What do you really know about SEO? - ISSUE 19 - 1/23/12

Whether you are an "expert" in Search Engine Optimization or an amateur, this blog is for you.  As always, I'm trying to grow my knowledge of being a professional marketer and I'm still amazed at all the new things I learn that I thought I knew everything about.  I thought I knew what the most important aspects to SEO were and I thought I was doing everything right.  But, even after all that, I wasn't seeing the results in website traffic that I knew I should be.  So, just as you may have guessed, I sought out the information that would allow me to produce the results I should have been producing.

Now that you have your website up and running, how do you maintain and grow your excellent store front?  What on Earth are people looking for that will lead them to find you?!  You hear people saying all the time that it's all about "getting ranked high in the search engines."  What does that mean?  It's simple.  Everyday people all over the world are looking up information on the Internet.  Google uses their very sophisticated algorithmic formulas to determine which websites are the most relevant to the questions people are posing within the search box.

Obviously, your next question will be, "how do I do that?!"  This time, my answer will be... "It's not so simple."  You will have to work very hard and consistently to grow your business and your following online.  You must never stop because within a very short period of time of doing so, you will be obsolete in the world of the search engines. Believe it or not, a very large factor of your relevance is how fresh your content is.  By keeping your information current and up-to-date, you will always be at the forefront of your competition.

Put yourself in the shoes of a visitor to your website.  Let's say you are someone who has never seen your website before and let's say for example, it looks like the website hasn't been updated since 1998.  What is the first thing you are going to do?  That's right!  You're going to push the BACK button and move onto the next because you believe there's no way the information is going to be relevant to you.  In case you didn't know, the BACK button is the third most used feature on an Internet browser.  You want your visitors using this button only when necessary.

Now that you're updating your website on a regular basis, the next aspect to SEO that's most important for you to focus on is who trusts you and perceives you as an authoritative figure.  In other words, the more people that link to you and your website, the more relevant you will be to the search engines.  Link-building is not an easy task and will take a lot of work on your part, but it will pay off ten-fold in the long run.

As a whole, there are only a small percentage of people out there to assist you with link-building but they have the most impact on your success.  People link to other websites for six primary reasons: anger, pride, excitement, surprise, envy, and sharing.  It's your job to determine what message you want the public to see, but you always need to be thinking about this when you are maximizing your website.  Regardless of the quality of your content, no one is going to share it unless they have a reason to and/or it benefits them.

Following is a list of on-page correlations based off importance:

Highest - Lowest

1. Website URL
2. Title
3. Body
4. Alt Text
5. HTML
6. Bold
7. Meta Description
8. Emphasize
9. Meta Keywords
10. Italics
11. H1, H2, H3
12. Out Anchors

Now that you have a little more information about SEO, and you know what is most important to focus on, you should start to see results within a short period of time, but remember, you must always be updating to stay competitive.  

The benefits of creating a Facebook Fan Page and a LinkedIn Group - ISSUE 17 - 1/17/12

Now that you know how to be successful with Social Networking from our previous blog, we would like to focus your attention on two specific social networks you are probably already familiar with - Facebook and LinkedIn.

Facebook

Although Facebook was originally designed by college students to connect with one another and to socialize on the web, it didn't take long for businesses to catch on to the idea that they could also socialize and connect with other people and potential customers via the web. In the beginning, there wasn't such a thing as a Facebook Fan Page specifically for a business to promote their product or service, but now that there is, you probably should have one.

A fan page is one of the best ways for a business to connect with their current and future customers because almost everyone has Facebook and this connectivity allows for customers to rave about their experiences and to express their questions and concerns not only real-time, but in front of the eyes of everyone else connected to this page.

I remember one time in particular where I had a bad experience with a company's bad customer service. I wanted to maintain their service but wasn't able to because of the location I was moving to. I pleaded with multiple people to waive my early termination fee, but they wouldn't budge. I loved their service but I was livid and swore that I would never do business with them again in the future. To say the least, you bet I was on their fan page letting them have it. I finally gave up because I knew I couldn't win, but they lost a customer for life because they weren't a little flexible and didn't listen to the customer.

Another great way for a business to utilize a fan page is by reaching out to its followers to get customer feedback about a specific product or promotion. For example, let's say a toothpaste company just launched their latest and greatest toothpaste. This toothpaste makes claim that it will not only whiten your teeth beyond the leading competitors, but it will also guarantee that you will never have to go to the dentist again. First of all, WOW! Don't we all wish?! But, second of all, this would be such a fantastic opportunity to learn whether their claims are holding up in the eyes of the public.

After the first thirty days, the company decides to ask its followers via their fan page whether they feel and/or believe the product is living up to its hype. This can be done by posing an open-ended question or by conducting a poll, although the highest response rate will most likely come from creating a poll.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is another social media website which is for business owners and this is an area you should definitely focus as much time as is cost effective for you. In fact, all Fortune500 CEOs have LinkedIn accounts.

By creating your LinkedIn page you are creating a public and more formal profile whether it be used for potential clients or even possibly to get a job. You can post all the professional imagery on the site as you wish as well as writing the words to create your brand. I say formal because most people are on LinkedIn to network for business purposes rather than personal purposes. It tends to be a more formal atmosphere the way you would conduct yourself within your profile and when connecting with other people.

When you are looking for those connections via LinkedIn, you will also want to ensure only to befriend those who will provide value to you. Don't request people just to connect. There's nothing wrong with networking, but make sure to engage the other person in conversation and connecting with them as much as possible in a professional manner.

And lastly, LinkedIn can allow you to exponentially grow your business if you conduct the right behaviors. Always look to answer people's problems and questions, and pose your own questions, as well. Become known as the authoritative figure in your domain. Attract people rather than chase people. Always remember that.

Why You Should Incorporate SEO Into Your Website - ISSUE 15 - 1/12/12

Whether you are an online marketer or just a business owner who wants to drive business to her website, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is imperative. People are utilizing Search Engines more than ever before and if you aren't maximizing this, you could be missing out on thousands of dollars of business. In fact, SEO is the most effective online marketing tactic for generating conversions.

In case you are wondering, the definition of SEO by Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing states that it is "a set of methodologies that make it easier for search engines to find, index, categorize and rank web content.

Most people are familiar with search engines such as Google or Bing, but do you know how the search engines work? To sum it up, when you visit Google, for example, you are actually seeing a copy of the web, and not the actual web. Google downloads the entire Internet on a regular basis and indexes the information onto their servers all over the world. After they download the information, they use their algorithms to sort the information and place the most relevant information to your search query at the top of the list. If your website can't be seen by Google or your information is not relevant to what people are searching for, then very few people, if any, will be able to find your company's website.

To ensure you are making your website search engine friendly, the following is a basic SEO Checklist:

• Content is reachable by search engines
• Content is added often/periodically
• Content is organized logically - themes/categories
• Keywords exist in content and internal text links
• Quantity of quality sites linking in
• Relevant and Authoritative
• Get links coming in to specific products and services
• Monitor, adjust

After you have gone through the SEO checklist, you must also spend a considerable amount of time optimizing your website by writing valuable and relevant content, brainstorming keywords for the three parts of the sales cycle (Research, Consider, Buy), and then by doing your own research to leverage and maximize your keywords so that you can be placed on the top of the search engine results.
It's very important that when brainstorming for keywords that you get into the minds of your customers rather than guessing. Here are a few examples of how you might do that:

• Brainstorm based on solutions and customer needs
• Interview or survey customers
• Review current web analytics
• Poll sales and customer service staff
• Review competitor content

There are multiple different facets to optimizing your website for the search engines and the process is painstaking and never-ending. If you haven't already, it's highly recommended to hire a professional so that you can focus on other areas of your business, unless, of course, you are a professional web designer and online marketer and enjoy doing it. Visit our website to learn more about how we will be able to assist you with accomplishing your goals and to ensure your success. www.suitedmarketing.com
Information is constantly changing and if you don't change with it, you will find yourself out of business before you have time to blink.

If you're the do-it-yourselfer and would like to learn more about SEO, I highly recommend for you to watch the following video by one of the experts in the field.


SEO Crash Course to Get Found (GF102)