Needs tips for getting traffic to website

[stephen@freedom]

I recently got a website. Now I am trying to get educated on how to direct traffic to the site and get on the first page of the search results. Any tips??
Thanks

[tonygreek]

I'd take a stroll through the archives and you'll see a ton of helpful posts on how to optimize your site via content and SEO. Past site review requests are usually full of information from a variety of knowledgeable folks, as well as posts related to Search or SEO, that can be applied to any site.

For local citation building, hit getlisted.org and you'll find a nice listing of useful sites to register your business with. Check out Google and Bing's Webmaster tools, as well as Google's beginner's guide to SEO.
Posted via Mobile Device

[stephen@freedom]

will do..thanks

[Dr.NewEarth]

Getlisted.org doesn't work for people in Canada. It only accepts a five digit postal code and we have six digits. Oh well.

[Duekster]

The main thing is to describe your services well and where you do business. Use rich keywords to describe your who what where and when. It simply takes time to get top ranking as well. Google does seem to favor some older sites.

It is important to optimze your site but construction is key. Google and other search engines care little about images ( except that they be tagged correctly) or flash sites. Content is king.

[stephen@freedom]

thanks guys I am putting these tips to action every little bit helps!

[Duekster]

Originally Posted by stephen@freedom

thanks guys I am putting these tips to action every little bit helps!

One more thing, look at some top ranked local sites both in your area and others. You are not shooting for a national top ranking. Read them and understand why they rank well and repeat it.

I say repeat it but do not copy it. Just do what they do but describe your company and why the client should choose you.

I would rather convert the hand full of visits I do get then simply have a large volume of traffic and no phone calls. Most people that call me have already decided to use me provided my price is fair.

I get people that call me often wanting to optimize my site. I ask them how they found me?

Can my site be better, you bet. I will spend some time on it this winter. Last winter it took me most of my time just to get Drupal up and running. My other site is an old hand coded HTML site and it shows.

[tonygreek]

Originally Posted by Duekster

Google and other search engines care little about images ( except that they be tagged correctly)

Several years ago, yes. In the last 3-4 years, this has evolved right along with the search algorithms. Images open the door for increased SEO-friendly content, beyond just the alt tag, working in concert as each component makes each other component more relevant.

Lawn images are good. Written lawn content is good. Lawn Images + Written Lawn Content legitimately becomes one of those "the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts" scenarios.

If you don't place more weight on image importance, you leave a large amount of SEO on the table:

-image file name
-image file folders with relevant keyword naming (ie, a lawn-care folder with -----lawn-care related and named images within it)
-image captions
-related content directly near the images (contextualizing an image's reason for being, if you will.)
-anchor text to linked images
- image titles (although having gone the way of the meta keyword tag, it's up to you to decide if you want to put in the effort)
- and rapidly growing in importance? social sharing

[stephen@freedom]

I have been listing my business on alot of the business listing sites that were suggested in this post and other posts I found in the archives. I can see this will be a lengthy process, but I have all winter. Will be looking at website content and making improvements as well.

[kirkmbrown2001]

Here are some things that I have not seen mentioned on this thread yet.

• Facebook - Important not only for updating customers and brand recognition, it is becoming increasingly more important to get you noticed on the search engines. Not only will your Facebook page rank very high in search listings, it will also show one of your page status updates right on google. It will also show the "about" section of your Facebook page on Google. Fill your "about" section on Facebook with keyword rich content. Update your Facebook page often with status updates and links. This will tell Google that it is active and not forgotten about by the owner.
  
  
  
• Twitter - Just as important as Facebook. Helps your search engine ranking and branding. Tweet often for best results.
  
  
  
• Google+ - Possibly one of the most overlooked social networks but becoming very important in regards to seo. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, update often with posts and links. Fill your "about" section with keyword rich content because this section will be shown on google listings. I see this particular social network becoming a bigger part of Google's search engine ranking placement in the future.
  
  
  
• Google Local - Formerly known as Google Places, this GREATLY helps your SEO! I HIGHLY recommend getting a Google Local page up and running. As you will see in the image below, it can take up huge real estate on a Google search. Also, getting customer reviews on your local page will multiply it's effectiveness. Google wants to give relevant, quality results to it's customers. Having many, great reviews pre-qualifies you to a higher organic listing than those who have no reviews or no reviews. General rule of thumb, have 2-3 more good customer reviews on your local page than your local competition. One way to get reviews is to offer customers a coupon for giving you a review. Might sound silly or stupid, but this could help you get many new jobs in the future and is worth the expense of discounts in a form of coupons.
  
  
  
  
  
• Yelp, Superpages, & other online review sites - Similar to the benefits of a Google Local page, the reviews help bigtime! With these sites, often your company review ranking and a featured review is featured right on a Google search page. Get those reviews!
  
  
  
• Blog - Have a company blog! Greatly improves your seo! Have your blog link back to your main site in some way. Many blogs like Tumblr. will have your latest blog post in the Google search listing as shown below.
  
  

That is a short list that can help your website without having to change your website yourself. This along with an seo optimized website should provide nice results over a few months. Let me know if you have any questions.