The Art of SEO

SEO for Raw Traffic

Optimizing a site for search engines and creating keyword-targeted content helps a site rank for key search terms, which typically leads to direct traffic and referring links as more and more people find, use, and enjoy what you’ve produced. Thousands of sites on the Web leverage this traffic to serve advertising, directly monetizing the traffic sent from the engines. From banner ads to contextual services such as Google’s AdSense program to affiliate programs and beyond, web advertising has become a massive industry—$25 billion plus, according to eMarketer (http://www.thestandard.com/predictions/u-s-online-advertising-grows-10-2009).

Here are some factors to think about when considering SEO for raw traffic:

When to employ

Use it when you can monetize traffic without actions or financial transactions on your site (usually through advertising).

Keyword targeting

Keyword targeting in this scenario can be very broad. The goal here isn’t typically to select specific keywords, but rather to create lots of high-quality content that naturally targets interesting/searched-for terms. Instead of singular optimization on specific terms, the focus is on accessibility and best practices throughout the site to earn traffic through both high volume and long tail queries (for more on what long tail is, see Chapter 5). Concentrate efforts on great content, and use keyword-based optimization only as a secondary method to confirm the titles/headlines of the works you create.

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