Free Traffic Tips

They Say –> “We have organized our listing of directories by how “powerful” they are, so that you can easily find the correct business directory sites to submit your URL. We also provide you with a third and forth tier directory sites, which are smaller in size but still provide quality for your web site to be listed within. Some of these sites require a payment and some have a FREE submission option, so we’ve included that information as well.”

I say ==> This is a great resource. Good one for the bookmarks because it will get you one way links back to your site that search engine spiders will actually follow. Of course, you should also work on getting yourself tons of link backs you can control using RSS – used correctly you can leverage the power of both together to help you gain or keep a legitimate high search engine rank.

Allez-vous! –> Business Directory – Find Business Directories – Yahoo, DMOZ, more!

“The Strategy:

Write a simple online press release and submit it to Prweb.com.

When writing your press release, be sure to add include your URL at least twice on the body of the release with your primary keyword as anchor text, and then once again in your signature.”

The Full Article –> What Your Momma Never Told You About Online Press Releases:

Doesn’t get the tool of the day honor, but only because it isn’t directly related to getting, measuring, or maintaining your traffic. It’s still a really important tool though.

If you’re looking to get people to keep coming back to your site, you’ve got to get them on there first. We’ve all clicked away from a site just because it took too long to load. Almost every change I make to my site has to do with either converting more sales or loading pages faster. In a fight between a beatuiful page that takes 30 seconds to load, and a just-decent one that takes 15 seconds, guess who wins?

That’s not to say that if your readers aren’t absorbed, they won’t wait for your page to catch up to them – if they really want what’s on that page, they’ll wait. But you must choose a balance of style and substance that will work the best for your site.

Ooo, la la (if you just said “Sasson” you’re older than me)—-> Loading time checker

Delish. Of the three tools on this page, my favorite toy to play with is the Link Popularity Check, but that’s probably because I’m a vain … oh look. It’s my reflection.

While I’m beholding this marvelous site, have a try comparing your link popularity to that of other sites in your industry. What sets this checker apart is the fact that it’s both real time, and in context – as a relative tool, it gives you a much better idea of where the kind of position you need to put your site in, in order to beat that rival site.

Try it — >Link Popularity Check – Marketleap Search Engine Marketing Tools

Folks keep writing to ask how I am… so instead of answering about 30 emails right away, I’m just going to sneeze on the screen for a few minutes.

I’m in great spirits, as is the norm, just damn tired of blowing my nose every 14 seconds and not being able to sleep laying down without bursting into a cough spasm. I talked to a couple of people yesterday, and I hope you were greatly entertained by my horrible sqeaky voice. Maybe I’ll do an audio post for our mutual amusement… First my back acts up and now this flu – could my body be trying to tell me something?

Ha! Workaholics of the world unite! (Achooooooo! Sniff.)

Any ways… today on Traffic Thursdays I’m just going to share a few odds and ends with you. Have a ball. The newsletter may go out tonight, perhaps tomorrow, I’m really just playing it by ear at this point. I’ve learned my lesson about going back to full power too fast….

(more…)

Maybe if you won’t listen to me, you’ll listen to Wendy over at About.com. She says that instead of shooting to get top rankings for your keywords, that perhaps you should target more focused keywords that are more appropriate to your site.

Sound familiar?

“Targeting such vague words will not do your site any favors. Take the time to churn out a large list of specific to your site keywords and phrases ;and your search rankings will inevitably go up.”

Read the rest of the article at About.com
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And why would they do that? Jennifer, the editor at Search Engine Guide says:

“The most obvious speculation as to why Google would make this purchase is that they are looking to integrate Urchin’s tools into their pay-per-click program to help users better track and measure the success of their campaigns. With Yahoo! already offering a competing pay-per-click product and Microsoft’s in development, the stakes of the paid search game are being raised.”

Read more at SearchEngineGuide.com.

What a neat feature… if you have search results showing up at your site, you can create a button that can be added to a9’s search engine page, and other people in ture, can use your button. Interesting but as yet untested by me.

“Just because you create a button doesn’t mean that users will automatically get them, of course. They’ll have to use the page above to find options, then choose to add them. And that may happen only if you’ve created the search and submitted it. How to create and submit is covered in the help documents for OpenSearch.”

Read more in the Search Engine Watch Blog and at Slashdot.