If you own a website then you know how difficult it is to get web traffic. That is exactly how I found out about SEO which stands for Search Engine Optimization. I myself was more interested in getting organic search traffic rather than paid traffic. This was actually the beginning of my journey to becoming a professional SEO Consultant which resulted in opening my own SEO Company.
The way that I learned how to get more traffic to my website, is exactly what I will be showing you. I will be showing you what didn’t work for me and what did work and actually continues to work for me today. The way that I see it, if it doesn’t work, trash it and if it does work, duplicate it. That is exactly what I have done for my own website and for my clients.
Take your pick!
When I started out researching how to get more web traffic, it led me to find all sorts of ways. These were some of the ones I found:
PPC – Pay Per Click advertising which means you pay for every click-through to your website.
Banner Ads – Pay to have banner advertisements on other websites linked to your website.
Paid Online Listings – Paying to advertise on directories like Yelp, Yellow Pages, City Search and Ask.
SEO – Search Engine Optimization or also known as Organic SEO. Search Engines free listings that are based on editorial results.
Social Media Marketing – Using Social accounts like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ to attract users to your website.
Blog Marketing – Using a Blog to attract users to your website.
Press Release Marketing – Using Press Releases to attract users to your website.
Video Marketing – Using Videos to attract users to your website.
Email Marketing – Using mass emailing to attract users to your website.
These are some of the basic methods I found that people are using to attract more web traffic. For me I was sold on SEO and wanted to learn more about it. The paid ways are pretty self explanatory and are quite pricey.
Learning SEO
I began to search the internet for what SEO was and how it worked. Of course I found a ton of information out there on the World Wide Web and some of it was bad and some of it was good. I didn’t know the difference at the time though so I tried it all.
Then I found SEOmoz’s Beginners Guide to SEO and started reading it. I really liked how they spelled it out for the average person to learn the basics of SEO. It was clear and to the point. It also spoke of what to do and what not to do. I then joined SEOmoz and became a Pro member. I did what it said to do and started to experiment with some websites. I also found the heated issue of White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO, which I jumped into fairly quickly because I tend to like conflict.
I’m really glad that I did because I learned a lot about White Hat, Gray Hat and Black Hat SEO. I wanted my company to have integrity and to do that meant I needed to adopt doing strictly White Hat SEO. This meant no cutting corners of any kind and finding out as much as possible about SEO and both sides of the fence.
I came across a great article from Angie Schottmuller called “SEO Wars: Forget Black Hat, White Hat – What Color Is Your Lightsaber?”, I got a lot of enjoyment and understanding from this article. Another great course that has helped me has been Danny Dover’s book Search Engine Optimization Secrets.
Information into Action
I was implementing everything I was learning as I went along. I had some failures and some successes. But the jewel that I earned was experience. I went through a period of over optimizing my site and was stuck on the second, third and fourth pages of Google for keywords I was targeting.
Content over Code
I realized that I needed to focus more on my content and marketing that content through Blogging and Social Media. I learned that I needed to tap into my passion to create content that would appeal to others. This encouraged me to sharpen my writing skills and also hunt for some writers for hire. I even found a writing mentor that was willing to help me.
The Proof is in the Pudding
And for an SEO the pudding is the results. I read in The Beginners Guide on SEOmoz that I needed to optimize my own website to prove that I could do for anyone especially clients. I put a ton of effort in optimizing my website and so far the results are really paying off. I am ranking for some top competitive keywords and leads are coming in from it. My clients are seeing the results from their websites as well.
Which Path is for you?
Whether you are someone trying to learn how to do it yourself or gathering information to hire someone to do it for you, I hope that this has helped you get that much closer to your goal. There are tons of resources and tools out there to help you if you are looking to do it yourself. If you are interested in hiring someone to do it for you, or to get consultation that will help you learn how to do it, please take a look at the services we offer.