filenames. (See Step 2.)
3 Do everything you can with the assets under your control in
terms of on-page SEO, but realize that this only gets you to the

start line in the race for decent rankings. SEO is not simply an
exercise in decent copywriting. (See Step 3.)
4 Spend more time on directory submissions, article writing, and
online press releases. Provide a hook. Your site must be newsworthy,
funny, or controversial, or at the very least full of great
resources. (See Step 4.)
5 By all means use paid advertising, but only as an adjunct to a
decent organic search campaign (rather than the other way
around). Save money by targeting long-tail terms, tuning match
drivers, and crafting decent landing pages. (See Step 5.)
6 If your business has a local angle, put some focus into local
directory listings, geo-targeting, language optimization, and
Google Earth/KML optimization. As the web gets more local,
your investment will pay dividends. (See Step 6.)
7 If you can, create a business advisory blog and make it easy for
others to tag and syndicate your content and products. Increase
your presence on wikis, lenses, and other social networking sites
to futureproof your rankings. As a summary, here are my seven top tips for search engine success:1 Find a great niche and create great content. Give your usersgood reasons to come back and to bookmark, tag, and link toyour site. If you do only this and nothing else, your site will rankwell without any specific optimization activity. (See Step 1.)2 Lay the right foundations. Host your site with a fast and flexibleprovider, and structure the site symmetrically and with a logicaldomain name, directory structure, and filenames. (See Step 2.)3 Do everything you can with the assets under your control interms of on-page SEO, but realize that this only gets you to the

Improve Web Site Traffic

Improving your Web site traffic is a tricky business. You can take advantage
of quite a few different strategies — many won’t cost you much
whereas some won’t even cost you a dime. The trick is to find the right balance
of strategies and then be consistent in your efforts to draw people to
your Web site.
Consistency is also a very important factor in improving the traffic to your
Web site. Every day you should be plugging away at your marketing efforts,
in whatever form works best for your site. Web site marketing does require
constant attention, however. Pushing for a short period of time to improve
your traffic but then letting the efforts fall by the wayside does no good.
Doing so might get you a temporary increase in traffic, but as soon as you
stop your efforts to bring people to your site, you’ll see your traffic statistics
begin to fall again.
What follows are some of the strategies that you can use to improve your
Web site traffic. No single strategy works by itself, but a combination of those
shown here — and others that you figure out on your own along the way —
gets you moving in the right direction.

Great, Dynamic Content

Everyone seems to be seeking the key to more Web site content. In today’s
information-driven society, great, dynamic content is the key. People are usually
online because they’re looking for something — relationships, information,
products, or services. Content is the way they find what they’re looking for.
Think about it. A decade or so ago, if you wanted to find information on anything,
you had to go to the library or the bookstore to find that information.
Today, finding what you seek is as close as your computer. Just open a Web
browser, type a few words, and what you’re looking for is sitting right in front
of you. Very little information can’t be found online these days.
Here’s what makes one site better than another though. When I’m looking for
information online, I click into and out of a site in the time it takes most
people to take a sip of coffee. That’s because I know exactly what I’m looking
for, and when I don’t see it, I move on to the next search result.
When I do find what I’m looking for, though, I tend to stick around. I’ll read
the article that brought me to the site and then I’ll click through all the articles
that are linked to it, and I might even click some of the ads shown on the
page if they seem interesting. When I’m done, I bookmark the page to come
back later and see what’s new.
That is what good content does for a Web site — it buys you time with your site
visitors and it buys you return visits. If you don’t have content with that kind of
stickiness, the first thing you can do to improve your Web site is to create that
content. Just remember, don’t try buying it from a content broker — someone
who commissions content from writers and then resells it to Web site or publication
owners — if you really want something fresh and new because everyone
else in your area is using the same content broker.

Referral Programs

Referral programs have a couple different sides. One side of a referral program
is the side on which you make money. That’s for putting referral buttons
on your Web site.
What if you flip that around and create your own referral program where you
pay visitors to share your site with others? You can do that — and should —
if you really want to build a sizable flow of traffic to your site.
Creating a referral program isn’t too difficult. The first thing you need to do is
determine what you can afford to invest in the program. Typically, those who
refer your site are paid anywhere from about a penny-a-click to as much as $5
per click or more. Some referral programs promise a flat fee for any referral
that results in a purchase.
Your budget is the determining factor here, but remember this: The more
you pay, the more likely others will want to refer your site to their site visitors.
They’re sending traffic away from their site to yours, so you must make
it worth the referrers’ efforts.
Remember that for a referral program to be effective, it should also be
simple. If you’re telling people you’ll only pay them a referral fee if they send
someone to your site who then makes two purchases over a 60-day period,
unless your site is truly amazing or the products that you offer are completely
unique, not too many people will refer their visitors to you. It’s just
too hard for them to earn a reward for that referral.
A referral program also has to make it easy for referrers to be connected to
the people that they refer. A simple form that includes a Referred By box is
okay, but it’s only as effective as the memory of the person filling out the
form. A link that connects referrers to your referral program so that you can
track who they refer is much more effective for the people who are spreading
your name around.
Setting up an easy-to-use referral program might be more difficult on your
end, but it’s worth the investment. The less work that someone has to do to
refer people to you and collect a reward for that referral, the more likely he’ll
use your referral program.
Amazon.com has a referral program that’s an excellent example of what
really works. They provide all the tools that users need to refer others to
Amazon products. All the user has to do is plug a piece of code into her blog
or Web site. Amazon and the visitors clicking through the referrals do the
rest of the work.
Now, I know you don’t have the budget that Amazon has, but you should be
able to get the technology you need without having to break the bank. A
quick search on Google turns up referral marketing systems that are fairly
cost effective. For example, ReferralBlast (www.referralblast.com) is an
easy to use program that offers four different levels of referral programs —
from a basic program to a highly customized program — that range from $99
per year to $999 per year. Another program that’s available, and that is fairly
easy to use, is ReferralSoftware.com (www.referralsoftware.com). This
software — unlike ReferralBlast — allows you to set up referral programs for
a one-time fee of $299, after which you never pay another fee.

Links and Linking Strategies

You wouldn’t think that the links on your site would make too much difference
to the traffic on your site, but they do. The Web is an interconnected
group of pages. The connection from one page to another comes in the form
of a link. So, both on your site and from others’ sites, links are an essential
part of drawing people in.
One of the easiest ways to begin building a linking strategy is to contact the
owners of Web sites that you like and ask them for a reciprocal link. Reciprocal
links are when you put a link to that site on your page in exchange for a link
back to your Web site. Reciprocal linking strategies are very common on
the Web.
Another way to get people to link to you is to offer something completely
unique on your Web site. For some, that means adding a special download
to the site that’s not available anywhere; for others, it means adding videos,
podcasts, or some other element that’s completely unique. Whatever your
draw is, keep it unique and fresh. A podcast or video can be effective for a
few days, but after a while, it loses its effectiveness and needs to be replaced
with something new.
When you have an intricate linking strategy in place (one that leads to other
sites of interest and back to you from other sites), you start seeing the
results of the strategy — more traffic. The linking strategy takes a little time
to create, but it’s well worth the effort.

Advertisements

If you haven’t already done it, check out AdWords. AdWords is the advertiser’s
arm of AdSense. With AdWords, you can bid to show your advertisements
based on keywords that you select. Remember: Although AdWords
is an advertising program, it’s not good just for products. You can use
AdWords with your services or even content Web sites, too. The point of
using AdWords is to advertise your site to users who might not otherwise
find you. What you sell or provide on that site is up to you.
The cool thing about AdWords is that you can set a budget that keeps you
from spending way more than you have available to spend on advertising
your site.
Of course, AdWords isn’t the only game in the advertising world. You can
also consider banner ads or even other pay-per-click advertising options.
What’s important is that you get your Web site in front of as many people
as possible.
Advertising probably isn’t the most effective method of getting your name
out there — positive word of mouth and great content are your best shot —
but if you have some cash to spend on getting your name known, it’s definitely
a strategy that you should consider.

Blog Promotions

If you have a blog, you simply have to have a blog promotion (or 12). Really.
Blogs are cool, but if you’re not out there promoting your blog every single
day, your numbers will suck pond scum. One of the most effective types of
blog promotion is simply to read and post on other people’s blogs. When you
post on other people’s blogs, their readers see your post. They can click
through any links that you have connected to your display name or within
your comments to see your blog — in fact, you have the opportunity to
include your blog URL when you post on most blogs, and you should always
include it. Including your blog address gives you free exposure, just for sharing
your opinion.
Blogs have become so popular that even corporations now use them to
advertise products, services, and events or just to keep readers updated on
what’s happening with the company. The downside though is that blogs have
become so popular that every person who even thinks they might possibly
have something of interest to say has a blog.
Making your blog stand out from the rest of the pack is a very difficult process.
Start with a truly interesting blog — will it captivate every person on
the Web? No. If you can make your blog fresh though, you can potentially
gain a huge mindshare in the area in which you specialize.
After you come up with that perfect blog, you have to get the word out. Start
by posting comments on other blogs, but don’t stop there. Spread the word
through your friends and ask them to spread the word, too. Join mailing lists
and make sure your blog address appears in the signature line for every post
that you make to the list (and you do have to post to the list — preferably
interesting, useful posts).
Consider other promotions, such as blog tours (where a blog author appears
on several different blogs as a guest blogger), giveaways, and other contests.
Be creative, but also think in terms of what appeals to potential blog readers.
If your blog is about a group of teens that are band groupies, a contest where
the giveaway is a copy of War and Peace might not be the best idea. If the
prize in your contest is a $25 iTunes card, the response could be much more
than you even dare to hope for.
As with all types of promotions, think outside the box. Better yet, think of a
way to create a whole new box.

Publicity and Public Relations

All too often, publicity and public relations are all lumped into the same category
of advertising. From where I sit, publicity and public relations are two
different things. Publicity is free, and it includes coverage from other media
sources, including newsletters, newspapers, radio stations, television, or
whoever else may pick up word of what you’re doing.
On the Web, publicity usually takes the form of word-of-mouth type publicity.
Someone sees your Web site and then tells someone else who happens to
have a blog, so that person writes a blog post about it, which is then picked
up by other bloggers, and it then catches the eye of some radio host or newspaper
journalist who then runs a brief article or makes mention of your site
to their audience.
You get the picture — and that’s really a best-case scenario.
Did you know that you can influence publicity, too? You can — by getting the
name of your Web site in front of as many people as possible. One way to do
that is to write articles that are complete and ready to run, and then distribute
them to news outlets, newsletter owners, other Web site owners, or
anyone else who has a publication and might be interested in your site. The
catch is that to run the article you provide (for free), the publication must
also run a short blurb about you, including your Web site address.
That takes care of publicity. Public relations, on the other hand, deals with
how you handle people, especially in a public setting. You can put that to
work for your Web site, too. Public relations can be the donations that you
make (in the name of your Web site) to charity organizations, or it can be you
taking the time to teach about your topic within your community. Guess
what? Just putting your knowledge to use by answering questions posed by
folks in search of answers can count as public relations.
Creating a relationship with the public is what public relations is all about.
When you use public relations — along with publicity — to get your Web site
in front of people, you’re building your traffic levels (which in turn helps
build your AdSense revenues). Creating public relations and publicity is a
time-consuming process, though, so don’t make the mistake of thinking that
you can spend ten minutes here and there and immediately see results.
Professionals set aside several hours each week to devote to public relations
and publicity efforts. You should do the same if you’re truly serious about
creating a real brand with your Web site that people will think of and recognize
when they consider topics related to your site and products. (Creating a
brand simply means making your Web site or blog immediately recognizable,
just like other products [Pepsi, Kleenex, Saran Wrap] are immediately recognizable.
The goal is to be the first site or blog that comes to mind when your
topic or product is considered.)

Lead Generation and Follow-Up

One thing that Web site owners don’t often think of in terms of driving traffic
to their sites is lead generation. Lead generation in this context is nothing
more than the process by which you gather the names and e-mail addresses
of people who may be interested in your Web site or blog — these are all
potential visitors. And following up on those leads is how you convert those
potential visitors into actual visitors. Lead generation takes place in several
different ways. For some sites, it’s a newsletter sign-up, but for others, it’s a
contest or promotion that you e-mail to a mailing list you purchased from a
marketing company.
How can generating leads help you build traffic on your site? It’s easy, really.
If you’re collecting leads, you can keep your site in front of potential visitors
more often.
That does require follow-up, though. Although some Web site owners are
great at collecting leads, they don’t do much with them — you should. If you
have a collection of people who have willingly given you their e-mail address,
you should be using that address as often as you can to keep in touch with
those potential visitors.
Many Web site owners do collect e-mail addresses (which in this case are
your leads). Having folks sign up for a newsletter is one of the most popular
harvesting methods out there. You can also collect the e-mail addresses of
visitors when they register for your site or when they purchase goods or
services from you.
However you collect the addresses, they’re no good to you if they just sit on
a list doing nothing. After you have your e-mail addresses, use them to put
your name in front of those people — and the more helpful you can be in the
process, the better it is for your Web site.
Here’s an example: One Web site owner collects people’s e-mail addresses
for a newsletter. The newsletter goes out without fail (consistency is key
with newsletters) every two weeks. That same Web site owner also sends
out a message about once a month that contains tips that the readers can
use immediately to improve their business.
This type of extra information — service above and beyond the call of duty —
is what helps build traffic for the Web site. When potential visitors turn to the
area that the site addresses, that site is of course the first site to come to mind
because the Web site owner has kept the site’s name in front of them as often
as possible.
Keep in mind this fact though: It’s absolutely essential that the communications
you have with your potential visitors be useful. Sales, extra information,
even contest announcements are useful. Just sending a note to say hello?
Nothing useful about that at all, and users won’t appreciate it.
The idea is to create a feeling of appreciation so that you’re first in the visitor’s
mind when she thinks of the area that you serve. Being first means more
Web site traffic for you.

Contests

I briefly mention contests a little earlier in this chapter. I bring them up here
because contests are a great way to bring traffic to your Web site. Everyone
loves a good contest, especially when the prizes are neat.
Deciding what the prizes are for your contest is very important. Think of
what appeals to people who would be interested in your site. I mention earlier
in the chapter that if your site’s about music, giving away copies of War
and Peace just won’t cut it because such a contest wouldn’t target the specific
people that you want to see your site.
When you’re considering the prizes that you should give away, consider what
type of prize would draw the kind of person that would be interested in your
site. If the purpose of the contest is to draw visitors to your site, the wrong
prizes won’t help you at all.
Devising the type of contest to have is the next step. What is it people need
to do to get the prize? One thing that many Web site owners do is require
that users register for a newsletter, and then the winner is drawn from those
who signed up for the newsletter. Bloggers often run contests where visitors
are required to leave a comment on the blog.
After you create your contest, all you have to do is get the word out.
Announce the contest on your Web site, blog, and any mailing lists that you
have. Tell your friends and ask them to tell their friends. If the contest’s
good, word gets around quickly.
You’ll see a spike in the amount of traffic that you have to your site during
the contest period, but if you conduct it right, an overall increase will remain
after the contest is over. Take the time to design your contest to meet the
specific goal of creating traffic (especially return traffic) to your site, and
you’ll see the benefits of this strategy the first time you try it.