All businesses on the Internet know how important it is to increase website traffic — that’s where you get your customers and ultimately make your money. However, getting traffic isn’t a simple process because of all the competing websites. There are several ways your website can get traffic, including search engines, social media, email marketing, and pay-per-click advertising. Each of these methods has its advantages, but we’re going to show you why search engine traffic should be your priority. So, take a look at how to make search engines your best business friends in 2013.
Write Original, Creative Content that Is Friendly to The Search Engines
Toni Schneider predicts that there will be one billion websites on the Internet by the end of 2013 and two billion by the end of 2015. That means competition for traffic is only going to increase. To beat your competition, you need to focus on creating quality content that is original, creative, share-able, and keyword rich. That’s what the search engines look for. Search engines are constantly improving the way that they rank websites, but you’re never going to be penalized for quality.
Search engines have come a long way in terms of how they rank websites. You used to rank well for having content crammed with targeted keywords. However, having original and quality content is more important now because search engines think content crammed with keywords is poor quality and spammy. That doesn’t mean you should forget keywords, though. You need to write great content with the right balance of keywords. It’s important to remember that quality is the most important thing to making the search engines your friends in 2013.
Get Links to Your Website from Other Trusted Websites
Quality content is definitely important, but the best way to get to the top of the search engines is to improve your search engine ranking. You do this by getting links back to your website. Of course, getting links is difficult because most websites aren’t willing to hand out an endorsement without an incentive. Additionally, search engines are getting smarter and can often tell when you have paid a website for a link, which puts you at risk of being penalized. You need to build links organically.
There are several ways to build links to your website naturally. One way is you look for trusted websites in your industry that have a high page rank and then offer to write guest posts with a link back to your website. Of course, this takes a lot of time and effort, with a good chunk of your time going towards solicitation emails. You can also contact web masters and inquire whether they are interested in doing a link exchange. These methods take time, but the investment will makes the search engines good business friends in 2013.
Create a Writer Base and Give Credit Where Credit is Due
After links, content is the next important thing that search engines care about. They want quality articles that are written by industry experts. That’s why you should create a writer base that contributes to your website regularly with a byline. Also, you should seek out experts in your industry and solicit guest posts to increase your website traffic. Search engines like to see quality and one way they determine this is by the authority of your contributors.
Google recently released Google Authorship, too. Basically, this is a product that allows authors to claim their content and put a photo next to it in search results. There are several advantages to this, but the biggest is that it increases your website’s click-through rate because your content stands out more on the search engines. Additionally, Google and other search engines may use authorship as a ranking factor in the future. You should implement the code on your website and start building author rank to make the search engines your business friends.
Optimize Your Site and Content for Mobile Users
The tablet and smartphone industry is booming and this trend is expected to continue in 2013 and beyond. So, you’re losing traffic and customers if your website isn’t optimized for mobile users. People have come to expect mobile sites and search engines know when a website is easy to view on a smaller screen. For instance, the has a decent-sized screen, but it is nowhere near the size of a laptop or desktop, so obvious design changes are needed for people to view websites on it, as well as other tablets and smartphones.
Some people prefer to create a mobile app instead of optimizing their site for mobile. This is one way to go, but tablet and smartphone users are becoming stricter about the apps they download, so the mobile site is still the best way to go. Optimizing your site and content for mobile users is going to make the search engines your friends because you’ll get more traffic.
Fix Problems Under the Hood of Your Website
Another thing you need to do to make the search engines your friends in 2013 is clean up the code and design of your website. Search engines look at your meta code, image descriptions and attributions, and several other coding features that users don’t typically see. This is because search engines care about slow load times and other problems that make websites clunky or difficult to use. You need to determine if there is anything under the hood of your website that is getting you penalized in search results and then make changes to fix the problem.
If you implement the suggestions here to your website, the search engines will become your best business friends in 2013. You’ll get more traffic and have an all around better website. Do you have any other suggestions for people that want to improve their web traffic to improve sales and increase their customer base?
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About Amit Shaw
Hi Shaun,
When we talk about search engine for small business, I think valuable content and keyword research take important role. For small business, it’s not a matter of traffic you get, but how visitors turn into costumer. That’s how we can get if we provide proper keyword research and valuable content at once.
Hi Okto,
I definitely agree with you. Ultimately, what determines a site’s success, whether small or big, is the figures in terms of visitors, sales and conversions. I think as long as we conform to the basic rules, of which content and keyword research play important roles, any online business can succeed as long as they overdo one part and ignore the others.
Thank you for your valuable insight!
one more point i would like to add in this discussion. if your business is targeting local market, it is better to optimize your site for local business. Keyword research is no doubt has a very vital role in this case.
I am a fan of multi-author sites. They have a great user base and every article provides something unique and interesting. Few examples of those sites are mashable, cnet, huffington post and others. The best someone can do to build an authority site, Google loves authority sites, is to find expert writers in that niche and pay them to write. Because those writers are expert, they will have some following on social networks and whenever they will write and post, the site will get huge referral traffic.
That is so true, Asif. Those are sites that are excellent samples for multi user writer and reader participation. The social media response is one of the bonuses got by opening out sites to multiple writers with good backgrounds.
I really like all the tips which you have given in this post.I have recently installed wptouch plugin on one of my website.Its really working great.We can also build relationship with search engines through keyword searching,optimize images.hide the affiliate links through plugins like pretty link.
Hi Shaun !!!
Every body want to make $$$ with the search engine traffic. And no one will miss for its requires to run the online Business.
I liked what you wrote in article. Specilly the Credit point. I always do that whenever it required ot mention the credit.
Regards
Hi Ravi,
Yes, there is nothing wrong into turning one’s passion into something that earns them money, as well. As a writer, being credited is something that one looks forward to, and as a site owner, crediting someone is a sign of honestly. Definitely agree with you, and thanks for reading this,
Hi
Shaun
There is a lots of method to get a top search ranking positions, but you should carefully extract the real one which give a sure shot result, In your article i found the real one which is surely give a better result, specially the first one which is “Write Original Creative Content that Is Friendly to The Search Engines”
Thanks
Hi Prem,
Though it is a cumulative effort, I have to agree with you that well written and informative piece of content is a sure shot way of winning the race.
Hello Shaun. I truly agree with your line of thought here. For any site to grow , sooner or later it has to depend on search engines for traffic. So making your site search engine friendly is really important. Moreover keyword research and good content is always a plus point. Raking high for certain keywords in search engines can boost any websites traffic.
Hey Shaun,
Excellent tips mate.
I agree with you. In 2013 more focus more on user. Content, good design, social activity etc…
Recently one of my blog got hit by penguin and now I think that it’s of no use to wait or work for Google traffic. Concentrate on social traffic. No need to worry about making money.
Because when my blog lost half of the traffic I made better money with affiliate sales than previous month when my traffic was good.
@Khajamoin1
shaun all are very very informative tips and these are build a fense around your blog by giving protection from Google panda and penguin updates.Actually many bloggers do the first 4 things but they miss last thing that means they don’t concentrate on google webmasters to fix errors.If they follow that one also every blog will be on heights.
Hey Moin and Lalitha,
Absolutely true. Great insights both!
I will try all. Thanks for information Shaun !
Great job! This will help me to create an excellent post and my website can get traffic easily! Thank you for sharing the most important information…. Really impressive!