Back To The Internet Traffic Basics

May
25

The world of Internet traffic revolves
around two separate entities: the
search engines and the social networks.
It used to be that the only way to
capture traffic was through search
engine placement, however, now there
is a great deal of debate in this area
as social networking becomes the new
strategy for increasing the traffic to
sites. Here we will discuss the
different skills you need for either
strategy and some different places to
research this highly important aspect
of Internet marketing.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization deals with
how search engines determine the
ranking in search results when people
go to search for a site based on
particular words or phrases. There are
a number of search engines and each of
them has their own SEO algorithms. A
great deal of research is carried out
to determine what those algorithms might
be by trial and error, even though the
companies don’t necessarily disclose how
they are ranking web pages. It’s become
quite a science and businesses will pay
big bucks if they think they can get
their pages served first to a customer
before their competitor’s in a search
result. The reason is simple: most
people using a search engine only look
at the first two pages of results.

So, it stands to reason that the higher
you place in the ranking, the more
likelihood you will be found through
random searches by people using search
engines like Yahoo! or Google. How will
you be able to compete with people who
are shelling out tons of money on
outwitting the search engines?

While you probably can learn some of the
same strategies they are using like
placing keywords in your web pages, you
will find that search engines have gotten
far more egalitarian in recent years.
They’ve recognized that large companies
have learned how to program their pages
to cheat the algorithms so now the search
engines are using other requirements. One
of these is the scanning for original
content on sites. Although you want to
keep your content fresh, you don’t want
to update your site every hour, as too
frequent updating can also be penalized
in the search engines.

To learn how some of the different SEO
factors affect your page ranking, check
out:www.vaughns-1-pagers.com
internet/google-ranking-factors.htm .
Appropriate keywords are still a very
important part of Internet marketing,
but where you place them in your HTML
coding also affects how you rank. You
can get your own list of keywords by
looking at the most popular searches
for a typical keyword or phrase and
finding out what people have searched
in the last month through Overture.
This is a free SEO tool that can be
viewed here: www seochat.com/seo
tools/keyword-suggestions-overture

Another Strategy – Social Networking

This strategy relies on the social
networks which house millions of users
and which can be mined for traffic.
Examples of powerful social networks
are Myspace.com and StumbleUpon (a
search engine based on social ranking).
Bulletin boards, web log (blog)
communities, and other types of online
communities are great places to
establish a web presence and market your
website URL. The idea is to develop a
fan base in these areas that already
have huge traffic and then pull those
fans into your website via links.

This strategy requires time devoted to
being a known contributor of social
networking sites. It doesn’t work to
just add a profile and leave. You have
to engage discussions, set yourself up
as an expert in your field, and then
market your URL in such a way so as not
to be perceived that you are spamming
a site. Spamming a site with your web
address and no actual feedback or
community participation will only get
you banned. So, you have to be willing
to give of yourself and to market
yourself in a discreet, but effective
manner.