I have good news and I have bad news.  The good news is that you have a website, the bad news is that just because you have a website does not mean that anyone will see it.  Having a visible prescense on the internet, particularly search engines, is arguably the most important aspect of your online marketing strategy.  Website traffic is the lifeblood of our online strategies; without it, we will never receive any sales or leads from the internet.  It is that simple, you must have website visitors in order to  receive sales and leads.  So what are the sources of traffic that we as website owners can receive?  There are four sources of website traffic: Direct, Paid, Organic, and Referral.

• Direct- traffic that you receive when someone types your domain name directly into their website browser ex. typing "www.profitoptimizationgroup.com" into your browser is direct traffic
• Paid- traffic that you receive from pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN
• Organic(free)- traffic that you receive from search engines from seach engine optimization efforts
• Referral- traffic that you receive from other websites that have a hyperlink to your website Ex. this hyperlink is referral traffic for Google.

Now that you know the types of traffic, what kind of traffic do you want?  While direct, paid, and referral traffic are fine and well, organic traffic from search engines is by far the best source of targeted website traffic.  Why is this?  Because when people visit your website from search engines, they are obviously searching for you!

For example, suppose you are a local Oxford, MS attorney and that you have a website.  Now suppose that someone types "Oxford MS attorneys" into Google... the person that typed that phrase is obviously searching for an attorney in Oxford, MS; hence, they are your most targeted customer... they are searching for your services!  Now, you can see that organic traffic is where your online marketing efforts should be focused because it is the most relevant source of traffic.  Now, the important question remains, "How do I increase my organic traffic?"  Increased organic traffic does not just happen, it is the result of a proper and effective search engine optimization campaign.

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