traffic

Blog Writing 101: How To Satisfy Readers And Deliver Top 10 Google Rankings

by Paul Joseph July 21, 2011 Featured

My name is Ana Hoffman , and if I learned anything after many years of building an online empire, it’s this: the online business industry is a scary place. A place where many a mighty business owner has fallen. Including me. That’s right, I’ve had some online business flops in the past, until one day I realized that my business was only as good as the number of eyes that saw it on a daily basis. That’s why I started the Traffic Generation Cafe blog, focusing on various free traffic generation methods like search engine traffic, social media traffic, networking, as well as how to convert that traffic into subscribers and buyers. In six quick months, my blog grew to be an authority on traffic generation. My blog’s traffic (I was ranked under 15K on Alexa ), reader engagement, and sales showed me that I was on the right track. This might all seem foreign to you. Stick with me and it will soon become second nature. Now let’s get down to business. Content is the main driving force behind any blog’s success. That’s it? That’s the premise for my post? You bet. And if all of us already know that and are putting it into practice back on your blogs, then why are so many blogs still failing? Why are so many blogs not generating even measly amounts of traffic? Why are you here looking for answers or pearls of wisdom to take back to your business? Your content is the single most important driving force that will determine whether your readers stay, share, and convert into buyers or subscribers, period. But that’s not the only thing that matters. Your readers are the ones to determine if your content is up to par, but the search engines, Google in particular, are the ones to decide if your content is good enough to bring you those readers to begin with. So you see, our goal as bloggers should clearly be to always serve two masters: Google and our readers . I can already hear the objections coming in. Isn’t it an oxymoron, you say? Writing personable content that attracts human interest, brings about discussions, connects with the reader on a deep personal level and keyword-stuffed metric-based content that would rank highly on Google? I agree this used to be the case. However, in the new post-Panda world Google tells us louder and more clear than ever: it wants to serve its searchers the kind of content the searchers want to read – unique, beneficial, and productive. When Google sends you organic search engine traffic, it wants to make sure that the search engine visitors are happy with what they find on your blog and don’t come back to Google searching for the same query. Thus, you do your job of delivering superb content right and satisfy the searchers looking for answers, and Google will happily send you even more traffic. Turns out that serving two masters in this particular case goes hand in hand. Killing two birds with one stone – how much more efficient can it get? So let’s take a look at what specifically we, the bloggers, need to pay attention to when writing that new killer post of ours. I am basing my conclusions on this SEOmoz report on search engine ranking factors . If it isn’t the holy grail of search engine rankings and how to draw the most traffic from it, then it’s as close as we can ever get to it. Uniqueness Of Content This might’ve not been as strong of a factor in pre-Panda times. (If you need more information on what on earth I refer to as “ Panda Update “, here’s the most coherent resource on the subject: Finding more high-quality sites in search – and it’d better be since it comes from the official Google blog). According to the above-mentioned SEOmoz report, the collective opinion of 132 SEO experts polled assign the uniqueness of content across the whole site 89 points out of 100 . Unique content was the most original marketing tool back in the 1990s and it’s, once again, taking its well-deserved place as one of the most significant positive indicators of the quality of the entire site. While many bloggers continued to stand firm on the principle of consistently producing unique content, many took the easier way of jumping on the bandwagon of flavor-of-the-month promotion techniques, thus diluting the core principle that goes to the heart of blogging “ Thou shall not produce the kind of content thou wouldn’t want to read yourself “. What would one refer to as “ unique content “? What might be the characteristics both your readers and the search engines are looking to find on your site? In the broadest terms, it’s the kind of content not found on the multitude of other sites . If I see another post on “ 15 Ways to Get Facebook Fans ” or “ How to Guest Post “, I am going to scream. I am not saying you have to invent something new every time you write a post, but a new angle on the old tired topic is in order at the very least. Onsite Duplicate Content: When Google crawls your site and sees that two out of three pages are duplicates of the first one, they will drop those two pages from rankings and will assume your site has a lot less unique content to offer than it actually does. Read Duplicate Content Phantom: Don’t Be Duped, Be Informed for more information and fix whatever issues you might have on your blog. Advertising: Yes, the amount of advertising on your site does matter – both to Google and your readers. The larger your Adsense and other advertisement blocks are, the less space you devote to your content = the less unique content you’ll appear to have. That’s precisely why some sites suffered in Panda update – not because they didn’t have unique content, but because their content to advertising ratio was too low. Freshness Of Content Freshness of content on the site got 75 points out of 100 – the second most significant signal among non-keyword related on-page factors. This signal also happens to have a direct affect on how much traffic your website gets. Want to see your blog traffic double? Double the number of your posts . ( Disclosure: don’t hold me to the exact number. ) That’s exactly what I did at my Traffic Generation Cafe blog back in October and I saw for myself what wonders it did for my traffic generation. I, since then, decided to take a little summer break and cut down to posting only three – four times a week and watched my traffic take a hit. It makes sense, right? The more fresh posts you have, the more reason your readers will have to come back on a regular, even daily basis – provided that you are meeting the threshold of unique content on your site. So if you are currently posting two times per week, try to post at least four times; if you are posting four times, try to publish everyday. It might sound like a lot, but remember: your brain is a muscle and, with due practice, it’ll be spitting out the needed amount of posts in no time. Length Of Content Aha – here comes a surprising factor. It appears that the majority of the 132 SEO experts think that the longer your posts are , the better chance they have to rank higher , thus bringing you more search engine traffic. Length of content on the page got 57 out of 100 . Once again, it makes perfect sense. The longer the post is, the more potential value it will deliver to the readers. So what to do if your primary methods of communication with your readers include videos, audios, cartoons, infographs, etc.? Try to beef it up by including scripts, captions, and explanations. And no, it’s not a concession to Google and other search engines – you’ll be providing a valuable alternative to those readers who still prefer to… well, read. I know, I am one of them, and I always appreciate it when a video is followed by a script. Marketing Takeaway I hate cliches, and I am sure I am not alone on this one, but in this particular case I have to resort to the old and true “ Content is (still) king ” motto. Yes, we all know it, but now we also have reasons to actually do it. And in the end, wouldn’t it be a win-win situation for everybody? Stay tuned for my future posts where we will be discussing why your content is the cornerstone of social media sharing and link building, and how to improve it to get more of both. Ana Hoffman Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: book, business, content, internet, online, reader, search engines, search-engine, seo, small-business, traffic

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Beef Up Your Blog Traffic in 30 Days or Less

by Paul Joseph June 6, 2011 Featured

By now, you know how important it is to have a blog, right? Whatever business you’re in, blogging is a must. It helps you and your business in so many ways. Blogging can bring more traffic to your site, help to establish your expertise, add compelling content to an otherwise stagnant website, help you build a community of loyal followers, and much more. Of course everyone else has caught on to the usefulness of blogging as well. That means there’s a lot of competition out there, so you have to be on the ball when it comes to driving traffic to your blog. The hard part, especially if your blog is new, is getting people to look at it in the first place. Even if you’re providing value in the form of great content, it only matters if people are seeing it. Figuring out what’s going to work best for your site takes a little time, and the same tactics that work for one won’t necessarily work for another. But there are a few simple steps you can take that are pretty effective across the board. You can start all these immediately, and although you’re not likely to see the floodgates open, all should add to your traffic over time and ultimately have a significant impact on your stats – often in as little as 30 days or less! 4 Easy Actions for Beefed Up Blog Traffic 1. Hit Social Media Hard – This might fall under the category of “duh” but social media is an excellent tool for driving traffic to your blog. Using Twitter and Facebook , as well as LinkedIn, YouTube, and others, depending on your focus, can help you build and strengthen a community around your blog and your brand. Of course the trick is to do it right. Without going into thousands of words on how to “do it right,” for now, just remember that people want value. That means posting interesting, compelling, and/or entertaining information on a consistent basis. You’re going to tell your connections and followers about your blog on social media, but that’s not all you should talk about, or it will not work. 2. Get Involved in Forums – One outstanding way to connect with others who have the same interests as you is to participate in online forums. When you become active on a forum, like the one here on YoungEntrepreneur.com , people who might not have otherwise seen or heard of your site will notice you. Just like social media, though, you’ve got to do it right. Rather than promoting your own stuff, help people out, answer questions, ask questions, and truly participate. This will raise your credibility and get people wondering who you are and what you do. 3. Make it Easy to Share – Your blog readers shouldn’t have to search around for a re-tweet or Facebook ‘like’ button on your posts. In fact, they won’t. If it’s not easy for them to share your blog content, they just won’t share it. So make sure every post has an easy method for your readers to send it out to their social media and email connections. You can bet that any post that’s ever gone viral has had this element. 4. Give to Receive – Much like you need to do for social media and forum marketing, it’s a good idea to visit other blogs and provide value in their comments sections. Comment marketing is a topic all in itself, because there are so many advantages to commenting on other blogs. For instance; you might build a relationship with the writer of the blog; you’ll build credibility with their audience – if you’re taking the time to provide value, not just “cool post”; and you’ll give people a reason to check out your own site – again, if your comments are good. There are other techniques and factors involved in increasing your blog traffic, such as SEO, SEM, site design, and of course, content. But the above actions can be completed in a short amount of time each day and can make a big difference in the amount of traffic you pull in. Do them consistently, and you’re likely to start seen results in 30 days or less. What other tips do you have for driving traffic to your blog? Share in the comments or on our Facebook page !

Tagged as: business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, facebook, internet, internet marketing, social, social-media, time, traffic, writer

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Warning: Traffic Generation is not One-Size-Fits-All

by Paul Joseph April 14, 2011 Featured

I can’t begin to tell you how many countless times I’ve heard someone ask the question, “how do you get more traffic to your website?” And I don’t mean to me per say, but in general. This really is the ultimate challenge for many site owners isn’t it? At the end of the day, No traffic means no prospects, which means no revenue! Yikes! I’m here to debunk the notion that there is any one particular technique, tactic, whatever you want to call it, that’s going to bring in loads of traffic. I’m also going to tackle the notion that it’s a one-size-fits-all concept. That is, to get tons of traffic you need to follow a particular color by numbers plan. Nothing can be further from the truth… I’ve tried countless traffic generation tactics for multiple sites, from blogs to ecommerce, and I can tell you that traffic generation is all about implementing various tactics, seeing what works for YOU, and doing more of that! What works for one business may not work for another. This is not to say that you can’t follow a blueprint, where you plan your traffic generating strategies and work your plan.  This is very different than saying what works for me will work for you. Let me give you a few examples. I recently visited a site called Social Mouths , where the blog owner “confessed” that for the longest time he was only posting one article a week on his blog. Yet his traffic numbers and stats have continued to increase over the course of time. Hmmmm…. I also visited another site called Biz Chicks Blogs where the site owner, Tia Peterson, noted that her traffic increased substantially by posting content frequently. Who’s right and who’s wrong? That’s just it – neither one of them is wrong. They are both benefiting from the fruits of their labor and reaping the rewards of high traffic numbers, even though they have had different modus operandi. Or do they? What you don’t know is everything else they may or may not be doing behind the scenes, which may be contributing to their traffic generating efforts, such as: Blog commenting Interviews Webinars Social Networking/ Social Media Optimization Private Groups RT Clubs SEO Guest Posting Holding contest and encouraging social sharing Joint Ventures Facebook and Google Adwords Advertising Integrating forums on their site etc. … all things that may be contributing factors to their success. Want a plan? Here’s one for you: Test different specific traffic generating tactics on your site and measure their effectiveness over a designated period of time. Create a spreadsheet. In the first column type in Traffic Generating Tactics and type in the specific technique you want to measure. In the second column type in Start Date. In the third column type in Google Analytics Status (if applicable). Enter any statistics that you may have in this column. In the fourth column type in End Date. Enter the date in which you’ve stopped testing. In the fifth column type in Results. Make notes of any progress (or lack of) that you’ve noted using this technique. In the sixth and final column type in Additional Notes. Here you can type in relevant notes as you go along or enter any results from other statistical analysis. Here are some examples: If you are currently only adding new content to your site once a week, try adding 2-3 and measure the results over a three month period using Google Analytics to see if it makes a difference. If you are only utilizing social media for five minutes a day, try increasing it to 10-15 minutes and see if the increase in engagement equals higher traffic volumes. If you are not currently taking advantage of guest posting, seek out relatively active sites you can request to post on and see if over a course of time, your traffic increases using this method. If you’ve never paid attention to SEO before, think about optimizing some of your pages/posts and track their performance to see if ranking better with them correlates to more traffic. On the flip side, if you are an SEO fanatic, lighten up a bit and see if you can write content that connects to people more on the emotional level and see if this in turn promotes social sharing, thus more traffic! If you’ve used email marketing sporadically or inconsistently, try stepping it up a notch by emailing your subscribers on a weekly basis. I think you get the idea… The Big Takeaway: Traffic generation is all about trial and error.  You can only evaluate what works and what doesn’t work by trying different tactics. Stop comparing yourself to other websites in your industry; you are your own unique business. Focus on your unique selling proposition and capitalize on these assets. In a nutshell, traffic generation is like trying on shoes, they may look fantastic on someone else, but not so much on you. They key is to finding shoes that fit perfectly for YOU. Have you had success with traffic? What are your traffic generating secrets? Michele Welch is a Personal Coach and Online Business Advisor . She shares online business tips with those looking to start their own online business ventures, through her blog.  Read more about Michele here .

Tagged as: entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, internet marketing, online, seo, social, traffic, unique

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