Seems to me that the biggest cause of frustration about publishing content on the web, apart from lack of sales, is lack of traffic. And of course the two are interlinked. Without traffic you don’t get sales as it really is a numbers game. The more traffic you get, the more you are likely to get sales.

Of course that is oversimplyfying the matter as sales will depend on how focussed your niche is and your getting traffic that is more likely to buy. All part of a complex equation in order to be able to earn income on line.

However, this article focusses on the assumption that seems to be rife in the networks in which I participate and that is “Build it and they will come” – “they” being traffic.

Time after time I see assertions made that seem to forget that just building a page with quality content will NOT necessarilty get you traffic. Sorry but there’s a lot more to it than that.

Quality content IS hugely important particularly now that Google is trying to raise standards so that what I call “duff stuff” is not getting the credit is does not deserve. However, you can write a page that is deserving of the Pulitzer Prize, but it may not get you traffic.

So here’s a reminder – let’s go back to basics and look at what I consider to be the three key points to making sure that if you build it, they will come.

1) Keyword Research
By now anyone who regularly reads my posts will know that I am obsessive about keyword research. The minute I get an idea for a new topic (and even topics about which I already write), then before I set up the title on my sites or grab the URL on Squidoo, Wizzley or Hubpages, I do some keyword research.

If Keyword Research is still a fog of confusion for you, then I recommend two links that will hopefully blow the fog away:

How to Research keywords

Learn: Squidoo Step by Step, which has a whole chapter dedicated to keyword research and you can see how I made a Squidoo lens, that since it was published two years ago continues to rank on the first page of Google for the keywords.

Note: The keyword research method I outline in both these links is relevant wherever you may be publishing on the web and is not just relevant to Squidoo.

Go read and then if you have questions come back here and ask them.

2) Build that page

You need to be using your keywords, at the same time writing quality content as well as ensuring you give your visitors what they are looking for.

Personally I don’t call a keyword rich page, full of affiliate links “quality”.

So I would be looking for a page that gives people information everything they need, right on that page. Think about it like Blogger GreekGeek does in her latest blog post Traffic Trick: Give Something when she says you need to ask yourself  “what are you giving people they can’t get anywhere else?”

3) Backlinks
As soon as you publish your page you should be looking to build backlinks. OK you can try and see if they happen naturally but unless you have thousands of people reading your stuff AND some of them blog about it, then you could wait an awful long time to get those backlinks.

Backlinks are important because the more quality pages that are linking to your content, then the more Google will start regarding you as an authority on the topic, by rewarding you with a higher page rank and featuring you higher in the search returns.

In my view it is important that you start working on your backlinks the minute you hit that publish button. There’s a list of the DoFollow sites I use for Backlinking in the Squidoo Step by Step Guidebook and they can be used wherever you publish, not just on Squidoo. What I like about some of them is that you can schedule the date and time these links will be published. That way the links can appear to be developing naturally over a period of time.

These sites can be used to link not only the Home Page of your Blog but to specific posts. This is called “deep linking”. Ideally not just the main URL of your blog should have backlinks, but the individual pages and posts too.

“But what if my page ranks high on Google almost as soon as I publish it, why do I need backlinks?” I hear you ask.

Because it looks like Google rewards new pages with a bit of a boost – particularly if you have got your keyword research right. But in time, unless anything happens to convince Google that you are an authority on the topic, then your page will start to slide and not appear so high in the search returns.This will impact your traffic.

The only way to convince Google that you ARE an authority is to get those backlinks – age of page counts in your favor too. Sometimes you have to be a bit patient.

In my experience these three steps give you much more chance of getting traffic and only then can you say “Build it and they will come”.