If you have just created your blog, it will normally take some time before search engines index your blog and start receiving traffic from them. But being indexed by search engines and appearing on the search engine result page is not enough. You need to rank high on the search engine result page or at least appear on the first 3 pages. Getting this done is a tough challenge especially when you want to rank high on competitive keywords or key phrases. 

There are alot of factors that determine the rank of a website on the search engine result page but no one knows exactly how search engines calculate it. Some of these factors include Google page rank (for Google), inbound links, anchor text used, keywords or key phrases and title tag.

Indirect Search Engine Traffic

Over the past months of blogging, I have been working really hard to optimize my blog for search engines. Despite the tremendous growth of social networks and its great potential as a source of traffic for a website, search engines remain invaluable sources of targeted traffic. If, however, you are having difficulties getting search engine traffic, why don’t you try indirect search engine traffic.

So how exactly can you get indirect traffic from search engines? It’s really simple. Use forums that are highly ranked on search engine result page and with high Google page ranking. Let’s use BlogCatalog’s discussion as our example.

BlogCatalog is an ideal website to get indirect traffic from search engines because it has a Google page rank of 7 and is highly ranked on search engine results. How can we get indirect search engine traffic from BlogCatalog and other forums? Simply create new discussions about your posts. Don’t just create threads, optimize them. The more discussion threads you create, the higher your chances of getting indirect search engine traffic.

Tips To Optimize Threads

Here are a few pointers to remember when you are starting a new thread at BlogCatalog or at any forum.

discussion

  • DO NOT SPAM. Make sure you create relevant and useful discussions.  Make sure you read, understand and abide by the Term of Service of Blogcatalog and other forums before you start creating threads. Violating BlogCatalog or any other forums’ TOS will only risk your thread from being deleted.
  • INCLUDE A TITLE AND MAKE IT DESCRIPTIVE. When creating a new thread in forums, you are provided a space for the title of your thread. Make use of it as it will improve your chances of appearing at search engine result pages.
  • USE KEYWORDS AND KEYPHRASES IN YOUR THREAD. When creating a new thread about your post, make sure to use keywords and keyphrases to further optimize your thread for search engines.
  • ENTER TAGS WHEN AVAILABLE. Blogcatalog allows you to enter tags relevant to the discussions you are creating. You should make use of it when it’s available on other forums. Entering tags for your thread will help improve your visibility to search engines and other search tools like Technorati Search.
  • DON’T FORGET TO PROVIDE A LINK TO YOUR POST. Remember that the point of indirect traffic from search engines is make use of highly ranked websites and divert their traffic to your blog.
  • MAKE YOUR THREAD ACTIVE. Once you created a new thread or discussion, make sure to respond to new questions. Making your thread active improves its visibility to search engines.

Let’s take a look at an example of how Blogging Mix gets indirect search engine traffic. Using the key phrase “Increase Technorati Blog Reaction”, Google gives back this result.

google search result

On top of the search result is a link to one of BlogCatalog’s discussions, which happens to be one that I created. If you click on the link, you will be directed to the discussion thread , which looks like this.

blogcatalog discussions

Take note that I included a link to my post in the discussion thread and provided information about what can be expected when someone visits the link. The information should be attractive to lure visitors to click on the link. Hence, visiting your blog. That’s how I get indirect search engine traffic for Blogging Mix. You can use the same simple technique to  other relevant forums with high search engine visibility.

Hope that one helps. Thank you for your time. Cheers! :)

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