subject: Five Ways To Improve Your Google Traffic [print this page] Getting pages indexed and improving Google traffic before sitemaps came along was a nightmare for most webmasters. Thankfully, it's a lot easier nowadays. But it also means that webmasters today don't really understand what makes the Google bot tick.
Search engines in general and Google in particular need to be treated like a visitor. Write solely for visitors and put aside all the gimmicks and tricks that SEO guys use. Make sure articles and content is fresh and interesting.
How does one entice visitors to keep coming back? By adding new content and interacting with visitors through comments, feedback, etc. That is exactly the kind of stuff - new pages, blog posts and bulletin boards where visitors can have a conversation - that makes the Google bot happy.
That doesn't mean, however, that you can't generate a list of keywords to work with and focus on. Hammer these keywords with new content and incoming links. It's more helpful to get Google to send a lot of traffic to a specific page for a specific keyword, rather than just letting it rip and hoping Google manages to figure it out.
Third thing to know is that both visitors and search engines like websites that load fast and work like a charm. The biggest example is Google itself, with its super-fast loading and simplicity of use. Improve loading speed and make sure there are no 404 errors (missing pages) or other functionally issues.
No. 4 on the list of ways to improve Google traffic is to improve the internal linking mechanism. Most webmasters spend a lot of time chasing external links. But not many will give serious thought to finding ways to utilize pages within their own site.
Every internal page is an untapped link partner, which can be utilized in a variety of ways. Add a related links script, a sidebar with similar content or featured posts, etc. Make sure every link is related to the page content and offers something of interest to the visitor.
Next up is the issue of deep-linking. When working on links, webmasters tend to focus on the anchor text and the link location, but most link deals end up pointing to home pages. The most important part of a link building campaign, however, is that the links need to go deep.
If a couple of links point to a newly created page, Google takes notice and pushes it up on the search listings, which in turn makes other webmasters think that the page has some value. It might even generate some organic links, adding to the search ranking. The page ends up with a permanent flow of Google traffic.
As always, content still remains the king. If the writer knows the subject well enough, the keywords and names and places that drive search engine traffic automatically pop into the article. Readers find it interesting and other webmasters show their respect by linking to the page. Google in turn responds by sending more traffic.
In summary, most of the heavy search engine optimization is done beforehand. Once a website gets going, there should be a plan ready with keywords and a link building campaign to help prop up search rankings for newly created pages. These things should in no way intrude or degrade the user experience.
