Getting Search Engine Traffic to a New Website -- a case study

So, how long does it take to get search engine traffic to a brand new Web site or blog, especially with a brand new domain?

An often asked question, with an answer of "it depends," but here is a short case study where it took about 48 hours!

I started a new Web site called Fly Rod Striped Bass at http://flyrodstripedbass.com, a Domain I recently purchased. I'm now, within 48 hours, the #10 hit (that means first page results) on Yahoo and have already gotten search engine visitors for the term "flyfishing for striped bass".

This is important because search engines drive most of the traffic on the Internet.

The Web site has one page so far and is very very beta, including buttons that don't work, misspellings, etc.

So, what did I do to start the search engine traffic?

1) The main and only page has good keyword density. In other words, I mention Striped Bass and flyfishing a lot (although in a very natural way, it doesn't seem stilted or unnatural). I also use the same keywords in the two pictures "alt image" text.

2) The title tag -- what shows up in the upper left hand corner of the browser window, is critical in EVERY blog and Website. Here it says "Striped Bass Flyfishing" -- note the use of keywords.

Almost every Web designer on the planet gets the title tags 100% wrong -- which is why most Web designers drive rusted out purple Gremlins instead of Ferraris!

1) and 2) are "on site" or  "on page" optimization. I also did some offpage optimization, #3 below.

3) I created links from two of my blogs to the Website with link text of "Striped Bass Fly Fishing" -- note the keywords in the link text.

I also bookmarked it using a few social sites, maybe 3 or 4 max, such as Mister Wong and spurl, which created additional links. Links matter a lot to search engines.

So that's all I did, and the search engines (at least Yahoo! so far) are already sending me search engine traffic.

Long term plans for the site? Well, I'm passionate about Striped Bass fishing, so I'll be (very slowly) producing a lot of content, and hopefully running some advertisements and affiliate programs and making a few bucks. It's really all an experiment!

Update: After 3 days, it's started getting Google traffic too. Not a lot, but it's trickling in.

Maybe this site will never be in The Google Sandbox?

Comments

[Reg]

Hi Ted,
This argument is the most convincing I have read for specific domain names. But, I still have a question. Considering many authors write about an umbrella of topics (my areas being temperament, behavior, counseling, etc) how could I design a site name that would bring appropriate traffic to my site? It seems "www.temperamentbehaviorcounselingcholericmelancholyphlegmaticsanguinesupine.com" is a little unwieldy, in addition to the probability it wouldn't work as a web address.
Thanks,
Reg

[Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business]

Hi Reg,

You won't be able to pick a domain name obviously that covers everything.

You could pick a domain name that covers one or two or perhaps even none of those areas, and then setup different areas within the site for specific areas.

Could do this with subdomains, for example, temperment.sitename.com, behavior.sitename.com, counseling.sitename.com for example, or perhaps more likely, skip the subdomains but do directories.

For example all the temperament related things could be in a directory on sitename, for example www.sitename.com/temperment and so forth. The home page would want links, either buttons or text (or both) that link to a "sub home page", for example one on temperment.

Of course with a blog, you can use categories such as temperment, behavior, counseling, etc. which will automatically do a lot of this.

[Reg of Elemental Truths]

That's great,Ted.
I had no idea search engines "looked" at the categories lables on my site.
As always, you are a wealth of great information.

[Jeremy Bloom]

I have found blog software, specifically WordPress, provides the types of things a search engine looks for.

You still need to get links pointing to your site, and setup a domain name properly, but using this software gives you word-based URLs for the content you create, CSS/XML as a base for site technology, and an extremely easy site for search engines to find and crawl for indexing.

My advice to all of my clients is to use WordPress and focus on linking and consistent site updates. Those are the key to becoming a "relevant" presence online.

[Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business]

Hi Reg,

Yup, the search engines are pretty smart, and categories are important to both them and humans.

[Ted Demopoulos]

Jeremy,
I agree 100% with everything you say, except for your conclusion :)

WordPress.org (which rocks) and some other blog platforms as well do a lot of the work for you, and for someone like you or me, that's great.

But for a non-technical bloke or blokette, I hate to blanket recommend a platform that involves installing ANYTHING on the server side, as well as tweaking it, updating it, etc. To us of course it's trivial, but to, for example Reg at www.elementaltruths.com, a really smart guy, trivial (to us) technie things are not always trivial).

Would you rather see a non-technie dealing with WordPress, or would it be easier to have them using Microsoft FrontPage for example? Open question -- both are REALLY HARD for many brilliant yet non-technical people.

[Frank]

thats a very nice article Ted...

Frank
www.welcometoinsurance.com

[search engine optimisation tips]

There are several search engine optimization techniques that you can do to increase the page rank and visitor traffic of your site.

[Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business]

Hey search engine optimisation tips, yes there are many techniques and they keep changing.
Leaving comments with keywords in the link text as you just did on most blogs (no follow blogs like this one) isn't however :)
Thanks for stopping by.

[seo company]

Good post.You could pick a domain name that covers one or two or perhaps even none of those areas, and then setup different areas within the site for specific areas..