Five Ways to Increase Web Traffic Without Spam

SEO is a tough industry.  The point of search engine optimization is to increase traffic and build valuable incoming links for websites, and there are numerous ways to go about it.  Some ways are preferable to others, and using the wrong techniques for SEO can do more harm than good if Google detects anything “unnatural” looking about your link profile, content, or other key aspects of site valuation for ranking
purposes.  Practices that look, feel, or even just seem like spam could get your site penalized by Google –meaning that they basically wipe your site off the search map for a set period of time, knocking you out of your place in the search engine results pages and removing all hope of working toward restoration of your damaged credibility.  Today, we’re going to discuss five ways you can use SEO effectively without resorting to spam or poor quality back links.

1) Quality Content is Relevant Content – writing the best article in the world is of little use unless you can somehow tie the content in with your branding efforts.  If you are regularly involved in writing articles about satellite television packages, equipment, or channels, then it would make sense for you to include a link to Direct TV packages in the body of that article;  if you are writing for a website that is focused on Chinese Food, a satellite tv services link is obviously inappropriate.  Use your best judgment, try to resist the temptation to include irrelevant links in your articles, and find sites that already have to do with your product, service or brand to place guest posts.


2) Comment Spam:  just forget it.  You know what it is.  Don’t do it.  Comment spam earned its terrible reputation from the moment it began, and it remains one of the most detested means of trying to force search engine rankings up at the expense of others.  Making real contact with people is better, so always make sure that if you must offer links in a comment, even as part of your signature, keep them relevant.


3)  Stay out of the paid link pool. When you pay other websites for live, do-follow links, you will seldom get any quality links out of the deal.  The links you buy will be randomly planted, often on sites that have nothing to do with your brand or service.  Ultimately, this will hurt you.


4)  Become a helpful specialist in your field.  Your personal authority goes a lot further than some random number of irrelevant links, and when people in your niche view you as authoritative on a subject, your advice will be valued and your reward will often be a very high quality link back to your site.


5) Finally, watch your competition.  If you are being outranked by your nearest competitor on a regular basis, you need to find out what they are doing from an SEO perspective and put similar tactics into practice.  You probably won’t have any luck calling them up and asking, but study your competition and know who it’s loyal customer base is.  Learn to give them what they want.