Search Engine Optimization SEO

We all understand that every owner of a website wants to build traffic. When it comes to building traffic it can be done in any number of ways. The most used and basic of the methods for building traffic is by building links pointing to your website.

These links are the invaluable votes that lead traffic to your website. The traffic generated from these backlinks are where you receive the quality, targeted visitors. There are many programs and scripts available that will promise you 10,000 hits per day or more. The only way scripts such as these will do you any good are if you are getting paid per hit. To build quality and targeted traffic to your site you need to build it steadily and do this by attracting the visitors that are interested in what you have to offer.

The backlinks you need can be generated using several techniques. Submitting your website to quality web directories is a good way for generating relevant links to your site to increase traffic. Another way it by writing and submitting articles to article directories. By placing a link back to your website in the resource box this can build backlinks. Occasionally someone will scan an article directory looking for information and click on the link back to your website to find out more about the topic or the author. If your article gets used by other websites or ezines you will begin to see traffic increase.

There is an additional way that can be effective for building traffic to your site and that is by posting in forums related to your niche. Make use of the signature line in your forum posts to include a link back to your site. Forum members will read quality posts and readily click the signature links back to your site to see if there is additional information there. Forums do provide a platform for building relevant traffic to your site.

It is also possible to build traffic using link and banner exchanges. When you put a link to their site they will reciprocate by placing a link back to yours. With sites that are relevant to each other's niche you will be sending targeted traffic back and forth.

There are also ways to promote your business offline such as business cards with the name of your business, logo and a web address. These offline marketing tools can lead people to your site to see what it has to offer. Perhaps an ad in a magazine or newspaper could be a way of generating interest in your website.

There are affiliate programs that can also assist you in generating traffic to your website. By using affiliate resources such as Clickbank you can get others to promote your site, the products and services it offers to drive additional traffic and prospects to your website.

Backlinks to your website is the most effective way of generating traffic. It brings in visitors that are interested in what your website has to offer. That means when they arrive on site they will be more inclined to use your services or purchase your products. Those are the ideal visitors to have.

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Link building is one of the primary tenets of effective search engine optimization. To that end, here are 30 link building tips (plus a bonus) you can utilize to pole vault your site to the top of the charts.

1. Generate quality content that is worthy of linking to
2. Write articles to share on your site
3. Submit articles to online e-zines and industry trade journals
4. Submit your site to free web directories including DMOZ
5. Start a blog
6. Create RSS feeds for your sites
7. Maintain links to all of your domains (provided you own more than one and they are legitimate)
8. Have a blogroll (links to related other sites from your blog)
9. Use trackbacks on blogs
10. Comment on blogs related to your site and topic
11. Link only to related sites that rank fairly well
12. Send link requests to webmasters of related sites
13. Join link exchange sites such as LinkMetro or GotLinks (do your homework with these types of sites; some links may be of poor quality)
14. Create a podcast (interview someone, be interviewed, share quality information)
15. Create a video
16. Host a teleseminar or webinar that requires registration
17. Create a top 10 list (people love lists!)
18. Host a free helpful tool on your site
19. Purchase a link on a high ranking site
20. Use a pay-per-post site
21. Add industry related news to your site
22. Report on an event that isn't getting a lot of coverage
23. Survey your clients to generate a unique free report based on the survey results
24. Generate and submit press releases
25. Join and contribute to social community sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, etc.
26. Contribute to industry forums and message board discussions; use signature to link back to your site(s)
27. Ask or answer a question to members of Yahoo Answers
28. Join and utilize social bookmarking sites such as Digg, del.ici.ous, StumbleUpon, etc.; use signature to link back to your site(s)
29. Add your site to local government sites
30. Add your site for inclusion in local search results
31. Have a contest with a valuable prize given to the winner (people love prizes!)

Next time you're looking for a little inspiration on a link building campaign, review the tips above to try something you may have not tried before and monitor its progress. Link building doesn't have to be hard, but it should definitely be included in your search optimization campaign.

Roger Bauer is founder and CEO of SMB Consulting, Inc., a nationally recognized sales and marketing consulting firm specializing in revenue growth programs, search engine optimization and strategic initiatives. To learn more search engine optimization techniques, point your browser to Search Engine Optimization Training or http://the-seo-bible.com