"Elemental Force"by Karin Kuhlmann
A vortex of human emotion and ideology.

5 Things That Will Improve Your Web Site Traffic (Plus 1 to Avoid)
by Dian Schaffhauser

There are plenty of ways to generate attention for your web site,(*) but you’ll also want to make sure you’re covering the basics too. Here’s how to optimize your website:

1. Figure out what key words and phrases are going to be important to your site. We suggest brainstorming to come up with a list of what you believe your prospects and customers would put into a search engine to locate your products and services. Then run them through a tool such as WordTracker, the Google keyword tool or Yahoo Overture Keyword Selector Tool to see what the volume of search activity is and find alternative phrasing to add to your list.

Next, take each page that’s important to you — not the Contact Us page or Site Map — and make sure that keyword or phrase is used prominently. Use it early on in the text and at the end of the page. But, don’t overuse it. Don’t change the way the content is reading, so it sounds like rambling. It’s better to have good content than have keyword phrases sprinkled in.

Also make sure it appears in your metatags behind the page. Think of a metatag as a kind of ad resource. Search engines use that to show additional text as part of the organic listing. If you’ve got a metatag that isn’t compelling and doesn’t have keywords in it, [people] won’t click through even if you do rank well.

2. Make it your “career” to get links into your site. That includes getting links to more than just your home page and using your keywords as part of the anchor text. To get links, write articles and place them on other sites. Then make sure it includes a resource box or bio at the end of the article that includes your URL in the first line and something that will compel readers to go to your site in the second line, along with another link. (For example: Dian Schaffhauser writes for Web Worker Daily at http://www.webworkerdaily.com. )

(Continued Next Column)

Improving Website Traffic - continued

3. Start a blog and participate in other blogs. These two go hand in hand. By “participate,” we don’t mean leaving comments just to be able to include a link back to your own site. It’s more of a matter of becoming part of the “ecosystem” of the community. Over time the people whose blogs you’re commenting in will notice you and start making references back to you. The value of blogging on a reasonably consistent basis — aside from being able to share your expertise and opinions with the literate world — is that search engines will index your site more often. Google does that by design. They know that the site exists. It’s known as the Google Sandbox. But they want to make sure you’re not a pornographer or a bad actor, basically. You can get around that by having what are known as ‘authority links’ coming back to you.

For example, if you’re writing about drawing, and you participate in the important blogs in the world of art, having those links coming back to your site would be regarded as authority links. That’s a clue to Google to get you out of that sandbox. Links are the new gold standard in managing to get ranking on the search engines.

4. Add something interactive to the site that will make people come back over and over. Besides being fun, interactive devices help your site to get embedded in [visitors'] psyches. We constantly have clients tell us that the difference in their sales process from this is like night and day. People talk to them as if they already have a relationship. This can shorten the sales cycle and reduce the amount of effort you have to put forward to build credibility with potential customers or clients.

5. Don’t worry about how many people come to the site but with how long they stay. That means focusing on those areas that will encourage people to hang out longer. To measure we recommend Google Analytics because, although it has problems, “it’s free.”

6. Forget about email newsletters. Problems with spam filters and firewalls are making this web site staple a waste of time. You’d be better off having a blog that you put newsletter-type content in and have people subscribe to it with an RSS feed.

Looking to improve your website's search position on Google and Yahoo? Add a link to "Mary's Page" at the MOCA Virtual Museum. Here's the code you'll need: http://moca.virtual.museum/mary/marypage.htm

Comment Here...

"“Rush Hour” by Susie Holderfield
I feel breathless just looking at this piece. It is darkly humorous indeed.

Look What I Found On YouTube -- Wow!

The Crevasse: Making of 3D Street Art 

Are you interested in having your art featured on Mary's Page? Or perhaps you’d like to be interviewed for an up and coming show? Write me.

IN-BOX Viewer Comments:

In response to the 20 July, Mary's Page..."Comment on Teodoru Badiu touches base with me since I’m partial to apocalyptical times. Chaos served in scramble scream _morph exit entrance, spread altercations. It’s not just your world. Double helix stretches no guarantees. Badiu serves it right to the deliciously cold end. Strong Work needs no elaberation."

Tom Crayns’ Website

:::This Week's Recommended Reading:::

New Media Art (25) (Hardcover) by Reena Jana (Author), and Mark Tribe -- Approximately $15.00 USD

Quote:

“In the embrace of two old women holding each other, I saw the architecture of human grace.”
:::Anonymous:::

This page posted 27 July 2009 ARCHIVED PAGES
CURRENT