Internet Marketing – Increase Your SEO Sales by Teaching Your Clients About SEO Truths

May 31, 2013 By + Leave a Comment

Here at the Search Engine Academy in private consultations with some Search Engine Optimizers I am always amazed at
how many people feel it’s necessary to hype things up in order to sell their search engine placement services.

Selling hyped up claims or setting unrealistic expectations is one of the LEAST intelligent things you can do to build long
term client relationships. Rather than scrambling to outdo the next self proclaimed SEO guy’s claims, why not try something
more in the nature of a soft sell approach.

There is so much to be said for helping to educate your prospect and trying to help them understand the truths about SEO.

By teaching your prospective clients the truth about the SEO process
actually will:

  • Enhance your reputation as a professional
  • Help diffuse those competitors who ONLY sell hype
  • Attract more new referral sales
  • Establish longer term client relationships and establish tremendous client loyalty
  • Firmly establish YOUR CREDIBILITY in both the community as well as the industry as a professional who knows how to get results.

Most people are tired of hearing a lot of hype so try de-mystifying the SEO process and help your prospects to understand what search engine
optimization (SEO) process can do for their business. It’s really just a simple, old-fashioned principle.

Think about it this way…

More top search engine visibility = more success for your client
More client success  = more referral business for you

Most of the time, your clients will sell your services for you even better than you can ever sell yourself.
Every time you help someone achieve success, it is literally impossible for your business not to benefit as well.

Okay, here are some real simple tips:

A. Educate your prospect by telling them the truth.

Try using some of the following points when speaking to your prospects:

◾ Explain to your prospect, that your job is not just building a web site. Designing a web site is relatively easy, but this is only 50% of the job. Explain that your
effort continues long after the launch of the site.

◾Teach them about a few of the ways your service differs from the traditional Web developer. Your true objective entails more than just concept or design.

◾Your skill is positioning their web site squarely in front of their ideal target audience. Once you get them positioned for maximum exposure, it’s your aim to keep them there, stably right in the top limelight for the maximum percentage of the time.

◾Since there are only a “handful” of search engines that everyone uses (the major ones), this is where we place our best promotional efforts. You can demonstrate where their traffic will come from if other clients give you permission to use a couple of their reports as samples.

Ask your prospect this question, “Did you know that “HITS” are irrelevant?

“That’s right, hits do not matter because a HIT is NOT a visitor.” You can then explain that each HIT is really an action from the server.
In other words, a hit occurs for each and every element downloaded. The number of HITS to a site, are nearly always larger numbers, but this does NOT mean you had any great number of visitors. Teach them about the importance of unique visitor sessions. Teach them something about understanding how to read their audience analytics.

Why do so many competitors talk all about HITS?

Why is this important?

In explaining this difference between a HIT and a VISITOR, you have taught your prospect a truth that could work against the next competitor who comes along behind you and only talks about HITS (which is what so many will do).

Simply because they are BIG numbers which sound impressive particularly if you have no intention of providing the customer with detailed reporting. Teach your prospect the truth, that the important numbers to watch are the actual visitor session counts, not just hits.

Help your client to understand what it is you do.

Does your prospect see your “behind the scenes” service as VITAL?

If not, they need some understanding! Explain, “the reason” that business owners hire you, is to ensure their  web site is built and launched properly the very first time”.

Explain that “Business owners are usually too busy running their business, to worry about all of the requirements of publishing and positioning a web site for targeted traffic and monitoring the results.” Help them to understand that you ARE their watchdog for online success. You have come to realize that the more success you bring to them, the more your business grows. You are in this for the long term!

B. Talk to them about the components of success:

Let them know that when you work with their web content, you need some freedom to work with them and provide input. Explain that the best success formula is often a cross between re-writing their content especially for high search engine placement COMBINED with copywriting that is written for the human being in mind.

It’s a combination of having a highly visible web site that also employs techniques that compel their visitors to respond. Explain why this second aspect is so important by saying something like, “Your business does not really begin, until we get your visitor to take action and respond to what they see.”

Talk to them about your ability to research their keyword phrases from real time results. Explain to them that you must determine which search phrases will genuinely pull the most targeted traffic into their pages. Tell them you will be asking them for a list of suggested keywords to start. Explain that ultimately you will be analyzing those words and through research, you’ll actually find the highest performing phrases with the lowest competition.

You can let them know that the reason your pages score well with major search engines is because you build honestly engaging, content-rich pages without the use of any types of tricks, gimmicks or spam. Content that readers will find useful and of value. The strategies you employ are based on using phrases that are first researched and then proven to be currently in usage by consumers within their specific market.

C. Stop trying so hard to sell SEO and learn to dialog with your prospect.

Learn to “dialog” with your prospects in a two-way communication. This is most often successful if you are the one asking the questions. Remember that whoever is asking the questions, is really the one who is controlling and directing the conversation. Ask questions about from where the prospect would like to take business. Try asking questions like, “Would you be willing to take business from a specific location?” Ask lots of specific questions. If they are only interested in a regional presence, then begin painting a picture in their mind of where they could be getting new business from. Remember to ask questions about your prospect’s distribution of product and services.

Demonstrate that you are not just interested in building, positioning and monitoring the site. you  are also interested in all aspects of the business such as how they intend to handle distribution. Such conversations not only lead to enhancing client rapport, but will end up triggering entirely new optimization strategies in your mind.

D. Make the most of your newest successes.

Your prospects become your customers and in a short time, they begin telling stories about their success on the web.  Don’t forget to make the most of these opportunities, after all you’ve made the effort and promoted your client well, you deserve the credit. You have demonstrated that your SEO strategies not only work, but in many cases, your efforts will have delivered a dramatic increase in business. Always ask your client’s permission first, but they’re usually more than happy to distribute your brochure or business cards. This is usually the start to a wonderful trend in ongoing referral business. Always remember to thank your clients for every new referral they send your way.

Ask your clients if they would mind taking the occasional reference call. All you really need are just a few of your client’s names and numbers. A list of these satisfied names and numbers can be offered to new prospects. You can be sure this is just one more thing that not a lot of your competitors will be doing if they are not achieving genuine results. Search Engine Optimization is one of the biggest missing links in this whole web development industry. It’s safe to say that building a web site without a plan for search engine optimization, is the single most expensive lesson that any dot com business has ever had to learn in the last few years. It’s only good wisdom that you teach both your prospects and your clients these things up front and early. The results will be a long lasting client relationship where your client wins, your client’s customer wins and YOU win too!

E. Enjoy the tremendous lift of knowing that you really are making a difference for your clients.

For thousands of business owners, the investment in solid SEO strategies, are the single missing link to their success. Take action today by employing SEO strategies for your clients and give them the outstanding results that they deserve. Remember that success breeds more success and when you do an extraordinary job for your client, it was SEO training and insights into the freshest skills, that made the difference in their results. There is tremendous satisfaction in that too!

If you need some help catching up on all the freshest SEO strategies, then take a look at the
2013 agenda of SEO and Social Media topics covered in the 5 Day SEO Mastery Workshop.

Here is a complete list of SEO Workshop dates and locations coming up next month.


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Filed Under: Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, Insights for Search, Link Building, Local Search, Mobile Marketing, SEO, SEO Blogging Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Wonderful World of Google Plus and Social Media

May 24, 2013 By + 2 Comments

After a wonderful vacation, it’s back to reality and I’m finally getting caught up on blog posts.  Before I left, I had the most amazing experience on Google+.  I was somewhat of a late adopter when it comes to social media marketing and social networking.  My previous position in Corporate America didn’t necessitate learning how to use Facebook or Twitter for business (although it should have) and Google+ wasn’t even on my radar.

I jumped in feet first about six months ago and boy am I glad I did.  I’ve met people and made connections that I would have never dreamed of in a traditional networking model.  A connection I made on Twitter, led me to a Google+ Community called Open Social Media Initiative, #opensm.  Sherry Nouraini has a vision, and it’s to share information about social media in an open format and to provide open, accessible, and free education to help others succeed.

On Friday’s Sherry hosts a Hangout On Air for the #opensm community and anyone else who wants to join in; it’s a great way to stay on top of what’s happening in the word of social media and to meet great people from all over the world.  The topics vary from week to week, and often include an interview or presentation from a subject matter expert on topics such as Google Plus.  I had the awesome opportunity to be a guest presenter and we offered a three part workshop series on SEO: How Search Engines Find Your Content, How to Create Content Search Engines can Find, and The Dance Between Search and Social.

A few Friday’s ago she switched it up, and instead of a presentation, Sherry held open office hours and invited people from the business community to share their social media challenges and get input and advice from the panel.  We had a very interesting discussion about how to apply social media in the aerospace metal and specialty steel distribution industry.

It boggles my mind to think that I was sitting in my living room sharing SEO tips with people in Illinois, California, and Washington.  We had coverage from both coasts and the Midwest.

Shortly after the Hangout, I checked my email for the Pennsylvania Search Engine Academy and was excited when I saw a new message.  It was “delivered with high importance” which always makes me smile because it means that it’s an inquiry about an upcoming search engine marketing workshop or onsite training.

The message wasn’t about a workshop but may be even better in the long run.

“We are watching you (now) on the opensm hangout. We would really like to interview you, on the topic of SEO, for Social Web Cafe Interviews (http://www.socialwebcafe.tv). Deborah has mentioned that she would like to discuss the crossover between SEO and social media and give you a platform to advertise yourself and services.”

Thirty minutes later a connection was made and my interview was scheduled. I’ve since had the pre-production interview and learned some new tricks to making my videos more effective.  Next up the actual interview.

I can’t wait to write the next installment.

Until next time.

Cheers!

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Google Authorship – 7 Benefits Beyond SEO

April 26, 2013 By + 12 Comments

Google trends on Google Authorship from 2011 to 2013

The interest in Google Authorship is rising almost as fast as the increase of usage of mobile devices to browse websites and search the internet.  It got off to a slow start, but the adoption rate among search engine optimization and social media marketing professionals is quickly picking up steam.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that when I first heard about Google Authorship it went in one ear and out of the other.  I couldn’t imagine setting up yet another profile on yet another social network just so my picture would show up on a search results page.

Thank goodness my colleague and fellow Search Engine Academy instructor Nancy Wigal kept encouraging and educating me about the importance of  Google Authorship and Google Plus and how they can help you achieve your SEO goals.  If it hadn’t been for her I may have waited to verify my authorship or even worse, I may not have done it at all {GASP!}

In a very short amount of time I’ve gone from being ambivalent about it to borderline fanatical.  I recently came across a good Quick Start Guide on Search Engine Watch, the second sentence of the article by Chuck Price was “If you aren’t on Google+, you’re on the path to irrelevance.”  It might have been that sentence that tipped the scale from mere supporter to full-fledged advocate.

Simply put, Google Authorship is going through a process which includes setting up a profile on Google+ to verify your identity as an author.  Or in other words they know that a real human wrote and published the content.

When I first heard about it, I thought, “Ok, so after I set up a Google + profile and now my picture might show up on a search result page, so what.”  How is that going to help me with SEO?

Don’t get me wrong, I thought it would be kind of cool to have my picture associated with a piece of content but other than that I didn’t really ‘get’ it.  And boy oh boy – did I totally miss the importance of Google+and why it should be part of your web presence and search engine optimization strategy.

The bottom line is that  If you have a Google+ profile you’ll be more visible in search results than if you don’t have one.  This started to happen as far back as 2009 (ancient history in internet time) when Google introduced Social Search, which was designed to help people quickly find publicly available web content from your social contacts. In January of 2012, they introduced Search, plus Your World, which incorporates personal results, profiles, people, and pages in search. In other words if you search on a term that someone in one of your circles has written about, their content will be far more likely to show up in your search results.

As with anything else related to SEO, there are additional variables that will be taken into account before a piece of content is considered relevant enough to display in your results, but who you are connected to and whether or not they’ve verified authorship is certainly one of them.

There are benefits beyond SEO as well, and if you’re an author of content I think you’ll welcome them.

Benefits of Google Authorship:

  1. Higher click through rates - statistically people click through at a higher rate on links with rich snippets
  2. Establish authority – a result with a headshot separates you from the back and reinforces that it’s a credible piece of content
  3. Keep your identity – a picture’s worth a thousand words – if you have a common name like ‘Beth Browning,’ you’ll be able to put the name with a face
  4. Beat plagiarism - he original author gets credit – wave goodbye to copy artists and article spinners
  5. Build Trust - it’s all about relationships and people and this is one more way to build trust in an on-line world
  6. Verify guest posts and comments – your profile follows along as you comment on blogs and publish posts on other blogs
  7. Elevate the value and role of writers – as businesses start to recognize the benefits, good writers won’t have to defend why they charge $100 or more for a blog post

If you’re contributing content and you haven’t verified your Google+ Authorship, don’t wait any longer – get started here now.

Join me here on Google+ for regular tips on SEO and more – I’m still learning, so let’s have some fun while we learn together – be sure to mention you read this post.

What are your thoughts about Google Authorship?

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Internet Marketing – Learning To Recognize And Explore Common User Behavior Search Patterns

April 4, 2013 By + Leave a Comment

Internet Marketing – Learning To Recognize And Explore Common User Behavior Search Patterns
By John Alexander

For years now, I have been fascinated with the concept of how people search for information on the Web. While it’s true that the Web has made searching for information easier, it is still interesting that search methods can vary widely depending on how the individual is thinking plus I still find that the ways they conduct a search still follow a much more limited number of identifiable patterns.

By examining certain factors that cause variables in user search behavior and taking into account those details, you’ll often discover variations to help identify common search behavior patterns and gather a sense of what is most important within the users life that causes them to search the way they do.

What type of behaviors are going on over the Web these days?

It’s most often that a person’s search behavior is influenced by the conditions that they are experiencing in their lives.

When it comes to understanding user behavior, for the purpose of keyword research and SEO, I have learned that too often, the keyword research defaults to logically guessing at what keywords might be used rather than exploring a much wider scope and researching all of the associated data.
What Factors affect user search behavior?

Search behavior is the result of several independent factors and influences that the user brings to the search operation.

1. Search experience – these days people are searching more intelligently:

Users who possess a better understanding of a search engine’s capabilities and options may have more ways
to go about finding fresh information. If you for example know how to use Boolean operators, exact strings,
filtering controls, and have proven strategies for exploiting search, then you have a much richer arsenal
at your disposal for research. But search experience alone, by no means is an absolute requirement for success.

I have seen that users who are short on possessing the technical skills and yet may be rich in there
exploration of even more common terms, that can often get by and find those nuggets of gold too. On the other
hand, there are others who tend to have great difficulty finding information in certain subject matter or an
unfamiliar body of knowledge.

2. What are the most common stumbling blocks that prevent people from discovering useful and
   interesting user search behaviors.

A. Many people tend to want to explore keyword phrases based on the most logical options. They often
will in fact, spend periods of time trying to guess at the phrases that make the “most sense.”
This type of research rarely reveals the trails of gold that exist. Most often the results only
reflect highly competitive terms and often only average search volumes that a huge number of people
seem to be limiting themselves to.

B. Often people are not exploring the data because they assume some of smaller, boring little words
could not possibly have any benefit. This is simply not the case. But the only way to determine
whether a root word may be part of a fuller, revealing, search phrase that is actually being used,
is to follow through the process to completion. I have found many examples where what started as a
random even slightly illogical sorting of data, ends up revealing very powerful and telling phrases.

By this, I am referring to those little phrase clusters, that actually tell a bigger story about the
conditions existing in the users life.

C. Sometimes a business will postpone the keyword research phase (thinking they’ll do it later
on after the Web site is finished being built.) This is putting the cart before the horse
and does not afford the SEO staff the ability to build content to match the timing and the
magnitude of the hottest searches that are happening in the now.

A far smarter approach is to get the keyword research done first so that you can take advantage
of the true search phrases that users are searching with. It’s wisdom to use fair to high
volume keyword phrases that also have lower or moderate competition.

In this fashion, you are publishing each new page with a strategy to attract the most correct
searching audience and in many cases, you’ll achieve much higher organic results within a much
shorter time frame simply because you are not competing with the masses.

3. Considering the users cognitive search style:
• Those with a broader thinking style usually first try to build a wider level of understanding
across several topics that are related in some way.

• The more logical or analytical style thinkers tend to dig right into a specific topic and
research it thoroughly to resolve a related specific problem.

Many people lie somewhere in between either of these extremes and occasionally using either cognitive style but often tending to use more of one than the other.

4. Understanding user search behavior with the end goal:

Search criteria will vary from one query to the next, and may be broadly classified into 3
different category types such as:

• Navigational type searches (which are usually conducted to find a specific location,)
- Looking for a site to convert world time zones
- A site that allows the look up of zip codes
- Etc.

• Informational searches (which are usually conducted to find specific and detailed information,)
- Statistical searches
- Historical information
- Instructional information
- Etc.

•Transactional searches occur (which usually is conducted to transaction related variables,)
- Buying tickets online
- Locating flight costs, travel times on an airline
- Etc.

5. Taking into Account the user’s reference of seeking information:

This can range from exploring information on known items or products, where people know exactly what they need and how to describe it, to much more exploratory searches, where they may only possess a loose concept what they want to find.

Examples of telling search phrases:

- “crime rates in New York City” or “crime statistics NYC” (could possibly reflect a user interested in moving to New York)

- “Nikon vs Cannon”   (comparison shopping for digital camera prices and benefits)

- cost of living comparrisons in the US (Someone searching for where it might be more affordable to live.)

- franchise opportunities under 10k  (a business opportunity seeker looking for a lower cost franchise)

- dollarama versus walmart  (Dollar store shoppers trying to price comparrisons on less expensive products.)

- These are only just a few short samples of keywords that reveal search behavioural insights – There are thousands more.

In Summary:

User search behavior varies with technical skills, cognitive styles, search goals, and mode of seeking.

All of these factors will interact in complex ways to influence a user’s actions. The primary thing is that the SEO or business owner cannot select the search behavior that a user will follow
when conducting a search.

However, it is possible to research keyword phrases in a way that helps reveal user search behavior and give you the insights into what your ideal buying audience is actually searching for. With this comes the revelation of the user’s search intent which is still extremely valuable when building useful and engaging content that ties in very hot and in demand topics for the searching audience.

About Keyword Forensics Researcher John Alexander:

John Alexander is Founder and Director of Training for Search Engine Academy since January 2002.
John also offers consulting services and keyword forensics research services to SEO Professionals,
Internet Marketers, Web development professionals and business owners through
Http://KeywordForensics.com

Are you interested in attending an SEO Workshop?

Check out our upcoming SEO training locations and dates here.

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Does Klout equal Clout? Do Social Signals Impact SEO?

April 1, 2013 By + 1 Comment

What is Klout and is it important?  Do Social Signals Impact SEO?

If you’ve never heard of Klout, you’re not alone. Klout is one of a handful of score cards that are intended to measure the level of influence an individual has in the online world particularly through their social media networks.  The others that I’m familiar with are Kred, TrustCloud, and Tweetlevel.  Klout, Kred, and TrustCloud take multiple social networks into consideration when calculating their scores and Tweetlevel provides a score that is specific to Twitter.

The topic of a social score card and whether or not it has any validity can spark a heated debate rather quickly.  It seems that people are firmly on one side of the fence or the other (if they’ve even heard about it).  For those who have heard of it there are many questions, including whether or not social signals play a role in search engine optimization and have an impact on relevancy rankings.

Does Klout or any of the other scorecard accurately measure your social media impact and does having a high score improve your chances of showing up in Google or Bing’s search results?  That’s the sixty-four-thousand dollar question. There’s a lot of buzz about social signals and whether or not they have an affect on SEO and there are as many naysayers as believers, especially as it relates to the concept of a social scorecard.

I completely understand the naysayer’s point of view regarding the social scoring systems that exist today.  The execution is flawed for a few reasons:

  • Much of the scoring has to do with activity without regard to the type of activity – if people in your social networks “like” and “share” your content and posts it boosts your score. I could be posting pictures of cats that people love, say I’m an expert in SEO, and have a high Klout score.  Just because I know how to post pictures that people love to share doesn’t mean I know what I’m doing when it comes to search engine optimization.
  • There’s a lack of participation and awareness about the scores, which minimizes the ability to compare one person’s score or “level of influence” to someone else.  Interestingly everyone already has a score whether they know it or not.  I just recently signed up for Kred and whala I had already been scored and it didn’t change even after I connected my social networks.
  • Each of the tools has an endorsement system, they are all different and again there is limited to no correlation between what someone is endorsed for, the activity within their networks, and what they’ve been endorsed for.

I think the concept is brilliant even if the execution is flawed and I’ve seen indicators that lead me to believe that Klout for one is trying to bridge the gap between expertise and activity.

"Ask me questions on Klout"The last time I checked my Klout score, I had a message that gave me an option to post an update to my personal Facebook page.  The update was an invitation for people to ask me questions on the areas of interest/expertise that I have associated with my account.

I decided to play along and post the question on Facebook and hope to get some questions about search engine marketing or social media strategy.  I’m not quite sure how or if it’s going to work because only 14 of my friends are on Klout and given the fact that Facebook only shows your updates to somewhere between 12% and 16% of your friends it seems unlikely that I’ll get any questions.  But it does seem to be a step in the right direction.

In my opinion, there is a need for some sort of scoring system.  With the rate at which content is being created and the fact that anyone can create a website there needs to be some way for people (and search engines) to determine whether or not someone knows what they are talking or writing about.  Whether or not that comes in the form of a scorecard such as Klout remains to be seen.

There is some evidence that there is some correlation between having a strong social signal and search rankings.  In other words, if people are highly engaged with your content in the various social networks (meaning they are liking and sharing it), you may have a better chance of showing up in natural search results than someone who doesn’t have a strong social signal.  And there is no doubt that things like Google authorship can help when it comes to achieving your SEO Goals.

The jury is still out as to whether or not your Klout, Kred, or TrustCloud scores are important or valid, but I for one am not going to ignore them completely.  Will I tweet my scores? Absolutely not.  But I do believe that there will come a day that such a thing as an influence score exists and just in case it’s one of the tools I’ve mentioned I figure it doesn’t hurt to play along.

What’s your point of view on social scorecards and why?

Until next time.

Cheers!

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Internet Marketing – How Far Will Google Glasses Take The User Into Augmented Reality?

March 19, 2013 By + 4 Comments

Here is a little bit of internet marketing opinion and some search engine optimization thoughts, along with some historical trivia of interest.

By now you’ve probably heard about the new Google Glasses soon to be released. If we let our imaginations go with it, just how will Google glasses change the way we socialize?

The concept of wearing a pair of electronic glasses that can project various data over what we see in real life, is not too hard to believe. The concept of seeing someone in person, and perhaps the augmented data ripples through a bunch of social media tags with face recognition software that suddenly projects the name of the person you’re greeting so you can greet him by first name, even though a moment ago, you could not remember it.

Or how about receiving all kind of interesting statistical data based on everything you are seeing in real life?

Do you suppose in these lenses there might be Google adwords popping up with marketing messages all day? Possibly delivering personalized results on products that you are genuinely interested in based on your user search query?

How old is the concept of “augmented reality?”

The whole concept of electronic data being projected through some special lenses is actually originally referred to as “augmented reality.” Where does this term come from and how long ago was it first projected as something we’d see in the future?

For some of you, it will come as a surprise that the term was first dreamt up back as early as 1901 by an author of fantasy and science fiction Mr. L. Frank Baum. Not only did Mr. L. Frank Baum come up with the term augmented reality but you may also know that he was the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

In fact according to Wikipedia:

L Frank Baum authored 55 novels and his works anticipated such century-later commonplaces as the television, augmented reality, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), women in high risk, action-heavy occupations (Mary Louise in the Country), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (Aunt Jane’s Nieces at Work).

If you want to read up on this author’s life, click here.

How might Google glasses change the way we communicate? How far do you think it will reach? It should be interesting to see how diverse the functionality of such eyewear will be.

In time, one can only wonder where technology will take us. In the meantime, if you’re interested in the most up to date, real-time SEO information,check this page for the next SEO Mastery Internet Marketing Workshop coming in a community nearest to you.

Curious to see our list of detailed agenda topics for 2013? The SEO training agenda is here.

 

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Search Engine Academy – Things to Think About for Promoting Your New Home Based Business

March 15, 2013 By + 2 Comments

Are you thinking about starting your own new home based business?

If you have ever owned a home based business you understand just how
important it is to have a good promotional plan.  After all, you will never
be successful if people do not even know that you exist.  The good thing
is that if you own a home based business there are several ways to promote
it to potential customers all over the world.

The first thing that you will want to do when you are promoting your home
business is to write up a plan; this is often referred to as a marketing plan.
In this plan you will want to outline everything you intend to do as far as
promotion is concerned.  By doing this before you even get started, you will
ensure yourself of having a guide to help you benchmark your progress along
the way and through the different stages of marketing. People sometimes
overlook this step because they think that they can simply promote as they
go along.  This is true, but by having a promotional plan in place you will be
much more successful.

This is especially important if you are planning on requesting financing for
your business launch. Remember, when financing a new business with a bank,
they will want to see not only evidence that you have a well though out plan,
but that you also know it off by heart. You should be well able to answer any
questions they may ask you, such as what will your office hours be, or perhaps
what your customer service policies will be etc.

Starting a new home based business

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the best ways of promoting your home business is through the use of
a website. By having a website, you will be able to promote your business
to people from all over the world. There was a time when this option was
not easily available, but those days have come and gone.  If you want your
home business to be successful, you will need to have a top notch website
that you can rely on.

When we say you need a top notch Web site, we are talking about more than
just something flashy in design. You’ll want your Web site to clearly
communicate all about who you are and what services you provide in a way
that compels visitors to contact you. This is style of sales copy is
referred to as “persuasive copywriting.”

Of course you can learn something about SEO or Search Engine Optimization
to help your pages be found more easily by those searching the Web. You
want your Web site’s message to be clearly written so that as readers land
on your page, they will instantly be able to understand what you do, your
expertise.

Other considerations for your Web site content might include:

  • SEO skills training
  • Genuine customer testimonials using the names of actual clients.
  • Perhaps some of the most “Frequently Asked Questions.”
  • A professionally taken photo of yourself and members of your team.
  • Remember, when putting forth a marketing message or sales letter, it can be
    very beneficial working with a professional writer experienced in how to
    write effective and persuasive Web copy.
  • For more ideas of what to include on your Web site, please see this post.

In addition to promoting your home business with a website, there are other
ways that you can do this online as well. Placing ads in e-zines has been
proven as a successful promotion method. The main advantage of doing this
is that you can reach a target audience that is interested in what you have
to offer.  This is much better than simply placing an ad in a publication
that does not even correspond with your company.

Of course, promoting your home business can also be done in more traditional
ways as well.

Many people feel that direct mail is still a great way to promote their
business.  This can be done by obtaining a mailing list, and then sending out
some well written materials that will intrigue people to contact you.  Even
though this method may seem a bit outdated, it can still be very successful
if done correctly. Then there is great opportunity to build your own list of
permission based subscribers too (also great for keeping in touch with readers
who want your information.

Promoting your home business is the only way that you are going to be able to
grow.  By starting out with a plan you will be able to ensure yourself of
guidance along the way.  Remember, there are hundreds of promotional tactics
available.  Find a few that work for you and stick with them.  You will be
seeing results in no time at all!

Check out this page for a list of Internet Marketing Schools located around the
globe where you can get SEO certification training in a personalized Workshop.

 

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Filed Under: Content Marketing, Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, Misc, SEO, SEO Blogging, Workshops Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Social Media: Your Guide to SMM in 2013

March 12, 2013 By + Leave a Comment

The effective strategies for conducting online business marketing are fast changing, from search engine optimisation to social media marketing and beyond. Most search engine optimisation methods now incorporate social media strategies for winning and retaining target customers for online traffic and sales.

This underlines the fact that social media is fast becoming the way of the future, and any online business that refuses to embrace social media marketing and tools could very well be left behind.

The last few years we have seen major changes in the growth and development of social media which has, and will continue to change the face of online business activities and methods.

What Is Social Media?

Without getting too technical, social media is the interactive social websites where people post their business and personal profiles in order to connect with other businesses or people with the sole aim of sharing views, making comments, giving answers and making business and personal friends.

In another words, social media is all about online social communities (including personal blogs, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube) where people seek to connect with other likeminded people on business or personal issues, with the sole purpose of furthering one another’s interests.

To really understand this, imagine all the friends and family connections that you have on Facebook and how you connect with them to meet social and business needs- this is a typical example of social media, where you connect and associate and communicate with other people or business owners.

How has Social Media Changed in 2012 and What Does it Mean For Businesses in 2013?

Networking, Networking and More Networking

Social media has changed in the area of networking and many businesses are tapping into this new feature. You can now search for any contacts online using integrated search features on these sites to seek and connect with any contact with the main aim of networking.

Forget Email, It’s all About Instant Messaging

Apart from networking, social media has also developed in the area of instant messaging. This has become a powerful tool for business owners and their target consumers. With the instant messaging function, you are now able to chat instantly with anyone and promote your business using these features.

Social Media: On the Move

It would seem that people like their social media like their coffee: to go! 2012 has seen huge changes in the way people are using their mobiles, and this has had a major impact on the way social media is being used by businesses. In fact, statistics show that more and more people are accessing social sites with their mobiles so businesses need to ensure that their content can be successfully viewed on smart phones or they could be quickly dismissed by social mobile users.

More (Social) Options Than Ever

As new features, or apps grow in popularity it’s become more important than ever that businesses ensure that they have a meaningful presence where their target audience is. This may mean businesses have to venture outside of the traditional (social) realm of Facebook and Twitter, into other social sites such as Pinterest, YouTube and Google+.

The Power of A Picture

As we head into 2013 we see a bigger push for social sites to become more visual. This can probably be accredited to the ever growing popularity in image-rich sites such as Pinterest, Instagram and Polyvore, and already we have seen a massive overhaul of Facebook’s photo (and photo album) setup. If they aren’t already, businesses really need to embrace image sharing through social sites and they can do this by getting creative with the images they share and the way they share them.

Push for Paid Advertising

2012 has witnessed a massive push for paid advertising on Facebook, with new advertising options becoming available to business pages. This push has come in light of the realisation that many posts (of a business page) are barely making it to their fans newsfeed. 2013 will see a huge shift in the use of paid advertising to gain more exposure and reach to Facebook users and businesses would be wise to consider integrating some form of paid advertising into their social media plan.

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Internet Marketing – Search Engine Optimization Experts Can Help You Grow Your Business

January 18, 2013 By + 2 Comments

If you want the benefit of search engine optimization (SEO) but just
don’t have the time, or inclination, to learn how to do it or to spend
the time doing it yourself, you don’t have to miss out. You can hire
search engine optimization experts to do it all for you.

If you’re a small business just starting out you may think that you
won’t be able to afford to hire anyone, and you may be right. I don’t
have any way to know your budget, but I do know that there are many
companies online who specialize in this type of work and work with
small and mid sized companies.

The reason I know many of these professional firms is that here at the
Search Engine Academy, we’ve been training many of them over the last
11 years or so since 2002.

When you reach out to a SEO firm, you may actually find that you may be
able to afford it after all.

The truth is that to have a vibrant and effective SEO campaign will take
some time and effort. You see, the search engines are always “improving”
their algorithms and they don’t like to share to much detail, but they
prefer (naturally to sell sponsored Pay Per Click listings) and they don’t
exactly tell every one just exactly how they figure out which sites will
be ranked for top visibility.

For this reason a lot of self-taught SEO is little more than intelligent
guessing. It is pretty much a full time job to stay abreast of all the changes
being made in regards to SEO. That’s why you want to hire someone if at all
possible.

Many of our professionally trained SEO students are Alumni graduates, which
means they tend to come back to our Workshops every so often because they
understand the value of being kept up to date with the freshest strategies.

And don’t think that just because your niece Sally, is online all the time
and can put up a blog or send out a tweet that she is competent to do SEO
for you, because most of the time that won’t be the case.

There are many elements that go into a successful SEO strategy and a professional
firm will have their own way of doing things, but there are some things that you
will want to look for.

1. For one thing, any company you are looking at should provide you with an initial
assessment of your website. They should be able to give you an idea based on where
you are already, how much the whole thing will cost.

2. After that, they should be able to come up with an extensive keyword list based on
actual research (not guesswork) that is loaded with highly targeted and highly relevant
keywords based on how your ideal buying audiences are searching the Web.

How can someone determine the most exact and correct keyword phrase usage
by searchers?

The thing to remember is that the reason people search the Internet in the
fashion they do, is nearly always based on the conditions in a searchers life.
So as important as it is to search for very exact keyword usage, it can be very
useful to learn how to discover user intent, through a study of search behaviour.
This is just one skill we help our students with. How to actually discover and find
the reasons why searchers are doing what they do. In class, we refer to this as
“keyword forensics research and analysis.”

Whether someone is looking to renew their mortgage, or searching for a place to
dine out on the town, or even if they are looking for specific professional
services, or price comparisons, it all begins with a search on the Web. But the
surprising thing is, that often Webmasters miss they keyword phrases that offer
such a telling story about their needs and user intent.

Nevertheless, if chosen properly, this list can be just like money in the bank for
you and your online business.

Once the keyword list is in place, the next step is to “clean up” your website. Make
sure everything is set up in the optimum way to grab the search engines attention as well
as it needs to be compelling to the reader.

And the next step once everything is as ready as can be, would be to get your optimized
pages into the search index for the search engines. After that, it will be important to
track your results so you can see how effective the changes you’ve made are.

This final step is very important, and often overlooked. If you can’t track your results
how will you know whether or not the money  you’ve invested in your SEO company is money
well spent or just a waste?

Grow Your Business With SEO in 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What should you be tracking?

  • Track how long your visitors are staying on your pages.
  • Track your conversions and you should see new leads and sales coming in.
  • Another thing that you should be tracking are the analytics that are important to
    your business.

What should you not be tracking?

Remember not to get caught up in traditional ranking reports which these days tend to
fluctuate do to the “personalization of search.” In our newest classes, we actually
teach our students how to accurately measure other things like your competitive landscape.

How to optimize your pages with more accuracy and exact5ness than ever before.

If you want to learn all the ins and outs of SEO and Social Media, Google Analytics and
how to watch for strengths and weaknesses in your competition and how to recognize new
opportunities and take advantage of them, then consider coming out to a 5 Day Complete
Hands-on SEO Workshop.

But if you are too busy just running your day to day business, then hiring your own search
engine optimization experts to oversee all your SEO needs is a great idea for any online
business. You can get the maximum benefit with a minimum of effort from you.

Choose carefully who’s voice that you listen to. When you find someone who has proven their
ability (don’t be afraid to do some due diligence checks or even ask to speak to a couple
of the SEO firm’s recent clients to see how happy they are with services rendered.

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Filed Under: 301 Redirects, Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, Insights for Search, Link Building, Local Search, SEO, SEO Blogging, Video for SEO, Workshops Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

What is SEO? Why is it so Important?

January 2, 2013 By + 6 Comments

What is SEO?

"SEO Panda and Penguin"The definition of SEO, aka search engine optimization, is an interesting topic these days.  In it’s simplest form, it’s the process of driving traffic to a website from a search engine results page.

You type a word or a phrase into the search box, hit the return key, and Whala!  Your search engine of choice displays thousands and sometimes millions of results for you to choose from.

Those results are not just random either. They are tuned around your personal search behavior and preferences as well as where you are conducting your search from.

The search engine results page contains a variety of links to sites that could range from Wikipedia, to retail, or a local business depending on the search term.  Now more than ever they also often-times contain links to social media sources such as blogs and customer reviews.

To make it even more interesting, there’s the whole concept of Social Signals, which in a nutshell is your perceived level of on-line authority and influence.  How it’s measured and whether or not it’s accurate and/or should have an influence on SEO has sparked a lot of debate among search engine optimization and social media marketing professionals alike.

Mind boggling, isn’t it?

So let’s back up a minute – just what is search engine optimization and how is it different from social media marketing?

The goal of both SEO and SMM is to drive qualified traffic to your website and they are two distinctly different activities.

Search Engine Optimization

  • Driving traffic to websites from Search Engine Results Pages (SERP).
  • Optimizing a variety of variables such as content, website structure, as well as internal and external links (just to name a few) to increase the visibility and position on a search engine results page.

Social Media Marketing

  • Driving traffic to websites from Social Media Platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and Pintrest.
  • Generating and promoting content that provides and encourages readers to share it with their networks and drive traffic to your website.
  • Creating and exchanging user-generated-content (UCG) e.g. product reviews and comments.

So they have nothing to do with each other, right?

There are still people who believe that, but they’re missing the boat.   The focus of both SEO and SMM is to increase the visibility of your website and to drive qualified traffic (or in other words, new customers) to your business.

It’s not enough to just have a website, it has to be found.  It’s practically a guarantee that if you’re doing one but not the other, or worse yet neither, the only people finding your website are your existing customers and maybe Aunt Martha.

People can debate all they want, but the two have become intertwined,and that one little word “content” is why no one should be blindly executing a strategy that doesn’t take both into consideration. If not, the efforts are doomed to failure.

If the social media advocate is creating content that is low quality, contains links to poor quality sites or isn’t optimized for the right keyword phrases, SMM could be undoing the SEO efforts.

Likewise, if the SEO efforts are done in a vacuum, and lack insight into what content is engaging the most readers in the social media platforms, they may be optimizing for the wrong things.

If the social media marketer is doing their job, they are listening at least as much if not more than they’re talking and are in tune with the problems customers are having.  In turn they are generating and promoting content that answers questions and helps their readers solve problems.  In order to do this, they need to understand how to create content that is optimized for search engines.

If the search engine optimizer is doing their job, they’re researching keywords that should be incorporated into the content and help increase visibility and drive traffic.  I’m not sure how they can do a good job at this if they don’t know what questions customers are asking.

So, back to the original question once again – what is SEO?

SEO is still the process of optimizing web pages so they will be found on Google, but it’s also a lot more.  It’s about integrating with the other internet marketing strategies such as social media marketing, content marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC), blogging, and website design.

It may sound overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.  Whether you choose to take a workshop such as the ones offered by the Search Engine Academy, or pursue self study and on-line tutorials just take a deep breath and dig in.  Your business and your customers will thank you.

Were you surprised by the definition?  Share your comments below.

Until next time.

Cheers!

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Filed Under: Content Marketing, Misc, SEO Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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