« Directory Submission: The Wagon Way | Main | Pay Per Click - Naughty or Nice? »
Search Engine Traffic Growing - Big Time!
December 16, 2005
Peter Gabriel's 1986 hit "Big Time" has a line in the first verse:
"I'm gonna watch it growing - Big Time!"
I doubt Peter was thinking about search engine traffic when he wrote "Big Time". But I think of this song and lyric often. Especially as we close out another year and take time to compare search traffic numbers historically for many of our clients. After all, a significant portion of SEO's bottom line is getting target audience visitors to your site from Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.
I want to tip my cap today to companies that have embraced search engine optimization for the long term. Too many companies take a half-hearted attempt at SEO ("Just have the web guy throw some keywords in there"). I've also seen companies with sites that change frequently, that think a one-time SEO project is all they need.
Here are 7 common characteristics of companies big and small that have committed to ongoing site optimization and are reaping the reward of steadily increasing search traffic:
1. They understand the search behavior of their target audience. They know exactly how potential customers are using search engines to seek out their products and services. They understand that search behavior can be dynamic...yes, they even know how their target audience searches during different times of the year!
2. They are flexible with their site content. They will even add a content-rich page to their site if an important keyword phrase is identified and there is no existing page on the site focused on that phrase.
3. They understand that it's easier and smarter to optimize a new page on their site during the development process, not afterward.
4. They have web analytics programs that provide search engine referrer data so they always know exactly how many visitors find their site through each search engine.
5. They understand the importance and necessity of having high quality incoming links from other sites.
6. Their copywriters effectively balance the "voice" of the site with search behavior intelligence. Their "art" isn't a higher priority than allowing people to find and visit their site.
7. Their search traffic over the long term contines to grow and grow and grow...
If I can take some liberty with Peter's closing lyric:
"My search traffic is getting bigger!
Big Time!
And my bank account!
Big Time!"
Is your search traffic growing big time? Are you a company like the one described above? In my next post, look for some nitty gritty historical search traffic data from such a company.
All posts by Doug Ausbury
posted by Doug Ausbury at December 16, 2005 01:20 AM
Intrapromote: [ Case studies | SEO services | Bios ]
Trackback Pings
To TrackBack this entry, use the following URL:
http://seoblog.intrapromote.com/mt-tb.cgi/144