Your Website Traffic & Google Ranking

Website traffic can mean the number of hits the site receives, number page views, or the number of unique visitors to one site. All of these can increase over time. Some individuals want to increase web traffic while others want to increase page views by keeping the visitor or potential customer on the site longer. One of the most important steps of increasing traffic is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This involves the development and proper use of appropriate keyword phrases that describe your website business.

You probably know your competitors in your local area. However, knowing your competitors locally is different from knowing online competitors based on appropriate keywords phrases. This consist of several relevant keywords phrases.

Important to the process of increasing website traffic is to avoid individual keywords like "boots" or "jeans". They are simply too competitive in the online market. Just searching for the term "boots" in Google, you are competing against 105,000,000 with this particular term; whereas, searching for more a specific term such as "Justin Boots" reduces the number of competitive searches to 1,280,000.

Understanding what your online customers needs are and how they search for a particular business is no different than someone walking in your store. When a client wants something, they are going to ask for it by name brand, this is true of online searches. Knowing some of the terms that are most frequently used will give you the advantage online.

But -- here's the hint, you're better off defining your terms in order of importance like primary terms, secondary and tertiary. This can help direct marketing of the site when creating Pay Per Click ads or writing specific content based on those terms. The frequency of the keyword phrases on the page, how often a term appears in a page title, meta keywords words, using them in alt tags and headers give you the edge in optimization.

Every unique and re-visit must be treated as potential prospect. Increasing your website's popularity is essential to improving website traffic. Updating the website on a regular basis, maybe include a blog article area for regularly updated information based on the terms are most searched, can increase your visibility.

"This was based on the new website for The Barn Online www.thebarnonline.com. They have been in business locally for over 30 years and Designedbycarla is structuring an online marketing strategy to improvement search results".

How does SEO effect your business?

Businesses online today are marketing differently then two
years ago. SEO professionals can provide suggestive
improvements for your company's website. Some of my
clients are still in the beginning stages of understanding
how the search engines functions and the impact of their
business. Now, I would not expect my clients to know
every detail of SEO but it does help when relating to the
topics of discussion.

We, as web developers and SEO (search engine optimization)
marketers, are expected to relate to the client and track any
changes that might effect a website. The basic underlying
is to continue to expand your topics of interest on your website.
Every business has that "salesperson" that represents the
business and the same is true for your company's website.

The business presence online is the "salesperson". Stop
spending time trying to figure out if a banner ad will send
potential clients to the site or linking to other website and
begging for link partnership. What's most important is
content that is relevant to the your business. When new
or recurring visitors reach your website, they are only
interested in information relevant to the topic that they
initially searched.

Now, that's not to say don't plan these marketing
projects, but it should not be the first market initiative.
Content plays a huge role in how a client finds your
business and your connection to a sale. The search engines
will always continue to evolve, but the basics are always the same.
But as developers, we need to continue to provide you with the
information you need to make smart business decisions.

Are you?

Content with your Content

By: Scott Jemison
Contributing Writer

Are you satisfied with the content on your website? Do you feel confident that it accurately communicates your business? Are you content with your content?

You shouldn't be. Your content should be constantly growing and expanding. Stale website content is a quick ticket to the bottom of the SERP's. It is vital to periodically update your content.

Provide your visitors with new information and insight about products or services. Publish news about changes at your company; new employees, new locations, new services.

Consider adding a blog to your site. A blog allows you to regularly add content to your site for the search engines to find. And, blogs give your business a personal voice and an opportunity for customers to respond. You can get valuable insight into the wants and needs of your customers through blogging or a forum.

The important thing is to add fresh content to your website as often as possible.

Every Page Is A Home Page

At one time websites were only 5 pages and displayed the only basic information about a company. Business owners would hope that a potential client would find their website within the thousands that were listed.

Today, every page of a site is a potential find for the client. Instead of thousands of listings, now it is in the millions. We tend to obsess with the home page, but now it is important to structure every page like the home page. The task is made simple by organizing a checklist for the website that is easy to follow for you and makes it easy for clients to find.

Here is some design considerations:
1. Display logo clearly on every page
2. Link back to the home page from every page
3. Good overall content (keyword-rich)
4. Target your audience
5. Keep the font type friendly
6. Easy to find phone number
7. Whitespace usage
8. Don't use frames
9. Proper bulleted listed formats
10. Descriptive links within content

Marketing a site is not easy, but it is important how to do it. There are many more factors that make a site successful making it important to find professionals you can trust.