Website Traffic Enhancement Tips

The key to high search engine rankings is to write compelling and useful content that either solves a specific problem for your target market or provides important information they can put to use. In addition to great content, there are several website traffic enhancement tips I recommend you follow in order to increase your natural search rankings.

A keyword is a word or phrase that people type into the search engine's search box when looking for specific content. Determining profitable keywords is critical to your website's success. If you are unsure about identifying profitable keywords for your business, I suggest you read this article.

The META tag associated with keywords looks like the following:

<meta name="Keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2, keyword3">

Here are four rules to follow when entering keywords in your META keyword tag for each page.

Rule #1: The very first keyword listed will be the primary keyword for the page. It is the primary driver for the written content of the page. It should be a keyword with a reasonably high demand and a relatively low supply. If you're not sure what that means, click here to read an article about determining keywords.

Rule #2: Your secondary keywords for the page will be filled out after the primary keyword and need to be separated by a comma and a space. Secondary keywords can contain your primary keyword or a common synonym.

Rule #3: The total number of keywords for any particular page should be limited to 3-5. Some search engines may penalize you if you use too many keywords in the META keyword tag. This is known as keyword stuffing. DO NOT stuff large quantities of keywords into the META keyword tag.

Rule #4: Many search engines no longer rank the META keyword tag as an important element. However, search engine algorithms do change and no one knows exactly how important or unimportant this particular tag will be in the future. My advice? Fill in your META tag keywords.

For example, if the main keyword for a particular page is "fly fishing," you would simply include that keyword somewhere in the file name when you save the HTML page.

You should include dashes between the words in your file name. Most search engines will see the dashes as spaces and be able to read the distinct words.

<title>Killer strategies for increasing your website traffic.</title>

Here are four rules to follow when choosing the title for each of your pages.

Rule #1: The main keyword for the page should be used at least once in the title but don't use it more than twice.

Rule #2: Make sure that the page title is below 80 characters (including spaces.) 65 characters is even better as this is the cutoff for most search engines.

Rule #3: Place the main keyword for the page towards the beginning of the page title. The first or second word is ideal.

Rule #4: The page title is normally used as the text in search engine results so be sure to capitalize and use proper grammar for a cleaner presentation.

Make sure your page description is compelling. Spend some time crafting a good page description and you'll be rewarded with increased click-throughs. Below is an example of what the META description tag looks like on your HTML page.

<meta name="Description" content="The description of your webpage goes within these quotes.">

Here are four rules for creating your META description tags.

Rule #1: Limit the length of the description to 150-200 words (including spaces.)

Rule #2: As the description will normally appear in search engine results, write a compelling page description that makes the reader want to click to find out more.

Rule #3: Don't repeat the text you used in the Page Title. Otherwise, if a search engine uses both the page title and description tag in the search results, visitors will see duplicate text.

Rule #4: Use the main keyword for the page once in the description text and try to place it within the first few words.

The H1 headline text is always placed between the <h1> and </h1> tags on your HTML page. Here are four rules for writing an H1 headline.

Rule #1: Keep it short, concise, and relevant to your page content. Try and keep your headlines to 40-60 characters (including spaces.)

Rule #2: Include the main keyword for the page in your H1 headline.

Rule #3: Place your page-specific keyword within the first few words of your headline.

Rule #4: If you use H2 and H3 headlines, make sure to include your main keyword or a variation of it. The H1 headline tag carries more importance than the H2 and H3 tags.

Keyword density refers to the number of times you weave your page-specific keyword into the body copy. This tactic, if done correctly, will help give your page a boost in the search engine rankings. Here are four rules to help ensure you have the proper keyword density on your page.

Rule #1: Include the main keyword for the page in the opening sentence of the body copy, preferably within the first few words of the sentence.

Rule #2: The search engines will look for excessive use of a particular keyword so be careful about using it too often in your page. Target a keyword density of 3-5% for the body copy. You want your keyword to be mentioned a bit more than what is considered "normal English" but not so many times that it sounds strange when read back.

Rule #3: In addition to your main keyword, find ways to weave in your secondary keywords as well.

Rule #4: Some search engines place more weight on the opening and closing paragraphs to be sure you use your keyword in these areas.

The search engines notice when you use your main keyword in a link and will give you extra relevancy points when ranking the page.

Make sure every page of your site has at least several paragraphs and avoid duplicate content between pages. If you write with the primary goal of helping and informing your visitor, this will happen automatically. On the other end, avoid pages that are long (anything over 7-8 pages when printed is too long in my opinion.) Break up articles into smaller chunks and place them on different pages with the appropriate navigation links.

If you use your main keyword exactly five times out of every 100 words, you may find your text is unbearable to read. If it sounds strange to you, it will sound strange to your visitors. Cut back a little on using your main keyword. Instead, use a variation of it or a synonym.

Don't get caught up with writing just for the search engines. Write for your visitors first and the search engines second!

An inbound link is a text link located at someone else website that, when clicked on by a visitor, takes that visitor to a page within your website. These inbound links are extremely important in getting your web pages ranked higher so you will need to spend some time developing them. You will want to develop not only links back to your homepage, but links that also point deeper within your site.

Establishing a good inbound link program takes some time. For additional information on how to build your link popularity, I highly recommend the free ebook Make Your Links Work. When you click the link, scroll down to Tip #2 and you'll see the link for this free PDF guide.

These website traffic enhancement tips are not difficult, but you must be consistent in applying them to every page you create. If you do, I promise that you will be well on your way to significantly higher search engine rankings.