As a web designer, the top two things that clients always want in a site (besides looking cool) are 1) A better search ranking in Google - and 2) More traffic (page views). That goes for almost every website, whether it's an online store, an informational site, personal blog, or radio site.

I tell them that I will help them get #1. With some site optimization, inbound linking techniques (get a lot of them) and a few tricks, a good web designer can create a website that will have all the pieces in place to get a good search ranking. I can set the table for a good search ranking - but I can't always make it happen unless I get the one thing that they provide: fresh content.

Fresh Content

Fresh content and lots of it will do wonders for a good search ranking - but truth be told, a good search ranking doesn't mean anything unless it results in #2 - traffic. When people ask for a good search rank - they're doing it because they know it will lead to more people finding their site. The funny thing is that more traffic will usually lead to a better search ranking in most cases.

The two goals are linked together, but not directly. When you have more site traffic, that will naturally lead to more people linking to your site, which leads to Google and other search engines viewing your site as more important. So in a slightly roundabout way, traffic helps your search rank.

As for improving your traffic - which is the end goal - a good search rank will let people who are searching for you find you, but that is only half the battle. Once they find your site, you have to give them a reason to stay there, and more importantly, a reason to come back later. Then, if you're really lucky, a visitor might even bookmark your site and check it daily. But that actually has little to do with luck and everything to do with fresh, relevant content.