Wondering about how to increase traffic to your websites or other internet resources? Many people are - but many make the mistake of just wanting to increase their "web hits" rather than considering who might be visiting their site, and if those people are even looking for what you have to offer. The key to real and quality traffic lies in increasing relevant traffic with keywords - the correct keywords and the correct handling of them for your resources.

If you're around the internet much and have dug into the subject of internet marketing you may have come across the term, "relevance" and the fact that relevance is important for increasing web traffic - increasing quality web traffic that is..

But what is "relevance" when it comes to internet traffic?

Basically, "relevance" = people who visit your site or other resource (such as a blog) are actually arriving to a page that answers their question or need. Here's an example of "relevance":

• Someone goes to Google.com and types in the term "best laundry detergent to get out grass stains". That person clicks on an article entitled, "Grass Stains and How to Get Them Out: Top Laundry Detergents". They arrive to the article and get the answer to their question.

OK, now let's take that same Google.com searcher, and give another example - this time showing what irrelevance is:

• In the list that comes up from the search, the person clicks on a link that says, "5 Ways to Beat Grass Stains" and arrives to a website or blog that describes how to teach your son to avoid falling down while playing football. Not so relevant to what they're looking for.

Get the picture?

OK, I've talked about relevance, but what about keywords? Well, when I say, "keywords" I'm not really talking about single words, but phrases. ("Keywords" is a term commonly used among internet marketers to describe either words or phrases that can pull traffic.)

When you create a new website for a business such as shoes, for example, and you are selling specific kinds or brands of shoes, the wrong keyword to use for increasing web traffic is "shoes". Why? Because you will absolutely get buried in the search engines amongst millions of other websites that are using the same word. (Or, in the case of using pay per click, you will be paying A LOT of money for a click if you're bidding for the first page of ads.)

OK, let's get more specific and say that you want to market one of those brands of shoes called "Webber". Well, you could use "Webber Shoes" as a keyword, but you're probably still going to get buried, especially if it's a popular brand.

How about this - "Webber Men's Sheepskin Lined Loafers" - Now we're talkin'! Your competition is going to greatly decrease with those keywords, and the people who see that in the search engines and click on it will arrive to a page that has exactly what they want. The chances of them making a purchase are much higher than someone who arrived at your site from the word "shoes" - right?

Search engines - especially the major ones - have caught on to a tactic that people use to try to get their websites, pages, blogs, etc., to rank more highly in the search engines. This tactic involves "planting" keywords into the "meta" or "sub" data behind a web page.

Now, if it's a reasonable number of keywords, and if the keywords are relevant, that's fine. But if they're NOT relevant and the site owner is just trying to deceive people so that they can get more traffic, that's - well, that's lying.

There really is no substitute for good, quality content in any website or other online resource. That's what will keep you rising in the ranks, and will be the successful tactic in the long run.

(And - remember to use the words that are relevant to your service/product right on the website itself, in the text/context areas.)

The subject of finding great keywords to use, and how to use them is extensive. I honestly cannot give you a "quick fix" on this point, but I can tell you that the real answer lies in research - i.e., find out what people are looking for in your specific niche and how to go about side-stepping competition in those niches.

Here's what I did: I learned how to do keyword research with the intention of becoming professional at my trade (internet marketing). I learned the hard way that if you don't know the techniques involved with internet marketing - especially the techniques having to do with correct research and utilization of keywords - you might be "spinning your wheels". (At least that was my experience.)

I researched what was out there on the internet that honestly would teach me how to do internet marketing as a professional and the one resource I kept landing on that others consistently recommended was Wealthy Affiliate University. I signed up 2 years ago and I haven't looked back since.

If you're not really into learning about internet marketing on a professional level, and want to strictly focus on keywords there is a product that can recommend called Keyword Elite, which is a brilliant tool and can hand you those keywords you need practically on a silver platter.