Post edited 9:11 pm - April 29, 2009 by Chris

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Hello forum members,

In addition to owning and running http://www.sea-glass.com I also co-own a website marketing company.  Everyone is always asking me how to “get more traffic” to “get more sales” for their sea glass websites, so I thought I'd start a new topic and add posts from time to time to teach all of you how you can help your own website.

Higher search engine rankings for the keywords you want to target will get you more traffic.  More traffic will equate to more sales.

It is estimated that the keyword “sea glass” gets 4000 searches per month.  Who do you think internet users are going to click on?  You guessed it, the guys at the top:   http://www.google.com/search?h…..q=f&oq=

So, who comes at the top and why?  Well, there are a lot of reasons, and here is a quick cheat sheet for 77 pieces to the SEO puzzle

Sound confusing?  Well it is, so I will break it down even further.  It comes down to 2 factors:

1) How much Google naturally likes your site (the way it's built, how relevant it is, if it is optimized properly)

2) How much other people are talking about and LINKING TO your site

Inbound links have a different value depending on a LOT of factors, here are some of those factors:

1) how relevant the site is.  Another sea glass site saying you are great goes a lot further in Google's eyes than an auto repair site saying you are great.

2) how much of an authority the site itself is.  Google ranks websites Zero to Ten based on how important they are.  This is called PageRank

3) Where the link is located.  Is it at the top in bold in a relevant area, or is on a “links page” or at the footer of the site very discreetly.

4) Are the links coming from different parts of the country, or are they all coming from a handful of sites that you own.

Any way, typically the MORE links the better as long as they are built correctly (ie: not from link farms). 

Ever wonder why West Coast Sea Glass has such high search engine rankings?  On top of having great content, they have over 1400 inbound links

So, how do you get more links from relevant sites?  There are a lot of ways, but one EASY and FREE way to get links is to update your PROFILE on this website and add your website to your signature (like I did at the bottom of this post).  EVERY TIME you post, you will get a link.  Mine won't really help me though because I am linking to myself

MOST IMPORTANT PART:  You have to know how to do it correctly though in order for the link to be active.  Please contact me directly so I can give you the proper code to insert.  If you can NOT click on your signature and have it take you to your site, you have not built your link properly.

Please feel free to ask me questions about website marketing (SEO).  I will try and post a new tip or two at least once a week, so check back frequently.

Chris

One other thing I wanted to mention:

As a rule of thumb: older websites carry more “authority” over younger websites.  http://www.Sea-Glass.com is exceptionally aged - almost 9 years old.  Check out why search engines like older domains and how old yours is here:  Domain Age

Don't get discouraged if you have a younger website though.  It will age with time.  Any site 2 years or older is considered to be more ”established”.