Many people want to increase traffic to their website and improve the ranking in Google (and other) search results.  There are several things you can do that are relatively quick and easy and best of all free.

Start Blogging

Blogging takes patience and persistence but provides a lot of benefits.   Identify your goals and objectives for you blog.  The main benefits of blogging include:

• Increase traffic
• Improve search engine ranking
• Enhance your reputation
• Create brand awareness

Blogging as a Business strategy provides details about the benefits of blogging.  If you are not sure what to write about, keep your target market in mind and consider writing about:

• New information, rules or regulations
• Questions you hear frequently
• Useful tips, tricks or resources

If you need ideas, look at questions posted on Intuit Community Forums, Linkedin or elsewhere.  For example, I wrote a blog post about using QuickBooks files with Dropbox, SugarSync and other File Sharing services after seeing several questions about it.

Post on High Traffic Sites

Google search results include the Q&A from many community forums, groups and discussions.  High traffic websites like Intuit Community and other forums generally rank high in Google searches.  You can utilize this to help drive traffic to your website.  When you post an answer or comment make sure your signature includes a link to your website.

When you post an answer, keep Google in mind.  Use keywords and avoid abbreviations.  For example, don’t use ‘QB’ but type out QuickBooks instead.   Think about what people would search for on Google and try to incorporate those keywords and phrases in your answer.

It is more effective to write a blog post that answers the question.  Then answer the question with some keywords along with the link to your blog post.  (Note:  It is important for your blog to be part of your website.)  This helps drive traffic to your website from the community and from Google search results.

For example, after I wrote the blog post about using QuickBooks with Dropbox I searched for relevant questions about it.  On Intuit Community, I searched for ‘Dropbox’ and ‘SugarSync’ and answered questions a link to the blog post. I searched Google for ‘QuickBooks and Dropbox’ and other keywords and phrases to find more questions about the topic.  I found  questions on Dropbox’s community forum and elsewhere too.  You can search Linkedin Questions and other places as well.    Posting on high-traffic websites like Intuit, Dropbox, etc. with a link to your website helps generate traffic too and your search rankings too.

I use Google Analytics (which is a free, easy to use tool) to help analyze website traffic and content.  It includes many reports, charts and graphs about your website’s traffic, content, keywords and more.   This chart illustrates that 44% of my website traffic comes from Google searches and Intuit Community.

Finally, you can use tools like Hootsuite to help post it on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, etc. quickly and efficiently.

Other Tips to Help Improve Your Search Engine Ranking

• Use Google Analytics for insight on your website’s visitors and traffic
• Register your business on Google Places
• Sign up for Intuit ProLine Weblistings

Note:  This blog post originally appeared on The Sleeter Group’s QuickBooks and Beyond Blog.

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