Today, search engines like Google, MSN or Yahoo! Search have no problem crawling billions of pages and adding them to their index every month (and sometimes even more often). Most likely, they will find your site once they find a link to your page in another website.

That website can be a directory (a site that uses human editors to select, categorize and list websites), a site you exchange links with, or an article-posting site where you submit articles you write, complete with your resource box (a small bio about yourself with a link to your site).

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