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I Love Traffic Jams
Most web marketers would agree that the number one and most fundamental aspect of any successful website is; “The more traffic, the better!” In keeping with that strategy, please let me share a few thoughts on how to actually accomplish this.
The one thing you can always count on in this world we live in, if you own a car of course, is getting stuck in traffic. There are those who experience this on a daily basis and for the rest of us, who do not drive to work, hopefully only once in a while.
Nevertheless, for most people this is a huge source of frustration and stress. Why? Because drivers hate the very thought of being stuck in one place when they want to be in another place. Take a look at the people around you the next time you’re in a traffic jam. Is everyone smiling and having a good time? Probably not…
So, how many of you would like to know how to alleviate the upset and the anxiety associated with being stuck in traffic? Because, and here’s the thing, traffic jams are not going to disappear anytime soon. As long as we as a society rely on cars and trucks to get around there will always be traffic! But, even though it sounds crazy, I personally have learned to love traffic jams. Here’s why….
I’ve always maintained there are only 2 things you can do in any stressful situation; you either accept it or you can remove yourself from the situation. Beating yourself up or blaming someone else for the traffic jam only makes it worse. That’s what most people don’t understand. It’s not the traffic jam that’s the problem; it’s your resistance to it. And, it’s that resistance that causes the stress. In other words, it’s the amount of energy you put into resisting your situation that causes the stress, not the situation itself.
In the case of traffic however, it’s obvious that you cannot remove yourself from it if you’re already in it. So, the only other thing you can do is accept it, right? Complete 100% of acceptance of the situation is the only way to alleviate 100% of the stress. Now, I can hear your brain malfunctioning right about now and your saying to yourself, “how can I possibly learn to accept traffic?” Ah ha! Therein lies the secret to getting what you really want. Because that’s what life is about, getting what you really want instead of what you don’t want, right?
What you really want is more success. And, even though success means many different things to many different people, it’s still something that most people with the wherewithal to achieve big things, strive for each and every day.
Success? In a traffic jam? You’re saying to yourself, “now, I’m really confused!” You see, there is one place where a traffic jam is a beautiful thing…the Internet! That’s what we call in the internet marketing business the key to any successful website, “lots and lots of traffic.” And, the more traffic jams we can create on our websites, the better!
So, if you want more success, at least in business, start getting more traffic to your website. There are of course many other things to consider when designing your site to make this happen, but without traffic a website is useless.
So, you now know what you really want - more success. You now know what you need to do to get it – generate more traffic to your website. But, the most important part of this 3-part formula is; knowing how to do it! Without knowing how to do something you will never get the success you most certainly deserve. And, because business is about customers - the more customers you have the more success you’ll have. Knowing how to get more customers to your website and create a traffic jam is a science and it is definitely a skill which can be learned.
Now let’s look at the many resources available to you to generate the traffic you need to run a successful website; search engines, affiliate programs, content submissions, email campaigns, joint venture partners, link exchanges, blogs, pay-per-click advertising and a whole host of other resources too numerous to mention here. If some of these things sound unfamiliar to you, my highest recommendation is to at least find out what they are and some of the things you need to do to make them work. For the purposes of this article, we’re going to focus on one thing; search engines. Why just search engines? Because that’s where statistics have shown that 70% of your website traffic will be driven through search engines like; Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. Plus, it’s free!
How do you make search engines work for you?
First, you need to optimize your website to get a high search engine ranking. This means selecting relevant targeted keyword phrases and placing those keywords strategically on your web pages. How do you know what keyword phrases to use? That’s where many people make huge mistakes because they actually optimize their sites for keyword phrases that nobody’s actually searching for. Hint! Find out first what people are searching for and then build your web pages around that. There are tools out there to help you chose what search terms are relevant such as; Google’s free service called Overture, and WordTracker which is a paid service.
Once you’ve chosen your keywords it’s time to place them on your site. This is what we call keyword density. My suggestion for optimal results is to place one or two keyword phrases on each page in your; Page Title, Meta Description Tags, Meta Keyword Tags and a few times in the text of your webpage. This alone will significantly increase the ranking of your site for engines like Google and Yahoo. You see, these engines think like people. They look for what’s important on your website and how relevant your site is to what key phrases you’re optimizing it for. So, in other words don’t optimize your site for “free movie downloads” if you’re selling cosmetics. Bad idea! You can actually get penalized by engines for trying to trick them into sending you traffic.
Finally, the most significant factor in increasing your search engine optimization is incoming links. And, if you’re wondering how important this is? That’s the million dollar, drop the gates, release the hounds, key to the universe! Why? Well, think of it like this. Even if your site is optimized with relevant keywords, who’s to say that you’re any good at what you do. Who’s to say your products and services are any good. That’s the way engines like Google think. They want to know from others if you do what you say and if you’re any good at doing it. How do they do this? By finding links to your website, on other sites, that promote what you’re saying on your site. The more links into your website promoting what it is you do, the better!
Are you ready for the kicker? You mean there’s more? Yep, there’s more! If the last paragraph was a million dollar technique, this is definitely a two million dollar technique. Make sure that the links on other websites, which lead to your website, use your keyword phrases. Therefore your links in from outside should look like this… Piano Music by Paul Tobey – where the link underneath “piano music” is the url of your site ie: http://www.paultobey.com. An engine like Google searches for the keywords first and then follows the link to see if it’s relevant. If it is relevant, which in the case of the preceding example it is, then the ranking for the keyword search “piano music” will go up every time Google or another search engine, finds one of these links.
So, the next time you’re sitting in traffic and you start to get agitated, stressed and filled with anxiety, think of all the traffic your website will be generating while you’re stuck in the car. Take a look at all the angry people around you, give a big smile and say out loud to yourself, “I Love Traffic Jams.”
About the Author: In addition to writing a number of articles about web design and search engine optimization the author owns a successful web design company in Toronto, Canada.
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