No one can deny that you need traffic to your website in order to succeed online. And nothing beats free traffic. Where does free traffic come from? Google and other search engines.
How does Google give out free traffic?
This is something you’ve experienced first hand countless times. You visit your favorite search engine. Enter in a word or phrase you want to research. And then you visit one or more of the sites that show up. Well, the link you clicked on just send free traffic to that website owner. What need to figure out is how to get you free traffic.
If you’re like most people you only click links on the first page or two. In fact, the first page of results receives almost all the free traffic. What’s even more amazing is the the first 3 links get more than 70% of the free traffic.
This means that to get any real traffic you need to be on the first page in Google. And that means you need to be “ranked” in the top 10 by Google. Which brings up..
What is search engine optimization?
Search Engine Optimization means that Google thinks your site matches what people are typing into their search box. It’s a complex formula that only people working for Google know exactly. But there are several things that we know for sure.
Getting indexed
First, before you can get ranked highly, Google has to know you exist. This is called getting “indexed.” When your website gets indexed, Google stores information about it in their massive database.
In order to get indexed, Google has to be able to find you. And the best way for Google to find you is to get inbound links from other sites. Since some of these site will already be indexed, Google will follow the links on their pages and find you.
Use your Twitter and Facebook updates to get quick indexed links to your site. Google visits these sites many times every day. And follows new links it finds immediately.
Gaining ranking
After getting indexed, you need to work on your search engine ranking. Google has billions of pages indexed, so just getting into their database does not mean anyone will see you.
The 3 factors in getting ranked:
- Content
- Links
- Activity
Great content
This is the SEO you do on your site itself. And it means that the content on your page matches the keywords you’re targeting. Clearly this article is about search engine optimization. One way Google figures this out is from the fact that it contains the term SEO. And another way this is determined is by the other related phrases like traffic generation that are also in the article.
The title of the page, the domain name and other pages on your site are also important. Each of these plays a roles in Google determination about your site.
Link strategy
The next thing to consider is your links. The links coming in and the links going out are included in this. You want to make sure you have more inbound links than outbound links. So the number of inbound links is important.
One great way to get lots of inbound links is through web 2.0 sites. To use this technique you write articles related to the topic of your websites. Then create a bunch of different versions of it. And then upload a different versions to a bunch of sites that allow you to add content. And quantity is the key here – so do lots and lots.
Increasing your activity
Finally, we know that Google gives you credit for the activity on your site. Static pages that just sit may rank at first, but will fall off over time. Regular content updates to your site are expected. RSS feeds are an easy way to keep your content changing.
Comments from other people on your page are another fantastic way to keep your content updated. So, obviously, you need to get people to visit your site on your own, too. Online forums are simple source of real live visitors.
What you need to do is sign up with several forums in your niche. And post their often. Then put a link to your site in your profile. This will get your more inbound links. And it will also get real visitors to your site.
Conclusion
All of the above is important. However, writing a bunch of different articles on the same topic. And creating a bunch of forum profiles. And posting your articles and comments takes a lot of time. And you’re already too busy, so you mostly likely will never do any of it.
However, rank builder software exists. And it automates everything we’ve just talked about. So, use your time wisely and automated to tedious tasks. This way you’ll actually do it. And if you don’t do it, you simply will not ever get free traffic from Google.