Jumat, 10 Februari 2012

How To Choose A Domain Name That Will Drive More Traffic To A Website

Creating a website can be tricky, but choosing the right domain name is even trickier. A good domain name can drive more traffic to your website, and a not so good domain name may cause a stagnant website. The concept of having your own website is that it should effectively represent your purpose, whether it will be for personal or business use. Once you create your website, it follows that you should and must register your own domain name.

So what is a domain name? It is a unique alphanumeric name that gives identity to a website on the World Wide Web. A domain name has a maximum length of 67 characters, this includes the 0 to 9 numbers, English alphabet composed of 26 letters, and the hyphens. Hyphens in a domain name can only be used within and not at the beginning or the ending of the name.

Domain names have suffixes, and they are called Top Level Domain (TLD). Domain name TLD's are based on the category of organization that they are related to. The following are several of the most popular TLD's:

1. .gov for government agency
2. .edu for educational institution
3. .org for nonprofit organizations
4. .net for commercial network
5. .com for commercial business domain

Since domain names gives identity to a website, it follows that choosing the right one can be a bit complicated. Your objective is to opt for a name that is easy to remember, search engine optimization friendly, and more importantly a domain name that mirrors the content, and/or products and services that your website provides. At the end of the day your chosen domain name can make or break you.

Do's And Don'ts In Choosing A Domain Name

Obviously, a domain name should be related to your websites content. If you're selling shirts then do not choose a name such as pants.com. Choosing unrelated names will confuse site visitors and frankly it doesn't make any sense at all.

A domain name as discussed earlier should be easy to remember. So choosing too long of a name is a No-No. Which is better yourshirts.com or your-shirts-in-different-styles-and-colors.com? 

However, a short name is also not advisable, because a short name will not have much impact in driving traffic to your website. Try to purchase a domain name with few keywords with relevance to the content of your website. Which is better yourshirts.com or shirt.com?

Integrating keywords in choosing a domain name will help, because it will result in a higher ranking on search engines. Which is better yourshirts.com or yoursite.com? With yourshirts.com you can immediately identify that the website is about shirts as opposed to yoursite.com wherein you are at lost as to what the website is all about, you will loose potential website traffic if you do it that way.

How To Make Viral Videos Drive More Traffic To A Website

It's a fact of life: the weirder or funnier the video, the more hits it generates. The more hits it generates, the more it is palmed off to other Internet subscribers. The more people who see the video, the more hits it generates. It's a win-win scenario that entails a bit of creativity, a bit of posting, a bit of word-of-mouth advertising and viola! You've got (what else?) a hit.

This is the theory that backs the promotion of viral videos on websites.

A viral video is really any video clip that spreads a virus on the Internet. It is usually passed on through blogs, emails, instant messages or other media sharing websites like YouTube. The most successful viral videos are the funnier, if not weirder amateur clips, although there are some noteworthy (and copyrighted) commercials, and excerpts from TV series and movies. Many online advertisers are now seeing the potential of the viral video phenomenon, and some of them are opting for this as a new marketing strategy.

Why? The answer is simple. Some videos are calling so much attention that they cross over to the more conventional arenas of the tri-media: the newspapers, radio and TV shows. It provokes a domino effect that gathers a lot of momentum with very little expended energy.

For the more hard-nosed net marketers, videos can be used to jack up traffic to a projected website, provided that it is done in connection with the products and services available on the website itself. Making them funny or weird is one way of making the video stand out among the thousands of new videos being uploaded on the Internet daily.

There are two ways of placing a video on your website. One: you take an already popular video and upload it to your page. Two: you create your own video and upload it to your page.

If you are opting for option number one, it might be best to judge first if the content of the video is even remotely associated with the theme of your website. If not, it would be best not to post it. That video can be downloaded from other sites, and you just as well may be getting more competition you can handle. Sure, it might generate traffic for some time, but is it quality traffic? And for how long will the interest hold out?

Besides, posting any video for the sake of posting something just might have a negative effect on you and your website. Site visitors might assume that you are as disorganized as your page and as a marketer, you would not want that.

The second way is to create your own video, which is more advisable if you are seriously considering the quality of traffic going through your site. It does not need to be a funny or weird video. The trend these days is leaning towards informative "how-to" videos. If your video or videos complements the other graphics, banners and articles of your site, you will not only have an increase in quality traffic, but an increase in the "expert-reputation" as well.

Steps On How To Increase The Page Views Of Your Site

If you build a site, it can only be successful if you have generated substantial traffic for it. The success of a website is usually measured with the number of page views it get each day. Page views come from unique visitors that come across your site to check out something. Traffic is the bloodline of any site. Because it is from traffic they earn. Traffic provides them with the income from sales or from advertisements. 

To increase the page view of your site, just follow these simple steps:

1. Provide Quality, Pertinent, And Unique Content To Your Site.

People over the internet need information more than anything. They surf the world wide web because they are looking for something. And if that information comes from your site, they are more than willing to check it out. For years now, it has been said that content is king. And if your site is a good source of reliable data, then people will just keep on pouring in. Your page views will dramatically increase with the content you have. 

2. Keep It Short And Simple. 

People don't want to read too much or too little. Just provide the necessary information to them fast and easy. Over the internet, people have short attention spans. Don't expect them to read a very long article containing thousands of words. People are more likely to scan the article but they definitely won't read it all word for word. Unless of course, the content you have is of good substance they can't help but read everything.

3. Use Proper Highlighting And Formatting. 

The way your website or your content is presented to your audience is very important. If your website is too drab, then people might think that they won't find the information they are looking for there. Don't let your visitors think that way. Increase the page view of your site by highlighting all the important words, sentences, or ideas you would like to impart. Highlights and formats don't fail to catch a person's attention. So if your site is well presented, your visitors won't walk away disappointed. In fact, they'll so happy about your site they are willing to comment on your posts, subscribe to it, or even refer your site to other friends who may be interested.

4. Put Article Excerpts On Your Main Page. 

Surely, you have several other pages in your website. You will increase page views to them like your main page is getting if you put excerpts or links to them from your main page. You can also make a site map for your site so that it becomes easier for people to navigate your site and find the things they want fast and easy. Surfers don't like cluttered web pages. They do not like to stay on websites with broken links and those that are still under construction. If you want your website to succeed, you have to organize it well. 

These are the four important steps you should follow to ensure that your website gets the necessary page views that it deserves. Keep in mind that page view translates to visitors, which eventually translates to income. Make your site highly successful as you would like it to be. Increase its number of page views today! 

Blogs As The Best Tool To Generate Traffic

Traffic is what every web owner wants for his website. And if the website is focused on marketing a certain service or product, the best advertising tool has to be utilized. Right now, there are varied concepts used to generate traffic. And keeping a blog is one of them. Blog sites are dynamic websites that are very easy to make, update, and enhance your site. 

You basically have two options when building websites. You can use the regular static website or you can choose to make blogs. Between the two, blogs are a better option. Better yet, you can make it as a good complement to your regular html website. 

Blogs easily bring traffic to a site because it can be syndicated. That means interested people can simply click a button to subscribe to your blog. Then all updates you make will be sent to them. They can either receive the update through their email or through their RSS readers. Static websites can't be syndicated so this is one main advantage of blog spots over them. 

Blogs are very popular today, with Blogspot and Blogger leading the pack. Signing up for one is very simple as well. All you need is to fill out some forms and you should be all set creating your website. 

Pros

Blog sites can bring huge traffic to your main website. This is the reason why several big-ticket organizations are maintaining several blog spots on the side. And they only have one purpose in doing that - traffic. It is quite easy to keep people interested in your products or services with blog sites. Because these sites could be a source of unbiased information people are always seeking on the internet. 

With a blog site, you can enjoy the best of both worlds. First, you can just put all relevant product information on your main static website. All content and informational articles could be uploaded to your blog spot. But more importantly, with the use of the right programming script, you can simply put these two together. You can dedicate a certain portion of your website to blogs. And then you can sit back and relax, watching your traffic soar. 

Blog spots keep your regular visitors tuned in. And the dissemination of every product or industry update becomes very easy to you as the web master. All you really need to do is to write a new post and every one else on your list gets it. Isn't that a lot simpler than calling up your mail client and sending an email to multiple recipients? Certainly, blog spots can provide you with the amount of regular traffic you always wanted for your site. 

The power of blog sites is in its simplicity. To keep a website no html knowledge is required. If you can surf, you will easily learn blogging. Blogging is so simple it works as if you are merely posting a response on a forum. 

The main selling point of blog spots that make them the best traffic tool around is the feeds. But it will only work if you are patient and persistent enough in regularly writing updates for your site. Blog sites are also easy to optimize. Just use the right keywords over and over. You will surely get the double effect of this important traffic tool.

How To Drive Traffic Through Reciprocal Link Building

In the SEO business, reciprocal link building gives good rankings if the sites are relevant or related to both topic/subject of both sites. It is an effective way to drive traffic to your site and you will also gain higher rankings with other related websites as long as you have an updated site with great content and significant information.

Link exchange will result if you have set a topnotch site with interesting content and other related information, this will in turn help others who want to exchange links with you for an added internet exposure.

Few Notes On Reciprocal Link Building

- Make sure that you are linked to relevant sites meaning you both have the same subject matter and at the same time all the links are also related to each other.

- It's more about quality than quantity. In reciprocal link building, be on the look out for quality sites, linking to more and more sites not really related to your site is not advisable. 

- This is a long and sometimes frustrating process because you still have to check if the sites have agreed on link exchange and regularly track down if the link to your site is still present on the other's website. 

- Some webmasters may turn down your link and replace it with another link. If that's the case, take their link off your site also as this can give them good search engine rankings as one way linking and your website may lose.

- Examine the other site link pages, are they indexed and visited by google? If the site has no follow through or are hidden from those called robots, this will do you no good, it can even damage your ranking.

- When requesting for a link exchange, consider the links that are displayed/linked to the other's site, all the links should be relevant to your website. Also, the site should not have many broken links from other sites. 

-Keep the number of links on that page at a minimum amount, if the page has 40 or more links then don't waste your time there anymore.

- You can decide however if you want to have a separate link page, this will depend on the size of the site and what your topic is all about.

Be extra careful in the reciprocal link building process, make sure that all the links are relevant and all the links contained in other's website are also related. Bear in mind also that not all webmasters are willing to exchange links, some webmasters do not allow link exchange or if they allow it, double check if your link exists on their link pages. Sometimes, webmasters do a naughty trick of hiding links after they've agreed on a link exchange. 

Follow the link exchange rules. The site that you are exchanging links with should exist in major search engines and has good traffic ranking (Alexa is an effective site to keep track on rankings and traffic). Check regularly, let's say every month if your link is still in the site, some webmasters also have this practice of removing other links in their sites.

Reciprocal linking is a good and free way of achieving high website ranking but you should still monitor once in a while, after the link exchange don't stop there continue to check the status of your links and site rankings.

How To Use Press Releases To Drive More Traffic To A Website

Getting publicity is essential to being able to run an online business successfully. When a business has a minimal budget for their promotional activity, press release is often the most effective and cheapest answer to their needs. A press release is now a very popular way to drive traffic to a website, if you're not using press release to increase the number of your web visitors yet, then you are definitely missing out on a great opportunity. This tool can provide a considerable platform that will let you reach a wide online community. In addition, a press release can attract well-connected journalist to write about your website. But how exactly, can press release work to increase your traffic?

Potential to create hundreds of back links: When you publish the press release to various news wire services over the internet, you can get quality links from high ranking sites because most of those mediums that publish press release already has a very impressive traffic. It is also possible that your press release will be used by other websites so you can get more links that points to your site. 

Higher page rank from links: Since press releases can help you get links, the results is that you will be able to enjoy a higher page rank. Your site will automatically be ranked higher on search engines because of this and you will get a lot of traffic. 

Brand recognition: Regular distribution of a press release about your website and services will keep you at the top of mind of potential customers. The more often people see your site on the internet, the more they will believe that you are an expert on your niche. Thus, you will be able to get a lot of loyal customers from your endeavor. 

Take note though that not all press releases are effective. You need to follow some simple rules in press release writing to get the kind of result you want. For example, it is important for your opening to be solid. It should provide a summary of what the entire press release is all about as well. It is also recommended for you to repeat the name of your site or your product multiple times to make it prominent. But most of all, you should put yourself in your target markets position so that you will know about their interest and the language they are using. This will enable you to connect with them at a deeper level through the press release.

How To Use Online Surveys To Drive More Traffic To A Website

Using online surveys is one of the least known secrets on how to drive a lot of traffic to websites. Most webmasters get so caught up with writing content, creating backlinks, and submitting various articles to directories to get more traffic. Now, there is certainly nothing wrong with these strategies because all of these are effective. The problem is, they fail to look at other options on how to drive traffic to their sites and online surveys is a cheap and effective way to do it. 

People are always interested in making money so it makes sense if you use online surveys to promote your website. You can partner with survey companies so that they will include your site on the list of sites that people have the option to survey. But they will do this for a fee, of course. In addition, the visitor would want to be paid for their efforts as well. So it is only to be expected that you need to shell out a significant among of money to derive the benefits of online surveys. However, a lot of webmasters have been satisfied with the results they got. 

Aside from driving traffic to your website, you will also get a clearer opinion of what others think about your business. Online surveys certainly have a lot of benefits because through this method, you will also get a good understanding about the taste and preferences of online searchers so you can design your site accordingly. 

More than using online surveys to drive traffic to your website, there are also many other little known secrets that can help you improve your traffic and ranking. For example, you can take advantage of traffic exchange services wherein you will help others get more traffic to their sites while they are helping you at the same time. You can also post on message boards and forums about your site, this will definitely aid you greatly because your comments can be seen by your target audience themselves. There are many other simple ways of driving traffic to your website such as putting your signature in every email you send or through banner exchanges. 

Hopefully, conducting online surveys will help you in your endeavor to drive more traffic to your website and increase your profitability. Also, try to combine online surveys with more mainstream way of generating traffic and inevitably, you will see positive results in a short amount of time.