Web Traffic - Doing the Ground Work

Websites typically gather a large part of their traffic through referrals from search engines. In most cases, the largest percentage of search engine referrals is likely to come from Google. This is because (in the western world) Google is the most widely used search engine. The wide use of Google however has had some very specific effects on Internet Marketing, not least at web page level.

Since Google is by far the biggest search engine referrer to most websites, the practice of Search engine Optimisation has in reality been focused mostly on Google in recent years. In order to get relevant traffic in sufficient numbers, webmasters have thought it necessary to either buy in SEO services or to study and carry out SEO themselves. In fact Google itself provides SEO information in the Webmaster section of its website. Getting traffic therefore in most cases requires somebody to be at least aware of and familiar with Google’s web page guidelines.

So how can Google provide traffic to your website and what basic things do you need to do to facilitate this?

The Ground Work

In order to lay the foundations for receiving relevant traffic from Google (and hopefully other search engines) webmasters need to do and be aware of a number of things:

Choosing the right keywords are vitally important. These should be incorporated in the domain name itself, in the page titles and body text of web pages, and in the incoming links to web pages.

The website URL should be submitted to Google at the outset of the website. Not appearing at all in Google’s natural search engine listings (and not using Ad Words) can result in virtually no traffic generated through online means. Since Google only finds out about websites through URL submissions (via the Google website), from links to your pages from other web pages, and now from XML sitemaps to and extent, submitting your URL to Google is something which should be done as early as possible in the life of your website. Submitting it a number of times or on a regular basis is not necessary.

Allow for a considerable delay before receiving traffic via Google’s natural listings. Despite the recent introduction of the ‘Google Caffeine’ indexing system which is designed to find and show content in the search engine results faster than ever, there is often a delay of weeks and perhaps months before web pages start to appear in the Google natural search engine results after their details have been submitted to Google. Bearing in mind the sheer number of new web pages that Google needs to find, index, and categorise world wide every day, plus the continued updating of its knowledge of existing pages and content, it is not surprising that Google may take a little time to get around to listing your pages.

Be prepared to use Ad Words / Pay Per Click advertising. This could be used in the gap period before your new pages begin ranking in the natural search engine listings, and / or intermittently in your Internet Marketing, or as an ongoing source of traffic. Although Pay Per Click advertising does incorporate traditional SEO ideas, successful campaigns not only require the right budget, but also some specialist knowledge of Pay Per Click advertising, its rules, guidelines, and useful strategies therein.

Getting traffic to your website via online means therefore requires awareness of how a search engine such as Google’s natural and paid for listings work from the outset.