Back To The Internet Traffic Basics

The world of Internet traffic revolves around two separate entities: the search engines and the social networks. It used to be that the only way to capture traffic was through search engine placement, however, now there is a great deal of debate in this area as social networking becomes the new strategy for increasing the traffic to sites. Here we will discuss the different skills you need for either strategy and some different places to research this highly important aspect of Internet marketing.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization deals with how search engines determine the ranking in search results when people go to search for a site based on particular words or phrases. There are a number of search engines and each of them has their own SEO algorithms. A great deal of research is carried out to determine what those algorithms might be by trial and error, even though the companies don't necessarily disclose how they are ranking web pages. It's become quite a science and businesses will pay big bucks if they think they can get their pages served first to a customer before their competitor's in a search result. The reason is simple: most people using a search engine only look at the first two pages of results.

So, it stands to reason that the higher you place in the ranking, the more likelihood you will be found through random searches by people using search engines like Yahoo! or Google. How will you be able to compete with people who are shelling out tons of money on outwitting the search engines?

While you probably can learn some of the same strategies they are using like placing keywords in your web pages, you will find that search engines have gotten far more egalitarian in recent years. They've recognized that large companies have learned how to program their pages to cheat the algorithms so now the search engines are using other requirements. One of these is the scanning for original content on sites. Although you want to keep your content fresh, you don't want to update your site every hour, as too frequent updating can also be penalized in the search engines.

To learn how some of the different SEO factors affect your page ranking, check out: http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/google-ranking-factors.htm . Appropriate keywords are still a very important part of Internet marketing, but where you place them in your HTML coding also affects how you rank. You can get your own list of keywords by looking at the most popular searches for a typical keyword or phrase and finding out what people have searched in the last month through Overture. This is a free SEO tool that can be viewed here: http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-suggestions-overture/ .

Another Strategy - Social Networking

This strategy relies on the social networks which house millions of users and which can be mined for traffic. Examples of powerful social networks are Myspace.com and StumbleUpon (a search engine based on social ranking). Bulletin boards, web log (blog) communities, and other types of online communities are great places to establish a web presence and market your website URL. The idea is to develop a fan base in these areas that already have huge traffic and then pull those fans into your website via links.

This strategy requires time devoted to being a known contributor of social networking sites. It doesn't work to just add a profile and leave. You have to engage discussions, set yourself up as an expert in your field, and then market your URL in such a way so as not to be perceived that you are spamming a site. Spamming a site with your web address and no actual feedback or community participation will only get you banned. So, you have to be willing to give of yourself and to market yourself in a discreet, but effective manner.

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