Web Traffic 411

Essential Element 3: Off Page Elements

Once you have content on your site, properly optimized with the right keywords, you have to let people know about it.

The goal now is to get links to your website on as many other relevant websites as possible, keyword relevant. Your goal is to develop your reputation as an expert in your field, and at the same time direct as much traffic as possible to your site.

This is actually fairly easy and can be a lot of fun. You’ve most likely created a site about something you enjoy, so spending time online with other like-minded people, either fellow experts or fans, will seem more like fun than work.

But first, a couple of things you DON’T want to do:

• Don’t participate in link farms. You can recognize invitations from link farms if you get a message that says something like “We’ll put you on our Links page.” Visit it first, and if they have everything from llama farming to the economic status of Botswana, don’t do it.
• Dont pay for links. Google is getting really strict on this, and you can actually be penalized for buying a link. (An exception is their Adwords program, but that’s for a later post.)

What you can do is start finding sites in your area of expertise, looking for people who want what you offer, and letting them know your site is the place to find it. This is very, very simple. Time consuming, but simple. Here are just a few places you can look:

• Forums
• Blogs
• Groups: Yahoo, Google, etc.
• Social Networking sites: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
• Business Networking sites: Ryze, LinkedIn
• Article/Press Release Distribution Sites

  Next I’ll get into the details. Until then, start working on a “signature”: a line or two with your name, website, and a quick tag line for your site.

  Example:
  Theresa Carter, The Local Tourist: Online Guide to Downtown Chicago
  www.thelocaltourist.com

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Essential Element 2: On Page Elements, Part II

In the last post I covered the On Page Elements that the site visitor will actually see: file name, title, headlines, formatting, and content. This post covers Meta Tags and Alt Attributes: On Page Elements that they won’t see.

(Even though that may seem counterintuitive, they’re called On Page because you control them on each individual page of your site.)

Meta Tags: These are bits of code that “tag” certain information with significance. They used to be the driving force behind SEO. Before search engines got all sophisticated and stuff (pre-Google days), they’d rely on information provided by the webmasters themselves. The site designers put keywords and descriptions into meta tags: code that the user would never see. But, nefarious elements will always find a way to cause problems. More and more started putting strings of unrelated keywords and description into their tags, rendering them almost useless.

With that caveat in mind, it is still a good idea to use these behind-the-scene helpers. Google says they don’t use the description tag at, but I once did a File..Save As and forgot to change the meta description from the original page, and the original description showed up on Google results! Just to be safe it’s best to optimize them.

Alt Attributes: Search engines can only read text and not image files, so the Alt Attribute is how you describe any images on the page. Within the img src tag, include alt=”describe the photo here”. Don’t be tempted to stuff it with keywords. Instead, make sure the image is appropriate for the page and use keywords that describe it accurately, then follow it with the word “image”. Note: These are often called Alt Tags, but that’s a misnomer.

Next we’ll get into the fun stuff: Off Page Elements. (Really. There are times I think “This is work?)

Theresa

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Essential Element 2: On Page Elements, Part I

There are several things you can do on your web pages that help to improve your rankings. When you hear the phrase Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, it’s referring to these on page elements. These you can directly control.

I’ll start off with two no-no’s. One is using frames. Frames allow parts of the page to remain static, so from a design perspective they’re a handy way to create a consistent navigation structure that you only have to change once. Unfortunately, all the search engines see is the home page. All that keyword research means nothing if Google and Yahoo and the gang never see them.

For the same reason, the other no-no is is using Flash. OK, you can use some Flash, but don’t go crazy. Search engines read text, not images or video.

Now on to the things you should do.

1. File Name: Try to use the most important keywords in the file name itself, while keeping the URL as short as possible.
2. Title: Instead of using your company name, the title should be what the page is about. Use as many keywords as possible, up to ~100 characters.
3. Headlines: Same thing, except you have a little more room. Just make sure the headline actually makes sense. You don’t want to be seen as stuffing your keywords.
4. Formatting: Use bold, underline, and italic. Not only do they help particular words or phrases stand out for the reader, they also emphasize their importance for the search engines.
5. Content: Make sure you have something to say! Even if you just have a list, for example, of products or business listings, include an introductory paragraph.

That’s enough for today. In the next installment I’ll cover meta tags and alt attributes. And yes, I’ll tell you exactly what those are!

Theresa

p.s. If you want to start learning these tips immediately, get my quick, easy to read guide for building traffic for newbies.

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Webmaster’s Insider Keyword Tools

Now that you’ve got your list of potential keywords, you need to find out if anyone’s actually using them. Fortunately, market research on the Internet is as simple as knowing which tools to use.

The first major tool you’ll want to know is WordTracker. There are three different versions: a free one that returns just keyword options and the number of times people used it, a trial one that also gives you a competitive analysis of up to 100 keywords, and the full version that gives you an unlimited number of returns.

The free version can help with brainstorming, but to really choose the ones you should use in your traffic building efforts, you need the competitive analysis. As I mentioned in the introduction to the essential elements of building traffic, you don’t operate in a vacuum. At this point you should be fine with just the trial version.

Google’s tool is part of Adwords, but you don’t have to sign up for their advertising program to use it. Just enter in your keywords, and it returns a list of searches from the previous months, as well as the level of competition. It’s graphically based so you don’t actually see the numbers, but you’ll get an idea of which phrases to focus on and which ones would be an exercise in futility.

Wordtracker, Free Version
Wordtracker, Trial Version
Google Adwords Keyword Tool

(More detailed instructions are available in the guide.)

Now that you’ve got your list of keywords, what do you do with them? Next we’ll cover Essential Elements of Building Traffic #2, On Page Elements

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Essential Element 1: Keywords

Keywords are the foundation of building web traffic. This is a step you can’t pass up. If you do, you won’t pass go, you won’t collect $200. Choosing the proper keywords will make sure that your website will be found by your target market.

So how do you go about doing that? The first step is to summarize what you’re offering by writing down a brief description. Now pull out the major words and start brainstorming. Your goal is to find the long-tail keywords. These are specific phrases that say exactly what your site is about. When your market searches for what you offer, they’ll be happy when they get to your site because you’re giving them exactly what they want! It’s a win-win situation.

You’ll want to do this on every page of your website. Why? Because you want to make it as easy as possible for your market. If someone’s looking for events in downtown Chicago, I want them to go directly to the events calendar. If they’re sent to the home page there’s a possibility they’ll click away instead of spending time poking around until they find it (that’s also an argument for a strong navigation structure, but that’s another topic).

Now start brainstorming! In the next post, I’ll tell you about the insider tools experienced webmasters use to not only find out how popular their terms are, but how much competition is out there.

Theresa

p.s. Impatient? Download the Web Traffic 411 guide immediately.

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