Secret #1 - Web Content is King

More than any other strategy, the long term approach of creating a steady stream of high quality, well organized and professional looking content is the king of online traffic building strategies. Valuable content is not only essential for organic search engine results, it is also essential for keeping a visitor beyond the first few seconds. Valuable content is why people bookmark your site, come back often and think of you as an expert in your field.

How do you create a lot of quality content?

It is probably not the answer you want to hear, but discipline is how you create a lot of high quality content. Write every week. Have a 12 month publishing plan. Use article directories to find additional content, if you do not mind linking to other websites in the citation.

Organize your website to have content repositories. It could be a resource center with articles, it could be a blog, it could be a directory, it could be an eNewsletter or eMagazine. If you just put up a corporate brochure, it is going to be hard to achieve online success.

Text is not the only form of content. It is the one best used by search engines, but there are other important forms of content as well.

MP3 – PodCasts

Many people like to download free PodCasts to listen to while they drive, jog or parachute (we think). Having good quality PodCasts on your website can increase traffic and your interaction with audience substantially.

Web Video

Now that broadband has finally arrived for most people, integrating video clips into a website can improve the experience for the visitor. Just don’t overdo it. Too much video can overwhelm a visitor and drive them away, if not organized carefully.

Adobe Flash

Flash has been around for a long time, but it continues to get easier to do and when it enhances a site, but does not comprise the site, it can be a very effective piece of content that catches the eye and interacts with the visitor.

eBooks

eBooks are electronic books that people can download and read off line. It is content they can pass around to their friends and post on their website as a download assuming you give them permission. These can be very effective marketing tools if you carefully brand the eBook so that the reader knows you are the expert that wrote it and they know how to contact you.

Interactive Tools

Content that can create a big bang is custom content that lets a user get involved with your site. It could be a simple Javascript calculator or it would be a full blown community that your visitors participate in. Content is the value adding information you provide a visitor, and interactive tools that provide exactly what they are looking for provides higher value to your audience.

Magically Created Content

In many cases, websites can be configured to create more content on their own. This can be done by allowing visitors to create content through message boards, comments, track backs and other tools. It can also be done through services like RSS that will feed fresh content into a site.