I have been blogging since the Sep
of 2007 when I created my own blog, however I never did worry about seo at that
time and I was content with creating a blog website of my own. I was very
happy. Advertisement and add revenue were last on my mind at that time. I did
not worry much about hits as I was content with my friends hit on my own
blog posts. Concepts like driving website traffic, hit counter, facebook
marketing, website builders, affiliate marketing, email marketing, google apps
and tools for seo optimization were alien to me. Primarily you see it was self
satisfaction that I was seeking and not add revenue. However one day while
managing my blog on blogger.com it appeared to me an option of monetizing the
blog. It was then that I actually came to be introduced to the world of seo and
content marketing or ad revenue generation whatever one may call it.
Even after that I did not bother to
do much about this stream as I was pretty much busy in my job as a IT
Consultant, blogging as just a get-away or more to say a very interesting and
creative hobby where I would like to just unleash my thoughts or record my
varied experiences during the course of my journey of software development. I
would record my events and also post some challenging technical problems that I
might happen to solve. When people would have a look at it, or benefit on it,
comment and appreciate that was what my real payment (and still is till today).
However in recent times, I realized
that to become a professional in any field you should be effectively be able to
generate revenue out of that otherwise it remains a discreet amateur hobby. It
is only when one becomes a pro in something then he/she can give value to its
consumer or audience.
Anyways, philosophy apart, coming
back to topic of discussion here, I actually came across a lot of good content
and links which might help anybody in increasing the ranking and effectiveness
of his/her website. With the advent of social media it has now become a
mandatory factor for any business which is inherently online in nature or
relies heavily on online world to be part of the social media space and have a
significant presence as well.
So here I would like to definitely
discuss a few very excellent tips and tricks for developing your content and
also effectively increasing your webpresence as web hits per se.
Keyword Research – the right way
Each Keyword has an intrinsic value
of its own. To properly value a keyword’s potential for your business, first
ask yourself how relevant your pages would be to the user searching for that
keyword.
Look for keywords that
your users would type in that would make them delighted and thankful to find
your site. Examples might include “golf clubs for women” or “flights to Paris
under $1,000”.
This delicate balance between
generic versus specific is the sweet spot for keyword research.
Test Your Keyword
Once you have your ideal keywords
chosen, it’s time to see if your visitors feel the same way. Type in your
keywords in Google and notice both the top and sidebar paid ads:
Utilize some Keyword Research Tools
There are a few free and paid
keyword tools that can help you with the research process. Each one offers
varying amounts of data for a price, but give more than Google Keyword
Suggestion tool to provide tracking trends, related keywords that may refer to
brand names or product names
These tools can also help you mark ever-changing value of
specific keywords due to changes in the economy or on social networks, some
even let you spy on the keywords your competitors are using.
Coming back to my personal
experiences of blogging, although lot of tools tips and support can be found
online, but it come downs to one thing which is passion. Passion and high interest
drives any line of work and so does this. If you are committed to increase the
hit and traffic of your website then you might as well do it, with or without
help. However, if you are doing it just for the sake of doing it without your
heart into it then probably the fire might die down mid-way. The best way is
the right way. Your website is what you know best, it’s content and material is
what will actually drive the traffic.
A few interesting concepts that I
came through in my quest for right approaches landed me into below gems
Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound
Marketing
“When I talk with most marketers
today about how they generate leads and fill the top of their sales funnel,
most say trade shows, seminar series, email blasts to purchased lists, internal
cold calling, outsourced telemarketing, and advertising. I call these methods "outbound
marketing" where a marketer pushes his message out far and wide hoping
that it resonates with that needle in the haystack.
I think outbound marketing techniques are getting less and
less effective over time for two reasons.
First, your average human today is inundated with over 2000 outbound
marketing interruptions per day and is figuring out more and more creative ways
to block them out, including caller ID, spam filtering, Tivo, and Sirius
satellite radio. Second, the cost of
coordination around learning about something new or shopping for something new
using the internet (search engines, blogs, and social media) is now much lower
than going to a seminar at the Marriott or flying to a trade show in Las Vegas.
It's Time to Transform Your Marketing”
12
Things You Should Be Using Your Blog For (Besides Blogging)
1) Solicit Content From High-Profile Sites
2) Work on Increasing Subscribers
3) Optimize Past Post Titles
4) Optimize Your Calls-to-Action
5) Update the CTAs on Old Posts
6) Update the Content of Popular Old Posts
7) Conduct a Topic Analysis
8) Make it Social
9) Optimize the Pages Blog Visitors Click the Most
10) Use Your Blog to Test New Offers
11) Use Your Blog as a Source of Content
12) Leverage Your Blog as a Sales Tool
Apart from above links which I posted, there are a few other
links which I liked very much and worthy of mention here. What I most liked is
the question answer format adding to authenticity of the post.
“Growth. One of the most important factors for any online
business. Increasing relevant traffic often correlates with an increased bottom
line.”
“The problem is that people immediately try to focus on
rankings; and that's where the massive link building campaigns come in. But if
you focus only on increasing your overall search traffic, and not battle for
any specific keyword, your traffic just grows and grows. Over time, your
increasing social network takes over and multiplies the impact of your writing.
ES: What were the important steps that got you to 3,500
visits/day?
FC: Right from the beginning of the website, I integrated a
daily email newsletter into my publication schedule, so I was accumulating
email subscribers a handful at a time. Over the years that list really built
up, and served as the very core of my audience.
There's nothing more powerful than a distribution platform
that you can reach out through. So my initial audience came purely through word
of mouth and building that subscriber base one person at a time.
ES: Now let's hear about how you got to 100,000 visits per
day. What were the most important steps you took to get you to this remarkable
milestone?
FC: A lot of that growth happened naturally, but I became
aware of the importance of search engine optimization about three years ago.
Once I started incorporating SEO into my overall content process, my traffic
jumped up in leaps and bounds. Until that point, I was only blogging and
reporting on news, but I realized there was a whole class of evergreen content
– the kind of concepts that people are always searching for.”
Hope the points might have been useful, I have been
utilizing the above points into my blogs and websites and enjoying some
wonderful results.
Now if you happen to be doing something which is working for
your website then do share here.
