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77 Ways to Get Traffic
mahbub-web:
Use appropriate keywords in your image file names
One of my websites gets hundreds of visits a month from people who are searching for images. I'm not sure how valuable those visitors are, but I didn't have to do anything very special to get them. Google Images - http://images.google.com - makes it easy for people to search for graphics online.
To take advantage of this, when choosing the file name of an image on your site, use an appropriate key phrase, for example, "book-ends.jpg" if you're promoting book ends. Here's a tip I just discovered...
When I searched in Google Images for "book ends" I discovered that the very first search result was for a page which did NOT contain a graphic of book ends!
Instead, the page contained a "book ends" LINK to a book ends graphic on a second page. It if suits the design of your site, you may want to experiment with this technique.
I'm not sure how much use traffic to images is, but if it's ADDITIONAL traffic you can get simply by choosing image file names carefully, it's worth having.
mahbub-web:
Do REALLY SERIOUS keyword research
If you want to get LOTS of traffic from search engines, you need to find out the exact phrases which people are typing into search engines. There are free tools available for this, but they're not nearly as useful as the more comprehensive paid tools. For example, if you're using the Overture keyword tool for your research, be warned, its results can't be trusted.As my Special Projects Manager, Jay Stockwell, likes to point out, the Overture tool shows you the SAME number of searches for all these
searches:
daffodil university
university daffodil
daffodil international university
university of Bangladesh
This is obviously nonsense. The Overture tool is useful to give you a quick rough guide, but NOT for serious research. Here's a good tip from "Charlie" on our affiliate forum:
"The harder it is to discover a certain search phrase (getting traffic), the less competition you will have in the SERPs (for that search phrase). If a keyword research tool is free and popular, how many competitors will you have for the phrases you discover there?"
Jay has spent hundreds of hours researching and analyzing keyword research tools. He's built the best site on the Internet reviewing keyword research tools - KeywordWorkshop.com You need to visit Jay's site whether you're using search engine optimization (organic SEO) or pay-per-click advertising.
mahbub-web:
Try this page titles experiment
Here's a good way increase your traffic. Go to Google and type any phrase into the search box. Look at the titles of the websites in the top 10 rankings. Which ones catch your eye and tempt you to click on the link? Some are dreadfully stodgy, boring. Some are merely a long list of keywords. Some are good. Some are junk. Good titles are written for search engines AND humans.Now look at the titles on your site. Start with your most important pages.
Rewrite them to make them more eye-catching. Now go to Google and do a search of your site like this...
site:example.com
Study the page titles. If you own a large site created over many years, you may be horribly embarrassed at just how BAD some of your page titles are. Do you want to find some examples of good titles? Simply go to Google and do some more searches. Don't stick to your industry.
Type in all sorts of different phrases and study the titles that appear in the top 10. You'll soon be brimming with ideas on ways you can improve your page titles. Checking how enticing the information is in your meta description tag can help, too. Some search engines display this information in their search results.
If you have a well established site, you may have written many of your page titles and meta descriptions years ago when you knew less about marketing than you do now. If so, it's time for another look at them.
mahbub-web:
Organic SEO - a few key points
Search engines are getting cleverer all the time. You can try to outsmart them but to me it makes more sense to work WITH them. They're gradually getting better at sifting out low quality websites and ranking them poorly. So build high quality websites containing genuinely useful material that other people want to link to. The basics of good search engine optimization are fairly simple. Here's a very quick summary:
• You need to make it easy for a search engine to figure out the topic of your page.
• Find appropriate keywords or key phrases and use them in the title, in the page heading, in the introduction, throughout the article, in the meta description, in alt tags, at the end of the article, in links on the page, in bold or italics, and perhaps in a list on the page.
• Use key phrases in your file names, for example: keyword1-keyword2.html.
• Use synonyms and word variations naturally throughout the page.
• When linking to your pages, use appropriate keywords in the anchor text (the words people click on). Do this for links throughout your site, and also on other people's sites which link to yours. Vary the anchor text.
• For internal links, it's better to use text than graphical links.
• Create a logical navigation system so that humans and search engines can easily find the content on your site.
• Get links from other sites to internal pages as well as to your main page.
This is just a brief overview of a big topic. If you want excellent, reliable advice on search engine optimization, there's one place I recommend above all others. It's the resource the professionals use - Stephen Mahaney and his team at Planet Ocean. These guys do nothing but search engine optimization. They're experts. I've been a subscriber for years. Planet Ocean is an often recommended resource because it publishes a search engine optimization newsletter and an excellent book which is updated every month, so you can rest assured the information you're reading is right up to date.
mahbub-web:
Submit to the main directories
The more high quality links you have to your site, the more impressed the search engines will be. Start with major directories such as...
Yahoo!
DMOZ.org
sbd.bcentral.com
...and move on to...
Gimpsy
Skaffe
Joeant
GoGuides
Business.com
SevenSeek
ThisIsOurYear
LookSmart (probably too expensive)
BlueFind
WowDirectory
Best of the Web
GeniusFind
Here's a good list of directories
http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php
Be sure to read the submission rules carefully at each site. This will slow you down but it increases your chances of getting your site listed. Listings can last for years, so it's worth while taking your time to get the details correct. You may want to outsource this task by finding someone at a site like eLance or hiring a student.
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