5 Hidden SEO Tricks to Increase Traffic

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How do you monitize your affiliate marketing website the best way -- learn SEO! In many ways Wealthy Affiliate is like SEO University, there are so many SEO issues covered in the training, video classes, discussion blogs, comment threads, and member generated tutorials.

Of course Wealthy Affiliate offers more than just an excellent way to learn SEO optimization, but SEO covers a lot of territory including some things that folks commonly dont consider in the SEO category. What are some of these more latent SEO issues that effect your ability to maximize your website's income potential?

1. Colour choice. Studies on people's prefered colour choice consistently rank blue as a top pick. People are colour sensitive and can get subtly turned off when they are confronted by a lot of clashing colours. In contrast, people find two shades of the same colour soothing and comfortable, such as navy blue and pale blue. Make sure banner ads on your site arent creating a colour catastrophe that makes your visitors want to bounce.

2. Tone. A lot of the tone of your site is conveyed by the pictures but can also be carried by the headings. When you write blogs do you choose pictures that illustrate what people need to avoid as well as ones that celebrate success? Be aware of negative images and messaging. More than one negative image and header and you may start to drive the overall tone in the wrong direction. Some searchers will scan through your post first to assess whether they need or want to read it and they will pick up the overall tone (picture + headers). This can subtly turn people off. When folks get turned off they are unlikely to stick around which tanks your retention stats.

3. Organization. When folks scroll to the bottom of your post is there a "home" icon waiting to take them back to your start page? Maximize the time visitor's spend on your site by using more than one organizing principle, such as drop down menus as well as internal links in every post. No one has ever complained about organization being too clear and simple. Not only do search engines want a well organized site, but visitors are less likely to bounce if they can easily find the content that interests them.

4. Meta Description. The meta description is what pops up under the URL when a search engine includes your site in the list of search results. You have the option to control what is presented with a plugin such as All in One SEO or Yoast. However if your keyword isnt in the description you wrote, a search engine may skip over your meta description and grab the first sentance that has the keyword instead. Be aware of this and make sure that the first keyword sentance is clear and attractive to someone scanning search results.

5. No Man's Land. The bots have taken over and there are no people left on earth -- or at least that is what someone might think from visiting your site. People sell to people and the big corporations know this, which is why they are more likely to use pictures of smiling happy smiling people all over their websites, most of them doing nothing related to their product. For example, a bank promoting mortgages knows that they will get more traffic showing a happy couple painting a room than they will with an image of a contract. Don't shy away from using images of people just as these big corporations do. Happy people convey a postive vibe to your reader and should be used strategically beside your main helping point.

Not everything on our sites is about SEO, but a lot of it can affect SEO in more indirect ways. Subtle messages that are negative or positive can make the difference between someone who bounces away rather than adding to your click through rate. A lot of what I have mentioned here is about how your site "feels," which can sound abstract, but there are concrete steps that you can take to ensure that its on track to feeling SEO friendly.


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Recent Comments

25

Wow, WA's own Fabio of content. Great writing style, great tips. I actually just finished an article on colors and emotions as well as actions colors invoke. I actually came across this great site the other day for an Australian construction company and rental equipment. The deeper you got inside a site the colors were like a sick con man. They hooked you at first, then earned your trust then had you become inquisitive to finally have you in a buying state of mind. It was awesome. I will try and find it again and will post some images in this thread. I knew I should have bookmarked it lol can't could've, would've, should've right?

Yes please do. Another great use of colour is right here at Wealthy Affiliate where blue is the dominant colour which is authoritative yet calming. You see very little red here and where its used, it indicates top importance such as receiving a personal message, comment on your site or message on your profile. Its interesting what kind of subltle messaging colours can perform for you if you use them strategically.

For my affiliate site I tried to stick to pinks, browns and other colours on the woody spectrum. My theme uses red tabs and I've thought of dishing out for the premium theme just to be able to manipulate my theme colours more. As soon as its kicking out some money Im going to do this aesthetic upgrade. I try to choose pictures that contribute to this colour schema or contrast with it if I want it to stand out. Taken altogether, it helps to give the site coherence and a professional feel -- but its subtle.

Im doing something similar with my niche site which is about a green product so there's an association between the site design and the product. I think all these things matter for SEO because they trigger emotional responses that are positive. As we know, people can bounce in less than a second, so every nano-second counts!

For sure. My theme came blue and different shades of and I have currently been doing some testing and I am in the middle of my site going all red. My logo id res, black and light grey, so I want to keep my color scheme or my brand colors to carry all throughout. My new design uses a very art deco feel with red as a highlight.

When I was designing my logo, I looked into the psychology of colors and the first thing I noticed was the inconsistency of what is out there for answers. So I approached friends I have in graphic design and two friends I have that are psychology majors, one in humanitarian response and the other in natural addictions. Finally, I took what is out there already with super brands such as Coke, Fed-ex, MeD's, Shell, Honda etc and came up with what the pros say, what the companies use and what people tend to do or how these brands actually influence them.

Red came up as trusting and actionable in terms of buying as well as enticing a desire. Tints used together showed clarity and unification. Those alone had me sold on my new color scheme. I love you brought up this topic and I hope it starts to empower people to start thinking more deeply into their designs.

Thanks Jair, yes colours play a large role in how someone responds to a website and we are not really talking about this important aspect of our design. I agree with you that its important to analyze what the colours on our site are saying about our authority and the product. In particular red and yellow should never go together as they signal danger but I see people using banners with those colours all the time. Their thinking is that you need to grab people's attention forcefully with loud colours. My thinking is that if someone searched a term that brought them to my website, I want them to be comfortable and stick around. I dont want to throw danger signals at them and have them leave.

This is one of those topics that can have week-long conversations lol. I say we just blog what colors work for use in a certain niche and it will help reduce our time to success. I made 12 dollars last week so I just need another 999999988 and I will be a billionaire!! Baby steps yall!!

Keep on with the good work man - every tweek helps and brings us closer to making the income we want to make. Cant say that my goal is billionaire, but $100k a year would be nice.

If you can't dream big why dream at all? Why do you want a 100 strikeouts a year....you play ball? LOL

Its true, its the big dreams that get you motivated. I keep a page in my website diary where I list big dream items. Sometimes it takes a number of years, but I do accomplish them.

Even though I have not accomplished all of my goals, some of the hardest and biggest ones have lead me to other paths. These paths have shown me goals I never have thought of or would have thought possible for me to achieve. That's why I have no problem setting such big goals as you never know what the journey may provide.

I do however really like the idea of a website diary. I keep a journal but nothing dedicated in ways of my websites, thanks for the great idea.

Just a warning: You may become a website diary addict! I go nowhere without my diaries now because who knows when some brilliant idea for an article or keyword search will strike?

Oh SugarHoneyIceTea I think I am one already...and I didn't even know it. Where ever I go I always have my tablet on me for that very reason. I just don't keep a diary on my tablet but it is where I keep my daily journals...so give it to me straight Doc...am I a website addict or not?

Sorry man, you're an addict. And now you've given me another reason to switch up to a tablet -- I can carry that with me anywhere and step up my journaling addiction myself! :)

These are all great tips! Thank you for sharing them with everyone.

Anita

Thanks Anita. I find that writing them out helps me to remember them too. There's SO much to remember to do for good SEO.

Yes, there is!

Excellent information - thank you Doc, I've taken notes. (Oops, no exclamations.) LOL
Sharlee (Chocolate IceCream)

I didnt know the extent of my exclamation addiction until I tried to quit. I think I need rehab... or maybe I just need more chocolate icecream...

LOL. I'm not sure that the chocolate ice cream is going to help, but hey, I'm always open to give it a fair go. LOL
Yes, neither did I realize. I almost feel fake, trying to be somebody whom I am NOT. Anyway, I'll keep trying. LOL
Thanks for bringing it to our attention Doc.
Sharlee (Chocolate IceCream)

No problem, the struggle is real.

Great information here Doc, thanks for sharing.

Thanks Christian. Its good to keep our eyes open for that stuff that's just under the radar.

All good information Doc....good enlightenment all around.

Wayne

Thanks Wayne. All the best to you.

Great post and very good information, Linser. Thanks for reminding us.
Hennie

Thanks for taking the time Hennie.

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