Articles : Free Web Site Traffic – 4 Keys to Website Promotion

Case Study: Is Lycos InSite Pro Paid Inclusion Worth It?

Last Update: Sunday, March 06, 2005.

In this article I will show you the results of my test with the Lycos InSite Pro paid inclusion site submission program.

I recently tested the Lycos InSite Pro paid inclusion system. InSite Pro offers guaranteed inclusion in the Lycos web index within 48 hours of submission, and full refresh of my web pages every 48 hours.

Lycos InSite Pro offers two packages:

* 1-250 Pages: $189.00/month

* 251-500 Pages: $279.00/month

I opted for the $279/month plan. I have about 500 pages of content across my network of sites and wanted all of them indexed in Lycos.

The Results

Lycos currently do not provide keyword, impression or click-through stats, although they do intend to offer them in the near future.

So I checked my traffic stats according to my WebTrendsLive reports. I was shocked to find that Lycos only sent 41 visitors in the first 2 weeks of indexing my site. During the same period, Google sent me thousands of visitors.

So I wrote to Lycos and asked if they could provide access to click through stats for my account. I wanted to double check, just in case my stats were wrong. They couldn't.

So I also asked what I could change in my pages to get more traffic.

Here's their helpful reply:

Every entry in the Lycos index is created by automated software called a "spider." When a Web page is submitted to Lycos, the spider examines the full text of the page and determines relevant keywords based on its composition.

The spider will pay close attention to the components of the URL, the TITLE tag, headings and subheadings, frequency of word use, location of words on the Web page, and the distance between words.

If your Web page contains frames, our spider will be able to index the text in the <NOFRAMES> section only. We cannot examine the pages within your frame.

Once our software has extracted this information, an abstract is created and stored in the Lycos index. Our search software ranks the search results by considering a combination of the factors listed above. Web pages with fewer than 100 words of text are less likely to be found in a Lycos search.

Read that again in case you missed anything.

Note that the Lycos spider pays close attention to the URL. So if you ever wondered if search engines took into account keywords in URLs, you now know the truth.

Another important point is that your pages should contain 100 words or more, otherwise it's unlikely to be found in Lycos.

For some unknown reason Lycos doesn't like my web pages.

There's nothing new in their reply that suggests I have not optimized my web pages in the correct manner to achieve top rankings in Lycos.

Thankfully, Google does like my pages, so I don't intend to change my pages just to cater to the Lycos ranking algorithm.

In case you're wondering, I have canceled my Lycos InSite Pro subscription. But that shouldn't come as a surprise. ;o)

Free Web Site Traffic – 4 Keys to Website Promotion

By Tammy Ames

Article Word Count: 706 [View Summary] Comments (0)

Web site traffic promotion on the cheap is labor intensive but quickly mastered if you know where to start. Free web site traffic doesn’t mean massive submission to search engines or traffic exchanges. Carving out a web site promotion strategy following basic guidelines will bring the targeted web site traffic you need to have a successful online business.

Keys to web site promotion

Search engine optimization (SEO)

The first step to online web site promotion is ensuring that your web site is optimized for search engine traffic. Every page of your website needs to be worked with strong targeted page titles, heading tags and original content rich with key words chosen to reach your niche market. If you are a self-directed learner then your best bet would be Jill Whalen’s Nitty Gritty of Writing for Search Engines. http://www.wahmconnections.com/nittygritty.htm

If you need more support and would prefer learning search engine optimization in a classroom format then I recommend Cricket Bailey’s SEO class found at GNC Web Creations. http://www.gnc-web-creations.com

Ezine (Online Newsletter) Publishing

Newsletter publishing is a powerful way to stay connected to visitors to your website and help generate repeat traffic to your online business. By creating fresh content and strong readership, your newsletter will be forwarded to others leading to a growing subscriber list. Strong design and subscriber interaction, a newsletter will generate regular traffic that over time will build your credibility and name recognition ~ Branding.

Business Blog

Blogging for online business is quickly becoming one of the best web site traffic generators you can find that doesn’t have to cost you anything. You invest your time learning how blogging works for business then you set up your blog and start using the information you have learned to generate targeted traffic to your website. The most popular free online blogger is Blogger.com which although is owned by Google does not have any extra perks for search engine traffic generation and the initial traffic you draw is to someone else’s site ~ Blogger.

If you have your own website that you have control of your c-panel then check to see if you have Fantastico which allows you to set up your own blog. If you set up your new blog within your own website then your blog is essentially free unless you need to upgrade your hosting to accommodate the increase in bandwidth used with higher traffic but that is a good thing!

A blog with strong titles, quality content and strategic pinging plus rss feeds will be your key to fast search engine indexing, traffic to your blog that can funnel traffic directly to your business website.

Article Writing

Writing articles with a strong resource box is your best free web site traffic generator. Due to its viral nature on the internet, articles that are published on websites and in newsletters of other ezine publishers will bring your website traffic. With each new article and publishing, your articles will reach more people building both traffic and branding You as an expert. With each article you write, your first stop is EzineArticles which is a high traffic article database used by webmasters and newsletter publishers to find fresh content. EzineArticles (http://www.ezinearticles.com) also publishes your articles in a search engine friendly format that lets internet surfers find the information they are seeking.

Every business website owner should take these keys to web site traffic seriously. The energy put into learning SEO, newsletter publishing, business blogging and article writing has a high return on investment.

Creating fresh dynamic articles in your area of interest and expertise will help you build up your website, fill your newsletter and draw traffic to your business blog. Submitting your articles to other webmasters and ezine publishers will further build your reputation beyond your own website.

Learning how to write and publish your articles on your website and your blog in a search engine friendly format means that you have covered all the bases.

Free web site traffic is initially very labor intensive but the investment of yourself in these four areas will bring you the success online you are striving to achieve.

Tammy Ames is the owner of WAHM Connections http://www.wahmconnections.com - Building your home internet business resource site with a weekly online newsletter Work at Home Connections Ezine http://www.wahmconnections.com/current.htm

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/