Search Engine Optimization (commonly referred to as SEO) is one of best waysto get traffic to your site. The best thing about SEO is that traffic you get is free! If you manage to get top ten listings in a major search engine like Google, you can get hundreds or even thousands of visitors to your site. Depending on your site’s subject matter, you might even be able to start earning a significant income purely from popularity of your site. For example, if you have a site on jokes you might be able to get a substantial amount of traffic, but you’re unlikely to earn a huge income. On other hand, if you have a top ranking site on Google for keyword phrase “web hosting”, you’ll be able to earn at least $1-2 million (probably more like $3-4 million) per year from that site alone. However, to get into top 10 in Google for phrase “web hosting” is extremely difficult, you would need to be a search engine pro to do it - even then, it might take you two years to get there with a team of 5 people working around clock. A profitable site will be based on a good keyword phrase, a good topic (or subject material) and be different enough to stand out from competition. If you can combine these elements successfully you’ll increase you chances of turning a profit from your site. Keep in mind that there are a number of niche areas where there is not so much competition but still opportunity to make a decent profit. There are hundreds of such areas where you have potential to earn $500-2000 per month.We’ll talk about keyword research and finding profitable niche areas in later issues, but for now, let’s look at basics of how to get a site to top of search engines.

I’m going to focus on SEO for Google because it’s largest (and best) search engine which will generate most traffic, especially if you can master all of right optimization methods. Google has a very complicated system for determining which sites make it to top of search engine. There are manyfactors involved and there is no precise formula. A further consideration isthat Google often changes its formula so you can’t rely on it being same from month to month. However, there are a few key factors which are unlikely to change dramatically: Keywords phrases should be one of most important considerations when you are optimizing your site (remember that for each page of site you should concentrate on one or two keyword phrases). Keyword phrases (which you want to get to top of search engine for)should be well researched. For more information on researching keywords, have a look at http://www.profitpuppy.com/keyword-research.htm where you can find links to useful keyword tools. Key factors for getting to top of Google: The keyword phrase in title of page - you should have phrase in title of page. The keyword phrase in text of page – you want keyword phrase to be up top of page, preferably as high up top of code on page as possible. You also want phrase repeated a few times on page. Don’t worry about how many times, just at least 3-4 times and more if you think it fits in naturally with content of page. Include keyword phrase in a large font heading with H1 tags (this may make a small difference). Links into your site from other sites (covered in more detail below). Links within your site (covered below). Links to other sites (covered below). Links into your site from other sites This is probably most important factor for getting good search engine listings. You need to have good links coming into your site from other sites.

You want those links to be from popular sites that also have lots of links coming into them. Google uses a Page Rank system which is a rough measure of how many links are coming into your site. You want links from sites that have good Page Rank. Creating 50 of your own sites and interlinking them won’t increase your page ranking. How do you get links from other sites? The main ways are to: Create a great site that people naturally want to link to, Get an affiliate program so people can link to your site and get paid, swap links with other sites, get listed in directories such as dmoz.org and buy links from people who have sites with a high PR (Page Rank). Again, we’ll be talking about this in more depth in another issue of newsletter. The most important consideration with incoming links is that you need to have keyword phrase in link that directs traffic to you your site. Getting listed in directories such as DMOZ (Open Directory Project) can also help you significantly in getting a good search engine ranking in Google. Links within your site

It helps once again if you have keyword phrase in links to each page of your site. For example, let’s say you have a site on baby products and you have one page where you are trying to optimize for keyword phrase “cheap baby supplies”. You should make sure that links that come into that page have phrase “cheap baby supplies” so that your links look like this: Click here for cheap baby supplies

If you're just getting started with ClickTracks, you'll find it's a very versatile tool. It presents information by overlaying it on your actual Web pages. It also allows you to create reports "on fly" so that you can look at your visitors' behaviour on your site in very different and detailed ways.

But if analyzing Web metrics is new to you, charts, figures and mass of potential data can still be quite overwhelming. It's helpful to have some starting points and questions in mind as you study reports so that you can find most useful information.

This article offers some ideas and examples to spark your thinking:

Navigation Report

This report shows you (among other things) how many visitors clicked on each link, and how long they spent on this page.

If you have links that receive few or no clicks:

* Is link image or link text too small? * Is it in a colour that doesn't show up well or could pose problems for visitors with visual impairments? * Is it badly placed or hard to find on page? * Is it too far down? - check time spent on page to get an idea of whether * visitors are reading most or all of content. Remember that first screenful of page has best chance of being seen.

If none of above seem true:

* Is link text confusing - perhaps wording is different or not included on other pages? * Is link not attractive or engaging to your visitors? * Or, is content behind link simply not of interest?

Links that receive many clicks:

* Should content behind this link be highlighted even more on your site, since it is clearly of interest?

Placements to think about:

* If you have an internal search engine on your site, is it linked in a prominent place on each page? * Featured products or other items - can you increase clicks that they receive by improving their position?

Time spent on page:

* Does average time on this page seem too short, especially if page is long? - check number of visitors who are exiting site from this page. If a lot of people are spending a short time on a page and leaving, consider splitting content across more pages:

* This can be especially helpful, e.g. when displaying a list of items for purchase - showing each on a separate page allows you to track which offerings are most interesting to visitors, and to highlight them better

* Shortening pages also reduces risk that visitors will miss items further down if they choose not to scroll

Search Report

This report shows keywords and phrases that brought visitors to your site, broken down by individual search engines.

Which keywords or key phrases are most effective for you:

* Which search words or phrases draw most traffic?

* Which search words or phrases result in most time spent on your site? These are visitors who are most engaged in your content, but what were they looking for when they came to you?

* Are there any surprises? Sometimes search engines pick up keywords from your site copy that you may not have thought of as significant - these can be valuable information about how your visitors describe or think about what you offer. A lot of demand for something on your site can give you ideas for enhancing or expanding your products and services.

Which search engines are most effective?

* If your site is optimized for one search engine in particular, is that engine bringing you traffic? If you're paying for search engine optimization (other than pay per click), is your service providing a justifiable return on investment?

* If you have very effective keywords on one search engine, can you improve their position on others?

* Do you recognize your non search engine referrers?

* How are you linked to? Are references to you legitimate? Are there sites that link to you that you're not comfortable with - either because they're not describing your site offerings correctly, or perhaps you simply don't want to be associated with them!

* Should you thank referrer? Often, sites will link to you without letting you know. If you appreciate them for doing this, you can create an even stronger -and potentially more profitable relationship.

For help in creating specific ClickTracks reports, see Part 2: Labelling Options. For help in using ClickTracks to evaluate your "must-see" pages, see Part 3 of this series.

Part 2: Labelling Options

ClickTracks allows you to segment your visitors in many ways using "Create Labels" tool. You create instant reports to answer questions about patterns of specific types of visitor, and track their responses to your site.

Here are some ideas for using this option:

Comparing Search Engine / Non Search Engine Traffic

Visitors come to your site either from search engines, from other sites that link to you, from e-mail marketing messages or e-zines, or perhaps from their own bookmarks.

Use ClickTracks "Create Labels" tool, and select "referred from any search engine" as your criteria to track all search engine visitors. Then, create another label using same criteria, but select "Inverse" to identify all visitors not referred from a search engine.

Now you can investigate:

Are search engine visitors more responsive to your site than those who find you in other ways:

* Which type of visitor spends longer on site?

* Which type of visitor is more likely to reach one of your "goal" or "must-see" pages? (see Part 3 of this series for more on this topic).