Getting Search Engine Traffic

[QuirkyMomma]

Just thought I'd share the tips I got from Nathan here. I would get maybe one search engine visit a day until yesterday - I got 12! Yes, its small and the majority of my traffic still comes from facebook & twitter fans, but I felt like I was in a rut and couldn't grow my site much more with only social network means (it's time consuming!).

Here's the one and only change I made, maybe it will help you too...

I renamed each and every one of my posts. I made the titles considerably longer and tried to incorporate two searches in each title. Example:
"Play Dough" became "Preschooler Tried and Tested Play Dough Recipe". The new title allows people to search for "preschooler play dough", or "Tested play dough recipe". I have more luck now of being included in a search! Another example: "I Spy Jars" became "Homemade Gift Idea: "I Spy" Jars, my preschooler loves them!"

I am thrilled that 1) I am finally getting search engine referrals and 2) the people coming from search engines are staying on my site for more than 8 min a piece and opening 5 or more pages!

Hope this can help some of you improve your search engine traffic!

[athulbnair]

yeah even i read about the ranking by him.. great work....

[MuttzNuttz]

If you are using WordPress be sure to download the all in one SEOplugin - this will do it all for you.

[Nathan]

I would get maybe one search engine visit a day until yesterday - I got 12!

Soon enough you can probably look forward to twenty or thirty as Google recrawls your site and finds all these great new descriptive titles. Over time search engine traffic continues to rise. On my oldest blog it is up to nearly 300 visitors a day just from search engines.

[rtsurvivor]

Here's a couple of overlooked tips Quriky.

1. Make the title <h1>
2. Make the sub-title <h2>
3. Make the body <h3>
4. A Biggy -- Put one or two authority outbound links in your post. (Not to an affiliate program!)

Luck to you
RT...

A last thought: Some "Meta Tags" in the header will also help

Yet another last thought: Change your title to include a targeted keyword or two.

Most of this can be edited in your "Header" folder.

[stacylee]

Congrats on your success! I am still trying to understand the SEO and Meta tag stuff. I am learning a little bit everyday and really enjoy blogging. My family still doesn't understand my need to work on my 'hobby-business' all the time though.

[QuirkyMomma]

RT -

Great suggestion on increasing outbound links. I have to do more of those!

A question, how do I make the different headings in an excerpt-style post? I hate reading everything in bold and h3 is bold. Is there a way to change that? Won't I get dinged if everything is a heading?

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by QuirkyMomma

RT -

Great suggestion on increasing outbound links. I have to do more of those!

A question, how do I make the different headings in an excerpt-style post? I hate reading everything in bold and h3 is bold. Is there a way to change that? Won't I get dinged if everything is a heading?

You would have to change the CSS so that <h3> wasn't bold. There is definitely back and forth consideration as to whether or not it is a good idea to make the body <h3>. You should definitely make sure that titles and subheadings are <h1> and <h2>. Making the entire body <h3> may or may not get you "dinged" though.

[QuirkyJessi]

Great job!

[rtsurvivor]

I think the <h3> tag is a bit overboard also. The theory behind it is to please the Google bots. However, as pointed out above, the <h1> - <h2> should be a must if you are looking to impress the SEs

I do have a couple of sites with the <h3> in the body and it looks a bit pushy to me too. I'm leaving them in as sort of a test to see where it goes.

Good luck with your marketing
RT...