Blogs act as a link between a business and its customers. They are especially helpful with increasing traffic to a business’s web site. Here are some ways you can increase traffic to your site via a blog.

• Write relevant content that matches the readers’ interest. It is essential to always keep in mind what information your target audience is looking for. The relevancy of blog posts with reader’s interest is important as it will attract them to read it. They might even refer it to others. Search engines favor blogs that have user relevant content.

• Make titles appealing. Having catchy titles to posts help in attracting both readers as well as search engines. Always write articles that can pull people to read the post, and include important keywords if possible.

• Use the right keywords. Undertake keyword research to find the most appropriate keywords and effectively place them in the posts. Highlight the keywords to attract the readers’ attention.

• Post regularly and often. It helps in retaining the interest of the visitors if you post often. Readers like to be welcomed with a new entry! To keep readers as well as search engines updated about new posts, make use of RSS Feeds.

• Allow for easy commenting. Comments are the best way to get feedback and thus may provide some vital information on areas that a business needs to improve upon. Make sure that readers are able to comment on the posts easily.

Article marketing is when businesses promote their products and services to their target customers by submitting informative articles to online directories. These online directories usually have a very large user base and also a strong reputation in the online world, so articles published on them bring in a lot of traffic to a site.

How does it work?

Every article published on these online directories contains a resource box which contains the name and contact details of the business, along with a link to its website. Therefore, when someone reads the article, they will see the business information and link, and will hopefully click the link and be directed to the web site. The goal is to bring in customers to increase online sales. In this way, article marketing can achieve the objectives of an online business.

To make article marketing efforts effective, you have to write relevant and user centric articles. In other words, in order to entice the users read your article, it should cater to their area of interest and must present valuable information. If an article is able to do this, the chances of a user visiting the company’s site become much higher.

You also want to create an effective resource box. The resource box is the opportunity for a business to advertise itself effectively. Therefore, the information in it must be made interesting enough to make the readers visit the website. The resource box must be updated regularly to make it further appealing to the readers.

Lastly, it is highly important to write articles using the appropriate keywords. It is wise to undertake keyword research to find the relevant keywords and use them in the right amount.

Social media presence – Having your website on social media networks will help improve rankings on Google. If a website has strong presence over social media, it will command high ranking. Thus online marketers need to give high importance to Social Media Optimization.

Twitter is a must – As a means of connecting to the public, Twitter has gained high reputation. It has been observed that Twitter is capable of driving huge traffic. Therefore, marketers must include Twitter while devising SEO strategy.

Coded Facebook pages – With Facebook’s importance growing this year, coded Facebook pages will give your business an edge with an interactive touch, generating leads as well as increasing conversation rate.

Trustbait instead of linkbait – Links coming from independent online sources rather than those links that are contextually linked to a site are better for Search Engines. This refers to Trustbait and is a vital part of online marketing.

SEO to grow more comprehensive – In 2011, the term SEO will need to expand and be more all inclusive.

The demand for SEO will only continue to grow and make the task of online marketers more challenging as well as rewarding.

1. Social Networks
Utilizing social networks is still one of the best ways to increase website traffic. You can never go wrong when using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc as a tool for increasing traffic. Among all these social networks, Facebook is dominant. Facebook alone can deliver massive amounts of traffic to your website when used correctly. The sweetest part about Facebook is it’s FREE – and forever will be.

2. Social Bookmarks
Who says social bookmarking is dead? As a matter of fact it is very much alive. There are a lot of social bookmarking sites out there and more are created every day. Highly trafficked social bookmarking sites are Digg, Delicious, Reddit, and Stumbleupon. You can bookmark your blog posts to these sites and if it makes it to front page of a popular site, then that means a massive amount of traffic.

3. Articles
Sharing your expertise through articles is really fun. What you are trying to do is to build your reputation and show that you are an expert. One strategy you can utilize is to submit your articles to Ezinarticles.com and make sure each article has a link back to your site. Chances are if your article is very good a lot of users will read it, and voila, Instant traffic.

1. Surveys. You need to know the needs and wants of your audience. Conduct surveys and polls. You can even visit forums to discover people’s most common issues, problems and complaints.
2. Do your Research. You can’t just put any old information in an article and expect people to be interested. Really research your topic and get in-depth information that you can share with your readers. Go to online and offline resources. Try interviewing fellow experts in your field.
3. Authenticate. Going along with doing your research, you should also provide readers with proof that you are an expert. Offer readers solid information about why you are an authority in your subject.
4. Keep it simple. A cliche tip, but an important one. Make sure your articles are easy to read and straight forward. Many people are searching for information about something that they aren’t sure about, so make it clear for them.

The homepage is the landing space for everyone who seeks you out online. It should be well laid out and organized. It should let your brand breathe and not be crowded. Too much text or copy on the homepage can overwhelm your audience. Think of your homepage like a jacket cover to a book. It should have a picture, a title (or branding tagline), your name and a description of what the site is about. Make it short and condensed. Your homepage tabs (also called verticals) are where your audience can go deeper into your site and find more information about your product and services. Anywhere from 5 to 7 is a good amount, the topic verticals can also have a drop down menu, which is helpful.

2 Key Tips to Remember:
The homepage is NOT about YOU, it’s about your CLIENT. It should engage and promote enthusiasm for your product. It should be outcome focused.

Pick a tagline that is geared towards the consumer and answers the question of how they will benefit from your product or service. Steve Job’s tagline for the iPod was “A thousand songs in your pocket.” In this tagline his target market is defined along with the benefit they will get in buying an ipod. It’s simple, short and clear.

More Tips:

Site readers have a shorten attention span and are always one click away to something else.

How can you really capture your audience? Give them something for free, develop a free opt-in on your homepage.

Have a logo.

Putting too much content on the homepage loses your audience. They are overwhelmed.

Make sure to have several people look over your site before you launch it. Errors happen.

Blogs are important and you should have one.

At Taz we love using Wordpress and highly recommend it!

I hope these tips are helpful! The homepage is your one chance to reach your target audience, it’s not often they come around twice. Make sure to spend time getting it done right by giving your brand some much deserved breathing room.

While it is true that people can add you to their group, the same goes for you adding people to your group. You also have the option to leave a group that you do not want to be in. So how do you use this new Facebook group feature properly and ethically? The answer lies within how well you genuinely interact with your group and how well you establish your group.

If you do not interact with your group on a daily basis chances are people in the group would lose interest and therefore leave your group. If you have nothing interesting to share or something interesting to talk about, people will leave your group. If you spam your group with products you are selling then people will really want to leave your group.

I would say Facebook groups are much better than a Facebook page. Both Facebook page and Facebook group has features like wall, photos, discussions, etc, but a Facebook page does not have a feature where in you can send an email to all your group members. This feature is beneficial in a way that you can convert these group members into visitors and perhaps customers.

Simply stated, the wonder wheel creates a wheel of keywords that Google feels are related to your original keyword. Why is this so wondrous you ask? Because Google is telling you the other keywords that it feels should be found on your site. By including these other related keywords in your SEO and web design you increase your chances of Google recognizing your page as relevant to the original word.

Google then gives you the ability to search even deeper by creating paths of keywords. If you click on a word it will then open a new wheel of words related to the one you clicked on. This begins to open your eyes to potential routes searchers may take to get to the keyword you are targeting.

Below are the top 3 web design trends of 2010:

1. Huge headline and images – More and more websites today are sporting huge headlines and/or images. This is a great way to grab users attention and invite them in. It creates a great visual impact that will help the visitor to remember your website.
2. More visual effects – Pay attention to the backgrounds of most web designs these days. Web Designers are replacing backgrounds with patterns or subtle/textured backgrounds. Doing so gives the site a nicer look and more modern web 3.0 feel as well as creating a visual effect for the website tone and feel.
3. Social media icons/links – This is a must! This is a great way for visitors to connect with you and for you to interact with them. The best way to do this is by placing social media icons/links in above your header, in the footer, sidebar or wherever you think is best on your website design.

So there you have it. These are the top 3 trends to consider for your upcoming web design projects or redesign of your website/blog. Be creative!

Even with the popularity of other social networking sites, LinkedIn is still the best site to promote your business. Here are the top 3 tips for getting massive results from marketing on LinkedIn.

#1 Leverage LinkedIn groups
If you have been working on LinkedIn for a very long time, you will agree with me that the best way to generate leads from high-end companies is through LinkedIn groups. Some important groups to consider are those related to social media, marketing and startups. When creating a group, there are two things to consider. One is to create a group name with keywords in to so that Google can index it. Second, there is an option to put your links in the group so that group members can check out your site and send you more traffic.

#2 Answer or ask questions and build your reputation
You are not only limited to post in your groups. You can also join a lot of groups. To build your reputation as a knowledgeable and credible business, answer relevant LinkedIn questions. You can also post questions that you think can entice other people to join.

#3 Building your list
There was a time when LinkedIn only allowed you to add people if you knew their email address. Fortunately, now you can add people through groups. It is much easier to connect to someone even if you do not know; all you need is a personalized and genuine message as to why you are adding him/her. Once you have a huge list of connections, you can simply opt them in for your newsletters, events and etc.

If you follow these important steps, you will clearly see why LinkedIn is best for your business. Make sure to be active on LinkedIn, update your profile, post content and add connections. Now go and grow your business with LinkedIn!