Recently I’ve been getting a lot of questions related to getting traffic to a website, search engine optimization (SEO) and building backlinks to a site. My email and Facebook inboxes have been flooded with all kinds of questions, so I thought it would be great to post them here in case you had similar questions.

The topic I’m going to cover in this post will have everything to do with getting traffic to a site, for the most part. Some questions may stray a little into the other areas I mentioned, but for the most part they deal with traffic.

I’ll quote the questions and answers, and if I have anything to add, I’ll post it below that to keep Q&A’s separate from my afterthoughts.  Confused? You’ll see what I mean.

Traffic Q&A’s

Question: My site for the main keyword is #1 on Google. The local searches Google shows 6000, the webmaster tool as well. So I suppose it would be 6000 divided by 30 (month days) = 200 visitors per day. However, with Google Analytics I see that my site visiting only 70 unique visitors per day? My webmaster tool shows Search queries – Impressions – 6,600, Clicks – 1,000. Is this some kind a rule that if Google shows some number of searches you will never get all visitors to your site and must be divided by two?

Few times I have tried to change the description, but nothing happened.

Answer: When using Google’s keyword tool, those monthly search numbers are only estimates. So, sometimes they may be accurate, sometimes they may not be. The only thing to do at that point is to start ranking for other related search terms which will increase your overall traffic.

Afterthought: Another thing you want to remember is that just because your website may be in the number one spot, you still have the Sponsored Listings to compete with along with the other natural search results. Granted, being number one is going to bring in the majority of that traffic, but not all of it.

So, as I recommend, start trying to rank for other terms as well to increase your overall traffic.

Question: Maybe you could advise what should I do to fix this problem.

On my Google Webmasters account, I see that on my site, which is on #2 spot, have a very small amount of clicks – 73, but impressions – 1900. I’m wondering that here should be something not right, I understand that Google shows my website’s link – 1900 times, but visitors clicking on it only 73 times, am I right Alan?

What should I do to get most of those clicks from those 1,900 impressions?

Answer: My first reaction would be that the ads being displayed on your website aren’t targeted to the content on your site. Or, the people coming to your site aren’t targeted for the content on your site, assuming the ads are relevant. That would be where I would start.

Afterthought: You could also try Adsense Section Targeting so that more relevant ads show up on your site. I recommend reading through what it is and note the caution if you do implement it.

Question: Hey, do you know much about buying traffic to your website? Is that a bad idea, or do you recommend it?

Answer: I have nothing against it. However, make sure you do some homework and have a budget for it. You can easily lose money if you don’t know what you’re doing it. I’ve done it in the past… made some money, lost some money.

I’ve heard Yahoo and MSN are pretty good, so those are possibilities too. I’ve never used them, though, only Adwords.

Afterthought: Yahoo is pretty much non-existent now, and MSN is now Bing. So, I’m not sure where the PPC side of things stand for either as I haven’t looked into it since these happenings. The majority of people do use Google Adwords, though.

Question: Hey, I was wondering if you would be able to help me improve my Google ranking? I know it wont be easy, but I would LOVE to get my page to appear on Google page 1 at some point within the next 6 months. Is that at all possible, under such a competitive keyword phrase like ‘keyword‘?

Answer: Sure, I’d be happy to help. That term is going to be very tough after looking at the sites currently on page one. Perhaps there is a long-tail keyword you could shoot for? This would help you rank faster and at the same time position your site to be in a better position to rank for your main keyword. That’s just my thoughts.

Afterthought: I always recommend going after long-tail terms especially if your niche is very competitive. For instance, my niche is the ‘work from home’ niche, which is SUPER competitive. It could take you months or years to be ranking well and earning money for that exact phrase, unless you targeted a long-tail phrase instead. FYI, my site is on page 2 of Google for the ‘work from home’ keyword.

Question: Yeah I thought something as common as “keyword” would be too tough to compete with, but I do like your idea of using a long-tail keyword phrase. Do you have any suggestions as to what I could go for? I was thinking terms like “keyword1“, or “keyword2” etc… would you think it is possible to appear on page 1 under those kind of search terms?

Answer: I haven’t checked Google page one to see what all sites come up, but it’s something to start with. I use this tool: https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer.

This tool is very handy to find the number of searches per month. Make sure to check “[Exact]” match type. Then, go to Google and type in the search terms you want to see the competing sites for. That should give you an idea of what you’re up against. Also look at the total number of sites that come up. The less the better.

Afterthought: Some people will tell you to search for the keyword with quotes when looking up your competition. This is fine; however, no one searching for that keyword is going to put it in quotes, so make sure to also do the search without quotes to get a total number of competing sites. The numbers will be significantly different from each other.

Note: I don’t proclaim to be in expert in any field, including how to get website traffic. I only speak from personal experience and what I’ve done and am doing to get traffic to the sites I have, including this one.

If you seek professional advice or the wisdom of a “guru”, you won’t find it here. Search Google.

Final Thoughts

These questions covered a wide variety of traffic techniques and strategies, but I realize there are so many other topics that could be discussed regarding traffic.

Ask Your Question

I’m turning the floor over to you now…

What do you want to know about getting traffic to your website? What question/s do you have that weren’t covered in this post?

Leave a comment below with your question/s or you can contact me directly.

I look forward to answering your questions!

Have you ever wondered what all websites are linking to you? Or maybe you would like to know who all is using your articles. Maybe you want to know who is mentioning your name on their blog or website.

Keeping tabs on your name and domain are a great way to see who all uses your content, is talking about you, etc.

Here are some tools to help you do just that:

URLFan.com – Enter your website and see every blog that is linking to your website. Results are in real time and the content is cultivated through the millions of RSS feeds. Your website is ranked and given a number based on every other website. Go see where your website ranks in the blogosphere! This will also provide the content in which bloggers are using to link to you. Very handy, little tool.

Google Alerts – You don’t need a Google Account for this, but I suggest you get one anyway if you don’t yet have one. It’s fast and easy and well worth it for many different reasons. Here’s how Google Alerts works. Enter a search term that you want to receive alerts for. Enter your email address where you want the alerts to be sent. If you’re signed in this will be the email account associated with your Google Account. Any time a reference is made to the search term you entered, you will be emailed alerts for every instance of the term.

Here’s an example: My search terms I use are “Alan Mater” and “http://www.replaceyoursalary.com.” So, every time my name or domain name is mentioned, I receive an alert with a link to the web page that those terms are on. This helps me find out who is talking about me or linking to my website.

These two resources are great if you write articles because you will be able to find out who is using them and posting them on their website or blog.

If you’re not yet keeping tabs on yourself, you should be. It’s quick and easy, and you may just be surprised at the results.