Google’s pagerank is a topic of much debate, and while there are many theories as to the who/what/why/where/when of Google, cold hard facts are in short supply.

For the sake of this article lets just say traffic includes gaining backlinks, social networking and all the normal SEO, so I don’t have to repeat myself.

Many will tell you that you should work towards gaining a high pagerank which will in turn yield high traffic. Just as many will tell you that pagerank is just a reflection of your traffic and is the result of a popular site, not the reason for one.

While the latter certainly sounds more reasonable and is the theory I subscribe to, my own experience suggest otherwise. Above you will see my Google Analytics traffic for the last 7 or so months, and my jump to pagerank 3 in mid September. Continue reading...

With the boom of social networking over the last few years gone there’s a lot more traffic to be squeezed out of your website beyond just having good search engine optimization.

Social network and bookmarking sites such as Twitter, StumbleUpon and Digg have the potential to bring in huge traffic. And while every site can be found through search engines not every one is using these tools, giving you a potential leg up on the competition.

The only downside is social networking requires regular work, and getting to the front page of Digg etc. for a huge boost in exposure requires a little luck. There’s a lot of competition on social bookmarking sites and writing a fantastic article doesn’t guarantee it won’t slip through the cracks.

If you are fortunate enough to have an article land on the front page however, the results are undeniable. It wouldn’t be the first time a web hosting server has been brought down by the huge traffic burst of an article featured on Digg.

Search engines are somewhat the opposite.

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The internet is a big pond, and we all start as little fish. But swimming to the top of Google isn’t as hard as you think. EmailsFromCrazyPeople recently had an email forwarded to them with the solution.

Hello,

My name is John Smith and I run www.website.com. I am into this niche business for over 2 years and we have optimized our site well to rank for the keywords one, two & three in Google. Yesterday I saw that your site is ranking higher that us for those keywords.

But in fact what I see is that your site is useless and doesn’t have anything related to the keyword.

Can you please removed your site from Google, so that our site may go higher. Please understand this is our main business and we cannot afford to be there so the best thing will be that you remove your site from Google.

If you don’t agree to remove your site from Google for this keyword we may go to up to any extent and may sue you for this. Please don’t force us to do so.

Thanks,
John Smith

Now all I have to do is…

Write a few dozen threatening emails to other graphic designers and have them remove their sites and I’ll be number 1 on Google! Wow, I never knew it was so easy to reach the top.

First thing is to write a letter to actor Andrew Keir. Sure he was born 56 years before me but that’s no excuse for out ranking me for my own name.

When it comes down to it, graphic design is all about business. Crafting an image and/or message which distinguishes your brand, sells your products and achieves your goals, but what are your goals?

It wouldn’t be for the first time that a client had something designed, then a month later when business hasn’t increased 10 fold come and blamed the designer for the suddenly unsatisfactory design.

The S.M.A.R.T marketing principle dictates your goals meet the following criteria, they are;

Specific: What exactly do you want to achieve? more sales? more exposure? more web traffic?

Measurable: How will you know when you’ve reach your goal? Having it seem like a little extra business coming your way is hardly definitive. Have measures in place to accurately see your projects success ( or lack thereof ).

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InstantShift recently posted 88 single web page designs for a little design inspiration. Single page websites are great if your don’t have a lot of content and often used to showcase a portfolio of work with great effect.

They also free you from a lot of restrictions as a design only has to function on a single page but herein lies a problem. From a search engine point of view you essentially have zero content.

If your site is merely a point of reference and your business or traffic is derived from elsewhere this isn’t a problem but if you plan to promote your business primarily through your website this strikes me as quite a disadvantage.

Compare this to a content management system like a wordpress blog. A website is a long term investment, over a year a blogger with the time and inclination posting 2-3 posts a week can quite comfortably amass over 100 posts related to their particular niche.

That’s 100 more pages of content covering multiple topics, hundreds more keywords and phrases and possibly most important 100 more opportunities for backlinks.

What are your thoughts?

There’s no denying that single page sites can look great, be sure to check out that link. And blogging isn’t for everyone, without some regularity of new content there is little point in having one.

Ultimately the purpose and content of your website will dictate which path you take, it just strikes me that choosing a single page website is a distinct disadvantage when it comes to online marketing.