33% OF YOUR SITES TRAFFIC SHOULD COME FROM UNIQUE SOURCES

               WEB TECHNOLOGY POST by Gene Vann
                 INTERNET BUSINESS 

There are a lot of talking heads on the internet. Many of whom don't know what the f..... they're talking about. Remember I showed you in the body content of jimisound.com and on Twitter.com that it's not survival of the strongest or the fittest, it's those of us who adapt to change the best who survive. They're the one's who prevail on the Internet. There is outdated information on some blogs you find on the internet. Some blogs still showing up in search results have actually been abandoned for years. And though the information on them may be relevant to your query, check to see if what you're getting from it is dated. In technology sometimes following outdated instructions can foul up your progress for some time to come, unless you're good at fixing tech issues. 

But on the other hand there are thousands more high profile competitors using whatever means they have to excel beyond you to get the booty, the money. I rarely think in terms of the competition concerning my Internet business, I'm busy thinking of how best to say what I want to tell you. Even though there is plenty of money to go around, and more coming as new users join the internet, you must think in terms of the competition. Competition is healthy for you. It makes you better. But if you don't stay conscious of it, it can make you obsolete. The internet can be seen as a worldwide swap meet. But there will always be stern competition for your website, web business and blogs. So keep up with what's going on in your genre. You have the tools to compete and with the right information you can be a winner. Your most popular bloggers have been at it a long time, so if you're new don't stress and don't panic. There's always room for more. It just takes time to adapt to the environment. Some adapt quickly, almost instantly to the environment, others not so much. But tenacity is my middle name and I'm here to tell you it works. Don't give up.  

You need strategies to rank high in your sites subject matter 

You need strategies to rank high in your sites subject matter and your keyword strategy can result in a lot more unique visitors to your site depending on how popular your site's subject matter is. Unfortunately the Google Keyword Tool isn't really much help because it only renders variations of words you put in it. So it's not helping you rank, and really, it's not helping you compete either. But the more times bots and spiders end up at your sites doorstep following links the more popular they will consider your site to be and the more importance they will attach to your site. They combine those two components (keywords & backlinks) to establish their own habitual reliance on your site to provide searchers with that particular information. Having great content does you no good if nobody's coming over to read it. Adding fresh content does you no good if you think Google gives you points for that. That particular SEO strategy is old hat and no longer makes a difference. 

Directories can improve your search engine rankings because they provide a trusted link to your site and you'll get some people to come and read that great content you been writing. (Update: Google  no longer includes directory listings as credit to their SERP for your site.) Knowledgeable accurate information presented at the readability level of your targeted audience is what makes your content good. That's the objective of good content and what gets you ahead of the competition in your genre, a low bounce rate on your page(s). Your content has to make sense, be true and not dated. If you're writing SEO blogs you have to go back and update your blogs when search technology is modified. Evergreen blogs are best whenever possible, and I'd suggest writing to that end. Unfortunately that's not always possible with technology blogs. Residual or passive income does not come easy, there is a great deal of work behind it. But once you've established it, you'll feel like it was well worth the effort. Patience and hard work is a must with an online business and I'm living proof of that. I've learned that you have to keep trying. That means you have to keep learning. If you keep working at it and learning you'll find the knowledge and with that you'll eventually reach the goal of your Internet business. 

Some other ways of getting much needed traffic to your site

So, today I'm going to cover some other ways of getting traffic and backlinks to your site. In this post I'm going to give you information about directories. This particular method is good for getting more backlinks to your site with the increase in traffic. Chances are your competition is not using this method, but even more important is that its traffic from rarely used sources. I have found this traffic to be steady, consistent, reliable and profitable. People coming from these sources are more likely to be within your group of personas and therefore apt to be interested in your website's subject matter and it's products. How do keywords effect directory listings? Is my sites title enough or do I need to put keywords into the directory?  


The most important thing you can do is to be sure your site's description has your <h1> and your <h2> keywords embedded in it. If you can't get them all in there, don't worry about it just do the best job you can. "H" stands for "header", or title. Your keywords should be arranged in an order of priority with <h1> highest and lessor important keywords digressing in their order of importance using the <h2> through <h6> tags. I wouldn't go beyond <h6>. You don't need that many keywords. Bots will ignore any keywords after <h6>.  By the way for those of you who are not familiar with headers, it's easy. Your site is written in HTML, CSS and PHP in most cases, the HTML will begin with the title of your site, this is also the heading. You can have up to 6 headings by an order of priority beginning with h1. Just put keywords in <h2> through <h6> in the order of their importance on your website. Bots will use the order from h1 going forward. So again, be sure the site description you use when joining a directory has your primary keywords in it and if you can squeeze some lesser important keywords into it, do it. 

The benefits of using directories
Update Feb 2020: Hey guys this post is outdated. Google no longer pays attention to directories 

Alright, let's get into the benefits of using directories in your search and website traffic strategies. What is the benefit of traffic from directories? Directories serve a community and thus receive search queries like search engines do from within the community. Some charge while others don't. Obviously the ones that charging are more popular and have a higher ranking than some others, they’re charging for the special benefits you get from their community traffic and their status on the net. That being that when you join them you are creating a automatic backlink. Bots will place a value on your directory links just like they do any other backlink. A new directory is not going to have the juice an older one would. AOL or DMOZ is probably the highest ranking directory on the net. 


Try and check to see if your site is already listed in a directory before you list it. Query the directory using your sites domain name. That'll save you time and any possible penalties. Some directories only allow one listing per website. Here’s where you’d go to get started on DMOZ, they’ll have you check to see that you’re not already listed and they’ll  set you up to check and see if you’re showing on four of the five major search engines along with a couple more directories. When you check to see if your sites listed if it's listed the page where it's listed will come up. If nothing comes up that’s your indicator to list your site. After 4 to 6 weeks if you’ve categorize your site correctly in the listing and if your sites title and category is reasonably active you’ll start to see an increase in traffic at your website. 


Some directories will list you by a web based email address. You’ll have to use the email associated with your website for instance: I put for email address: gene@jimisound.com. If you find that a directory is not taking your listing check to see if you've used the right email address. Sometimes it's easier, faster to use directory maximizer.  You pay a small fee but it's worth it if time is a concern. Here's a coupon to get you started: 10% Discount on General Directory Submission orders over $10 - af-10-off (Valid till 31st Dec, 2015).  I’ll give you a link to the top 10 free directories and the top 10 article directories. If you manage to list with all of them you’ll have 20 new dofollow backlinks. I listed this website with half of them (that's all I had time for that day) and that was about month ago and just in the past week my unique visits double and continue to grow. 


You write good articles for those article directories and you'll get traffic to your site and more backlinks to your site from that article traffic; when you write your article in the same niche as your website is in. Great for increasing conversions at your site. Do I need to renew my listing with directories?  For the most part no. You don't need to renew your listing with them, however I check to see if my listing is still there and active. I have found that sometimes my listing has disappeared. Do they notify me if I need to resubmit? No, they do not. Each directory is an independent entity with its own rules, staff of one or more and perceived backlink value. None that I know of have ever notified me my listing was about to expire. 


Who searches the net from directories/why? Directories all have an intended service for a given community. For example some directories are "business directories" and businesses are all that's listed there. So searchers who belong to that particular directory community will go there for their business inquires. How do I get in these directories, how do I choose which to join, how long before they add my site? Well if your site is about basket ball I'd google for "basketball" directories. To get in you must fill out their short application. They'll visit your site to see if it is compatible with their community and if so, they'll add you. It takes anywhere from two weeks to six months to get listed. 


If you get listed with http://www.exactseek.com/add.html your listing is free or you can pay them to have your site moved up to top 10 ranking. You can get a free custom made search engine to put on your site for your readers to search your site if you need one right here: http://www.exactseek.com/search-feed.html. If you're a young site just getting started, it'll take a while for you to start getting search engine traffic, but with directories you can start getting traffic within a couple of months in most cases. 
      
Thanks for visiting. Be sure you checkout the rest of the site for more information and learning about business, personal growth for business and life's more important values. See you soon! 

Cheers,
Gene