Optimizing a site for search engines and creating keyword-targeted content helps a site rank
for key search terms, which typically leads to direct traffic and referring links as more and more
people find, use, and enjoy what you’ve produced. Thousands of sites on the Web leverage
this traffic to serve advertising, directly monetizing the traffic sent from the engines. From
banner ads to contextual services such as Google’s AdSense program to affiliate programs and
beyond, web advertising has become a massive industry—$25 billion plus, according to
eMarketer.
Here are some factors to think about when considering SEO for raw traffic:
When to employ
Use it when you can monetize traffic without actions or financial transactions on your site
(usually through advertising).
Keyword targeting
Keyword targeting in this scenario can be very broad. The goal here isn’t typically to select
specific keywords, but rather to create lots of high-quality content that naturally targets
interesting/searched-for terms. Instead of singular optimization on specific terms, the
focus is on accessibility and best practices throughout the site to earn traffic through both
high volume and long tail queries (for more on what long tail is, see Chapter 5).
Concentrate efforts on great content, and use keyword-based optimization only as a
secondary method to confirm the titles/headlines of the works you create.
Page and content creation/optimization
A shallow, highly crawlable link structure is critical to getting all of your content indexed—
follow good information architecture practices.You’ll also need to
employ good on-page optimization (titles, headlines, internal linking, etc.) and make your
articles easy to share and optimized for viral spreading.
for key search terms, which typically leads to direct traffic and referring links as more and more
people find, use, and enjoy what you’ve produced. Thousands of sites on the Web leverage
this traffic to serve advertising, directly monetizing the traffic sent from the engines. From
banner ads to contextual services such as Google’s AdSense program to affiliate programs and
beyond, web advertising has become a massive industry—$25 billion plus, according to
eMarketer.
Here are some factors to think about when considering SEO for raw traffic:
When to employ
Use it when you can monetize traffic without actions or financial transactions on your site
(usually through advertising).
Keyword targeting
Keyword targeting in this scenario can be very broad. The goal here isn’t typically to select
specific keywords, but rather to create lots of high-quality content that naturally targets
interesting/searched-for terms. Instead of singular optimization on specific terms, the
focus is on accessibility and best practices throughout the site to earn traffic through both
high volume and long tail queries (for more on what long tail is, see Chapter 5).
Concentrate efforts on great content, and use keyword-based optimization only as a
secondary method to confirm the titles/headlines of the works you create.
Page and content creation/optimization
A shallow, highly crawlable link structure is critical to getting all of your content indexed—
follow good information architecture practices.You’ll also need to
employ good on-page optimization (titles, headlines, internal linking, etc.) and make your
articles easy to share and optimized for viral spreading.