Internet Marketing for Online Business

One of the best ways to increase your website traffic is if you can rank well NATURALLY in the search engines for your targeted keywords. 

That might sound like there's some technical expertise to achieving that goal but there really isn't.  In fact it's much better to keep your website optimization basic and simple.  You run less risk of spamming the search engines and, believe it or not, it's much more effective.

Here's how to keep it simple, affordable and still get plenty of traffic to your site!
 
Step 1. Target the right keywords

Here's where a little research goes a long way.    Every time you create a web page, optimize that page for the keywords that not only describe that specific page but are also keyword phrases that people enter into the search engines. Finding the right keywords is also what will set the stage for the rest of your webpage optimization.

I use Wordtracker.com to help me find the best keywords.  Stay away from single words, focus on the long tail keywords, these are the keywords that give you a greater chance of ranking higher in the search engines.

Step 2. Name your pages appropriately

Name your pages using your keyword phrase.  For example, if you have a page about vegetarian weight loss, then use that phrase in the title of your page and separate the words with hyphens.  If you had a page that was about vegetarian weight loss, this is how your page name might look:
 
www.yoursite.com/vegetarian-weight-loss.html/

It just so happens that 'vegetarian weight loss' is a also a keyword phrase that people use to search for vegetarian weight loss diets so by all means use the keyword phrase in the page name.

Don't be afraid to use several words.  You don't want it extremely long but it should contain your keyword phrase.

Step 3. Use a Descriptive title tag for every page

Once again you will be using your best keyword phrase in the title tag. Using our example your title tag would be 'vegetarian weight loss'.
 
Step 4. Use a description tag that describes your page

Your description tag should also contain your best keyword phrase but it should be more descriptive as to what the page is about.  For example, your description tag might say something like 'A vegetarian weight loss diet that guarantees fast weight loss. 

Step 5.  Include relevant, useful and Informative content on your page

Be sure each page has relevant content and lots of it, but also keep your page's content focused. For example, our vegetarian weight loss page should stick to the topic, don't go off and discuss things like the water diet or meat diet; this can confuse the search engines.  Instead use text links to take the reader to other pages that discuss those topics.

Keep you content useful by providing information that people can use.  Present it in a way that's not boring; remember you want to hold your reader's attention.  I like to keep the who, what, where, when, how and why questions in mind when I write. It helps when trying to provide content that will inform and benefit.

Keep your content unique.  We all want to strive for original but that's not always possible, but that doesn't mean you can't be unique.  Take weight loss tips for example, there are tons of the same tips floating around everywhere so it's not always easy to be original, but the way you present those tips, your humor and your originality in writing can keep it  unique and interesting. Write in a conversational style; make it unique to your personality.  This keeps it interesting and compels the reader to keep reading.

Don't forget to proofread, nothing turns off a reader faster than poor grammar and misspelled words. It reflects badly on you and your website.

Step 6. Use Headlines that are descriptive throughout your content

Your headlines will go in the body of your text.  For example, our vegetarian weight loss page will have that phrase as the main headline, then for each section of the page we may have sub headlines that are:

<h1>Vegetarian weight loss tips</h1> with the number in the tags corresponding with the size of the font).

<h2> The benefits of vegetarian weight loss </h2>
    
Step 7.  Use ALT tags for your graphics

Use your page’s keyword phrase in your graphics alt tag as well.  Search engines can't read graphics so using an alt tag with your graphics gives them one more piece of information about your page and every little bit helps.

Don't use too many graphics and don't stuff them with keywords, the search engines won't like it, however, put your main keyword in the alt text of one graphic if you have one.

Here's an example of an alt img tag:

<IMG SRC="yourgraphic.jpg" ALT="your-main-keyword-phrase" />

Step 8.  Keep your website easy to navigate

If someone comes to your website and can't find the logical things they are looking for, they will leave.  Take the time to map out your site and include the categories and topics that people search on.  That's another benefit of using a good keyword research tool, it will display what people look for in relation to your topic. 

For example, if I type in vegetarian weight loss, the Wordtracker keyword tool tells me that people interested in vegetarian weight loss want to know about:

• vegetarian weight loss meal plans
• muscle building on vegetarian diets
• high protein vegetarian diets
• low carb vegetarian diets
• healthy vegetarian diets
• benefits of a vegetarian diets
  …etc.

Those would be the things you would want to include on your site navigation. 

Your navigation should also be accessible from every page of your website.  Also be sure your site has as site map which is also accessible from every page of your website. 
 
Step 9. Get quality incoming links 

Links still hold major value with the search engines and you should strive to get as many 'quality 'links as you can. 

Don't go crazy and load up on useless links. Strive to get links from authority sites that are relevant to your site's topic.  Link exchanges are not as powerful as they once were; instead one-way, inbound links from other sites hold much more weight. 

Keep your inbound links coming from a variety of sources, not just from directories for example. Use different types of sites and sources.

Writing articles and commenting on blogs and forums are excellent ways to generate links to your site as well.  However don't only provide links back to your home page, instead deep link to other pages of your website, especially to those pages you want to promote the most. 

Use your best keyword phrase for each page you are promoting as a text link back to that page. If you write an article that discusses a specific topic on your site, provide a text link in the resource box that links back to that page, not your home page.

Here's an example of how to code a text link:

<a href="http://www.yoursite.com/"> Educational Toys </a> -  Find educational toys for kids of all ages.

In summary….

If you can include all the above strategies I'm confident that in time you will see an increase in traffic for your chosen keywords.

The moral of the story is to spend time getting your SEO right. You'll get a lot more traffic a lot sooner which ultimately translates in to more sales on a consistent basis.

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