If link building were most popular way of building quality traffic to a site, why is it that some (if not most) websites find it incredibly difficult to attract these links? I believe answer lies in value (or lack thereof) that these sites offer Internet community.

I often read people comparing a website to a shopping mall – and indeed they are right. Shopping malls have mastered skill of creating new and exciting ways of attracting new shoppers - and retaining those customers already frequenting mall.

Ask yourself why most successful shops routinely rearrange their product displays. Why do they design or manufacture new products? Summer time sees swimsuits making their way closer to entrance. Fruit salads and lettuce leaves are everywhere to be seen in grocery section.

People are naturally curious creatures and as such get bored very easily. It’s all about satisfying shopper (user). Give customer what they want, when they want it and they’ll return. Better yet, they’ll recommend your store to their friends, colleagues and loved ones.

But what does fruit and sexy bikinis have to do with your website? You have to find out what your user wants and give it to them.

Would you link to your site?

So, what does generate return traffic to a site? Well, take a closer look at your site and determine whether you’d link to it yourself? Is there anything on your site that you can honestly say is of value?

I’m not talking about product prices or a profile on how you founded your company. I’m talking about something that is useful and convenient to your target market. A utility or tool of sorts. Perhaps a regularly updated dialogue with your visitors. An invaluable resource that teaches people something they don’t already know.

Ideas worth researching

One of questions our firm often gets asked is, "Why is search engine optimization (SEO) so expensive?" The simple answer -it isn't.

SEO is most cost effective form of advertising with a low cost-per-acquisition (CPA) and high return on investment (ROI). Studies have shown that dollar for dollar, SEO is best form of advertising... online and offline!

SEO is proactive... customer is actively looking for products and services you provide. Traditional advertising is passive... you are hoping to spark someone's interest and get them thinking about buying your products and services.

Compared with other forms of advertising, Internet marketing via SEO is very inexpensive. Think about how much your business spends on television, radio, newspaper, magazine, and even yellow pages ads. If you were to break these costs down on a monthly basis, SEO would probably cost least and still deliver better results.

To test this, we looked into advertising in a couple of national US magazines as well as newspapers, yellow pages, and radio spots in some major Canadian cities. The following table represents average cost per month for each.