Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Search Engine Optimization: Traffic Increase Basics by Milena Sotirova



The key factor in search engine optimization is traffic increase and it is the starting point of the successful and effective web promotion plan. Showing good popularity by user retention brings your site to the best positions in the search engines and provides your new users with one more opportunity to learn about your online presence.

Definition
Site traffic is the most powerful tool in developing of your online business and promotion. The traffic measures the real user activity and the degree of web relevancy of your site content and services. Although the relation between traffic and search engine popularity can be regarded as a dual connectivity, there is clear evidence that user traffic generates search engine optimization results.

Traffic Measurement Devices
For the effective measurement of the site traffic and analysis of the user and web site marketing profiles can be used two software products with proven popularity: WebTrends and Webalizer. WebTrends gives more profiled reports and can be used to map your SEO and marketing campaigns.

With the site traffic referrer information data can be defined the most effective link exchange program. It also can be used for defining of the most powerful traffic generators and help with analyzing the path to your traffic goals. Studying your traffic paths can show you how effective are your site content additions and changes and how effective is your site navigation.

Measuring of the internet success often can be regarded as relative matter, though the in deep learning of the processes clarifies the mechanism of the good web promotion results. The criteria can be an adequate and reputable Internet institution providing reliable and converged data, such as Alexa.com. The search engine provides traffic rankings, user reviews and other information about sites.

The ranking is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data and changes on a daily basis depending on the change of the different criteria participating in its formation. This powerful tool provides you with the information of your positioning in the Internet space and gives the option to compare your site's results with the ones of your competitors.

Core Traffic Increase Techniques

Content
Traffic increase is based on growing popularity of your site. It can be achieved through following of some basic techniques. The first is generating interest in your services and content by increasing the user accessibility level to the information on your site pages. This can be achieved by integrating of the most appropriate design for your site industry and reliable content. The content is still the king in attracting new visitors and keeping the existing users. When deciding on your content major topics and staff, you can foresee the industry trend and learn the novelties in the present.

Fresh content is always the key in creating of a reputable site. If your business is in the service sphere, you can provide reliable information of your services, free tools and instant accessibility to articles and FAQs, structured in a Knowledge base or provided in a searchable list of categorized content.

Navigation
Navigation is crucial for your site content accessibility and provides your users with the option to search freely through your site. PromotionWorld provides a free search for your site and you can download it easily from here http://www.promotionworld.com/tools/searchbox/. The design can be decided with the easy navigation principle in mind and keeping the rule saying "Simple is best". It is important the intersite structures to be accessible from navigation bar and a navigation path on the top of your page content.

RSS
The content distribution works via RSS. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. You can find more comprehensive information here. The next step is including RSS in My Yahoo. It will provide you with a powerful traffic generating tool. You can create My yahoo button for your RSS from here. It takes really several minutes to achieve fast results.

Newsletters
Visitor retention is achievable through keeping the interest in your site content. Develop newsletters for your target user group and enlarge the perimeter for better result. If you are a newbie in the field, find comprehensive information here.

Alerts
Use this powerful mean to notify your users when the new content of their interest appears on your site. It creates trust, keep the interest and provide you with a stable mail list group.

Surveys
The surveys measure your site activity; surveys can be used for marketing purposes and keep the interest to your site pages. You can store the survey questions for users' convenience.

Forums
Open a forum on your site with reliable categories and create a community of users interested in the content and services topics of your site. The forum will generate a live and active user group attracting more and more users.

Traffic increase is based on user retention and is a factor for the success in your site's search engine optimization. Optimize with user retention in mind to achieve the website popularity growth. Service quality will keep your credibility and ensure the growth of your online success.
About the Author
Milena Sotirova is Editor of DevStart, Inc. (www.devstart.com). She has publications on web promotion, search engine optimization and web hosting industry news coverage and analyses. PromotionWorld.com is one of the most popular sites for web promotion and contains tutorials, tools, articles and search engine news. Subscribe for DevStart Channel http://www.promotionworld.com/informer/
Send your feedback to editor@devstart.com