Something exciting is on the horizon, and it’s going to revolutionize the way we think about web searches.  Currently, it’s enough to optimize your site for top placement in one or more of the major search engines.  The time is arriving when you will not only compete for a top placement, but you will need to compete visually as well.  In other words, the visual appeal of your site will directly affect the number of visits you will get.

The change that is on the way is due to a completely new form of search engine.  SearchMe.com, which is currently in beta testing and open for a small number of testers (so hurry to get your spot now), is set to majorly impace the way searches are performed.  The new search engine is graphical, and the interface is much like the enhanced Windows Vista interface.  You type a search term, and an array of website images are rolled across the screen as you choose the site to visit.  You can scroll forward and back until a particular site catches your eye.  Then you can click the site to load it.

So, keep working away with the keyword research.  Keep on adding new, keyword-rich content.  But be sure to enlist the help of a good graphic designer to make your site stand out from the crowd.  It may not be tomorrow, but it’s inevitable that some new form of visual search tool such as SearchMe.com will gain momentum.

Finding good keywords for your website content is only the beginning.  Without a good strategy in place for getting traffic to your new site, it will simply sit there like an island in the middle of the ocean.  No one will have a clue that you’ve just published a great site full of wonderful articles just waiting to be explored.  So, let’s take a look at a few ways to get visitors to your new site.  I will go into this in more detail in future posts, but here are a few quick ways to get your site visited.

1. Create a blog and use a tool like Feedburner to help you promote it and publish it in a format readable by most RSS readers.  Search engines love fresh content, and blogs are great sources of fresh content.  You can get your site noticed much more quickly with a blog.  If you use the low-competition keyword strategy I outlined in the last post, you’ll already have content full of good keywords.  Getting the search engines to index the content will likely get you a top position for one or more of your selected terms relatively quickly.

2. Post comments on blogs, in forums, and on social media sites.  Include a link back to your site or blog, and the search engines will likely find you.  But be intelligent about this.  Don’t just spam the sites of others for your own benefit.  If you provide value, you’ll reap the benefits.  If you spam, you may get a short-term reward, but you’ll have a hollow victory at best.  And as search engines become ever more sophisticated, you could eventually find your sites removed from their listings.

3. Write a few articles related to the content on your site and include a link back to your site in your author bio.  I’ve used this technique successfully on numerous occasions.  In fact, I like to use this strategy to send traffic to landing pages where I promote various affiliate products. (We’ll talk more about promoting products and services as an affiliate in future posts.)  Submit your articles to sites like EzineArticles.com or GoArticles.com.  When the articles are published, your link must be included.  This not only provides you with publicity, it also provides links back to your website all across the web.

4. Create a video and post it on YouTube.  Include your site URL as a caption at the end of the video.  Some of your viewers will look you up. 

5. Create a Squidoo Lens at Squidoo.com related to your topic.  Provide good, relevant content and include a link back to your site within a list of links to various other related websites.

6. To get traffic flowing to your site quickly and easily, set up a Google AdWords account and pay to have your advertisements displayed in search engine results or on other websites related to the content of your site.  Using AdWords effectively is a topic for another day, but take a look at the program.  If all of your other efforts fail to live up to your expectations, spending a few dollars can get traffic flowing to your new site.

We’ll look at other great ways to get traffic and effective use of AdWords and other PPC systems in a future post.

Deciding on a niche market to target and researching keywords go hand in hand.  You can’t really do one without doing the other.

1. You must know if the niche you want to target actually has a market.  You wouldn’t want to try to sell products in a niche where there was little or no interest.  Remember the online grocery store delivery sites?  It may have been a great idea, but no one was interested. Creating new markets requires time and money.  Unless you have large amounts of both to spare, you should target existing markets.

2. You need to know what customers in your selected niche are searching for.  You may think they’re looking for product A when they’re really looking for products X, Y, and Z.  Or they may really want more information on a specific topic.  If you provide the information, they just might pay your site a visit and make a purchase.

3. You need to know how much competition you will be facing.  You can almost always find something within any given niche with little or no competition.  But if you don’t do the research to find these hidden gold mines, you could very well be competing with some large established online businesses.  I’m not saying you couldn’t compete with the big boys, but if you’re just starting out, it would be much easier to build a following around a specific element of a niche and expand from there.

So, how can you do the necessary keyword research to successfully compete online?  There are dozens of free keyword tools, and there are dozens of sites that provide historical search information.  But, if you’re really serious, you’ll want to buy a subscription to WordTracker.  WordTracker is probably the best keyword research tool available.  The free version of WordTracker is very basic, but it’s a great place to get started.  The paid version offers far more information, so you may eventually want to give it a try.

Okay, so now that you know where to find a few good keyword resources, let’s talk about how to use them.  First of all, you’ll want to begin with some keywords that you have in mind for searching within your niche.  For example, if you’re wanting to create a website about antique tractors, you would begin with the keyword phrase “antique tractors.”  From there, WordTracker will return a list of related terms that your potential visitors might use to find your site.  Along with the words, you’ll get the number of searches made by visitors for each keyword and the projected number of searches for those words over the next 24 hours.  Drilling down, you’ll get information for each of the major search engines, such as the number of competiting web pages for any given keyword.  You’ll also get the KEI (keyword effectiveness index) number, which compares the count of searches for a keyword with the number of competing web pages.  This number helps identify words that you could target with the best chance of getting a top spot in the search engines.

To summarize, don’t fly blind when it comes to creating content for your website.  First, find out what your potential visitors are looking for.  Then find out how much competition you’ll have for your selected keywords.  And finally, create content for publishing on your site that incorporates those keywords that will provide the best chance for getting located by potential visitors.  In an upcoming post, we’ll look at this in more detail.  Plus, we’ll look at some interesting ways to use what you learn from your keyword research to really boost traffic to your sites.