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Ten Easy Steps to SEO

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:45:36 -0800

Ten Easy Steps to help you with Great SEO

XML Sitemap Submission
Building Links
Eliminating Broken Links and Error Pages
Easy Site Navigation
Choose Good Keywords or Key-Phrases for Targeting
Learn Some Basic HTML
Create Fresh ane Unique Content Using your Keywords
Title Tag Optimization
Description Tag Optimization
Take Advantage of Simple HTML Opportunities

BONUS:

Patience

Jumping in to SEO

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:42:59 -0700

Search engine optimization (SEO) is all the rage these days. There’s a whole market that has developed around SEO services and tools and a lot of hype and fluff that tends to confuse and complicate things for the average web site owner.

Simply put, SEO is the process of ranking higher in the search engines (Google, MSN Live, Yahoo) to increase traffic. For most websites, increased traffic translates into higher sales, so there is no disputing the importance of practicing good SEO techniques.

Since search engines have secret algorithms that determine where a website ranks in their search results, there are tons of myths and piles of misinformation out there on the ‘net. Time after time, I’ve spoken with customers who are angry and feel misled because an SEO firm or consulting company promised that the customer’s site would rank on page one in Google. Unfortunately, most of the time, this is just not possible, and the majority of these offers and promises should be quickly dismissed.

Even with all of the myths and wrong information out there, there are still some generally accepted rules and tips on how to best optimize your website to rank well. In our SEO category, you’ll find many articles and blogs discussing some of these proven techniques.

Choosing a Domain Name

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:40:33 -0700

Choosing a domain name is an extremely important part of designing your web site, as that becomes the name of your web site. Your domain name is the first part of the Uniform Resource Locator, or “URL.” There are many things to keep in mind while choosing a suitable domain name.

If you haven’t already done so, give some thought as to what your domain name is going to be. For those who are new to the internet, the domain name, also known as a website address, is a word or phrase that a website visitor has to type in to visit your site. It’s preceded by http://www, although for modern-day browsers typing this portion in is optional. It ends with .com, .net, .biz, or a host of other extensions that you’ll be exposed to when you’re ready to sign up for your domain name.

3 Simple Questions You Should Ask Yourself When Planning Your Service Oriented Website

Sat, 28 May 2011 23:12:48 -0700

These deceptively simple questions will get you started on the right track for planning your site and the criteria by which you’ll measure its success for years to come.

1. Who am I trying to attract?
Your site is your most important marketing asset and as such it has one primary audience: your prospects. Whether you realize it or not, every audience consists of many subgroups. Each subgroup can be defined by its “persona.” To fully understand your audience, you’ll want to undertake an exercise to identify and understand each persona. For now- so we can answer the next two questions-let’s just agree that your site exists to serve those who might eventually hire you.

2. What do they (those who might eventually hire me) want from my website?
They want answers. The better job your site does of answering the questions that prospective customers have about how they can solve their marketing problems, the more leads your site will generate. Once buyers realize how thoroughly your site answers their questions, they will begin to see it as a valuable educational resource and will become willing and even eager to sign up to receive your input on a regular basis in the forms of newsletters, blogs, web seminars, white papers, e-books, podcasts, videos, etc.

That’s assuming buyers can find your site. To lure in prospects that desire your expertise but don’t yet know you exist, you must diligently add content to your site that describes your expertise in detail so that Google can direct the right sort of prospects your way. Your prospects find your site essentially by asking Google about the marketing questions they are struggling to answer.

3. What do I want from them?
You want two things: their information and their attention. Both of these things are acquired via “calls to action”- copy on your website that tells people to do something very specific. Working off the example above, the prospect that found your site through a Google search, and then identified it as being an educational resource should be presented with a clear, concise, and a compelling offer to receive your content for free on a regular basis. If they landed on a page from one of your newsletters, for example, they should see a call to action in the right hand sidebar, above the fold, that invites them to sign up to receive your newsletter via email. They should be asked to give you their name and email (and that’s about it) in exchange for a promise to send them an email alert every time you add a newsletter to your site- along with a solemn vow never to sell their information to anyone else.

However, if they haven’t identified your site as a valuable educational resource, there is not a thing you can do to entice them to sign up for anything-iPad giveaways be damned. So work on making sure your website is a good resource, first.

Getting prospects’ information is valuable but actually it’s the getting of their attention that is invaluable. Even if subscribers only read a portion of one out of every ten newsletters, they will be reminded of your firm and your expertise every single time. At the very least (if they do not unsubscribe) they will see your name at least once monthly. This regular, subtle and helpful reminder will help keep your firm at the top of their mind when the need to hire a firm like yours arises and confirm the value of your website as a powerful marketing asset.

For more information on how to plan and optimize your website for your business, feel free to contact me directly today!