Okay, you built your website...but will they come? How are you going to get people in your niche to come to your web site? You know they want what you have because you've done the research. But how do you get in front of them?

Here are three ways...

First, send an email to your email list. What?!? You are not collecting the emails of the people who visit your web site? Shame on you! How are you going to tell your visitors about all the cool stuff you have AFTER they leave your web site? How are you going to announce specials or new products?

You need to start collecting your visitor's first name and email addresses using an email capture box. Then start sending them sequential messages at pre-determined intervals. That's how the big boys do it...and they generate huge sums of money with internet business!

The second way to attract visitors is to pay for them. Meaning, you place an ad on Google and when people read your little ad, they click over to your site, give you their name and email and then buy your products. These little ads are called Google Adwords and are found at the right hand side of the Google search engine. You pay a few pennies every time someone clicks on your ad and comes to your page. You can set budgets and bid on certain search terms.

The third way, and probably the best way to start, is to get ranked high in the search engines like Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Ask Jeeves, for your particular topic. This is free search engine traffic, also called "organic" search engine traffic.

Imagine a magic billboard on the highway that knew exactly what you were looking for and only displayed products that you were REALLY wanted. Do you think that billboard owner could make some money? You bet!

That is what the search engines do. When someone is looking for information or a product, they usually type that topic or item into a search engine. If your web site can be the first or second result on the search engine page for that particular topic, and you have the product they are searching for, there is a good chance they will come to your web site and buy that product.

There are two parts to getting listed high in a search engine for a particular search term. What you do on your web page and what you do off your web page (on-page optimization and off-page optimization). Here are the three things you should do to optimize your web page for better search engine ranks:

First, include your target keyword or search term in the title of your page. Now I am not talking about the title that people see on your page, I am talking about when you right-click on your web page in your HTML editor and you click on page properties, it will have a space for the title. Type your target keyword in there. You will know you've done this right when you see it in the blue bar at the top of your browser in the preview mode of your HTML editor.

Second, type your target keyword at the top of your page and use your HTML editor to make it into an H1 or H2 tag. Remember, this is different than the title tag on your page, which we covered in the first step.

Third, use your target keyword in the text in the body of your web page. Use it once or twice in the first paragraph, again in the second paragraph, and then maybe at the end. Don't use it too often, or you might get penalized by Google.

There you have it for the on-page optimization. Off-page optimization consists of getting backward links, but I'll talk about that in Part 2.

about Stephen Beck
Stephen Beck teaches 7 simple steps to starting a home business. For a free CD explaining those steps, visit Real Home Business


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