How to increase your hub traffic

Before you create a new hub you need to first decide what topics you can write about, that people are actually searching for, and what keywords people use to search for your topic.

A few good places to gather ideas are Google trends, Digg, and technorati. I prefer to use Google trends, but technorati offers a "What's Popular" section, which can show you what people are searching for.

It may sound crazy, but before you even begin the process of creating a new hub, you should decide what keywords that you plan to target.

To do this, you should begin by using a keyword research tool such as Seo Book, which is a free keyword research tool. There are others like Wordtracker, which charge a fee, but I have found that Seo Book is really all you need. Begin your search by typing in a broad keyword for your topic such as "technology." Seo Book will show you a list of related keywords, as well as how many searches each of the terms receive each day from Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

Although it is tempting to choose a keyword that receives an enormous amount of searches each day, you will actually receive more traffic if you pick a keyword that is less "popular." The reason for this is--every one else is competing for the keywords that receive high amounts of searches, and their is significatly less competition for the terms that are less popular.

Once you have chosen several keywords go to Google and do a search for each of your keywords. Generally, Google will return hundreds of millions of results--this is not your keyword. To have any chance of ranking for a term or keyword, you will need to target a keyword that Google only return several hundred thousand results for.

If all of the terms on your original list returned more than a million search results then return to Seo Book and continue your search.

Now that you have your topic and keyword you will need to choose your title. This is one of the most important parts of your hub, because no matter how good your content is it will not get read if no one feels compelled to click on your title.

A title that describs what your hub has to offer it's reader generally attracts more eyes than one that does not connect. "How to make money online" tells the reader that this hub will show you how to make money online. If this is what the reader is searching for, then it promises to meet their need.

While crafting your title you should try your best to work your keyword into the title itself. After all, the title is the single most important aspect to any blog, hub, or web page when it comes to Google.

Backlinks are a link to your hub from another hub, blog, or website. Search engines decide your hubs page rank based primarily on how many back links you have. You can check to see if you have any backlinks now by going to Google and typing in site:http://www.example.com. Google will display a list of every site that has a link to your hub. Unfortualy, most people will find that there url will fetch a blank screen, but not to worry because you can change that.

There are several ways to build backlinks, but here are the two most popular methods:

1. Article Marketing - this consist of simply writing articles related to your blog and then submitting them to a article directory. My favorite is Ezine Articles, although there are several others. The key to getting back links to your hub with Article Marketing is to include your link in the Author bio box. Once your article is excepted by Ezine Articles, it will be included in their article directory. From their your article will be re-published across the Internet, possibly hundreds of times depending on it's quality. Each time your article is re-published the publisher is required to include your author bio box, which includes a link back to your hub. This will not only result in a higher page rank for your hub, but it will also create additional traffic from those who read your re-published article.
2. Link exchange - I am not a big fan of link exchanges, but I know a lot of people who swear by it. Basically a link exchange is when you and another blogger, hubber, or web author agree to include your link on your sites in exchange for you including their link on your site. This, if repeated enough, will result in an increased page rank, which will in turn result in more traffic. However, be aware that Google does not particularly like link exchanges, and if they catch on to what you are doing it could result in your hub losing page rank or being taken of their index completely. If you want to try your hand at link exchanges you can find plenty of free trading platforms by doing a Google search for "free link exchange."
   

        Follow these steps and you will have learned how to make money online.