Six ways to gain free traffic from Google (and other search engines)

Optmizing your website to attract traffic from search engines – or search engine optimization (SEO) – can be one of the most cost-effective ways to generate traffic to your website. On the other hand, it can take a lot of time and energy to get to the point where the traffic is paying off for your effort. Whether you manage your site yourself or outsource it to someone else, here are six ways you can increase search engine traffic to your site without breaking the bank and without a time intensive overhaul.

Be Unique: People use search engines to find content or other information that they find useful. The way to standout in the search engines is to be unique… that is, your natural value proposition should be on display in your site and not be duplicative of other sites. While search engines thrive on access to great amounts of content, it is the unique content that will rise to the top. Case studies, white papers, press releases, original content, images, videos, etc. are all things that can be unique to your business and rise to the top.

Provide Value: Similar to being unique, give people a reason to come to your site. If it’s just a brochure, there is not much reason to come to your site and engage with you unless someone is looking to get specs on your company. On the other hand, if you have unique content that provides value to your customer base, you will be able to build a relationship with your target customers much earlier in the consideration process and cast a much wider net to capture customers.

Speak naturally: People don’t search using computer terminology like “756iosdgf.GIF” or “section_34/page56.html” so neither should you name your files as such. Use natural language when naming web pages and other files, and you will see your traffic increase.

Decrease your load time: Sites heavy with images, flash and javascript take a while to load and typically have content inaccessible to search engines. If the search engine can not see the content, then for all intensive purposes, it does not exist. Keep your site design look and feel but see what you can do to use HTML when possible. It’s good for the user experience and good for the search engine.

Launch an inbound link program: Why should free traffic come only from search engines? As you set up vendors, partnerships or other relationships, incorporate a link to your website into the deal. This will provide you with traffic to your site and a valuable inbound link which search engines use to measure popularity, relevancy and authority.

Implement analytics and track success: We can’t emphasize enough the value of having a web site analytics program like Google Analytics installed on your site. It is free and provides you a robust set of data for evaluating your website’s performance.

If you would like additional information on this topic or a free needs assessment, please contact a Thrivepoint Advisor.

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