Relevant Content is the Key to Generating Successful Website Traffic

Today I received a phone call from a potential client who found our website searching Google for companies that could help increase traffic to her website. For the purpose of this article, lets call her Tammy. I initially started the conversation asking Tammy what types of marketing she is currently doing to help generate traffic to her website. She mentioned she has setup Google AdWords and Yahoo! Sponsorship campaigns for her business, but is unfortunately not generating any sales. I said ok, thats a great start. I then asked her what else she is doing. Tammy said, Nothing thats why I need your help. We both laughed.

This is a very common conversation that I have with my clients on a daily basis. Everyone wants to know how to increase traffic to their website because as we all know - increased traffic equals increased sales. For many, its the unanswered question that they struggle to find an answer for every day as they try to expand their business online. Well, today Im going to show you how you can increase traffic to your website in the most effective manner possible. Im going to provide you with a cost-effective solution that will increase traffic to your website through organic search marketing.

As we all know, the Internet is made up of millions of websites, encompassing billions of pages of content. When we do a search in Google, some results appear on the first page, others appear on the third and then there are those that dont appear at all. What makes a website appear before another? Is it because they have better keywords in their site or is it because their site is more popular? Well to be honest, there is a whole slue of reasons why one website might appear before another. For the purpose of this article, Im only going to talk about the leading reason why I believe one site appears higher another - and that is Relevance.

In order to appear in the search engine for a particular keyword search, your website must be relevant for that particular search term " makes sense right? Ok, so then wouldnt you also agree that if your pages are more relevant to that search term, then they should appear higher in the search results, right? Well I hope youve answered yes because its 100% true. If your Web pages contain more relevant content than another site, there is a greater chance you will appear higher then they will in the search results.

If relevance is the answer then how do I make my site more relevant?

Thats a great question and Im so glad youve asked. The answer is hidden in the Content of your website. If your site contains more relevant search terms, you will become more visible in the search engines for those terms guaranteed! Content is the key to success on the Internet. With good, quality and relevant content, you will find it much easier to generate traffic and produce online sales.

Ok, so if content is the key to my success, then what do I need to do?

The following are some of the best ways to make your website more relevant and to increase the exposure of your business online. Some of these are adjustments that you need to make to your existing website and others are changes that will help you get more content indexed and indexed faster.

Add a blog to your website

Adding a blog to your website will enable you to increase the amount of content that is relevant to your business. With a blog in place, you can post articles about your industry, feature your new products, share specific ideas that may benefit your audience and simply show that youre a business that is specialized in your chosen profession.

I recommend setting up a blog on a sub-domain off your website. For example, if your website is http://www.hudsonhorizons.com, then you can add your blog or article section to http://articles.hudsonhorizons.com. By doing this, when your articles or blog entries are located in the search engines and a user clicks on the result, your website will appear; hence, directing them to the source of where you need them to be.

Submit OnlinePress Releases

Submitting press releases about your company can be a great resource to generate new business and make a name for your company on the Internet. There are many ways to submit a press release. A great way is to use a company like PR Web. You can signup for an account and they will distribute your press release for a certain fee. I recommend submitting a new one every month. You will notice your releases getting indexed on numerous websites on the Internet, getting indexed in the search engines, and in such important places like Google News and Yahoo! News.

Be creative with your press releases. Come up with a story that others want to hear. Maybe its the launch of a new product or maybe its to announce a partnership with another firm. Whatever it may be, make it interested so others will want to read it. Add links back to your website so when others are reading, they can be directed to your site for more information.

Submit your pages to Google and Yahoo! directly

Google Sitemapsand Yahoo! Site Exploreroffers you a way to submit a complete listing of your site's URLs to their search crawlers,informing their search engines about all the pages in your website.

With Google Sitemapsand Yahoo! Site Explorer, you can keep their crawlers informed of all the pages in your site and if done on a regular basis, provides fresher search results and a smarter crawl of your website in their search engines.

Submitting your URLs directly to Google and Yahoo! is a great way to increase the visibility of your content and increase traffic to your website. I recommend submitting them on a frequent basis to ensure that your pages are consistently being added and to increase the rate at which your pages are being indexed.

I hope you find these three things to be beneficial to the success of your business online. Remember, if you can focus to increase the amount of relevant content thats in the search engines, you will be sure to increase your sales.

I wish you much continued success!