Posts Tagged ‘SEO’

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The Key to Good Keywords

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

Choosing good keywords for your website isn’t as simple as you might think. It’s important to use proper phrasing as well as make sure your words and phrases fall in line with the search terms your potential clients might use.

The best keywords are short phrases that describe your services and products in everyday words that your target market would enter into search engines. The tricky part is that while you don’t want your keyword phrase to be too broad (plumbing), you also want to avoid being too specific (toilet flapper valve kit).

Keyword selection isn’t a precise science, so you’re going to have to use a little trial and error to find the ones that work best. Here are a few tips to help you get started:

•    Avoid industry terms and insider lingo
•    Use a two-four word phrase rather than a single, broad term
•    Stay away from highly competitive terms
•    Use “buying” terms rather than “research” ones
•    Be precise and pinpoint your niche

Once you’ve come up with your list of keywords, don’t think you’re finished with that part of your SEO plan. It’s important to keep track of your keywords and their rankings with an analysis tool such as Google Analytics, and don’t be afraid to replace or update the ones that aren’t working.

Remember: don’t go overboard when using your keywords on your website or in your marketing materials. Filling your pages with the same repeated phrase not only makes you look spammy, it angers the search engine spiders, which can lead to a drop in your rankings – the exact opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish.

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Top 5 SEO Tips and Tricks

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

As any good Internet marketer knows, SEO stands for search engine optimization. Basically it’s a fancy term for “try to get your page ranked #1 on Google.” You should know that there are no sure fire methods for increasing your ranking on search engines but there are several strategies that we can offer that will help.

To increase your ranking on search engine results and drive more traffic to your website, try these ten tips and tricks to establish your presence on the Internet:

•    Keyword Research: Make sure that the terms and phrases you use on your website are ones that your target market are looking for. Think from your clients’ point of view to come up with the best ones.
•    Increase the Links: Try to get as many links leading to your website from around the Internet as possible. Also, make sure that they don’t all lead to the home page. Look to blogs, social networking sites and the like to increase your traffic.
•    Be Original: Unique, interesting content is mandatory for attracting the attention of search engine spiders. Believe us, nothing will get you dropped to the bottom of the results like copying and pasting material from other sites.
•    Keep Current: Just because your keywords are perfect for your target market today does not mean that they’re everlasting. Check in on their effectiveness from time to time and make sure to adjust as necessary.
•    Stay in Touch: Be sure that your website and business information are listed on local guides like Citysearch or Yelp, and submit articles to sites like EzineArticles. You’ll get your business name out there and begin to establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Realize that SEO is not a one-shot deal. In order for any optimization strategy to be effective, you have to be persistent. Now, getting ranked #1 on Google (or Yahoo or any other major search engine) isn’t easy, but with a little hard work, you can definitely increase your presence and begin your journey toward the top.

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Get Help with SEO

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011

As an upstart entrepreneur, you know that the bulk of the work for your business is going to be done by you. However, as your company starts to grow and thrive, you may find yourself needing some help. This is especially true in the area of SEO.

When you decide to outsource your SEO services, you want to make sure that the company you choose practices the best, most effective techniques available. Even if you don’t know all of the top strategies yourself, you should be careful to select a company that does.

Here are some questions you want to ask a new SEO firm – before you sign a contract:

•    Can you provide previous success stories?
•    How well does your site rank in Google?
•    What techniques will you use?
•    How will you measure your progress?
•    When can I expect to see results?

There are a lot of tactics for driving traffic to a website and increasing search results, and there’s no one-size-fits all strategy. Your SEO firms should customize a plan specifically for your business. Just make sure that they use only “white hat” techniques, meaning they don’t use deceptive or misleading campaigns.

Sure, “black hat” strategies like hidden texts and cloaking might produce results, but they’re also a great way for your site to get dropped to the bottom of search engine results, or even banned entirely. So, don’t do it.

The number one question to ask a potential SEO firm is, “Can you promise that my site will get a first page ranking?” You should know from the outset that no one is able to guarantee search engine rankings, not even Google themselves. So, if you find a SEO company that says they can, you’ll instantly know it’s time to move along.

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Tried and True Marketing Strategies

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

When it comes to marketing your Internet business, it can often be hard to know where to start. There are so many options for marketing strategies and techniques, so how do you know which ones would work best for you and your company?

Obviously, you want to select strategies that have proven success records and are shown to lead to excellent results. To get you started, here are a few tried and true marketing strategies you may want to consider:

Search Engine Optimization
SEO is a way of developing your website content to attract the attention of top search engines like Google and Yahoo. When your target market does an Internet search for something related to your products and services, you want to be sure that your site appears as high in the search results as possible. By implementing an effective SEO strategy, you have the best chances for that.

Pay Per Click Ads
Top search engines such as Google, Yahoo and others offer advertising programs known as Pay Per Click or PPC. The basic way it works is that you create ads using keywords that relate to your business. When people search for those particular terms, your ad will appear on the page along with the other search results. The reason it’s called Pay Per Click is that you only pay for the ad when someone clicks on it.

Social Media Marketing
Social media is a kind of broad term that encompasses the various social networking communities – Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn being the top three. The way you market through social media is by creating profiles within each community and then participating in the online conversations. It’s a slow but steady word-of-mouth system that has revolutionized the way people exchange information with each other online.

Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing helps you drive traffic to your website by creating a network of other sites that already have a high volume of visitors. Here you would find businesses that have products and services similar to your own and then ask them to promote your company to their list in exchange for promoting them to yours.

The most important part of creating your custom marketing strategy is to choose the ones that best fit the nature of your business and the personality of your clientele. To find out which ones those are, do a little research and find out where your target market goes for information and resources on things related to your business and services.

And of course, if you ever have any questions about best marketing practices or developing a customized strategy for your business, contact us directly. We’d love to help you get started!

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Plan Ahead for Best SEO Results

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

Do you want to know what the number one technique is for effective SEO? Persistence. Unlike a certain direct marketing product for roasting chicken, there is no “set it and forget it” when it comes to creating and maintaining a marketing strategy for your company or your services.

 

Not only do you need to remain vigilant in updating your SEO strategies, staying current with search trends, updating keywords and phrases and so forth for what’s going on in your market today, you also need to be proactive. For example, what’s your plan for the holiday season this year?

 

“But it’s only June! Don’t rush me. Can’t we get through the summer first?” Well, sure you can. You can wait all you want, just as long as you don’t care about making your marketing strategies as effective as they have the potential to be. Think about it, who do you think gets the better results: the person who’s already reformulating their services so they can offer a special holiday edition of their ebook, or the one who isn’t going to even think about how they can take advantage of the season until it’s Halloween and they are faced with shelves of tinsel and wreaths at their local drugstore?

 

And the fact is, you don’t have to have a particularly holiday-adaptable product to get in on the shopping frenzy action. People have been trained for decades to shop more in the last couple of months of the year and because there’s sure to be a huge surge in searches of all kinds, just a little tweaking in your keywords and site content can get your pages showing up in the results.

 

Remember, too, that Christmas isn’t the only time of year that determines shopping trends. There are always search trends that are more popular in one season over another. Keeping your site updated with the appropriate content and keywords – and planning for that well in advance of when you expect searches to change – will go a long way in keeping your marketing campaign ahead of the game.

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SEO Ideas for Niche Markets

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Now, it may not happen a lot, but every so often an Internet entrepreneur comes up with a business idea that is so totally unique that it doesn’t fall into the usual search engine request categories. Particular startups, niche products or other distinctive items you might be promoting may easily make their way to the top of search engine results, but if consumers aren’t looking for them yet, that’s not really going to help, is it? So, what is a marketer to do?

Of course, there are ways to attract consumers that don’t depend on search traffic. Options like writing articles, social media marketing, email blasts, blog posts and so forth, can garner interest in a new product or service without relying on organic search engine requests. However, you shouldn’t give up on gaining traffic through SEO efforts –just realize that you have to be a little crafty about it.

When you’re selecting keywords for your new, unique product or service, try using those that apply to markets that are similar to yours. Although they may not correlate directly to what you’re selling, they’ll get you into search results for things that people are actually searching for and extend your reach to potentially viable consumers. Even if there isn’t already a product on the market that you can hitch your services to, most likely you can find something that is similar enough that you would still be relevant to the folks doing the searching.

In cases when you can’t really find a product or service out there that is similar enough to yours, change your focus and think instead of your target market. What other kinds of things are they searching for? Think of their demographic aspects – age, gender, income, location, etc. – and redirect your efforts toward relatable content that will attract their interest. Once you get their attention, you can then introduce them to your cool, one-of-a-kind product or service that they don’t even know they need … yet.

Don’t be discouraged if your product or service fails to amass a huge search volume. Think outside of the search engine box and use that clever brain of yours to come up with marketing ideas that are just as unique as your super awesome product.

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Google Instant Good News for SEO

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

In their endless pursuit of improving user experience and reducing the time it takes to complete an inquiry, Google has introduced a new search enhancement: Google Instant. A new, advanced search engine, Google Instant returns search results with each letter you type, thereby helping you refine your search as you enter your term, rather than refining by trial and error.

Turns out, the biggest drain on turnaround time for a search inquiry on plain old Google was user-centric in that the person conducting the search had to type in a phrase, hit enter, evaluate the results and refine their term as many times as necessary to get what they were looking for. With Google Instant, not only do word and phrase suggestions pop up, actual results are shown on the page as you enter your term and they change with each successive letter you type.

So, how is this good news for SEO? Well, as Google Instant helps users refine their searches to get exactly what they’re looking for, your chances of being connected to your ideal customers increases. You’ve already done the research to select the perfect keywords and phrases to attract the clients who would benefit most from your services, now Google Instant will help guide them to those keywords and phrases, even if they don’t come up with them on their own.

Another benefit is that the number of results a person will see based on a single search is going to multiply exponentially. Say with each letter you type, you see the top ten results. A five-letter word is exposing the user to 50 results along the way as opposed to the top ten they would have seen once they entered the entire word. The volume alone increases your chances of being seen.

Add to that the fact that, the countless people who use Google Instant while logged in get personalized results, your chances of connecting with your perfect potential client are higher than ever.

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Don’t Go Overboard with SEO Efforts

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

When you first learn about search engine optimization, it’s easy to get caught up in all the new strategies and tactics you’re discovering. Finding out about different methods for attracting spiders and search engine robots can be exciting, especially for a new Internet marketing venture. However, it’s really important that you remember to be sparing in your SEO efforts. Too much of a good thing can actually be detrimental. What is known as “over optimization” can lead to a lower ranking on search engine results … the exact opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish.

As you probably already know, search engines such as Google and Yahoo implement programs that dispatch virtual creatures known as robots or spiders out to the Internet to gather information so that they can categorize and rank the millions of sites on the web. They then compile their findings so that they know where your site should appear in search results. Using proper headlines, keywords and anchors is integral in attracting the attention of the spiders and indicating what your sites topic and offerings are. Yet, if you overdo it, your efforts will backfire.

One thing to look out for is repetitive phrasing. Using the exact wording in your page title, H1 headline, sub-headlines and anchors can come across as spammy and send a signal to the robots that your site may not be valuable to viewers. Another common SEO-newbie mistake is creating too many cross-links. If every link on your website sends your visitor to another page on your site, the robots are going to catch on and most likely lower your rankings based on their findings.

The point is to make efforts at improving your search engine rankings without looking like you’re trying too hard. A site that comes across as standardized or obviously manipulated for optimization will have a negative effect on the spiders and will decrease your chances of being found via a web search. Definitely use SEO tactics; just be sure you find the proper balance.

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Small Business SEO: A List of What Not to Do

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Marketing an Internet business requires some tricky maneuvering. It’s important to understand and implement the basics of search engine optimization while understanding that creating a successful online presence is more than using the right keywords and creating spider-friendly websites.

The purpose of any Internet marketing strategy is to increase your online visibility while augmenting your company’s bank accounts. Your website needs to be at the top of search engine results as well as relevant and useful to your target market. So, how do you make sure that when potential clients search for the service you provide, it’s your company they go to first?

Presenting part two of a two-part series on the do’s and don’ts of small business marketing. In part one we offered a list of 5 Internet marketing do’s to increase your online visibility and keep your company and services at the forefront of potential customers’ minds. This week, the don’ts:

  1. Don’t Spam. Not now, not ever. Spam includes bombarding customers and potential clients with unsolicited emails and materials, as well as inundating unrelated blogs, guest books and the like with links to your site.
  2. 2. Don’t procrastinate on implementing SEO efforts. No matter whether you’re launching a brand new site or upgrading an existing one, it’s never too soon to think SEO. Early on, develop a process to manage, monitor and upgrade your SEO efforts and stay up to date on current Internet marketing practices. Keep in close touch with the needs and wants of your client base so that you can focus your SEO efforts on what matters the most.
  3. Don’t let an SEO company fully take the reins. In many cases, hiring a professional SEO company to manage your marketing is your best bet in maximizing the potential of your SEO efforts. However, don’t assign the task and consider it “handled.” Participate in the process and stay in close contact with your SEO advisors. They may know Internet marketing, but you know your clients. It is your job to make sure their needs and interests are kept at the forefront of every strategy implemented.
  4. Don’t over-Flash. By now you are well acquainted with the search engine robots commonly known as spiders. Spiders are the ones in charge of assessing your site’s content and reporting it back to the search engines to establish your ranking in the results. If your website is completely designed in Flash or Java, the spiders won’t be able to read it and all the keyword research in the world won’t help you.
  5. 5. Don’t forget the importance of keywords. If you use overly general or inappropriate keywords, your site will be incorrectly assessed by robots and placed in the wrong search engine results lists. Also, remember to use keywords with an emphasis on buying over research-based ones. For example, “plumber” implies as search for someone to do plumbing tasks, “plumbing” implies more of a do-it-yourself search. (For more on this, see our post Using Keywords to Hit Your Target Market)

In an industry as complex and individualized as search engine optimization, there are literally thousands of specific strategies and practices to maximize your marketing efforts. Hopefully this list of don’ts, as well as last week’s list of do’s will get you started on the right path to your Internet business’ ultimate success.

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Keep Track of SEO Success

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Monitoring your keyword performance, adjusting your terms and updating your site as necessary is a time-consuming game of strategy, but its payoff is well worth the effort. A successful SEO program is not only about bringing a lot of traffic to your website, it is about developing your content to be of optimal value to your end user. The better your site works for your clients, the better your chances are of generating organic traffic flow to your page. As you progressively optimize your site to work for your ideal consumers, your chances for reaching your goals will skyrocket.

You can get feedback on data such as pages visited, inbound links, daily traffic, average time on site and more using analytics tools like Google Analytics. That way you can monitor the traffic on your site, adjust your content to better serve the people visiting your pages and ultimately increase your site’s profitability.

A good way to monitor your SEO success is to look at your search engine rankings. You should regularly check your position, as well as that of your competitors, so that you can keep track of your progress. The information on your keyword performance, position changes and trends in your placement can be used to guide you in updating your keyword choices and further developing your content to increase your chances of attracting your ideal client base.

Analyzing bounce rates is another way to monitor your SEO efforts. Let’s say you sell hand-tied fishing lures. If users make their way to your site by entering “hand-tied fishing lure” into a search engine, but quickly leave before taking any action, the search engine will notice. It will identify your site as not being a good “hand-tied fishing lure” link and will send future traffic to your competitors. Looking at bounce rate data for your keywords and phrases will enable you to figure out what your users are looking for. Then you can optimize your site to create the best experience for your customers so that they stick around and take action rather than bouncing off of your page.

Creating the optimal site for your users is not an overnight job. Monitoring and updating your site is an ongoing process that requires work and strategy. But, if you put in the time and effort, you’ll receive amazing results.

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