How to increase web site traffic

The way Google handles search is changing. You may not have heard of universal search yet, but it is going to affect the way your website and your company show up in search engine results, at least for Google. You may have noticed that pictures, videos and even press releases are showing up alongside websites in regular search engine results.

You need to develop a strategy to meet these changing search conditions, and that means optimizing more than just your website landing page. Images, videos and articles are all parts of your site that could be working harder for your company. Here are five tips to help universal search work for you.

Stop the Presses

Make sure your press releases and company news are getting into Google News and Yahoo News. If you're not doing press releases, you should seriously consider it. Press releases will give you one more chance of showing up in the search engine results beyond your web page. Press releases also give people looking for information about your company the chance to see you in the best light. If you play your cards right, you might get some publicity out of the deal as well.

This is the perfect chance to one-up the competition and highlight your company as an industry leader. Even if you think you have no news, you can comment on industry trends or recent studies relating to your business. The more you get your name out there, the more results you will ultimately see.

Images are already starting to show up in search results based on text around them and the description text in the HTML image tags. It's not difficult to get images onto your site. You can include pictures of past projects, process illustrations, graphs and charts related to your business or industry. A little creativity in this aspect of your website can pay off with your images showing up in Google search results.

Once you have the images in place on your website, make sure the search engines can find them. Pay attention to your image ALT tags, captions and surrounding text so your images show up. Always be sure to have keyword-rich descriptions with your images and use descriptive names for your files as well.

Do you know if your site is easily accessible by search engine spiders? Flash-heavy sites, improper redirects and broken links can thwart your best search engine optimization efforts. Remember, search engine spiders see your website differently than a normal user. They are looking for content and links, and it is in your best interest to be sure they can navigate your site with ease.

Above all, spiders need clear text links. Uploading a new page to your web server, while personally gratifying, may as well be invisible if you do not provide links from your main site. If you don't lay down a clear link path throughout your site, search engines may never find your content. Site maps are an essential tool for making your content search-engine friendly. Make sure yours is updated regularly and submitted to Google with the proper formatting.

While it's important to prepare for the future, don't overlook the basics. Keyword-rich text and title still matter for your web pages. Quality links to your site are still essential search engine optimization components. Just because you've discovered new Internet toys doesn't mean that you should turn away from the tried-and-true methods. Use both for maximum results.

Internal linking strategy is a different concept entirely to an external linking strategy involving one way or two way reciprocal links back to your web page from that of another website. Most people are involved in that, but also most don't know how to do it properly, and therefore don't benefit. Let me give you a simple example.

You have a website with a page rank of 4 for your home page. Note that it is not your whole site that gets a Google Page Rank, as it is properly written, but each individual page in your site is individually ranked. When you come across a website with a PR of 4 or even 8, it is the page you are looking at that has that Page Rank. That will generally be the home page, and when you agree to a reciprocal link, guess what! Your link will be placed on a 'links page' in that site with a PR of zero. That's right, a Google Page Rank of zilch: and that's the benefit you will get. Zilch!

If you place their link on your home page, or any other page with a PR of greater than zero, you lose out. Even if your page has a Google Page Rank of only 1, Then You Lose Out! They get a share of your PR of 1, and you get a share of their PR of zero!

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, and then tell me I don't know what I am talking about as many have. Some of these many are so-called internet gurus and SEO experts that fleece you by promising you a Google Page 1 position for your site, when they can't even get one for themselves.Whether an e-commerce or business-to-business lead generating site, it is critical to the long-term performance of the site to implement not only the SEO factors in a site design, but to consider all elements of website usability in the equation.

Step 1 - Install 'NoDoFollow' Tool

Search for the 'NoDoFollow' tool on Google. It's a simple Firefox plug-in that allows you to see whether the site you are viewing is using 'NoFollow' in its attributes. Having this option means search engines won't detect links on the site, and this will be useless for your SEO efforts.

Step 2 - Search For Forums In Your Niche

Find forums in your niche by using Google again and searching for your niche together with the word forum. See if the forums you find are using the 'NoFollow' attribute. If isn't, then it's time to head on to Step 3...

Step 3 - Post On Forums

Create a signature with an anchor text link back to your web page. Then start posting on the forums. Don't spam the forums with nonsensical posts though, or you will be banned! Post sensibly.

Step 4 - Write Keyword-Rich Articles

Write articles that have your main keywords in them. What we are going to do is submit these articles to authority sites called article directories.

Step 5 - Submit Articles To Article Directories

Submit your articles to article directories such as the likes of Ezine Articles. Include an anchor text link in your resource box and you're good to go.

"Submitting a client's website to a few important directories clearly is not enough to rank a website. Many of them preferred buying links, but Google has been very vocal against link buying. Hence getting links for a client's website is very challenging. And it is perhaps for this reason that link building is one of the most important aspects of SEO marketing."

The only meta tag worth using is the description tag, which is used by most search engines in the description of your web page in their listings. Google mainly uses it exactly as you write it. The keyword tag can also be used, but few search engines are thought to use it: Google does not. Any other meta tags are a waste of your space. Anybody that claims differently is wanting to sell you something.

Use your keywords mainly in the first third of your page. Don't use too many: I get good results with under 1% overall keyword density, by using the main keyword in the first 100 characters, once in the last paragraph and once more each 300 words but concentrated in the first third of the page. Thus, an 800 word page will have the keyword three times in the first 250 words and once in the last paragraph.

This appears in the HEAD portion of your html, and is not actually seen by your visitors but is the most important tag on your web page because the spiders place very high weight on it. Use your main keywords here, and also any other text that will inform Google of the theme of your web page.

Step 1 - Install 'NoDoFollow' Tool

Search for the 'NoDoFollow' tool on Google. It's a simple Firefox plug-in that allows you to see whether the site you are viewing is using 'NoFollow' in its attributes. Having this option means search engines won't detect links on the site, and this will be useless for your SEO efforts.

Step 2 - Search For Forums In Your Niche

Find forums in your niche by using Google again and searching for your niche together with the word forum. See if the forums you find are using the 'NoFollow' attribute. If isn't, then it's time to head on to Step 3.

Step 3 - Post On Forums

Create a signature with an anchor text link back to your web page. Then start posting on the forums. Don't spam the forums with nonsensical posts though, or you will be banned! Post sensibly.

Step 4 - Write Keyword-Rich Articles

Write articles that have your main keywords in them. What we are going to do is submit these articles to authority sites called article directories.

Step 5 - Submit Articles To Article Directories

Submit your articles to article directories such as the likes of Ezine Articles. Include an anchor text link in your resource box and you're good to go.

Sometimes even minor fixes to one of the concepts noted above is enough to make the jump you have targeted in the search engines. Take your time and evaluate changes one at time. Changing too many things at once can cause "Chasing Your Tail Syndrome".

These are just a few ideas off the top of my head. There are many more and always remember each website's search engine optimization needs are very unique. I have yet to see one website need the exact same solution set as another, when optimizing.

Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is not desirable due to your design, aim for at least 100 carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a high ranking on search engines, this text is essential. However, the search engines must be able to read the text, meaning that the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.

Donation Buttons: You can add donation buttons ons your blog and also add other features to your web site which your readers can use to send donations.But do this only when you are running a non profit web site or Making some useful stuff and offering them for free.

10 ways to promote your website 1. Post newsgroups 2. Press releases 3. Email to VIPs 4. Article submission 5. Reciprocal Links 6. Forum Posting 7. Directory submission 8. Tell everyone with whom you communicate 9. Post adds to free advertising website 10. Blogging.

Pay Per Click advertising is very valuable especially if you have a product to sell and want buyers to find you.Since it takes time to get a website ranked high in the search engines this is a good way to start out. Make sure that when a visitor clicks your website’s logo, they are taken back to the homepage.

Upon knowing to which sites you are going to submit your articles, you can go over their rules about the word count and abide by it. There are sites that will accept a minimum of 300 word count for articles. Others will ask for a 500 or more minimum word count. You have to check and make sure to make sure that your materials will not get rejected.

Google looks at each of your web pages on its content, rather than looking at your whole site. So, when you are planning the structure of your website, you need to think about your key content. Make sure that each area has its own page. That way, you can optimize each page for a particular product, offering or benefit.