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Sometimes it’s the little, overlooked details that can really affect your online traffic.

I think that we tend to focus too much on the latest and greatest, and we stop looking for those small details. Dan Thies (aka The SEO Coach) has a recent post titled “SEO: Where’s your homepage?” that, I think, is a must read for anyone, like myself, who pays attention to details. In his post writes about a common flaw in home page url’s that many people tend to overlook, and he explains ways to link to your homepage that will help you avoid duplicate content penalties. This is priceless information when you consider how important url’s are to search engines.

Dan’s blog is fairly new, but I expect to see many more good SEO posts from him in the future. This is definitely one to bookmark.

The development of e-commerce has given small businesses a chance to compete with large companies in a world wide market, and now it is easier than ever to market and sell products online. Some small businesses, however, have opted to refrain from e-commerce because they are intimidated by the big businesses, but believe it or not, being a small store with a simple website can be a major advantage online.

Time and time again low budget websites have proven that function is more important than form when it comes to converting website traffic into sales. Take plentyoffish.com for example, this is an absolutely ugly website that supposedly earns $10,000 a day from Google advertising.

Low end websites have a way of conveying trust, which is vital, since many people do not trust large corporations. Most consumers would rather buy (regardless of price) from smaller companies, with low budget websites because they feel like they are helping the little guy in his battle against “The Man”.

So the trick is to design an attractive website that has the appearance of a mom and pop store as opposed to a department store. Major corporations have caught on to this and are beginning to apply it to their websites. Some corporations even create new/smaller companies to sell their products online.

Here are a few ways to improve your website and compete with “The Man”:

First, I suggest cutting back on things like flash (it’s distracting and invisible to search engines) and java script (also invisible) that makes your website appear expensive and busy. A simple flash banner will suffice without interfering with the focus of the pages.

Second, remove page clutter. It is not necessary to fill every empty space on a page. Clutter and information overload will be a deterrent and create a spammy appearance. Research has shown that increasing white space on pages helps people to concentrate on your products and increase conversions. Moderation is the key.

Third, offer reassurance. Every page should have something on it, in the body or elsewhere, reassuring the visitors that you are honest and qualified. Also provide info about yourself (or company). Visitors are more likely to trust you if they know more about who you are and where you’re from (location is important).

The point I am trying to make is that you shouldn’t sacrifice usability for appearance. Instead, build an intuitive website first then tweak the look and feel later. The products and text on your pages are more important than your drop down menus and flashy graphics.

Keep this in mind when building your pages and you will maximize your profits from online traffic.

All SEO’s know that writing articles and press releases are effective ways of building links and increasing website traffic. The question is, “Are your press releases and articles optimized?”

An easy way to determine if your text is optimized is by using keyword and word tracking tools. These tools, which you use to write text for your web pages, can also increase the effectiveness of your link building text, and give your writers guidance when selecting their topics. You want your content to be not only relevant and useful but also optimized in the same manner as the text on your web pages.

Optimized writing is, in essence, a double edged sword. If done correctly it will increase your web traffic and garner those precious links that you desire.

Good Luck
Controller

When it comes to writing, customers should be your number one consideration. Remember that you are selling to people and not search engines. Of course you want the search engines to find your site but you also want pages that are rich with useful content. Overloading your text with key words and phrases may increase your search engine visibility but it will in turn hurt the overall validity of your website.

Content is the key to increasing website traffic. If it is creative and useful it will convert more visits into sales and increase the popularity of your website much more effectively than a page littered with key words and phrases.

SEO is more than just driving traffic to your website, it is also about turning traffic into sales.

Most SEO advice tends to focus primarily on link building techniques, on-page factors, and search engine trends. This is all very good information, but what about Web Hosting? Every now and then neighborhoods are mentioned, but never with enough emphasis.

Not all servers are created equal and many are not search engine friendly. It would be pointless to waste time and money building links and refining code when your website is being hosted from a slow, unreliable server that is full of spammy neighbors (who you WILL be associated with by the search engines). Servers are one of the cheapest components of a website, but they are very important.

Here are a few things to consider before you choose a server.

• Does the web host have 301 Redirect capabilities? This is absolutely necessary to avoid the possibility of duplicate content penalties.
• The uptime of your server is vital. There are several providers that guarantee their servers to be up 99.9% of the time.
• Your IP Class can and will be used by search engines to determine the quality of your neighborhood. Your web host should be analyzed to determine if there are any spam sites associated with its IP Class.
• Does the web host have clean name servers? You want your website to be associated with others who have clean names.
• Look for a server that provides each reseller with their own IP addresses. Hosting on a server with large amounts of sites using one IP address will significantly increase your chances of being associated with spammers.
• Does the web host support the Date Modified attribute? Search engines like to know when your pages are being modified and the Date Modified attribute makes this possible.
• Choose a server with a fast response time. This will allow search engines to crawl further into your website because they are not spending time waiting for pages to load.

Services like SEO Certified Servers are available to help you determine if your server meets these criteria. They check and certify servers for the sole purpose of SEO.

I think that it would be wise to take a closer look at your web host before launching your SEO campaign.

Good Luck
Paul