8 Ways to increase the Relative Traffic of your site

High volume of traffic is not the key, if the user bounces, your website has probably failed. Driving relative traffic to your site is vital for your Business. Have in mind that only 0.5% to 8% of the traffic is converted in to sale. The average is around 3.5%.

You want traffic or sales? Consider the quality vs. quantity of your visits and plan your next step.


In order to achieve your targets you need to:

•     Lower your Bounce Rate
•     Get more Relative Traffic in your site
•     Convert this traffic into sale

In this article we will study 8 simple ways to increase your Traffic:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Start an SEO campaign to promote your site in the Organic Results of search engines. Find the current SEO Status of your site by creating a full Web SEO Analysis.

The structure and the content of your website is the key factor of your Search Engines performance, keep it clear, valid and friendly to the users and to the Search Engines as well. Based on the results of the report consider doing the following: Redesign your site in order to make it search engine friendly, make a keyword analysis for your web pages and optimize them for the correct keywords, build quality links with the correct anchor text and submit your site in all the major search engines. Remember that Search Engine Optimization equals quality content and not tricks, black hats or magic.

If you need a strategic plan don’t hesitate to search for a reliable consulting from a professional SEO agency.

2. Link Strategies:

Having quality links is the Alpha and the Omega but it is not an easy task. Note that the reason why someone links to your website is the quality of your content. High PageRank links with relative to your content keywords can affect your Ranking in search engines and bring lots of Relative Traffic to your site. You can start by submitting your site to directories and portals. Then ask from other professionals to link to your site. Try to avoid Link-farms. Use our site submitter tool to get some extra links.

3. Write about your site

Create a blog and communicate with other bloggers to write about your site, submit your news in forums and inform the users for products or services that might find interesting.

Also keep in mind that submitting Articles and Press releases is something worth doing.

4. E-mail Marketing

Email Marketing can bring to your site traffic with minimal cost. Buy or download a free newsletter tool and send newsletters to your clients informing them about new services, products or special offers.

Add a form in your site in order to collect email addresses from the people that want to get your newsletters.

Additionally you can setup an E-mail application and use E-mail signatures.

It is not advisable to start buying mail lists, avoid spamming your users at all costs.

5. Social Media

Be part of the discussion around the globe using the social networks. Open an account or a page about your company in Facebook. Create an attractive Facebook application. Build embassies in various social networks and get feedback of your online presence and increase your publicity in terms of awareness and website traffic. Become a member in social networks, start writing on Twitter etc. Social Bookmarking can bring lots of traffic to your site. Place in all of your pages a Javascript Bookmark button. You should check the number of bookmarks that your pages receive by using our Bookmark Tool.

6. Paid Traffic

Start a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign on the important keywords of your site. You can use the services of Google (Google Adwords) or Microsoft’s Adcenter. Also you can place ad banners in high traffic websites. Be extra careful with the bidding management in order to save money instead of losing. Ask an advice from an online marketing agency and avoid any wrong moves.

7. Traditional Strategies

Print your website on your business cards and envelops. Promote your site by using the traditional media (Radio, Newspaper, Television, outdoor etc)

8. The success mix

Combine all the ways above in order to achieve maximum results. Give a boost to your website performance by running an interactive campaign using social networks and other media to send your message to the desired groups. Get connected with your consumers, listen to their needs and return solutions. Offer quality, freshness, innovation and a chance to involve the clients with your business.

Personalization

Personalization has been a part of Google’s search results for years, but it’s become more important now and will be in 2016. There’s no question that Google is a powerhouse for data analytics, mining, and optimization. Personalization occurs when the search engine user is logged in. Some marketers don’t realize that it’s also a part of incognito searches.

Personalization is the term given to search query results relative to certain information obtained from the user. This can be an IP address, geographic location, and previous searches. When a user logs in to Google, Google takes much of the user’s previous activity into consideration when displaying results.  Even using different browsers can have various search engine results.

You can try it out for yourself. Do a search while logged in and then perform a search while logged out. If you have the capability, perform a search from a different IP in another country. You’ll notice completely different results. The reason behind this is that Google wants to give the user the most relevant results.

SEOs need to take this data element into consideration when analyzing search results and rank. It can also be used as an advantage. If you rank well for one query, you can rank well for others. One part of personalization is that Google ranks a site more prominently if the user continues to click on the same site for various queries. If Google believes that the user prefers your site from other queries, it’s possible that your site will rank due to personalization for other queries.

There isn’t much to wrap up with personalization, but it’s an important part of Google’s AI. Always consider this factor when performing keyword analysis or doing any research for your brand.

When doing your research, consider these factors for personalization:

    The user’s location and search history make a difference in ranking
    Even a different browser can change the way search results are shown
    Third-party analytics software must use different proxies to see results from different Google top-level domains, but they still can’t take user personalization into account
    Engaging users and creating campaigns that help them remember your brand will increase your rank even within personalized results

Did we cover everything? Not even close. The days of understanding and gaming Google are for the most part behind us. In 2016 and forward, adhering to the fundamental SEO practices that have worked for years and integrating those with new media delivery platforms is going to be the recipe for success.

Mobile and Search

SEO-termed “mobilegeddon” was this year and 2016 promises to be more competitive in mobile searches and even app development. Mobile continues to be a dominant force in Internet traffic, and Google has put more pressure on site owners to make their sites mobile friendly. Google announced that it made mobile friendliness a part of its algorithm ranking for mobile queries. With mobile such a dominant search force, site owners are doing themselves a disservice by ignoring this directive.

The benefit to site owners of going mobile friendly is Google’s deep linking. Site owners who build mobile apps for their site and products can publish the app online and have it show in mobile queries. For instance, do a search for Pinterest on your mobile device. A few search URLs down the list and you’ll find the Pinterest app. Above the app link is the actual site itself, so the mobile app link is prominent against other ranking URLs.

This phenomenon also occurs for search queries unrelated to brand searches, and it’s still a relatively untapped market. There are plenty of big brands using mobile apps in search as a marketing tactic, but many small businesses are still unaware of this benefit. This marketing strategy should always be combined with good analytics and tracking. Track where users are coming from, where they engage with your app, how they find your app, and most of all – watch your apps reviews in the app stores.

A new type of optimization has been developed for mobile app development. App Store Optimization (ASO) is a form of SEO for apps. Combine ASO with brand presence, and you can drive traffic just from having links and keyword directly in your Google Play apps.

Mobile app development is still new for smaller, local store owners. But it can greatly improve visibility and potential customers. Some points to remember:

•     Google searches links and content within the app, so optimize them for search and users

•     Use responsive web design to allow desktop and mobile users to view your site regardless of screen size

•     Add links to your mobile app on your site

•     Always publish the app in the Apple and Google Play stores (or at least one of them)

•     Test your responsive site to ensure it meets mobile quality guidelines – this can be done through Google PageSpeed Insights

Ecommerce

Ecommerce is one of the most competitive areas on the Internet. It’s no longer enough to use a template site, throw some products up with a few unique sentences, and do a little SEO to rank well. The big brands dominate the organic search results. Between small shops and big brands, it makes it even more difficult for a local store or even a startup to compete.

The good news is that you no longer need to compete directly with these brands. You can use them to rank your sites and gain visibility with potential traffic.  Take Amazon for instance. Amazon is actually a Google competitor, because 44% of consumer searches start directly at Amazon. Amazon has become its own ecommerce search engine.

Amazon allows you to set up shop, sell your products, and you can even ship product to their warehouses and use their Prime Membership benefits. This leverages Amazon’s domination for your own search engine benefits. The next time a search user performs a query for your product, they could land on your Amazon sales page.

YouTube can be used in a similar way. YouTube gets millions of searches a day, and it’s a central point for video content. Site owners can leverage YouTube by uploading How-Tos and Tutorial style content that helps users better understand their products. These videos then link back to the brand and the site, which then brings more visibility to the site.

Indirect marketing is key in 2016. Instead of blasting links, articles and social media directly to a site, the new goal is to leverage dominate sites to rank the brand site.

Other beneficial SEO methods are rich snippets, reviews, and PPC campaigns.

Ecommerce site owners should:

•     Do competitor analysis to see what big brands currently rank for search queries
•     Leverage big brands for your own brand visibility and sales
•     Always keep content unique and optimized for sales and engagement
•     Use YouTube to gain visibility through How-To and Tutorials

Link Building in 2016

Let’s start off with a hot topic – link building. Link building has become the red-headed stepchild of the SEO world. Everyone does it, but no one wants to admit it. Link building has become more of an issue in 2012 when Google released the Penguin algorithm. It continued to make iterative updates once or twice a year, and any SEOs caught buying links were caught in its filters. At work, the site owner received manual action that indicated that Google had reviewed the site and found that it was buying links.

After Penguin, you’ll hear many SEOs claim that link building is dead. Link building isn’t dead – it’s evolved. Instead of automating the process with directory links and article submissions, SEOs must look for opportunities within networks, brand recognition content, social signals, and content research.

Another change to link building has been anchor text and PageRank. Toolbar PR is no longer updated, so SEOs are unable to identify the true PR for any web page. Moz’s Domain Authority is often used to evaluate the value of a backlink from any particular site. In 2012, Google filed a patent that was later approved in 2014 for algorithm technology that identifies implied link. An implied link is a link that only mentions the site but does not have the hyperlinked code. This type of link still passes reputation of the brand, and some SEOs assume that this implies that no-follow links still count positively in link building.

When building a link campaign, it’s important to:

•     Identify targets that will help build a brand not just links
•     Find link markets that drive traffic and don’t just attract search engines
•     Obtain social media mentions for the brand
•     Perform outreach campaigns for guest posts on authority sites
•     Identify hot topics using competitor analysis for guest posts and content marketing

Content Marketing

Google recently announced its latest algorithm named RankBrain. RankBrain is an AI change that attempts to “understand’ the context of the content on any given site. It essentially eliminates the idea of keyword density, because the challenge is to understand the content and its value to search engine users.

There are two types of content marketing: on-site and off-site. Onsite content should be relevant and well-written enough to engage users and drive more social shares across multiple media sites. Google released an algorithm change that penalized sites for too many ads above the fold. It can then be assumed that the content should not only be well written, it must target real users (not bots) and can’t have poorly placed ads that interfere with user experience.

Years ago, it was common for an SEO to create 10 articles and post them to article sites such as Ezine articles. These links were seen as strong backlink signals, and most SEOs claimed that the method worked. With the release of Penguin, these links are toxic for any site. AI and the changes in Google’s algorithm have changed the face of off-site content marketing. Well researched guest posts that target the direct market are favored over article marketing. This doesn’t mean you should guest post on any blog. Blogs that could be seen as selling links would fall under Penguin or even lead to manual action.

For content marketing, always:

•     Curate your content into categories and keep related content available to users for better engagement
•     Network with bloggers and site owners in the industry or a related industry
•     Use competitor analysis and Google Trends to find the right search engine phrases for emerging markets
•     Upload branded content on sites such as YouTube and SlideShare

Absolute Links vs. Relative Links – SEO Value

The debate between absolute links and relative links continues to live on in the SEO world. The individual significance of each has been contested, but it is widely regarded that absolute links provide better SEO value on the whole than relative links.

Many believe that absolute links have less potential for getting messed up when search engines index your page. It shouldn’t really make a difference, but many conclude that this is reason enough.

Furthermore, content scrapers and RSS services may ‘repurpose’ your content legitimately (or not). In either case, shouldn’t a proper back-link be attributed to your site? This situation favours absolute links. Although this is a minor argument, it’s still worth considering.

3 Big SEO Mistakes You Probably Make and How to Avoid Them

There is a lot of competition in the modern, online marketplace. Countless eCommerce vendors exist today, and the battle to land high on search result pages and drive customers to one site or another is fierce. SEO is one of the many powerful tools that online vendors have at their disposal to help attract attention, drive website traffic, and generate revenue.

Generally speaking, SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of creating original website contentthat helps improve a site's standing in search results. However, if there is one certainty with SEO, it is the fact that mistakes are inevitable. In this post, we'll cover the common SEO mistakes eCommerce vendors make, and offer advice on avoiding these problems.

Ineffective Product Descriptions

Product descriptions are the biggest obstacle for many eCommerce websites and their SEO efforts. No product descriptions, weak descriptions, or manufacturer descriptions all spell disaster for your online shop when it comes to search results. While high quality images are important for your customers because they want a visual of what they are browsing, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others are built to read words with equal (if not greater) value.

In order to remain competitive in search engine rankings, it is a necessity to produce unique content that describes your merchandise in detail. This, coupled with quality images or media, gives you a huge advantage on eCommerce sites that sell the same or similar products. However, if you simply use the manufacturer's description you're only going to blend into your competitors. So how can you stand out from the crowd and drive traffic to your site?

First and foremost, never copy and paste the product description from the manufacturer's website. This will do more damage than having no product description at all because it registers as duplicate content when search engines crawl through your page. To help generate website content for your eCommerce business, consider working with a content writing service. Professionals working for these services make a living generating unique content.

Never Ignore Metadata

When consumers shop online, they interact with metadata each time. In simple terms, metadata is best described as the advertising platform contained within a search engine. As shoppers enter search terms online, the results they see include eCommerce website names, an official link to the site, and descriptions of the exact product they queried.

The standard approach for most eCommerce vendors is to simply use duplicate information from a product page, such as the title, description, and keyword for the individual item. The problem with this is that search engines are trying to differentiate results based upon those bits of information (title, description, etc.) on your site. If your metadata information is the same (or roughly similar) to competitors, search engines will not differentiate your product and you will rank lower as a result.

Lack of Related Content

Mastering the art of metadata and providing engaging product descriptions are both critical to improving SEO. However, there is an entire website that extends outside of the product section. Some of the most engaging eCommerce stores have created outlets where they are able to consistently post new, relevant content that engages customers and can be crawled by search engines. The most popular example of this is a blog.

If your eCommerce site doesn't have a blog, start one. These archives filled with unique articles not only increase SEO, but also provide relative information that benefits the consumer. New industry trends and innovative ways to use your products are a few samples of posts that can be linked back to a product page on your website. While you're at it, create or expand unique content for other pages on your site, such as the "About Us" and "Shipping & Return Policies" pages.

While it is visible that the best SEO success stems from tracking your efforts and recording results, there are always companies that have paved the path and made it a little clearer as to where to focus your efforts. The strategies listed above are just three examples of major SEO tactics than can surprisingly be overlooked. Even though competition is high, and mistakes are inevitable, minor tweaks to your eCommerce site such as unique product descriptions, strategically worded metadata and relevant content could be the differences between ranking on the first, or the third search engine results page.

Myths of SEO

Search engine optimization.  We talk about it a lot here, as most hosting companies do, because it is daunting and shrouded in mystery.  Literally, that’s not one of my usual exaggerations for comedic effect.  Google, as an example due to its popularity and nearness to taking over the world, keeps its algorithm a secret.  Like government agency secret; probably not “If I tell you, I’d have to kill you” secret, but pretty close.

Why all the secrecy?  Well, several reasons. It is difficult to have valid results for the searcher if websites know exactly what to do to get their website at the top of whatever list they want.  Further, you as a website or small business owner understand the importance of having a good ranking in relative terms, so if Google were to release their secrets to the masses, it would be even more difficult for small businesses to compete with larger companies.

This mystery adds a lot to the importance of your website’s content.  One thing has always remained true throughout the course of website searches – content is king.  If your content is specific and relative to your business, you will find that your ranking will naturally be high in the keywords most relative to your search.  The mystery also creates bad practices due to rumors, or outdated and incorrect information.  Or, even worse, someone finds a way to cheat the system, and that method spreads across the internet.  Suddenly, rankings go haywire, and when Google updates its ranking methods again (usually once or twice a year) all those websites tank in rankings.  Search engines keep track of those instances and it becomes very difficult for those sites to recover in ranking.

So, how do you know what’s a valid tip and what isn’t?  That’s what I’m here for. I’m going to help ease some of the rumors or old information that is still floating around and tell you what’s true and what isn’t.  It’s my own little digital myth busting, but with less explosions, and no moustaches.

Adding a location to your website increases your presence in local searches.

A lot of people don’t want to put their location anywhere on their website, especially if they don’t own a storefront.  But, don’t do that.  I’m not suggesting you put your address, phone number, birth date, and social security number on your site, just your city and state.  After all, if you didn’t pay for domain privacy, your information is publicly available on the internet anyhow.

Google now customizes searches to such a high degree, that a search for the exact same keyword with the exact same search history will result in different results if the searches are performed in different locations.  If I am looking for a plumber, I don’t care who the best plumber in New York is.  I want someone in Virginia Beach, Virginia because that’s where I’m located.

CONFIRMED.

You can use this to your advantage by putting an area map on your site.  Also, if you are a business and list your service areas, you will have a broader search radius.  If you are not a business, try to focus some of your content on local items.  If you have a food blog (like me) post some recipes using local foods, or talk about some local events you attended.

Higher rankings locally will drive traffic to your site.  And traffic increases your overall ranking, so getting local traffic will help your site grow in popularity worldwide.

Lists show importance, so I should list a bunch of keywords on my home page.

Yes and no, but mostly no.

Yes, lists show the scanning bots that the information included in those lists is important.  So, if you have a set of skills, certifications, or services to offer, put them in a list on your home page.  But, don’t flood every page with lists of random keywords.

Relevance and readability are still factors, even to search engine bots.  So, make sure your lists make sense or use complete sentences if possible.  Also, as with everything, make sure your keywords are relevant to your website.  Search engine bots are so advanced now, they can determine if something will make sense to someone reading it.  If too many flags come up (like say, a smattering of random words) it will hurt your rankings more than help them.

BUSTED. MOSTLY.

Don’t ignore this just because it’s not your chosen keyword that needs to be on the list on your page.  Drawing attention to important words on your website is always a good thing. Plus, you never know what someone is searching for, so you don’t want to give up on something just because you don’t think it’s important.

Take advantage of this when developing your content.  Don’t stop at lists, and use italics, bold, and underline.  Anything designed to draw attention to certain aspects of your site will be a way of adding a private note to the bots that this information is most relevant to your website.

Keywords are the most important factor in SEO, so it is best to flood your website, HTML tags, and code with hundreds of keywords.

Please don’t do this.  It’s not helpful, and even if it were, your ranking would be all wonky and your site would show up places it doesn’t belong and that wouldn’t help you or your customers at all.  And, if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times when discussing SEO, relevant keywords are what really matter.

Also, like I mentioned before, bots can tell when a keyword is just inserted on a page.  So, make sure that what you use matters, makes sense, and is relevant to the other information around it.

BUSTED

So, how do you get more keywords into your site?  Well, first do your research and select the most relevant keywords to the information you are providing.  Then, only use 3-5 for each page of your website.  This will give your pages focus and will reduce the stress of fitting 30 keywords onto one page.

When you are writing for your HTML tags, remember that they don’t matter as much as they used to.  Title tags are the most important, and after that, photo descriptions, everything else is just a possible bonus.  Bots don’t crawl tags as much as they used to because the information on your site and the information others say about your site is much more important.

Bots don’t read punctuation.

This is actually true.  Bots don’t care about punctuation as much as the words on the screen, so you can increase the number of relevant keywords in an HTML tag or page by creatively using punctuation to your advantage.

For example, if your key word phrases are:

Hosting

InMotion

InMotion Hosting is awesome

You can put all of these together in one short sentence.

“Dedicated to the customer is what InMotion Hosting is.  Awesome hosting is hard to come by.”

Notice that we have hosting in there twice, InMotion Hosting is in there, and paired with awesome hosting, and it all combines to make the phrase InMotion Hosting is awesome.  That is also the perfect length for a HTML Tag, full of keywords and not too long.

Did you catch the bonus keyword?  “Dedicated” is the start of the sentence.  Paired with the repetition of the word hosting, we are in a good place to be found when someone searches “Dedicated hosting” or dare I say, “Awesome dedicated hosting”.

Long story short, if you have questions about improving your search engine rankings, you should remember what I said at the start of this post: “Content is King”.  When in doubt, ensure that your content is well written, informative, and full of diverse media.

There are so many myths about SEO, and the internet is flooded with bad information, and this short post only scratched the surface.