Part 1 - 77 Ways to get more traffic to your blog for FREE
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This really is the most important tip of all. Regrettably this is one which many bloggers seem to ignore.
You need to provide OODLES of information-rich, keyword-rich, useful content for the search engines and humans to find.
It is worthwhile spending time considering of ways to offer truly VALUABLE content that people will talk about, you'll automatically end up with lots of free, one-way links to your Blog as people will mention it without even being asked to do so.
If your Blog answers people's questions, they'll love you for it.
The more pages you build full of on-topic material, the better the likelihood your Blog will be found.
When it comes to keywords, think GIGANTIC. You want your Blog to be found via THOUSANDS of different phrases every month. The 180+Power words will help you focus on writing emotional headlines
Then you can tempt your traffic to your best money-generating pages or to your newsletter sign-up page.
Also, search engines prefer fresh Blogs which keep gradually adding new content. Don't let your Blog go stale.
If you're launching a new Blog, choose a name people will easily remember. Ask yourself: "Will people remember my domain name?"
Choosing the right domain name is important. It needs to be one that won't be confused with similar names. You don't want people typing your competitor's domain name when they’re trying to find your Blog.
Spinxo has a handy tool to help you choose domain names by niche, keywords, topics and more. Also, you can find a surprising number of good deleted (expired) domain names at Whois.net. Both those tools are free.
If you think people may confuse your domain name with a similar name, try to buy that name, too.
Take Flickr for example, if someone mentions to look up their photos on Flickr, and the person has no idea about it you can guarantee that they will be typing in Flicker. Imagine all that traffic going straight to the wrong domain. Should Flickr consider buying Flicker.com? I think so.
Which of the following is easier to read and understand?
See how using a capital letter at the start of each word makes the second domain name easier to read - and easier to remember.
Whenever you mention your Blog name anywhere, ALWAYS present it in its most readable form. A good place to start doing this is in your email signature file.
If you're unfortunate enough to have bought the ".net" version of a domain name because someone raced you to the ".com", help people to remember your Blog by writing it like this...
Example.NET
Being MEMORABLE helps you get more repeat visitors.
Google Images - http://images.google.com - makes it easy for people to search for graphics online.
Take advantage of this, when choosing the file name of an image on your Blog, use an appropriate key phrase, for example, "book-ends.jpg" if you're promoting book ends.
I'm not sure how much use traffic to images is, but if it's ADDITIONAL traffic you can get simply by choosing image file names carefully, it's worth having.
Here's a good way increase your traffic.
Go to Google and type any phrase into the search box. Look at the titles of the Blogs in the top 10 rankings.
Which ones catch your eye and tempt you to click on the link? Some are dreadfully stodgy, boring. Some are merely a long list of keywords. Some are good. Some are junk.
Good titles are written for search engines AND humans.
Now look at the titles on your Blog. Start with your most important pages. Rewrite them to make them more eye-catching. If you are struggling for inspiration pop over to 180+Power words and use them to add some va-va-voom to your Blog posts
Now go to Google and do a search of your blog like this...
Study the page titles. If you have a large Blog created over many years, you may be horribly embarrassed at just how BAD some of your page titles are.
Do you want to find some examples of good titles? Go to Google and do some more searches
You'll soon be bursting with ideas on ways you can improve your page titles.
Check out how appealing the information is in your meta description tag. Some search engines display this information in their search results.
Traffic tip #1
You MUST have unique, high quality content if you want long-term, free search engine traffic.This really is the most important tip of all. Regrettably this is one which many bloggers seem to ignore.
You need to provide OODLES of information-rich, keyword-rich, useful content for the search engines and humans to find.
It is worthwhile spending time considering of ways to offer truly VALUABLE content that people will talk about, you'll automatically end up with lots of free, one-way links to your Blog as people will mention it without even being asked to do so.
If your Blog answers people's questions, they'll love you for it.
Traffic tip #2
Keep ADDING fresh, relevant, useful content.The more pages you build full of on-topic material, the better the likelihood your Blog will be found.
When it comes to keywords, think GIGANTIC. You want your Blog to be found via THOUSANDS of different phrases every month. The 180+Power words will help you focus on writing emotional headlines
Then you can tempt your traffic to your best money-generating pages or to your newsletter sign-up page.
Also, search engines prefer fresh Blogs which keep gradually adding new content. Don't let your Blog go stale.
Traffic tip #3
Choose a memorable domain name.If you're launching a new Blog, choose a name people will easily remember. Ask yourself: "Will people remember my domain name?"
Choosing the right domain name is important. It needs to be one that won't be confused with similar names. You don't want people typing your competitor's domain name when they’re trying to find your Blog.
Spinxo has a handy tool to help you choose domain names by niche, keywords, topics and more. Also, you can find a surprising number of good deleted (expired) domain names at Whois.net. Both those tools are free.
Traffic tip #4
Buy the wrong domain name, too.If you think people may confuse your domain name with a similar name, try to buy that name, too.
Take Flickr for example, if someone mentions to look up their photos on Flickr, and the person has no idea about it you can guarantee that they will be typing in Flicker. Imagine all that traffic going straight to the wrong domain. Should Flickr consider buying Flicker.com? I think so.
Not only is mis-spelt words going to lose you traffic but also the language mix-up. Here in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, people spell the word “colour”, whereas USA spells it “color”, might also have trouble getting the domain name right.
Traffic tip #5
Make your domain name easy to readWhich of the following is easier to read and understand?
or
See how using a capital letter at the start of each word makes the second domain name easier to read - and easier to remember.
Whenever you mention your Blog name anywhere, ALWAYS present it in its most readable form. A good place to start doing this is in your email signature file.
If you're unfortunate enough to have bought the ".net" version of a domain name because someone raced you to the ".com", help people to remember your Blog by writing it like this...
Example.NET
Being MEMORABLE helps you get more repeat visitors.
Traffic tip #6
Use appropriate keywords in your image file names.Google Images - http://images.google.com - makes it easy for people to search for graphics online.
Take advantage of this, when choosing the file name of an image on your Blog, use an appropriate key phrase, for example, "book-ends.jpg" if you're promoting book ends.
I'm not sure how much use traffic to images is, but if it's ADDITIONAL traffic you can get simply by choosing image file names carefully, it's worth having.
Traffic tip #7
Do REALLY SERIOUS keyword research.
If you want to get LOTS of traffic from search engines, you need to find out the exact phrases which people are typing into search engines.
There are free tools available for this, but they're not nearly as useful as the more comprehensive paid tools.
Traffic tip #8
Try this page titles experiment.Here's a good way increase your traffic.
Go to Google and type any phrase into the search box. Look at the titles of the Blogs in the top 10 rankings.
Which ones catch your eye and tempt you to click on the link? Some are dreadfully stodgy, boring. Some are merely a long list of keywords. Some are good. Some are junk.
Good titles are written for search engines AND humans.
Now look at the titles on your Blog. Start with your most important pages. Rewrite them to make them more eye-catching. If you are struggling for inspiration pop over to 180+Power words and use them to add some va-va-voom to your Blog posts
Now go to Google and do a search of your blog like this...
Blog:example.com
Study the page titles. If you have a large Blog created over many years, you may be horribly embarrassed at just how BAD some of your page titles are.
Do you want to find some examples of good titles? Go to Google and do some more searches
You'll soon be bursting with ideas on ways you can improve your page titles.
Check out how appealing the information is in your meta description tag. Some search engines display this information in their search results.
If you have a well-established Blog, you may have written many of your Blog titles and meta descriptions years ago when you knew less about marketing than you do now. If so, it's time for another look at them.
Search engines are getting cleverer all the time. You can try to outsmart them but to me it makes more sense to work WITH them.
They're progressively getting better at sorting through the low quality Blog posts and ranking them poorly. So build high quality Blog posts containing genuinely useful material that other people want to link to.
The basics of good search engine optimization are fairly simple. Here's a very quick summary:
This is just a brief overview of a big topic.
The more high quality links you have to your Blog, the more impressed the search engines will be.
Start with major directories such as...
Yahoo
Digg
Delicious
Then move on to these 17 Blog Directories To Submit Your Blog To
Traffic tip #9
Organic SEO - a few key points.Search engines are getting cleverer all the time. You can try to outsmart them but to me it makes more sense to work WITH them.
They're progressively getting better at sorting through the low quality Blog posts and ranking them poorly. So build high quality Blog posts containing genuinely useful material that other people want to link to.
The basics of good search engine optimization are fairly simple. Here's a very quick summary:
- You need to make it easy for a search engine to figure out the topic of your page.
- Find appropriate keywords or key phrases and use them in the title, in the page heading, in the introduction, throughout the article, in the meta description, in alt tags, at the end of the article, in links on the page, in bold or italics, and perhaps in a list on the page.
- When linking to your pages, use appropriate keywords in the anchor text (the words people click on). Do this for links throughout your Blog, and also on other people's Blogs which link to yours. Vary the anchor text.
- For internal links, it's better to use text than graphical links.
- Create a logical navigation system so that humans and search engines can easily find the content on your Blog.
- Get links from other Blogs to internal pages as well as to your main page.
This is just a brief overview of a big topic.
Traffic tip #10
Submit to the main directories.The more high quality links you have to your Blog, the more impressed the search engines will be.
Start with major directories such as...
Yahoo
Digg
Delicious
Then move on to these 17 Blog Directories To Submit Your Blog To
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