Getting Traffic from Google

1. 91

   Will Apseposted 8 years ago

   This is one way of getting traffic from Google. The old hands know this but the newbies might benefit.
   
   First choose a subject you know about or are interested in. I am going with 'rocks'.
   
   Go to Google, type something about rocks. I chose 'rocks with'.
   
   You get search suggestions like this:
   
   
   
   Go to the bottom of the page and there are more search phrases which could make good topics:
   
   
   
   Say, you like the idea of writing a page about rocks with crystals. Search for 'rocks with crystals' in Google and you find that this page is the number 1 result:
   
   http://www.rocksandminerals4u.com/geodes.html
   
   If you think that you can write a better page than that, why not try?
   
   Call your page something like 10 Dazzling Rocks with Crystals or whatever (not just the keywords).
   
   How much traffic will '10 Dazzling Rocks with Crystals' get every month? No idea. But it will get a lot more than "Rocks I found on my Holiday'.

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      viryaboposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Great tips Will. Thanks

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      promisemposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Excellent tip. You might also want to look at the total search results for each keyword phrase.
      
      A phrase with 10,000 results has more opportunity for a writer than one with 10 million results.

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      1. 91

         Will Apseposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Good point. That brings up the issue of long tail keywords and checking out the competition. If there are a lot of search results it suggests you are looking at too broad a subject. You are unlikely to rank high in the search results for one-word keywords like 'rock'. Check out the search results:
         
         https://www.google.com/search?q=rock&rct=j (2,070,000,000 results)
         
         You would also be up against Wikipedia, billboard, geology.com.
         
         A search for 'rock with a hole' gives you  16,700,000 results and competition from sites like quora.com and pinterest.
         
         This is also on the first page of search:
         
         http://everythingunderthemoon.net/forum … t9723.html
         
         I reckon a good quality page published here could beat out the competition, but would it be worth the effort?
         
         PaulGoodman67 suggests the adwords external tool to get a notion of the numbers of searches a month. It certainly is useful but the figures that Google give only correlate very, very roughly with what you actually get if you reach the number 1 spot in search.
         
         You will only know if 'rock with a hole in it' was worth writing after you have written it.
         
         Even then you might need to wait a year or 2 as the page claws its way up the search results.
         
         'Course, I am hoping for a faster result with the niche sites, lol...

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            PaulGoodman67posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I recommended Adwords in conjunction with other methods.

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2. 91

   Will Apseposted 8 years ago

   You can use Google suggestions to boost traffic to an existing page. Take the page title and drop into search and see what suggestions come up. If you find a phrase closely related to the page that people search for a lot, use that phrase in you title (or maybe a subtitle). But you might need to reorientate your page to make sure the content matches the title perfectly.
   
   Google shepherds people along particular avenues in search and it is worth understanding what those avenues are.

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3. 91

   Will Apseposted 8 years ago

   This thread sort of confirms my suspicion that the only people using these forums these days are people who have done well from the niche sites and know how to choose page titles, plus the absolute beginners who are just struggling to get featured. They will be wondering why they get no Google traffic after their pages have languished for a few months.
   
   No intermediates who could benefit, lol.

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4. 95

   PaulGoodman67posted 8 years ago

   That's good advice. 
   
   Google Adwords is another great tool, of course, and can be used in conjunction.  Adwords will also give you an idea of how valuable those keywords are from an income/advertising perspective, as different topics vary wildly.

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5. 70

   iwrite100posted 8 years ago

   I will take this advice seriously.
   I am still a "newbie" even if I joined two years ago.

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6. 77

   lobobrandonposted 8 years ago

   The suggest feature is smart and uses information from previous searches, but also picks up on phrases that you could be searching even if just a handful of people have searched for it before (Not sure how big the hand is ;D ).
   
   What I would like to add here is that you do that go down on the page and get other suggestions as you suggested. Open them in new tabs and see the suggestions on those suggestions. Get like 10 keyphrases and put them in the adwords tool to see monthly search volume, if you're happy with it, give it a short. Of course competition and other factors mentioned play a huge role too.
   
   I personally do not just modify my idea based on the suggest since most of the times the suggest has lower search volumes than what I thought about first (since I am a searcher and would know what I would type myself).

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   1. 91

      Will Apseposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I reckon Google pushes the most popular related searches in the suggest box. And they will be a lot more current than the stuff you see in adwords.
      
      I had a page here several years ago called the 'Beginners Guide to the Best Smartphones'. There were very view searches for 'best smartphones' at the time, according to adwords. I published the page and got 500 views a day almost immediately (and rising thereafter).
      
      Now, of course, 'best smartphones' is a sad, cliche-ridden subject and there is no point writing about it here.

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7. 73

   LeanManposted 8 years ago

   Getting traffic is not the whole answer... at least if you want to earn from it.
   
   While I have seen people saying that all traffic is good and you will earn from it - what you write about can have a huge impact on what you earn..
   
   How many advertisers are you going to find paying for high paying adds on a site/page about rocks - with or without holes? So even if you get a lot of traffic you are not going to make a lot of cash from it.
   
   I have a few sites now that get a reasonable amount of traffic and can see this very clearly. My business related sites can earn $10+ per thousand views while my more general stuff can earn less than $1....
   
   If it is $$$ you are after you need to think a lot about what the reader/searcher wants and if anyone if going to pay to advertise there.
   
   Of course if you find that weird page that gets a million plus views even if it only earns a fraction of a buck per thousand views it is still a winner....

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      PaulGoodman67posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      You speak the truth.  It's difficult to earn anything with some topics.  And some topics that can get lots of traffic and earn, I wouldn't personally touch: dieting fads, for instance.  A mixed approach is reasonable, I've decided.  Some things I write purely for fun, some to earn, and most is a mixture of both.

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8. 95

   PaulGoodman67posted 8 years ago

   Now that Hubpages seems to be on the up and up again, I think it might be time to actually start writing more articles again.  I've spent a long time just moving stuff around and editing.

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9. 91

   Will Apseposted 8 years ago

   When Adesense was the only game in town only commercial topics could make money.
   
   Adsense will make you money if you write a page that attracts people who are willing to buy something.
   
   If you have a blog about expat life, for instance, you soon draw adsense ads that sell expat life insurance, retirement packages, investment opportunists (Freudian slip, lol).
   
   If you stumbled onto that kind of thing, well done. Those are high value ads and every click is the sound of a cash register.
   
   If you write pages that are rather academic then adsense is never going to work for you.
   
   Ads that pay writers something for every view they receive (the kind HP has) offer income from a wider range of pages.
   
   HP will not tell which topics pay best of course, or the spammers will pour in.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Adsense is pretty useless nowadays after a long period of decline.  But the advertising economics hasn't changed much, in terms of which topics are more commercially viable. 
      
      I use a number of different methods to assess the potential of a proposed article before I embark on it, including what you've said, and Adwords.  Sometimes it works out, sometimes it fails, but it improves the chances of raking in a few cents in the long run. 
      
      I remember the old days when HP did suggest specific topics to write on each week.  I think they're more wary nowadays after getting burned by Google more than once!

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         lobobrandonposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I guess that was just Simone's specialty. Suggesting topics was based on keyword research they did. It was a good way to motivate new writers who didn't know what to write about. Then again as you say it would have led to multiple articles on the same topic.

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10. 87

    WryLiltposted 8 years ago

    Good tip!
    
    Just to be clear:
    
    -Google Keyword Tool is designed for advertisers not publishers and is incredibly inaccurate for determining traffic.
    
    -It doesn't matter if there are 3,000,000 results or 30,000,000 results. If you flick through the pages you'll likely not be able to go past 20 anyway. THE most important place to judge competition is the first page. If there are only quora, yahoo answers and forum posts, it's generally a good sign you can rank on the first page.

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    1. 91

       Will Apseposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Yeah, that is about right.
       
       But also to repeat, you really do need to write a better page than the competition even if you are publishing on a site with more authority than your competition.
       
       And also to say, Google seems to give some kudos to people who get to a subject early.
       
       There are thousands of new keyword phrases coalescing all the time. Get onto one first and you will be rewarded. The Adwords tool is always old hat in terms of search and it is used by everyone. If you can find your own of finding keywords you will prosper.
       
       I could give examples if anyone is interested.

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          Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

          I remember Nelle Hoxie saying shé found the best way to get good keywords was to walk around Walmart and listen in to people's conversations...

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          1. 91

             Will Apseposted 8 years agoin reply to this

             I usually have a chat with God in such settings, lol. Please Lord, block up my ears...

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       NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

       +1

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