A lot of websites tend to waste more money than they make. That is because the majority of websites are thought to be nothing more than little electronic brochures gathering dust in cyberspace according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

The problem actually has its roots in the phase prior to launching a website. It starts with the 5 most common misconceptions business people should avoid when launching their website.

Mistake #1: An amateur website production will render professional results
Your business website is not the place to publish an amateur representation of your services. You are not just presenting your business to the local and surrounding communities, but to the entire world! Obtaining the services of a professional Internet Marketing Consultant can save you thousands of dollars in the development of your site.

Mistake #2: Developing a "Bargain Basement" site will make you rich
Ask any business owner who's ever purchased a cut-rate website if they were happy with their results. Focus on finding quality service at a reasonable rate rather than the absolute lowest price. Remember the saying "you get what you pay for".

Mistake #3: You're going to make thousands of dollars in your first month
Steer clear of anyone who proposes a statement like this. The truth is, once your site goes online, a good marketing strategy will result in a steady increase in traffic and growth each month. This is partly due to the time delay for search engines to visit your site, capture data, and index it. Only Internet marketing strategies that are tried and true will help make you successful for a long time.

Mistake #4: If you build it, they will come
One of the biggest mistakes today is the failure to recognize the importance of Internet marketing programs such as search engine optimization and online internet advertising. Obtaining a high volume of visitors to your site is a must for success. There is absolutely no "luck" involved in the process. Your website needs to be designed and developed with Internet marketing plans in mind from the beginning.

Mistake #5: All you can do is put up a site and hope for the best
Do not be satisfied with a service that only hopes for the best. A successful website is the result of a website marketing strategy that outlines how and where the website will deliver business results. Some Web designers never give much thought to your success once they have built your site.

Monthly detailed activity reports are essential for your success. The report should at least show detail on the number of visitors to your site, (not hits!) most popular pages, most popular search engine keywords, top-referring URLs, as well as top entry and exit pages. If search engine optimization is important to your success, then you should also have reports detailing your standings in each search engine.
 

Pay per click (PPC) is actually a form of advertising but it accomplishes results similar to search engine optimization. With pay per click programs, you bid on key phrases to determine your ranking. Normally, the more you are willing to spend on a bid, the higher you can rank in the search engines in the PPC listings, which are also sometimes labeled as Sponsored Results.

However, Google Adwords and other search engines also take other factors into consideration such as the quality of your ads and landing pages. Expenses are generated when someone actually clicks on your listing - hence the name "pay per click".

SEO is a more permanent form of optimizing your Web site without paying for your rank position. Both PPC and SEO will allow you to obtain high rankings. It's simply a matter of how you want to go about it.

In Part 1 and Part 2 of Increase Your Website Traffic with Links, I talked about attracting quality incoming links and the sources you can use to get those kinds of links. In this third and final post of the series, it's important to know about other ways to build links to your website such as online press releases, blogs, and blog directories.

Build Links through Press Releases, Blogs and Blog Directories

Press releases and blogging are quickly becoming some of the most popular and talked about methods to build high-quality links to your website. When you distribute a press release online announcing interesting company news, people who read your press release and want more information will click on the link that leads them directly to your website.

The same thing is true with blogs and blog directories. Who is better equipped to talk about your product or service than you? Creating and writing a blog where you talk about your industry, products, services, and more is the perfect way to continuously update content on your site. In addition, you can submit your blog to reputable blog directories which will provide you incoming links to your site.

In Part 1 of this 3 part series, I talked about attracting quality incoming links. The second part of this article discussed sources you can use to gain premium links to your website.

Increase Traffic With Link Popularity

Link popularity is an example of the move by search engines towards off-the-page-criteria (outside of content optimization) to determine quality content. By adding off-the-page-criteria to their algorithms, search engines feel this adds the aspect of impartiality to search engine rankings.

Incoming links from other websites help define a site's reputation. In theory, great sites will naturally attract many links, and content-poor sites will have difficulty attracting any links.

Link popularity assumes that not all inbound links are equal. For example, an incoming link from a major directory carries more weight than an inbound link from an obscure personal home page. There are many sources from which you can draw incoming links, including:

•    First-class directories
•    Industry portals
•    Content-rich industry websites
•    High-quality related websites
•    Premium press release and blog directories

Specialized directories, portals and press release and article directories typically provide a one-way inbound link. While reciprocal links with related directories and websites can help in building link popularity, one-way inbound links are of greater value to increase your link popularity.

Check back next week for the third and final part in this series. 

Improving the link popularity of your website should be the key component of any SEO program because the quantity of premium incoming links to your website is critical for effective SEO efforts. One way of doing this is to implement a link strategy that produces high-quality incoming links.

Attracting Quality Incoming Links
Not all incoming links are equal so it is important that you obtain high-quality incoming links that are considered by search engines to be valuable. The major search engines factor link popularity into their relevancy algorithms, so you need to evaluate your link structure to ensure overall SEO effectiveness.

Your link strategy and implementation accounts for at least 50% of the factors that search engines take into consideration when ranking your website. Understanding the different types of links, and the importance of each, is critical to effective website optimization and ultimately to increasing high-quality sales inquiries.

There are 3 types of links related to your website structure: incoming links, internal links, and outgoing links.

Measuring link popularity will help you determine the quantity and quality of sites that link to your website. Since link popularity is a critical element of any search engine optimization effort, you want to make sure your search engine optimization program includes a link popularity plan.

Learn another way to improve the link popularity of your website in Part 2.