Everyone wants “organic” or “free” traffic, but it won’t happen automatically and even with most efforts, it won’t happen for quite some time. So the first thing to do is build a good content-rich site and do the things listed below, you’ll begin to get traffic and help your ranking at the same time.
The first question to ask yourself is, “Does my web site clearly tell my prospects why they should do business with me instead of your competitors?” and “Does it have a clear “call-to-action”?” And finally, ask yourself, “Am I set up to track my visitors and conversion rates?” If you’ve done all this, you’re ready to bring the proper traffic to your site. If you haven’t, go back and do the following things or you’ll be wasting money.
The first thing you should start with is Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO has become a full time job, so if you don’t have time to spend at least one hour per week on your site, you should hire an expert to do it for you. Anyone who guarantees high rankings is a fraud because no one can guarantee Google or Yahoo will do anything and the rules change constantly, (They will guarantee some key word like your company name, but not a competitive word that would do you any good). The keys to SEO success are in how your site is designed…
The 3 “keys” to SEO are:
- Content
- Relevant one-way incoming links with good Google PR
- Proper site design – your site must be optimized properly.
The following items below will help with content and providing one-way links, so all you need to add is proper site design. Key to make this work: don’t think one page site, think a site with hundreds of optimized pages all tightly themed and relevant to one target market. The idea of SEO being “smoke and mirrors” or some mystical act are thoughts of the past, it’s actually very simple, as long as you follow the rules and provide relevant content — and lots of it.
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) — Get traffic in an hour with PPC. Google and Overture (now Yahoo) are the primary ones, but you might also want to consider FindWhat.com. Key to make this work: know your visitor value, bid on hundreds of keywords and phrases that are not too competitive, and track each keyword or phrase separately.
- Distribute Your Content — write articles of value to your target market. Distribute that content for other webmasters to use on their sites as long as they keep the link back to you in a “resource box” at the end of each article. Distribute your articles through article directories, ezines, and your blog. Key to make this work: valuable content
- Submit Press Releases — submit electronic press releases frequently with news of interest to the media and your target market. Since press releases are news, if they get picked up, it will be quickly and you can get hundreds of links back to your site this way. Key to make this work: write 300 — 500 word releases, include a link back to you, and have them written and distributed by experts who know how to optimize each release for keywords (not typical PR firms).
- Set Up a Blog with RSS — to be effective blogs must have frequently updated content. Base yours on information helpful to your customers, not sales pitches. Don’t do it unless you can commit some ongoing time to it. Seth Godin says the keys to a successful blog are (1) Candor, (2) Urgency, (3) Timeliness, (4) Pithiness — be short & to the point, (5) Controversy. Key to make this work: make it interesting to your visitors, submit to all the blog directories, ping the search engines when you post, distribute your content with RSS (others can use on their blogs or web sites without the hassle of negotiating permission and distribution doesn’t get caught in spam filters like email).
- Get One-Way Incoming Links — All the above will create incoming, one-way links, but you can also buy links from other sites and from text link brokers. Don’t bother with reciprocal linking, it’s dead. Make sure you get links from pages with a Google page rank higher than 0. A site Google rates as 0 maybe because they are penalizing it for some reason and if you link to it, you will get hurt as a result. Key to make this work: Make sure links have your keywords in the anchor text and make sure they are text, not graphical links. Make sure they are from other relevant sites, not link farms or FFA sites. Best is links from pages without many other links.
- Give Other Sites Your Testimonial — let them publish it on their web site as long as they link back to you. This can get you a one-way link from a site that would otherwise not give it to you. Key to make this work: keep it short and to the point.
- Email Promotions – Advertise in Ezines, place ads in someone else’s email newsletters that reach your target market. Key to make this work: track everything carefully
- Joint Ventures — Get promoted to your JV partner’s customer database by your JV partner. John Reese sold over $1 Million of his information product in 24 hours exclusively by using joint venture promotions from his partners sending his offer to their customer lists. He paid his partners 50% commission on sales. Key to make this work: know your visitor value and have a tested and proven sales page that converts well BEFORE you contact JV prospects.
- Get Affiliates — If selling a product, offer a commission to affiliates to sell for you. Each affiliate’s link to your sales letter conversion page will bring you traffic and a better search engine rank too. Key to make this work: Make it financially attractive to your affiliates, provide all the promotional and sales materials, give them as many tracking codes as they want so they can track each thing they do at their end, do the work for them and make it easy to sign up. Provide tested emails, banners, and other tools for them to use.
- Buy Other Web Sites — Find web sites that already rank high on your keywords, verify their traffic with the site owner and buy their site. Make sure to get ownership of the domain — you can let them still use their content elsewhere. Check deleteddomains.com to see what domains you register for a few dollars that their owners have let expire. Key to make this work: Check Google page rank, Alexa rank and number of back links for any site before you buy it. (One marketer I know challenged some SEO experts to see who could get ranked highest on a given term in 24 hours — he won, the techies did a lot of things, but the marketer just bought the site that was # 1)