Get More Google Traffic With Random Content Links

Here's a cool SEO tip that will automatically bring you more traffic from Google and other search engines:  Put a Random Content module on your homepage. It's better to have it on as many pages as possible, but the homepage is key. I discovered this trick while experimenting with a few different ideas over at http://www.patrickswesey.com.

{google_articles}

The website originally had several hundred thousand inlinks as a result of free software and Joomla extensions I had offered. Pretty soon I started up JoomlaDigger.com and moved all the free extensions from PatrickSwesey.com over to here.

Since the move, most of the traffic on PatrickSwesey.com had died down. The content left at PatrickSwesey.com was free software for Windows XP and a blog of stupid dreams I have. It wasn't a terribly exciting website and its traffic reflected that. I didn't really care if the site got traffic or not so I decided to experiement a little and see how I could affect its search engine traffic.

I decided to add a Random Content module, which simply adds links to random articles in your website. Within a couple days my traffic had almost doubled with new visitors from Google. Most of the search terms were obscure, phrases like alligator gar, weird bug, hot aunt, gross stories, alien ass, first day of work, the fonz, cat in a blender... There were also more visitors searching for the standard search queries I was already seeing, like free file renamer, windows file renamer, desktop image changer...

Several months have passed. I have not made any changes to the site, nor have I added any new content, but I continue to see a steady flow of traffic from Google. Here is why a Random Content module is so good for SEO:

1. It shows Google that the articles exist.
2. It shows Google that the articles are important.
3. It shows Google that the articles are important to your site visitors.
4. Google likes regularly updated content.

If you don't have a sitemap or Google XML sitemap then Google and other search engines will have a hard time finding articles buried in your site. Your main menu only has links to content sections and categories, not many web sites have links to every article ever written.

Google is pretty smart and probably already knows about most of your website's pages. However, the most important aspect of SEO is the number of links to a page. If you have more links to an article then it has a better chance of being higher in Google's search results. Your homepage probably has the highest Google PageRank of any page on your website, so a link from your homepage is the best PageRank boost your website can give an article.

{cbauthor}Your website's homepage is supposed to give your visitors a quick overview of your website. It shows them what is available and what is important. Google will pick up on this and give precedence to what you are implying to your visitors.

Google likes to see sites that are updated often. Even if you aren't creating new content (PatrickSwesey.com has sat untouched for several months) having a Random Content module simulates a list of top rated or featured articles, making your site seem more interactive and dynamic.

Camp26 has released a random content module for Joomla 1.5, I've used it on another Joomla 1.5 site and recommend it:

http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,4406/Itemid,35/

I used this random content module for PatrickSwesey.com, which is a Joomla 1.0.x site:

http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,1178/Itemid,35/ 

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