Even Small Companies can Increase Their Web site Hits from 10 to 10,000 a Day

One Raleigh, North Carolina small business uses free internet web resources to earn a number 3 rank in google.com!

About a year ago Raleigh, NC's, "The Body Sculptress" decided to try her hand at e-Commerce. After establishing a successful local fitness business, she decided to attempt to help women all over the world by incorporating the electronic skills she had acquired in her many years in corporate America into a worldwide service offering for on-line clientele.

The problem was, if she wanted to get anywhere with e-commerce, she would have to learn how to work with search engines by researching and implementing "optimization" techniques so that she would be found when people typed in her key words. If you know anything at all about e-commerce, you know that there are entire businesses that are developed for just that. It is a tricky process.

Undaunted and with no budget for outside help, she completely designed her own web site and optimized it by using free information she found on the Internet. It seems that she is really a designer at heart, too, because along with designing women's bodies, her site is highly acclaimed by her visitors as being something very special.

After many months, and subscriptions to many "how to increase your search-engine rankings" e-zines, The Body Sculptress has gone Googling. She has managed to achieve an admirable #3 ranking in Google, along with the big names of Amazon.com's "The Body Sculpting Bible," and Bodytrends.com "Total Body Sculpting Solution." The Body Sculptress has a Page 1 placement - sending as many as 10,000 visitors to her web site a day.

"Traffic comes from around the world -- India, Singapore, Romania, Kenya -- all over, and now, on July 2nd, my site went over 9,950 hits!" Here are what she believes to be the 7 most important points to consider when building a hit-generating web site:

1.Have solid content. Don't be a salesperson. Write to people like you're writing to a friend or favored associate and tell them something of value that makes them want to come back.

2.Integrate some sort of opt-in process that allows you to build your database. Offer a free e-mail program that people can sign up for, and then send these people regular mailings with special offers.

3.Be link-conscious. The search engines love to see that you are a popular sight and will rank you higher when you have links to and from other quality sites. Try to spend 2 or more hours each week searching for other sites to link with and visiting forums and message boards.

4.Know your audience. What search words are your audience likely to type in when they are looking for sites like yours? Find out and add that phrase in as many ways as possible to your page. Use ALT tags, folder names, picture names, META descriptions, and more. Optimize each page with one or two key words or phrases, so if you have 30 pages, you have 30 options for site entry. Consider also building sister sites that are optimized for additional phrases and add articles and such that point back to your main page.

5.Add testimonials. Add the positive real words of actual clients. There is no better form of advertising than a testimonial. People love to read them and they come back to read more.

6.Send a monthly e-newsletter. If you're going to do this, you must use an opt-in subscription form so that you only send it to people who want it, and make sure they know exactly how to get off of your list! There are free services that will help you build your subscription base, and you can have a form right on your main page.

7.Lastly, know when people are most likely to visit and add a limited-time offer to entice them to purchase whatever you are offering.

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