3 Tips To Easily Get a First Page Google Ranking

Back in the day, performing programming tasks and SEO work to rank at top of the first page of Google – well, it was easy. In fact, just making sure you had the right keyword density (number of keywords repeated on a page) was enough to show up fairly quickly. And, if not – just adding some incoming links from article directories would do the trick.

In 2011, with the social inter-webs, time have certainly changed. While the core concepts of SEO (content+links) are still true, you’ll have a hard time getting listed on the first page of Google without using different strategies.

What can you do?

read more

Little Known Tips For Free Google SEO Traffic

photo credit: kevinmarsh

After you’re done reading this post, you’ll understand the importance of copy and and persuasion thinking, both on your website, and off. You should also recognize that there are many variables that can and will imply specific user actions externally, and on your page – from the brand itself, usability, navigation, page layouts, offer, pricing, site design, shopping process, the competition and more. Start with the basics though, get your copy down tight. Using a simple guide – AIDAS can help you. (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action and Satisfaction).

A robust SEO strategy uses multiple ways to drive traffic to your web site. Relying on keywords for search engines to find your web site organically (your first step), is a must – and, optimizing a web site or page relies on understanding the relationship between effective copy and how it is presented – both on the page (what the viewer sees) and what’s in the code (what the search engine sees). Fast loading pages is another potential “signal” now used by Google.

The key to writing effective copy and driving traffic, repeat visitors for SEO is creating content that is both relevant and value-driven. Relevance refers to matching what viewers are looking for to what you have to offer. This is accomplished by implementing keywords in the title of each web page, variations in the URL, Metadata, page description, and image and video descriptions, if it’s included – and we suggest you do. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, and it’s a straightforward process to add an “embedded” video on your page.

Additionally, keywords in the content need to be placed in prominent positions, early on the page, such as in titles of pages, subtitles, and within leading sentences of paragraphs. This not only helps determine relevancy, but also can structure the content into a more organized and presentable format for users and search engines.

Value-driven content focuses on the legacy of the copy, which will determine how useful and re-usable the copy is for readers. Part of that is formatting the copy into shorter paragraphs, structuring the content with bullet points and sub-headings, using active and not passive words, and providing descriptions for graphics, charts, and other multimedia. This is also where structure influences SEO, as creating easy-to-follow content adds value to your site and can help promote traffic to other pages within your site.

In order to effectively provide value, you should structure links to other pages within your site and organize them in a way that is easily accessible and readable. Adding links within your copy makes it easier for readers to go from one page to the next and acts as an open door to the other areas of your web site. Getting quality and slowly built merit-based citations will add tremendous value, and over time. Search engines make adjustments all the time, and Google allegedly, daily.

Don’t simply add directories, for example, but use a combination of press releases, blogs (don’t just mass-comment), articles, syndication of custom content (to partners), email marketing, ad swaps and social media platforms (no spamming).

Think about where the user is coming from, and what their mindset is. You have different visitors coming to your site, from the ones who know what they are looking for, to those more in a “browse” mode, and do have a general interest, to those looking for something, not sure what they want, to the visitors with no interest at all. If you provide quality and consistency, these visitors will share content and link to you. Don’t miss this important point.

If performed diligently and accurately, the combination of these factors will create an effective SEO strategy that will result in increased traffic levels to your site.

Why SEO is so Great for Small Business (SMB)

Small businesses need a presence on the internet and that means they must rank decently in the search engines. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) proves to be so helpful. It aids in boosting the presence of the small business’ website in the rankings. From this, a potentially large stream of organic traffic can be tapped to flow to the site. Of course, there’s a balance between traffic keywords and “buying” keywords. We want the most targeted keywords possible, so good keyword research is imperative.

Increasing search engine rankings is based on several factors. Link building and integrating proper keywords into the text of the website remain the most important of components. Thankfully, it is not all that complex to implement such steps. The process is affordable which means your business can earn significant income with less cost than, for example, rising PPC costs, or expensive Media Buys.

How To Become The Most Successful SEO That Ever Lived

(Slightly tongue-in-cheek here, but read on…)

Are you familiar with this quote? It’s the Bessie Stanley Quote, but often erroneously attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson. It’s what SUCCESS is attributed to:

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

If you can use this in your daily life, apply to your business, to your friends, to your family, to your religion, to your physical and spiritual being, you may indeed become the most spectacular SEO that ever bore fruits on this planet.

P.S.
So, the next time you do your keyword research, write a piece of (awesome) content, hunt down quality links, interact with your clients or co-workers, give a little extra. You’ll feel better.

SEO = Talk Soup = Success?

Why, dear reader, do I keep having the same discussion over and over? Is it me? Is there something wrong with the tone of my voice? Maybe it’s my last name, it’s hard to pronounce. I’m almost out of ideas.
Somebody explain why I keep having this conversation:

Poor me: “Hello, may I help you?”
Misinformed customer: “Yes, I want my website ranked on the first page of Google for . . .”

Let’s stop there. Do you know how much talking must now take place because “misinformed customer” has mistaken a tactic for a strategy? The conversation grows lengthier and more precarious depending on how many other people the “misinformed customer” has talked to prior. Why do some of my colleagues and competitors contribute to this confusion by answering “You bet!” to that same question?

So, what’s the big deal, you ask? Why don’t you just say yes and close the deal? Because the “misinformed customer” thinks they are telling me exactly what they want and I have to carefully dig, dig, dig, dig to find out what they really need and then provide them with the vocabulary to articulate it.

Maybe it’s just me. Let me be clear on my thinking; being ranked on the first page of Google for a particular key phrase is a tactic. Before you disagree in this context, let’s agree on the definition of tactic. Here’s what I’ve taken from Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: 1tac•tic
Pronunciation: ˈtak-tik
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin tactica, from Greek taktikē, from feminine of taktikos
Date: 1640
1 : a device for accomplishing an end
2 : a method of employing forces in combat

So, based on this definition, I believe that ranking is a tactic. It’s a device for accomplishing an end, whether it’s generating qualified leads or building brand recognition. It is not a matter of ethics, but of good business sense to ensure that any potential SEM customer understands this.

One critical element to selling and maintaining a loyal customer in any industry is to effectively listen to and understand the customer’s needs. When I sold paid search technology, the conversations were simple because I was selling to paid search professionals and because other firms couldn’t use naiveté to close a deal and thus perpetuate misunderstanding.

It seems in SEO that things are much different. Too many firms seem to be happy to sell on their promise to effectively perform a tactic, whether it contributes to the customer’s real needs or not. I don’t know this for a fact, but I really don’t have any other clue as to why I have to explain all of this over and over again.
So, I’m here to help everybody to help me. If you’re selling SEO and you are about to have this same conversation with a potential client, taking this tack has helped me to educate customers and win trust and win business: talk soup.

We can see from the most recent search trend analysis that while impressions remain relatively constant, clickthrough rates have been steadily dropping. This supports the theory that people are using search to research and buy, but they are doing less shopping around. It’s not the gospel, but most of us infer that this is because the internet is less of a novelty and is now becoming more like a shopping center or a grocery store. What does this mean for the marketer? It means that brand is back.
It is critical for our customers to understand this new grocery store analogy. There was a time when the internet was shiny and new and the “brick and mortars” didn’t have their act together and there weren’t established internet brands. That has all changed.

I use soup because it seems to be all about brand. There are maybe two soup brands anybody thinks about? Seriously, all these soup eaters and two brands?

When somebody comes to me and proclaims that a simple ranking tactic is the solution to their business problems, I make sure they’re not selling soup. Just because I put some new tomato soup brand above, below, to the left or to the right of Campbell’s, I doubt they’re going to sell anything. If product placement is their strategy, I can help them to do it, but they aren’t going to be happy. They’ll spend a lot of time and money for nothing. And yet I have customers who are basically trying to do the same thing; like a mortgage broker shopping around for the lowest quote to rank next to Lendingtree.com on the phrase “home loan”.

I promise to do my part to educate as much as sell. I hope others will join me. If you’re an SEO professional, somebody soon is going to call you to talk rankings. You can help them. Just talk soup.

The #1 Way To Generate Leads Online

Disclaimer: This post is not biased in any way!

Lead Generation with SEO

It is true that you must work with practitioners that know what they are doing here, but SEO (search engine optimization) is truly the top way to generate (quality) leads online. Using this approach, you are optimizing your website (pages!) for search engines and thereby for users to find you. The visitors come to you virtually for free, and your (assumed) decreased cost per lead can and will dramatically increase your business valuation. With the keyword research and marketplace analysis, along with content, usability and links analysis, you can find out what folks are *actually* searching for, other websites (your competitors) they are surfing to, so you can match your site and pages with a high user intent, from natural/organic search. We know that not all are in a buy mode (awareness, research, compare, buy), but if they are – your value proposition overall will be much higher than other means.  You can use other traffic tools to help leverage SEO even more, and for the long haul.

“Forty-eight percent of marketers said that search engine optimization (SEO) was the best method for generating conversions online. More than one-half of marketers with budgets over $1 million agreed.”

Statistics and numbers can not deny the facts. Just take a look at this:

Here’s more information on the marketing trends.

Why Should You Get a “Google” Blog?

Simple. Watch this SEO / Blog video from Google directly. Have you considered a blog?

What do you think?

The World’s Biggest SEO Resource List

Well, probably unofficially so, but -  if you need a great place to start for SEO blogs, you need to look at what Guy Kawasaki and his team have put together.

It covers many more things than just SEO (search engine optimization).

Here’s are some good websites and blogs to start looking at:

http://seo.alltop.com/

http://social-media.alltop.com/

Enjoy the weekend guys!

Top Internet Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

Whether you are working with an Internet marketing company or on your own, it is important to make sure that your Internet marketing efforts succeed. Just as there are many Internet marketing tricks that you should try, there are also a lot of Internet marketing mistakes that you should try to avoid. This article will discuss some of the most common Internet marketing mistakes and how you can avoid them.

A great looking website goes a long way towards attracting the attention of visitors, but if you website contains graphics that take a long time to load, you will be losing potential customers before they even see your main page. When in doubt, opt for a faster loading web page over one that contains flashy graphics and animation. Many companies make the mistake of assuming that the way that their website looks is more important than how it functions, when in reality, the key to success is to find a balance of both.

Marketing special offers and sales on your site is a great way to drum up customers for you business. If you don’t keep your marketing efforts up to date, however, then your website will become stale and boring. Marketing is an ongoing effort. Going along with this, many businesses incorrectly assume that if they are marketing online, they can stop their offline marketing efforts. Successful marketing of a website include offline, as well as online marketing efforts.

People use search engines everyday to find information that they need, but if your website isn’t listed with the major search engines, the chances of anyone finding you are slim to none. Take the time to manually submit your site to search engines. If you aren’t sure how to do this, contact a professional Internet marketing company for help.

If you are trying to get your site visitors to sign up for a free account or to subscribe to a mailing list, keep the information that you collect from them to a minimum. Studies show that each question that you ask aside from their name and address costs you up to 15% of potential customers.

When it comes to Internet marketing, remember to use common sense and whenever possible, enlist the help of an Internet marketing company or Internet marketing professional. They will be able to take an expert look at your website and help you identify the issues that may be preventing you from reaching the top of the search engine results for your target keywords.

Avoiding Problem SEO Clients: Five Red Flags To Watch Out For

No one wants to turn away business, but sometimes it is necessary in order to avoid big problems and hassles in the future. Here are five red flags to be on the lookout for when potential SEO clients approach you.

1. Their website is brand new and/or it needs too much work, and client doesn’t understand work versus cost versus return: ask yourself if the time investment is worth it in this case, especially if there are significant problems with their site that will need to be fixed before any real SEO work can be completed.

2. Their expectations are much too high: Do they want to get to the first page of Google. . . in a month? Do they seem to think that you have some magic SEO wand that you can wave to get them instant results? If so, beware. . .

3. They are resistant to making the changes that you recommend and to new ideas in general: If they don’t want to listen to your ideas and defer to your experience in the initial consultation phase, expect this to be a recurring trend.

4. Their website deals with controversial subject matter (this is relative of course, but if you are uncomfortable working with websites that deal with illegal topics, hate themes, porn, etc. than this should be a red flag). It’s the “other” white meat: PPC = Pills, Porn, Casino

5. They don’t want to do any work themselves: in other words, they assume that you will take over the marketing, maintenance, and generally run every aspect of their website for them once they sign with you.

When it comes to choosing SEO clients, trust your instincts and don’t be afraid to say no when necessary—you’ll be glad that you did. Don’t just go for the money!