http://www.webseomasters.com/free-website-statistics.html

Look for more follow posts on this topic. I am doing a lot of tests with corporate companies to find ways to improve traffic on the cheap.

For example, I’m a web designer and I use Twitter, Virb, LinkedIn, etc. If a byproduct of using those sites is that they link back to my own website, and contain carefully chosen keywords that point back to me, so be it. If I post links to tutorials on Digg or Twitter, and gain traffic and “link cred” so be it.

But if your target demographic is 50+ years old, and you’re talking about using Digg and Tumblr, clearly geared toward a younger audience, to seed links to your boomer-oriented retail sites… well now, that’s a different story. To me, that’s not even a debatable gray area — that’s gaming a system for profit, and therefore unethical.

And don’t get me wrong, Alex — I like a lot of what you have to say and can appreciate the hard numbers you’ve been able to use to improve your traffic. I have no doubt you know your stuff.

However, I think there needs to be some clarification… Findability vs. SEO (at least, as SEO is commonly thrown around by questionable individuals) is about truly, organically organizing your content so that the people searching for it can find it, right? It’s not about tricking the algorithms, though. It isn’t organic if the bulk of your effort goes to spamming the hell out of comment systems and social networks to gain clicks.

I just think the key here, and I hope this is what you’re saying Alex, is to run a tight ship by being consistent across the board, and use social networks for their intended purpose, but plan accordingly for a potential added benefit that might result in some extra search engine love.

What is a widget? It’s a piece of Web content that was made shareable.

How can a piece of Web content become viral unless it can be shared throughout the community or conversation?

Great post!