An Introduction into Search Engine Traffic and Optimization

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Following the previous post, Writing Timeless Content, this post will cover some basics on how to gain more traffic from search engines doing little more than you are doing now. For this post, I won’t go in-depth on how to “game” the search engines, but rather some basics on how to gain (over time) traffic from search engines without having to pay someone to market your blog, do search engine optimization, or other techniques, which could negatively affect your rankings in the long-term.

People who visit your blog on a regular basis more than likely discovered it through a search engine. Otherwise, they found your blog through another site that linked to an article that you published. You need to know how to target the search engines directly in order to reap the most rewards out of the content you publish.

I’ll first discuss the characteristics and best ways of increasing (or evaluating the traffic you receive from search engines).

Characteristics of Visitors from Search Engines

Most people are looking for a specific item, or don’t have any concern on related content unless they are “wowed” by what you have to offer upon visiting your site (following the “under 10 second” principle).
The traffic is often targeted in the sense that visitors are searching for a specific item on your blog rather than a general item (again, if your blog ranks highly for specific keywords, your entire blog (http://site.com) will be listed, rather than a specific article.
Bounce rate is generally equal to or greater than return visitors or ‘addicts.’ People want to quickly find information, therefore any additional clicks through your blog are because they find your site interesting.
Search results pages can be used to promote products or directly market products, even if they aren’t sponsored (as in products you’ve created). In addition, your Subscribe and other pages will possibly appear beneath your site once it has become recognized by search engines for being an important page.

Key Points

Don’t write as though you are actually writing for a search engine, leaving out any personal thoughts. You want to write naturally, much like a conversation.
Use terms and keywords that are relevant to the product or post itself. Don’t “overstuff” or your post will surely look like it wasn’t written to prove a point, but to generate an income through more traffic/placement on results pages.
Your content should be split between rather lengthy guides and news-related posts. Depending on the overall focus and goals of your site, you will have to create content that will help build both methods of traffic – direct through return visitors and those referred through other sites (and search engines).

The Content

Whenever I mention content from this point forward, it refers to the entire post (the title, tags, categories, permalink, and keywords used – everything before the post is published on the blog for readers).

First of all, in order to gain more traffic from search engines, you need content, and I don’t mean five posts. People that have thousands of indexed pages typically receive just that – thousands of visitors per day. Simplified, if you don’t have something to invest, you won’t be rewarded with interest. The more comments, trackbacks, categories, and tags that reference your site will add up to more traffic in the long-term (anywhere from 10-90% of total traffic comes from search engines and referring sites).

Secondly, keywords are a must. This doesn’t mean stuffing your posts with the words you used for categories, but keep in mind that people won’t be able to find your content unless it includes the words that they are searching for.

Example: Let’s say you write a post about “how to start a blog.” Someone searching for the phrase “starting a Blogger blog” will never find your post, because you haven’t included the term “Blogger,” referring to the system, resulting in your post not being displayed on the first page (in this case, it would mean the difference between a few hundred and just a few dozen visitors).

Post Titles: Add relevant keywords – a big ‘no no’ is using a title that steers people to content simply due to the title. It may work to increase new visitors but it becomes annoying after a few times.

Blog Titles and Keywords: Within your meta information (or using plugins/blog settings), it is a good idea to add a few (10 or so) keywords that truly define what your blog is about. For instance, I might choose words like: “blogging tips, blog tips, blog advice, etc.” for this blog.

In-Post: Within each post, use heading tags and font styles to help promote your blog. Stick with a similar format across your entire blog for best use of the tag. Personally, I tend to use the H3 (Heading 3) tag for main headings and either the bold or H4 tags for sub-headings and other areas.

In addition, use relevant phrases that people may be searching for.

The key to marketing and targeting search engines for more traffic:

Test what works – phrases and keywords, as well as when and what type of content you publish.
Target different social media sites and connect through other people who will help distribute your content.
Continue producing content as often as possible – the more, the better.

Why You Need It

Without search engines, your site would have very little chance of ever being discovered. Unlike many other promotion techniques that you can use to effectively increase traffic to your blog, search engine (referred) traffic is usually free (unless you hire someone for search engine optimization or purchase space on the results pages for keywords). In itself, it doesn’t take much effort – you simply submit it to the search engine and then traffic start pouring in based on what you publish.

Over time, your blog’s traffic and income will steadily increase – resulting in more benefits than one.

Note: This was an introduction for people who have never focused on optimizing your site to gain more search engine visitors. It is never too early to start focusing on this aspect of your blog

An Introduction into Search Engine Traffic and Optimization

Characteristics of Visitors from Search Engines

Key Points

The Content

Why You Need It

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