Blog you can’t dance to this...but you can try!

We just completed and launched a new, custom web design project.

The site is for The Peacemaker Center, a nonprofit organization in Downingtown, PA that provides faith-based counseling and therapy. 

It includes an integrated Flash media player to house a web video introduction (not produced by us), a javascript photo gallery and lightbox, and -- included with any site we build from the ground up -- a basic version of our search engine optimization.

Take a moment and see what we've been up to.

It's been pouring all day here in Philadelphia. Appropriate, I guess, to have a discussion about the best sources for large amounts of web site traffic. No, I'm not talking about in-bound links from your brother's fly-fishing Wordpress blog. And, no, I'm not talking about Google or Yahoo either -- it's no secret that proper title-tagging and strategic keyword choices can bring organic traffic from the major search engines.

The kind of site traffic I'm talking about today comes suddenly in tidal waves and flash floods. And it can be very valuable. Here is a quick list of the best sources for large amounts of web traffic:

Digg.com

del.icio.us

Reddit.com

StumbleUpon.com

facebook.com

Slashdot.org

Squidoo.com

Furl.net

Ezinearticles.com

PRWeb.com

The first thing you need is some great content: a bit of fantastic news related to your industry, a creative web video marketing campaign, a newsworthy press release, or even just a stellar blog post. It doesn't matter how much effort you put into web marketing if the content you're pushing is flat, boring, or old news.

Second thing you need is a little knowledge about social networking and bookmarking. More and more, web users bookmark web sites they like, then tag the bookmarks with relevant keywords. A lot of users share their bookmarks with friends and family. In an hour, five visitors can become five hundred.

But this can only happen if you have the proper tools for them to do so. If you don't already, promote popular bookmarking sites by including buttons or text links that allow users to easily add your web site or page to their bookmarks.

Additionally, sites such as PRWeb and Squidoo are great places to publish your content while including links back to your web site. Used smartly, these sites can act as portals (or floodgates, if you will) for hundreds, even thousands, of users to land on your site.

Lastly, but most importantly, prepare your site for visitors with effective usage of web traffic receptacles. New visitors to your site generally have a very short attention span. If they don't see what they came for, they bounce. Literally. So make sure you convert increased traffic into increased sales by funneling the layout of your content so the important stuff -- "buy now" buttons, newsletter and mailing list sign-ups, RSS feeds -- is easy to find and prominently placed.

To begin a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign, a business must first identify the terms they wish to optimize for. That task begins simply enough, with the business asking what words or phrases might drive them quality traffic. It's not a difficult question to answer but choosing the best answer- the set of keywords that will net you the best results for your efforts- is where things start to get tricky. 

Say your business is a small, Philadelphia based, web consulting company (I know... I'm really stretching my imagination here). After a quick brainstorming session, the initial list of keywords you come up with might look something like this:

While those words and phrases accurately describe the business's services, they are not the best choices for an optimization campaign. As a small business, it would be very difficult to compete with large, national organizations for terms as generic as "consulting" or "SEO". 

There are many considerations in choosing the best keywords for your campaign- too many to cover in one post. But there's a simple rule that goes a long way in improving keyword choice: be specific.

There are over 100,000,000 organizations competing to be the first result in Google for "consulting" (and the winner, by the way, is currently Wikipedia), but only 200,000 competing for "web consulting philadelphia". By focusing on more specific terms, a small company greatly improves its chances of a good return position in the search engines. 

Choosing more specific keywords also helps drive higher quality traffic to your site. With "consulting" you might get visitors looking for web consulting but you will also get visitors looking for tax compliance consulting or business development consulting. Choosing more specific keywords makes it more likely that the visitors coming to your site are potential customers. 

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We build dynamic websites that dominate search engines, leverage social media, and increase sales.