Search engine optimization is all about getting your site to rank well in search engines like Google. Conventional SEO wisdom is that if you're on the first three pages of results returned, you're ranking pretty high. But, how do you get there? Following are 8 proven SEO tips that can start to pave the way.

8 Proven SEO Tips that Drive Traffic -- for Years to Come

1. Keyword-Driven SEO Articles: If content is king on the net, then SEO content is pure royalty. SEO articles contain keywords relevant to your niche. If you have a good amount of content on your site that uses the words that information seekers type in when they search the web, then your site will rank higher than one that doesn't employ this strategy.

FYI, the words that information seekers type in when they search the web are called keywords. And, you want lots of content with lots of these on your site. Professional SEO copywriters provide this.

As an example, if you were looking for used cars in your city, you'd probably type in "used cars" and "Atlanta," (if you lived in Atlanta). If you wanted your site to be on the first few pages of the search results, a professional SEO copywriter can write articles with those keywords sprinkled throughout to push your site to the top.

Some SEO articles that come to mind using these keywords: How to Buy Used Cars in Atlanta; Used Cars Good on Gas in Atlanta; Where to Find Cheap Used Cars in Atlanta; Used Cars in Atlanta: What to Look for in a Dealer; Used Cars in Atlanta Under $5,000.

2. Quality, Informative SEO Content: While keywords are important in content writing, it must be written to be informative and educational. Professional SEO copywriters know how to incorporate keyword phrases so that the content not only drives search engine traffic, but gives them something useful to read once they land on your site.

Look at it this way, if your content is stuffed with keywords -- which will bring in traffic -- but is unprofessional, uninteresting, not informative and barely readable, how likely do you think visitors will be to return to your site?

You have to draw visitors to your site. Keywords do this. But to keep them coming back -- which is what it takes to eventually make sales -- you must give them what they want: ie, helpful, informative content.

How a Professional SEO Copywriter Can Help You Get More Traffic -- and Increase Sales

This starts with knowing how to write eye-catching titles, which topics generate the most interest, how to write content that will be relevant five years from now, how to use "hot" news topics and make them relevant to your niche, etc. Professional SEO copywriters know how to do all of this.

SEO copywriting is about more than knowing how to spread keywords throughout a 300-500 word article. It's about keeping the surfer (the potential customer) in mind and catering to their needs first.

New Media Words' SEO copywriters always adhere to this internet marketing axiom.

3. Write Your Site's Meta Tags: Some search engine optimization experts have theorized that if you fill in your meta tags, you've gained a 25% advantage over other sites already. Why is this? Because most sites don't have their meta tags filled in.

Get an answer to the question, "What are meta tags?" Meta tags describe your site, and there are quite a few of them. The most popular ones though that every site should have filled in are the Title, Keyword and Description tags.

Some have very long descriptions, keywords and keyword phrases; others have short ones. Which one is correct? At New Media Words, we focus on the most popular, appropriate phrases for your site. Some will have more, others will have less. It all depends on the niche.

4. Link Strategy: There are two components to an effective link strategy if you want to drive the most traffic to your online presence -- backlinks and anchor text linking.

Why Backlinks are Important

First, backlinks. What are backlinks? Backlinks are links from other sites/blogs to your site/blog. And, what you want are one-way backlinks. Why? Because they are links from another site to your site; backlinks lend more credence to your site/blog as an authority.

Search engines love sites with lots of backlinks because it leads them to believe that the site is important enough that other people are recommending it on its own merit, not because of a "reciprocal linking" strategy (ie, you link to my site and I'll link to yours).

FYI, a great way to get lots of backlinks is to have quality SEO content that others will want to link to and share. It always comes down to good content.

Why Anchor Text Linking is Important

The second component of a successful link strategy is anchor text linking. What is this? The words that you choose to make a hyperlink are called anchor text. They literally "anchor" the text that is highlighted.

See the phrase "What are meta tags?" in the discussion on meta tags here (#3)? That's the anchor text. And, search engines use it to help determine what the content is all about and how relevant it is.

2 Ways to Effectively Use Anchor Text

The first way is to drive visitors deeper into your own site, eg, linking to other pages on your site. Again, refer to the "What are meta tags?" link above. The link goes right to the meta tags page on this site.

The second way to effectively use anchor text is to link to other highly regarded, relevant sites on the web. Think of it as an introduction of a friend to your visitors. Try to only recommend highly ranked, relevant sites in your niche. This helps the positioning of your site in search engines.

5. Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing includes using such sites as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. It's literally like offline networking -- only it's done online.

And, to take full advantage of SEO in this Web 2.0 world, it must be integrated into any overall internet marketing campaign -- or you risk losing hordes of visitors. For example, did you know that MySpace currently has 122 million users? Even garnering a minuscule portion of this traffic can change your whole bottom line.

The downfall of many businesses is that they don't have the time or employees to devote to this form of marketing. For, it can be time consuming.

Social Media Marketing Tip: Go to AddThis.com and at least add a button to your site so that users can bookmark your content. It's free -- and it gives you a foothold in this whole "social bookmarking and networking thing."

Ready to move to the next level? Learn more about our social media marketing services.

6. Site Design and Navigation: Unless you're an experienced web design professional, it's unlikely that you've given more than a passing thought to your site's design and/or navigational structure.

But, much like a clean house when compared to a dirty one, which would you like to spend the most time in? The clean one, of course. And, your visitors feel the same way. Hence, site design and navigation should be clean and straigthforward. To explain in colloquial language, you want to make it easy to "find stuff."

To accomplish this, accepted internet marketing wisdom is that the majority of the pages of your site should be able to be reached from your home page. Those that can't should be no more than three clicks away from it.

Take this site, NewMediaWords.biz, for example. All of the major categories can be accessed from the Home Page. If you click on "Article Submission", you will find that there is an additional page to this category that is one level deeper (eg, takes an additional click from the Home Page to reach).

The site was set up like this on purpose. It makes information easy to find so that users don't get frustrated hunting around for what they want. Frustrated surfers are non-buying surfers. They surf right on over to your competitor's site. Keep this in mind when you design your site -- whether you do it yourself, or hire a professional to do it for you.

7. Concentrate on Google: While ideally you want to rank well on all the major search engines, Google is the most popular search engine -- period -- by a wide margin. It brings in the most traffic. Proof? In a July 2008 article on the respected SearchEngingWatch.com blog, it was reported that "Google grabbed 69.17 percent of all U.S. searches . . . Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 19.62)."

While you don't want to completely ignore other search engines, you do want to concentrate your search engine optimization efforts on what pleases Google.

8. Develop an Internet Marketing Strategy: Every business that wants to succeed at internet marketing must have a plan; an internet marketing strategy. This starts with understanding how SEO works, or hiring a company that does. Then it means putting in place a long-range plan (eg, three-months, six-months, one-year, etc.) to achieve financial goals.

If you don't have a plan, you can't judge what's working, what's not, what needs to be tweaked, what to do away with, how to increase traffic, drive offline sales, etc. A well-thought-out internet marketing and search engine optimization strategy can be the best thing to happen to your business -- for it drives on- and offline sales.

So start that article marketing campaign, get your meta tags done, start using social media -- these are all things that can be done immediately -- and will bring noticeable results. Over time, the returns are immeasurable. Just think -- where will your business be next year this time if you start using some tried-and-true search engine optimization strategies now?

SEO Food for Thought

Eighty-eight percent (88%) of adult online shoppers conduct some form of online research before making a purchase on the web, and Internet search engines, used by 67% of these shoppers, are the most popular research tool. [Source: icrossing Inc.]

Will your site be among the results?

Feel free to contact us with questions about any of our services. Send an email to info[at]newmediawords.biz and you will be contacted promptly during normal business hours (M-F; 8am to 6pm EST).

P.S.: Don't forget, you can learn how and/or train your staff to write lead-generating, sales-producing copy in How to Write SEO Copy That Sells: An SEO Copywriting Training Manual for Small Business.

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