One of the very first things that typically pops into a new website owners mind after putting up a new website is how do I get traffic? The fact of the matter is that this is a question one should ask himself long before the website is even designed, why? Because the best way of gaining traffic to your site means using search engine optimization techniques (SEO). A search engine optimization campaign will help to get your website up high in the search engine rankings where people can find your site. Good search engine optimization actually begins with things like keyword research and proper page structuring and editing, therefore it’s best to actually have your site designed around these factors instead of it being an afterthought and then having to design your SEO campaign around your site (the latter of which can actually end up adding to either your time or your expenses).

SEO is a great way to advertise any website these days and over the long run, even taking into consideration all the time, effort and in some cases money invested, it’s still the cheapest route to take and potentially the route with the greatest return. That being said, SEO is not without it’s quirks. One should fully familiarize themselves with the pitfalls that lay ahead when starting a campaign such as this. Afterall, you’ll either be giving up a lot of your time or your money and there are some important facts that you’ll need to learn about before setting your expectations too high at first.

So why is it such a popular method if it takes so long and costs so much? There are many reasons for this but the main one is that it’s much cheaper than newspaper and other print advertising media. In fact if you do all of the work yourself there aren’t any costs involved at all. The REAL payoff however, is all the traffic that it can bring to your site if you make it to the first page of a popular search engine. The BIG question that every new website owner wants to know about this fact is HOW MUCH traffic will I get and will it really pay off?

Well the truth is that the answer to this question isn’t so cut & dry. The answer can be both yes and no. Most people are under the misconception that a first page listing on a major search engine will produce so much traffic to their site that merely thinking about it seems to cause them to be overtaken with visions of grandeur and little dollar signs twinkling in their eyes. The real truth however, is that the amount of traffic you receive from being on the first page of the search results is dependent upon several underlying factors such as the popularity of the search term or key words your site is listed for, the title and description of your sites link that is listed and whether or not it’s written well enough to make people want to click on it, and also how far down the page you are placed. These are the factors that will dictate how much traffic you will actually see from any search engine listing.

Many people get so caught up in the idea of being on page 1 that they lose all sense of reality and will do anything or pay anything to get there without even doing the proper research first to see if it even pays for them to be there in the first place. What I mean is that if you are hoping to get 100 visitors per day from the search term “footwear for large feet” then before you start optimizing your site for that term you need to research that term to see how many people are using it as their search term to begin with. If only 20 people per day are using that term for their searches then you obviously won’t be getting 100 visitors per day for it just because you’re on the first page.

The best advice I can give is to do your research and choose the key phrases you’ll be optimizing for carefully. Using a balance of both popular and not so popular key phrases is important, especially when you are first starting out because it’ll be awhile before you’re able to get listed for the best phrases so don’t automatically put aside less popular terms because they can help you to get on the map and will slowly help your site to earn value. The key with SEO is to run a well balanced campaign that gives you good overall exposure across the internet in general and not just on the search engines. It’s smarter to pick up small amounts of traffic from many different areas of the web than it is to place all of your eggs in one basket by relying on a single first page listing.

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