Web Traffic is
Slow?
Is your web traffic slowing
down? Did you build your website years ago and enjoy new
customers finding you regularly but now, you see nothing?
There is probably a good
reason for that and I bet I can guess what it is.
You
built your website and ignored it!
If you have not added content,
updated or made changes to your website you will see traffic slow
down ever single day.
Forget about the fact that the
number of pages online have grown exponentially since day one and
you are competing with millions of new pages every hour. Site
like youtube.com see thousands of uploads every single minute and
with new and exciting content uploaded every minute, the search
engines will ignore your stale old pages.
That is right, out with the
old, in with the new.
If you want to stay on top,
you have to keep working for it, defend your position and
contribute to the quality of the Internet as it grows.
Google, Yahoo and Bing
are looking for more today than the were 5 or 10 years ago.
They are seeking:
So adding a photo of you and
your dog with a one sentence caption just wont get the thousands
of visitors it did back in 1999.
Today to get traffic
you have to create good quality content, that has some value to
readers. You need to give people a reason to want to read your
pages, data points, details and statistics.
I already know what you
are thinking, what statistics will you have on an ecommerce
website selling candles or other widgets?
Well, you could have
reviews, comments or testimonials from buyers. You could have
ingredients lists, nutritional facts or practical uses for
products. There are always angles you can address and more
that you can add.
After all, if a
product is worth buying, then you must be able to tell people
something about it!
So rather than adding 200
items to a shopping cart and ignoring them try to add something
of value to the website.
Business Owners
Ignore Their Websites
I know asking business owners
to spend any time on their website is like pulling teeth! But if
you don't add content and update that website the only person to
blame for low web traffic is staring back at you in the mirror.
Some websites were built by
webmasters and the owners have no idea how to do anything with
them and that is a serious problem since the only way to add
something is to hire a webmaster that does not and will not know
anything about your business.
But systems like pageBuzz give
you tools to easily update and manage website pages even if you
don't know what you are doing. And that is critical if you want
website traffic to continue as the site gets older and older.
At one time, the age of a
website helped in page ranking since new sites did not hold as
much weight and while that is still very true, now newer pages
are ranked higher than old pages on those websites.
So the addition of content is
probably the most important factor in SEO today. And the best
person to add content is the business owner.
Now, I know,
writing a good article cold take a few hours of your time,
that is a lot of time and effort when you have a business to
run. But that is exactly why the search engines rank those
pages higher than your old ones. Because the quality is
higher and they tend to have more value than older pages.
So what should you
consider when adding articles to a website?
Keywords
First consider the keywords
you want to be found for. If you want to be found for "website
traffic" then write an article titled "website traffic"
that is about, "website traffic".
If someone is searching for
the phrase "website traffic" then they likely want to
read an article that talks about that topic.
If your company sells traffic
or is a traffic broker then you would not necessarily come up in
the searches unless you add some content talking about the
subject.
Just because your company
offers website traffic does not mean google, yahoo or bing will
send you visitors looking for it. You have to create pages that
explain in details what you do, how you do it and why people need
it.
The Number of Words
The biggest problem that non
writers face is creating enough words on a page to even get a
look form the search engines. I commonly see pages with 1 or 2
sentences and that just wont cut it.
We have always advocated for
500 words in product descriptions and 1000 or more for article
pages.
Now, 1000 words is only about
2 old fashion typed pages. So its not like a reader will be
engages for a long period of time with that article, but it is
enough to separate you from the pack because most people struggle
to write 300 words.
There is no question that
having more is better. Search engines will rank longer pages
higher than shorter pages when all other factors are equal. It is
not speculation, it is a fact.
So having more is better than
having less words on a page.
Of course, there are limits
and if you exceed 2000 or 3000 words, you might consider breaking
the article into multiple pages. Because there is such a thing as
too much of a good thing.
The Frequency of
Words Online
If you are writing an article
about something very popular so is everyone else. So if you
choose to target keywords that are prevalent online, you might
not see any traffic.
Sometimes it is better to
target less popular phrases and keywords to try to get the #1
placement for maybe something that gets less traffic. Having #1
for something is better than not being listed for keywords that
everyone wants.
So before you add the content
to your article, do some searches and see what the results are
for your keywords. Look at what other people have and try to one
up them in the form of better content.
Just like any aspect of any
business, if you do it better, cheaper or faster, people will use
you. And in the world of SEO, if you do it better, you will get
listed higher.
What Can You Add to
The Conversation
After looking at what other
people have, think abut what you add to the topic. What can you
bring to the table? What can you offer readers that someone else
cannot? What secrects do you know that they don't?
Surely, if you are good at
what you do, you can add something of value that others have not
thought of yet.
And in that case, just do it.
Write it down, share it and
tell people about it.
That will make your content
unique, it will give your content value and help you get ranked
higher than the others.
Don't Ignore your
Website for Long Periods of Time
Make no mistake, the
information I have given you will increase your web traffic, but
ignoring it again once you get the traffic will send you back in
the fight for web traffic.
To keep current in the
searches, you need to update and not just the website design, the
content needs to be updated regularly.
Companies make new products,
add new models and have new technology.
Now, google is not stupid,
they know this, so if your website has the same products, the
same details and the same old content that it did many years ago,
they will tend to ignore you and place someone else higher in the
search results.
So you need to do more than
just build a website, you need to keep building your website,
keep updating and adding and you will insure that once you
achieve the traffic you want it will continue forever.
If you follow these simple
guidelines you will be able to maintain traffic to your website.
But if you ignore it, you will never understand why so many
people become rich using the Internet to drive traffic to their
business.
You will think, websites are a
waste of time, and it will be for you, if you don't take the
proper steps to build a good website that gets the traffic your
business needs.
Do It Right
Build the website yourself,
don't have some webmaster ob craigslist for $99. Take the time to
write out what you want to say, add more than just 5 pages and
add new pages regularly.
You don't have to spend a
million dollars to get traffic, but you will have to spend some
time.
There are no buttons to push,
no tricks to use. Just tell people what you know, just like you
would back in the old days on a typewriter.
At one time only news
reporters and secretarys even knew how to type, now we all have
to do it daily. So use it, embrace it and type, type, type until
your fingers hurt and you will see that the website you build
today will help build your business tomorrow.
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