Now that the dust raised by Google’s May Day algorithm update (now frequently referred to as the “Mayday” update due to the consternation it’s caused) is beginning to settle, one thing is for certain: the change is here to stay. So rather than moaning about it, it’s better to spend your time seeing if you can improve your sites so that they’re more in line with what Google now thinks is important for a site’s rank.

Related Post: Starting My Journey With Alex Jeffreys
Related Post: Why Using Google Analytics Is A Bad Idea

One factor that appears to now have a greater effect on page ranking is the page’s bounce rate…
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Wordtracker are offering a $20 discount on their Link Building book that tells you…

* Why inbound links are essential to your website’s success
* The right (and wrong) way to generate links
* How to compel other websites to link to yours (without having to ask)
* The 7 stages of a definitive link building campaign
* How to build links that will drive traffic, sales and revenue for years to come

The book normally costs $49 but is $29 with the discount. ‘Fraid I don’t know how long the offer will last. Rather than me reposting the book’s blurb here, you can read the sales page here. They even offer a 30-day refund period on the book.

Every website stands or falls on the traffic it receives, regardless of the tool you use to build the site.

A first step is to submit your site’s sitemap to the search engines (SiteBuilder Elite does this for you) but it is only a first step. You can also submit sitemaps through Google’s Webmaster Tools.

The search engines love active sites (especially Google); that doesn’t just mean the number of new pages added to a site on a regular basis, but the number of inbound links to the site. If a site keeps getting new inbound links (links from other sites pointing to it), then it must be popular, and that’s reflected in the page rankings in the search engines. Higher page ranks mean higher positions in the search engines and more traffic coming to your sites through natural searches.

However, getting traffic isn’t enough. You need the right kind of traffic and you need to give that traffic some useful information. Basically, you should think of yourself and your sites as being in a service industry that provides information to people. The better the information, the more likely people will revisit and the greater the chance that they’ll buy products or click ads listed on your site.

So if submitting a sitemap is just a first step, what other methods are available for getting traffic?

In this post, I’ll look at the free options (the next post will look at paid options):

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