Search engine optimization is still my number one traffic generator. I receive more traffic from Google than any other source on the internet. But it is becoming increasingly more and more difficult to achieve a top ten placement on Google or any other search engine as the internet grows and more webmasters compete for the same key words. There once was a time when I could rely on Google to provide me with all the traffic I needed but not any more. I need to promote and advertise my web site elsewhere if I expect to continue receiving good quality traffic to my web site.

Writing articles like this one is just one of the ways I use to promote my web site. There are literally thousands of sites on the internet that will allow you to submit articles such as this one. Your article will remain in their database or directory and as long as you allow re-print instructions along with your author bio you may also see your article on other sites that you did not even submit to. Make sure your web site URL is in your author bio and make sure the URL is active. Some sites will only post your article with static URL's which will not be quite as effective. You can also use anchor text for your URL to help your search engine rankings. Use your targeted key words as your anchor text and you should see an increase in your search engine optimization efforts.

Number three on my list of web site promotions requires some cash. The majority of people I talk to about getting good quality traffic to a web site all want to do it for FREE without any advertising dollars spent. Although it is possible to promote a web site for FREE with no money, I highly recommend some form of pay per click campaign using Google adwords or Yahoo search marketing (formerly Overture). There are also a host of other smaller pay per click engines that I have used in the past including Findwhat and 7Search.

Press releases on the internet are gaining in popularity recently and you can actually get a press release published and listed on Google and Yahoo news search within 24 hours. For guidelines and how to get published visit the following web page. http://www.prweb.com/

Reciprocal linking has dropped off of my priority list of web site promotions but it can still be a very important means of web site promotion if done properly, and back links to your site are also essential to a good search engine ranking with Google. First of all you are not going to want to trade links with just anyone. Make sure the page's your links are going to be on are actually indexed by Google. If you do not have the Google toolbar get it. It will tell you if a page has been indexed or not. Also ask the webmaster you are trading links with how many links they have per page. If they put more than 30 links on a page chances are your link will be lost and never clicked on.

Free classified advertising is another way to promote your site for free. But as the internet grows so too does the amount of webmasters submitting to these free classified sites. And the more people there are posting the less likely your ad will be seen. The key to good free classified advertising is testing your results. Test everything you do. When you find a good classified site that is giving you traffic keep using it but follow their guidelines on how often you should post.

Last but not least you need to be collecting e-mail addresses from your web site. Start a newsletter and ask your visitors to subscribe somewhere on your site. Once you have built up a good subscriber base you can e-mail your subscriber base a weekly newsletter that has to do with your web site's theme or subject matter. Always include UN-subscribe instructions in case your visitors change their mind and no longer would like to receive e–mail from you.

I have just touched the surface on a few of the different techniques that I have used to promote my own web site. There are actually hundreds of other offline and online methods to promote a web site. Use your imagination and do not be afraid to try new things. Test everything you do and when you find something that works keep doing it.