• Section: Increase Traffic - Category: SEO/SEM
• Written by Jeffrey Smith

Sometime you have to go backward in order to move forward. What happens when you hit your keyword ceiling (when you have squeezed the last drop of traffic from your keywords) and the traffic plateaus? Just like an SEO sleuth, you have to dawn your research cap, break out the optimization map and change your SEO method to produce exciting new results.

Charting your progress is an imperative step in the SEO process, yet oftentimes the fear of change and upsetting the balance can be paralyzing to webmasters and bloggers alike as they tend to overlook the transient nature of search engines and their algorithmic stability.

The only consistency is knowing that at any time the search results could become inconsistent and that the very same criteria your ranking strategy is hinged on could shift at any time along with your rankings, so it is better to diversify your tactics, as search engines only call it as they see it.

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from the testing servers and are injected into the data centers with great frequency (to see how the search engine result pages react) it's almost as if search engineers like to keep you guessing when it comes to sculpting the most relevant result.

Tell tale signs of a new algorithm roll-out for example are when some of your most established rankings take a dip and like a game of peek-a-boo (now you see me, now you don't) your rankings fluctuate as the expense of your sites popularity.

This is where the value of search analytics comes into play. This is what really allows you to delve into the who, what, where, when and how, nuts and bolts of your content which allows you to optimally refine your message to target audience. Things like finding which post had the higher reader engagement, where they went from there, if the calls to action were successful or produced measurable results.

On the flip-side, the simple truth is, some keywords just don't convert - they are either too broad, too narrow or simply are not the ideal match when people are initiating queries from search engines. So, despite how attached you are to optimizing a phrase, if there is no traffic, you have to cut your losses and just move on.

The only thing stopping you from attaining a high ratio of pre-qualified traffic from search engines is your ability to identify, optimize and funnel the right keywords for your sites content.

Whether it is inspiration, imagination or common sense makes no difference. The fact is, by adding strategic keywords that have a proven track record attached, you can study your analytics / user tracking statistics to introduce topics that further establish your authority in the industry and have a higher degree of engagement to set the stage.

If you spent a fair amount of time using keyword research tools, then you know there are some pretty obscure keywords that manage to coral several thousand online stragglers to the apex of randomness. Whether it converts or not is another topic, but since conversion is all about "setting the right mood to promote action".

If you structure your content accordingly, you can surprise roving visitors who floated in like fruit flies on a whim, with a fulfilling user experience. Conversions starts when you provide something so unique that it makes visitors stop and think "wow" just for a moment to appreciate the concept (which is more than can be said for most one traverses).

The key here is not to offer a bland value proposition, distinction is rewarded with curiosity. So, with this in mind don't think lack luster, think blockbuster. Some times you have to break your own rules to find something new. If you always stay within the realm of the predictable in your approach or method, then you are doomed to repeat mistakes as well as previous breakthroughs (hence languishing on the premise of previous).

Familiarity can be a crutch that prevents one from reaching their full potential. For example, turning your titles into streamlined calls to action vs. the over SEO'd t

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