Driving SEO Traffic: A Brief History Of The Web & 3 Simple Ways To Increase Your Search Engine Rankings...

Learning just a fraction of a subject's history is often incredibly valuable because of the perspective it provides a student. So, here is a brief history of the web, the origins of search engine optimization, & 3 quality tips on how to increase your search engine rankings.

Let's begin...

I. A Modern Day Traffic Virus!

Many people credit the rise of the consumer internet to the release of the Mosaic Netscape V0.9 web browser...Somewhere around 1994, the web browser became popular in science labs & universities. Then, as more people started discovering the wealth of information that was available, the web became a "mass market" phenomenon too...You could almost say that the web ITSELF is a virus...

As early webmasters started discovering "cool" sites & linking to them, it became very clear that website traffic has real value for 2 reasons:

A. Traffic generally means money. The more targeted traffic a site gets, the more money it should make. While this is generally a good rule of thumb, the traffic source, the site's audience profile & the traffic "intention type" can drastically affect this equation. (But, those topics are beyond the scope of this discussion as each one could be a 20 page article by itself.)

Traffic can be "monetized" in many ways including:

1. Advertising.

2. Lead generation.

3. And through the direct sales of goods or services.

B. Traffic also seems to have a "multiplication effect" too. The more visitors that come to a site, the more it's traffic should grow over time. This "traffic multiplication" effect is most likely derived from a combination of:

• Repeat visitors bookmarking the site.

• People emailing it to their friends who also visit it, bookmark it, & in turn, pass it on.

• And most importantly: the number of other webmasters who link to it...Links drive traffic in at least 2 ways that we'll discuss below.

II. The Origins of Search Engine Optimization.

In the 90s, finding stuff on the web was difficult & people often discovered sites by following links from forums. Then, some crude search engines began appearing to solve the "search" problem...

However, once people discovered that a top ranking for the right keywords phrases could be very lucrative, the modern Search Engine Optimization(SEO) industry was born. Webmasters began developing SEO techniques to get higher rankings...As always, the lure of easy money was hard to resist...

III. Getting Connected.

Then, around 1999, things seemed to change in the SEO universe. With the introduction of more advanced search engines (primarily Google), the focus turned to the importance of having inbound links...the rumor was that the newer search engines used backlinks to at least partially calculate their rankings...

Links are the connections that hold the web together...and while links can be "faked" a million different ways, the new search engines algorithms highly value the number of "votes" a site gets in the form of quality inbound links...

IV. Good News & Better News.

One fantastic benefit of these advanced search engine algorithms is that they make finding "stuff" much easier...The search engine results these days are much better than they were just 10 years ago.

While there are more sites now online, ranking for some terms has actually become a little easier in a few markets. This may be because search engines have gotten better at excluding some lower quality sites from their indexes. But, you still have to use solid SEO techniques if you want to maximize your traffic...

V. 3 Super Simple SEO Tips.

Here are 3 easy SEO techniques to experiment with:

A. Implement "The Mirror Method"

Some experts think that "on page" factors account for as much as 40% of a site's ranking. Therefore, doing a little "recon" on the competition can really pay off.

1. First, search for your main keyword phrase in your favorite search engine.

2. Spend 1/2 an hour visiting the top 10 sites. Write down any similarities you see between them in a physical notebook. Examine their source codes' (Press CNTL+"U" in Firefox). You may notice some similarities between the high ranked sites' structures. Pay close attention to things like title tags, meta tags, linking structures, & any H1, H2, & H3 tags you can find...

3. If it's feasible, change your site's structure & tags to "mirror" theirs'. Make your site look like one of the crowd, like it's supposed to be there. Mirroring can be effective for 2 reasons. First, this will hopefully make a search engine "bot" think that your site belongs in the top 10. Second, when you request links from those top ranked sites, the webmasters will hopefully think "Hey, this site is just like MINE! I'll post the link right now!"

The goal is to make your site look like it "fits in." (Fits in to a top ranking that is!)

B. Building A "Link Monopoly" Of Your Own

Methods exist to find high quality sites which will gladly link to yours if you know where to look. Generally speaking, 95% of your competition is probably overlooking some real traffic "gems" that can be found by just doing a little digging. Avoid sites that are clearly overrun with too many newbie webmasters begging them for links.

The trick lies in finding high traffic sites that are relevant but aren't link "farms." Believe me, boatloads of these low competition, high traffic sites exist in every market...And getting a prime placement can drive a continuous stream of traffic to your site: both from the links themselves & from your better search engine rankings.

C. The "90 Minute Routine"

Outside of investing $10,000 in a professional SEO company, most webmasters neglect to ensure that their search engine rankings remain consistent. Building relevant links, submitting keyword rich articles, & submitting your site to 100 link directories every month can yield MASSIVE amounts of traffic. You'll generally find that 20% of directories that you submit to will approve your site....Furthermore, a high quality article can "go viral" pretty quick, eventually building 100s of inbound links...

Link building only takes a measly 90 minutes a month. In order to make the process as efficient as possible, time how long it takes you to do it the first time. Write out the steps in a .txt file or MS Word document. Then, revise these steps the next time & again the next time. After 3 months, the process should be easy to run through...And, if you need some free time, you can always outsource this task to another person for a small fee...

Implementing these tips WILL increase your traffic, often in less than 48 hours...

In summary: You'll find that modeling your best competitors & investing a mere 90 minutes a month will pay off as your traffic levels & search engine rankings continue to climb...

And that's traffic you can take to the BANK!