Do I believe in SEO? Absolutely I do. Do I believe in link popularity? Absolutely I do. Do I believe in targeted keywords? Absolutely I do. Do I think it’s the most important thing? No, I don’t. I am going to reveal to you the true method to a successful website on the Internet!

Being well ranked in Google on specific keywords is good. Incoming links, both reciprocal links and one-way links are great. But it will only really pay dividends after you’ve focused on success, the true way.

Let me ask you a question, how did you learn about Google? How did you stumble upon Facebook? What about Twitter? I could go on and on and I bet for almost every one I ask you, your answer will NOT be a search engine.

Think back, how did you hear about it? I heard about Google through a friend, same with Facebook. Twitter I heard about on the news and not even web based news, but on the TV!

Are you starting to understand what I’m getting at? Word of mouth is the key to success. Word of mouth will by far out succeed top Google rankings. As word spreads, it will only spread faster over time. As people talk about, people will start linking to you, not because you’ve asked them to, but because they want to. They want to share with the world how great your website is.

This is the true power to being successful online. You won’t even have to worry about doing search engine optimization. Your website will SEO itself by people wanting to go to your site, wanting to link to your website.

Let me tell you about a website I created a while ago. It allows users to browse the TV guide and add their favorite TV shows to a notification list. Hours before the show will be airing; the service will send you a text message to your cell phone. The website is called “What’s On TV Now”. It’s a great little service especially if you are like me and cannot remember when all of your favorite TV shows air.

Now the question comes, how can I make my website spread through word of mouth? It’s not as hard as you think; it’s as literal as the term. When you go out, talk to people; tell them about your website. It will be a lot more affective then SEO because you will have their attention for much more than 5-15 seconds.

Word of mouth is just a phrase; it doesn’t actually have to be verbally stated. As you may have noticed, I just told you about a website of mine that is listed on Google, but it will never receive the attention as you just gave it now with my one paragraph description. Other ways to share could be: write a note on your Twitter or your Facebook status. More importantly, tell your friends about it, encourage them to help you spread the word and it will happen.


“If you build it, they will come”. I think this quote is quite fitting for this article. They will come, they may not come easily, but if you spread the word, people will find it. As people like it, they will continue to spread the word. Ensure your website makes it easy to perform viral marketing by adding “Email to a Friend” button or the social networking buttons, “Add This” or “Share This”, etc…

If you’ve found this article useful, use the social networking buttons on this site and tell your friends!

I have been developing web sites for over 10 years and 6 years professional. I recently have decided to begin sharing my knowledge through articles and my blog:
http://www.endyourif.com

Nathaniel writes: Betty I dont totally agree with what your saying.

I mean without promoting your business or website who do you exspect to get the visitors and traffic to your site? just writing content will not get you the traffic you need, you have to promote and do a number of other SEO bit for it to work.

Just one or two parts of SEO will not get your site to its true listings etc on the net you need to combind a number of SEO practises to truely show your website of to the whole world wide web!

3:50:10 Tue Jul 21 2009 CDT


Betty writes: I must disagree with your here.

Yes, certainly you should, and you MUST, promote your business offline. But taking into consideration that you are posting to the world wide web, how can you possibly promote your online business offline in other countries?


Successful websites begin with the keywords, and writing great content around those keywords. You need to be knowledgeable about your subject, because you cannot fake it on the net (or anywhere for that matter).

Content is king, and when you deliver the content that your targeted visitors are seeking, that is when your traffic will happen.

Visitors then become customers.

Smiles,
Betty

8:46:29 Thu Jun 25 2009 CDT


Curt writes: Hi there, I just wanted to say thank you a lot for the advice. As you were building up to the point, I saw it coming: "word of mouth", but it was very useful. I would appreciate it if you could stop by my site and offer me some personal tips & advice in the GuestBook OR you are welcome to email me or call me from the site! Thank you and God Bless!
Curt Bizelli

4:35:33 Mon Jun 22 2009 CDT


Tinu writes: All of these things eventually boil down to word of mouth. I see it as part of the cycle of marketing. When people happen upon your site in the search engines, that's great. But when that person comes to your site, finds exactly what they need and can't shut up about it, on or offline? That's much more powerful.

I agree, you need both.

11:40:44 Thu Jun 18 2009 CDT


tjenarvi writes: Very great posting I've ever heard...Great indeed !
It's the truth...
website like Facebook is words by mouth..
and kicking ass Friendster.com

9:31:25 Thu Jun 18 2009 CDT


j writes: this makes perfect sense straight to the point no messing great

16:42:03 Tue Jun 16 2009 CDT


nathan writes: Hi, great article and it will work for most sites but I have web hosting sites and find that word of mouth is not as easy as it sounds with hosting sites, even when we have some of the lowest and highly reliable solutions around. I still find that just telling people about my site's' on places like facebook, twitter etc dont really help much. Maybe this is because people dont see a hosting site thats doing this as being good!? I dont know but I defo find its not as easy as it is with same my information site.

So anyone got any good ways to help word of mouth for a hosting site?

Thanks again for this informative article :)

3:32:54 Mon Jun 15 2009 CDT


frank writes: Hi This isn't really in the subject but i have a few questions for you.
I hope you Might answer to fdamours16@hotmail.com
To build this site what did you use, Wordpress?
If so how did you manage to put google adds?
Trying to find the best solution to be able to let my viewers to leave comments,
But on all site i have seen up to now, this site is what i want my ''blog'' section to be processed as.
Thank you.

22:57:37 Sun Jun 14 2009 CDT


Aria'z Ink writes: Exactly! I'm more apt to check out a site if recommended by a friend.

17:31:46 Sun Jun 14 2009 CDT


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