Generating traffic seems to be the main concern of many website owners. This is understandable because when no one is visiting your site, you aren’t making sales, signing up subscribers, or gaining new clients.

And even though there is a plethora of information related to traffic generation available on the internet (I even offer an ebook on my website that has some solid advice on how to generate traffic), many people overlook one of the most basic ways to generate traffic.

I’m talking about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices.

If you’ve had a website for awhile, you’ve undoubtedly heard of SEO, but if you haven’t, here’s a definition from Widipedia:

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results for targeted keywords.  

In other words, generating traffic by using techniques that will ensure visitors find your website in the search results when they type in relevant keywords.

Many beginners don’t do search engine optimization on their website because they feel it’s too complicated. Instead, they turn to an SEO firm to do the work – and often end up paying exorbitant fees. 

If are totally unfamiliar with HTML, you may have no other choice than to hire a professional. However, if you know even a little HTML, following are three basic steps you can take to increase your rankings in the search engines. Each involves adding code to the ”head” area of the pages on your website.

1. Make sure every page on your website has a ‘Title’ (the colored bar at the top of your browser) — preferably one that includes keywords found on that page.
2. Write a ‘Description’ for each page. In other words, write a brief sentence that tells what the page is about using keywords that are found on that particular page.
3. List ‘Keywords’ that people might use to find the information that’s on that page. (Note: I have found from my own experiences that this step is less important that the other two — particularly for Google search results.)

That’s it. Pretty simple, huh? And yet, you will be amazed at the difference it will make in your ranking and thereby, traffic generation.

Be aware that making these changes to your website does not mean you will see overnight results — or that you will get the #1 position in the search engine results (although you might, depending on your niche). But within a matter of weeks, if you’ve done the SEO work correctly, you will notice that your website has moved up the list.

(Qualifying note – This is assuming you have quality content on your website.)