The best traffic comes directly from the search engines. Your visitors have found your site through a keyword search. You paid nothing and you got an interested visitor. The way you get this has to do with things like keyword usage in your actual text, your inbound links, and developing quality and informative subject matter (which is the most important).

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is what it's all about. No matter how nice your site looks it will not get very much traffic without focused SEO efforts. Pay-Per-Click Advertising, banner or text ads can be helpful in supplementing your traffic but this can be costly if not done correctly.

Using Keywords and Phrases for an introduction to the concepts of "On Site" SEO. Equally important, if not more so, is "Off Site" SEO. This is where your inbound links come into play. Generally speaking, the more inbound links there are that point to your sites pages the better your search engine rankings will be. Naturally, all inbound links are not equal in the value that they contribute to your site.

Usually you will not have direct control over off site SEO. The best way to increase your one-way inbound links is to build a genuinely helpful and content rich site. Sometimes a friendly request to another webmaster may get you a one-way link. Ask for links from only relevant and quality sites. Always be polite and in your requests. Explain why you chose their site and why their visitors could benefit from your content.

There are four primary factors involved in the "value" of an inbound link:

The Rank of the Site

It is well known that Google uses links as a significant factor in determining PR (Page Rank). Simply put, consistently adding links will have a much better effect than adding links in bunches.

The search engine notes the discovery date of links, the life span of the link and the speed at which a new web site obtains links. This approach reveals that Google is discounting quick link exchange strategies such as buying bulk links for your site. Instead, Google appears to consider a natural linking evolution as a sign that a site is legitimate.

The specifics of a good linking strategy are a bit difficult to nail down. Factors that might be considered include:

1 The anchor text of the link.

2 The discovery date of the link.

3 The growth rate of links to your site.

4 The rate at which links to a page appear and disappear.

5 The age of links with older links carrying more value.

6 Numerous links to a new site will be looked at as spam, unless some of the links are from highly valued sites.

7 Link growth that is constant is optimal.

8 Sudden bunches of new links will be devalued as spam.

Google values sites that are in it for the long term, update regularly and consistently grow in link popularity. Taking this theme into account, it is easy to understand why the Google sandbox exists.

One-Way or Reciprocal?

One-way links to your site are much better for your site from an SEO standpoint. The main value of an inbound link is in whether or not it will generate traffic to your site. Get reciprocal links from sites that will bring more visitors to your pages.

The Relevance of the Site

What is going to make you the most amount of sales if you are trying to sell fishing equipment? A link from an outdoor hobby website or a link from a bubble gum corporation? I think the answer is straightforward, the outdoor hobby website. The trick is to know your market and understand your customer. What age group would your customers be, and what other type of website would they look at if they were interested in your product? What about demographics? Does your product or service need to be promoted only in certain countries? If you're selling fishing equipment in the U.S. a site who's traffic comes from outside the U.S. may not be desirable.

There are two types of inbound links - One Way and Reciprocal. Usually a one way link is gained by another webmaster finding your web site useful enough to where they voluntarily post a link to it on their own site. A reciprocal link is a "trade" where both webmasters post links to each others sites. One way links, naturally, are worth more than reciprocal links. Recently much has been written saying that the value of reciprocal links can be very low or none at all.

Be careful when selecting sites for reciprocal linking. Your outbound links are part of your on page SEO and they are important. You do not want to have links pointing to questionable web sites or "link farms". Always go for sites that are relevant to your own content. The best way to increase the value of your website is to concentrate on linking to helpful and relevant content. Think of the value to your web visitor when choosing other sites to link to. The search engine "spiders" who crawl your site will recognize links to good and especially relevant web sites.

How to look for sites to get inbound links from Do a search on a site that is similar to yours. Type link:http://www.domainname.com in the search box. This will give you a listing of the sites who have links pointing to the site you are interested in. Now you will see who is linking to the site that is similar to yours! Visit the sites and request a link from those who seem the most relevant.

Another good way to increase your inbound links is to join as many quality and relevant forums as you can. Search for forums that deal with the same subject matter as your site. Join the best forums you can find and try to become an active member. Be sure to read the rules or guidelines for any forum before you post a message. The best way to get involved is just to read the messages. If the forum is about an area of interest related to your site's theme you will be sure to have replies to questions or questions of your own.

Dont forget place a link to your web site in your profile. Take it a step further and put a link to your web site in your signature. The search engines often pick these up!

The Wording of the Text Link

Text links that contain relevant keywords are much more valuable than those that do not. Suppose you have a web site about fly fishing. A link to your site using the words "Learn how to catch the big ones with fly fishing" would be much more preferable to a link that says simply "yourdomain.com". Obviously you will usually have little control of the format of any inbound links to your site. But when you do have a choice always opt for the use of relevant keywords.

Make SEO an ongoing effort. Inbound links take time to accumulate and it can be very time consuming to search for quality reciprocals. Spend time on it when you can. Always grow. Never consider your web site complete. Update and add new pages as often as you are able. The search engines love fresh, new and updating information.