March, 2009

...now browsing by month

 

What is the Best Single Thing a SMB Can Do to Improve Organic Rankings?

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Times are tough. More and more business owners are coming to me (and many other SEOs) because all of the sudden their customer base has dwindled down.  Suddenly they need to be in front of customers, and the smart ones are looking to SEO for their business.

As I meet new business owners and explain what I do, I’m constantly amazed at the amount of them that have no idea what a blog is, how it works, or how it can help them.

Blogging, by far (in my opinion) is one of the best things you can do for your business. Why? I’m glad you asked.

Blogging Brings New Content to a Stale Website

Most of the business owners I meet have a website, and it’s in what I call “stale” mode.  They fell for the old If you Build it, They Will Come routine.  Wrong!

So they build a site, and sure enough, nothing much changes.  They don’t promote the site, and soon it becomes just another expense that they wish they’d never spent money on.  They soon abandon the website, and other than the URL on their business cards, it’s rarely mentioned or visited.  It turns stale.

So there’s the thing.  Search engines are infatuated with content.  They can fall in love with your website if you consistently feed them industry-related articles, thoughts, tips, whatever.

The average spider visits a stale website once every 6 weeks or so.  If the spider visits your site, and sees that nothing has changed in the past 6 weeks, they will mark you off as indexed, and will put a note in their memory to come back in six weeks to see what (if anything) has changed.

Six weeks later, nothing’s changed, so they mark you off for another 6 week visit.  Meanwhile, you’re getting little or no organic rankings because of it.

If, however, you start blogging, say once a week, suddenly there is new content.  The spider visits, sees new stuff, and decides that it will come back in four weeks instead of six.  Four weeks later, there is more content, and the spider decides to come back in two weeks.

Soon, your posts are being indexed within 48 hours or less.  Your organic rankings increase because the search engines see you as a ‘player’ in your industry.

Blogging Brings Targeted Visitors

Probably one of the immediate advantages of blogging is that it brings you targeted leads.  If you are posting ideas, products, or industry-related news, those phrases may just end up ranking for what us SEOs like to call long tail phrases.  These long tail phrases are gold.  (For more info, read this wikipedia page)

A visitor to your website, which comes from a long tail search query, is usually highly targeted and willing to buy.  They are usually looking for just what your blog post addresses, and in their minds you are immediately the subject matter expert on that topic.  You’ve highly increased your chances of a sale because of it.

Blogging Separates Your From the Competition

By posting weekly articles, tips or whatever, your audience sees your business as “being run by real people”.  This may sound like a silly thing, but in reality humans like to see a non-corporate side of a business.  Even if it’s still targeted to the business, simply putting real world anecdotes into a blog post can give your visitor that warm and fuzzy feeling about your brand.  You win.

What are You Waiting For?

If your website doesn’t have a blog, you’re missing out on one of the best customer-driving forces available today.

Related articles:

Diapers and Groceries? No! Rankings, Leads and Sales!
Tune Up Your Magnet
Get New Creative Blogging Ideas

Posted in business blogging, SEO | No Responses »
Tags: , , ,

Google Announces Longer Snippets

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Google announced today via their blog that they will now be showing longer snippets for long queries.  This is good for everyone.  The longer the snippet, the better chance you have of the person clicking on your website.

The snippets are generated from your meta description tag, one of the most important tags on your website when it comes to SEO.  If you haven’t got around to creating those meta description tags yet, or if every page on your website has the same stinkin’ tag, nows the time to get that fixed.

By the way, Derek Chew actually found the snippets several weeks ago.  So the announcement from Google is really more of a confirmation.

Posted in Google updates, metadata | No Responses »

Link Building with Articles

Friday, March 20th, 2009

Every time I speak at an SEO seminar, I’m amazed to see the amount of people who think that the five links they have coming from other websites is enough.  They are pretty surprised when I tell them that they need to have a link: count in the hundreds, thousands or even more.

One of the easiest ways to get links is by publishing articles.

Article Directories

All around the web, there are article directories, or repositories.  These websites, such as EzineArticles, provide thousands of webmasters, newsletter writers and content-grabbers with free content that they can republish on their websites (with some restrictions).  Writers submit their content to these sites, and are oft times these articles are republished across hundreds of websites yearly.

Article Anatomy

Each article you write should be between 450-600 words or so.  You can go over a bit, but I wouldn’t go much lower than the 450 mark.  The article should be about something related to your industry, of course.

The Summary

Each article should have a 2-3 sentence summary, and you should also go ahead think up some keywords that are related to the article content.

The Content

The article you are going to publish should contain what I like to call ‘generic content’; in other words, nothing special, ground-breaking or even terribly exciting.

The purpose of publishing this article is to help you build links, not show the world how great of a writer you are.  In fact, if you are a good writer, you may want to consider putting your writings on your own website in a blog format.  Remember, we are providing content to literally thousands of publishers, and our goal is more one-way links.  Quality content (in this case) is not the focus here.

The Byline

Herein lies the beauty of article publishing.  Get this right and you’ll be on your way to link heaven.  The byline is an area on each article website where you get to put a few sentences about yourself, your company, etc.  Most people get this wrong, because that’s just what they use it for.

Example: Will Hanke is an Internet marketer residing just south of St. Louis Missouri.  Get tips, ideas and SEO tricks from his blog at willhanke.com

Bad, bad, bad.  Sure, I got a link in there, but I’ve really missed the boat on what I could have done.

Think about this.  This article is going to go out on hundreds or thousands of other websites.  When the Googlebot (or any bot) spiders that site, they’ll see that one-way link to your site, and they’ll take that into consideration when they rank your website.  So if someone types in ‘willhanke.com’ in the Google search box, chances are I’ll be the first result.  But I really don’t care to rank for that, because no one is going to type that in.  What I’m after is terms like ‘St. Louis SEO’ or ‘Missouri SEO Services’.  These terms explain what I do, and a person typing those terms into Google is my target audience.  So let’s rewrite the article and keyword-target the byline.

Example Two: Will Hanke is an Internet marketer providing Missouri SEO Services.  If you are looking for a way to get your business to the top of the SERPS, Will can help you get there.

Now what I’ve done is provide a decent byline, that’s keyword targeted to my domain name.  When the Googlebot visits whatever website this link is on, I’m credited for another link to my site and I get the advantage of having the words “Missouri SEO Services” as the link.  So I’m essentially teaching the search engines that those words equal my domain.  If someone types that phrase into Google, Yahoo, MSN or any other search engine, I want them to equate that phrase to willhanke.com.

Your Good Content

If you are a good writer, or have access to some original content that is industry related, I highly suggest you write posts on your own website.  Content is still king, and good content can make you an authority in your niche.  If this is your case, you’d be better off hiring a writer to write you some ‘ok’ articles as described above.

Finding Writers

I’ve found the majority or writers I employ on Craigslist.  There’s an entire section on there devoted to people looking for writing gigs.

When putting up a request for writers, ask for some sample work they’ve done.  Look it over and make sure they can writer better than the average high school senior. Usually one request on Craigslist nets me at least 25 decent submissions, which I then weed down and choose a few good ones.

Personally, I don’t pay a lot for these articles, either.  $10 or so bucks each is about my max.  Once again, I’m not after great content, just content that relates to my industry.

Distribution

Besides posting to EzineArticles, there are plenty of other article directories out there.  I suggest you post to EzineArticles first, as they are the predominant directory, and then filter your submissions out to the hundreds of others.

If you’re pressed for time, or just want someone else to do the work, you can always hire an article submission service.  Some of these will even have the articles written for you and will have them submitted to thousands of directories in a relatively short amount of time.

Posted in link building | No Responses »

Accepting New Clients in a Few Industries

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Currently my business has openings in the following industries:

  • General dentistry / cosmetic dentistry
  • Business interiors and furnishings
  • Fire Restoration
  • Landscaping

These industries have a decent amount of traffic and we are confident we could help your business rank among the top for your industry.

These openings are only available for one client each, serious inquiries only.

For information on our policies, see Why We Only Take One SEO Client Per Industry

To inquire about getting your business set up for SEO, contact me at toll free at 1-888-379-0417.

Posted in money, SEO | No Responses »

SEO Bandaid #2 – Pay Per Click

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

In part two of my Bandaid series, I want to take a look at businesses, particularly SMBs that believe that PPC is the best way (financially) to get quality traffic to your website.  Then I’d like to compare some stats, such as long term vs short term investment.

First, let me say that I’m not an anti-PPC guy.  I’ve seen a lot of good businesses do quite well in the PPC arena.  Most of these businesses have the funding to create a nice campaign, and can keep up with the ever-growing costs related to PPC.

For the other 95% of SMBs, pay per click is nothing more than a short term solution – one that won’t stick.  Let’s create a fictional company and hash out some numbers.

Our company – ZXYWidgets, is a small operation; Mom and Dad run the retail store most days and they have two full time salesmen.  They sell blue widgets to a select local market.  Their current reach is maybe 50 miles radius from their store.

Scenario One

One day, Dad gets a postcard from Yahoo! offering them a $25 credit towards setting up a PPC account.  Dad has heard about the Internets and has been wanting to expand for a little while now, so he tries it out.  He has no formal keyword research, and has no idea what analytics are.  So he just types in some words, puts up a poorly written ad or two and sets up his credit card with a $200 monthly limit.  He then proceeds to watch his $200 go down the drain in just a matter of days.

Scenario Two

In this case, Mom and Dad have heard a bit about PPC, and have even been exposed to SEO through a friend or local web design firm.  They have done a bit of keyword research, and have a decent list of words they’d like to target.  They’ve written some fairly decent ad copy, and have settled on a one month test budget of $1000.  Their average keyword costs $1.00/click.

During the month, they see some nice traffic to their site.  They can view their analytics and see the jump during the month.  Within less than thirty days, their $1000 is gone.  Immediately their ads stop showing, and website traffic goes back to near zero.

Two outcomes: Either they made money off that $1000 or they didn’t.  It’s a bit of a crap-shoot.

And the worst part – as soon as they stop spending, everything comes to a halt.

Why SEO is a Smarter Investment

…for most businesses.

The residual effects of any SEO campaign are phenomenal, and can be felt for months, if not years.  Depending on the amount of competition (or lack thereof), you could rank for a nice term and hang onto it for some time.  A simple link building campaign will provide ongoing ‘juice’ to your website even after you’ve gone through your budget.  Spend that same $200 or $1000 over a month or two and you’ll see nice revenue for an extended period of time vs. what you’d see with PPC.

Summary

I want to make it clear again that I’m not against PPC.  For some business models, it is the way to go.  For most, though, it’s a costly bandaid on a poorly created and managed website.

Interestingly, I’ve seen scenario two play out on an even bigger scale, with monthly PPC spending in the tens of thousands per month.  Even some of these big spenders are realizing that SEO is far more attractive and provides a much better ROI over the long term.

So, my suggestion: Use PPC to ramp up your traffic, but use SEO as the backbone that will keep the traffic coming. Then wean yourself off the PPC (unless its converting well, and you can afford to supplement the organic results with your ads).

Posted in PPC, SEO, small business | No Responses »

Twitter is for Bad Guys too

Monday, March 9th, 2009

With all the Twitter buzz, I’m really surprised no one has gone the linkbait route of writing up a story about someone being robbed because of Twitter.

Think about it: @johndoe says “We are off to the XYZ conference. Talk to you all on Wed”

@MrBadGuy sees the tweet, and knows @johndoe’s house will be empty til Wed. so he robs the place.

How could the linkbait guys not be all over this?

Posted in twitter | No Responses »
Tags: , ,

SEO Band Aid 1: Paying for Leads

Friday, March 6th, 2009

This is part one of a series on “Bandaids for Your Website”.  These are things that you could do to your website, but really they are nothing more than a temporary short term bandaid.  I’ll try to use some of my real-life situations, questions and offers that I’ve experienced over the years.

The Question

Yesterday I got a phone call from a nice man who had taken my SEO seminar in Saint Louis a week or two back.  He works in a very specialized sector of the service industry, serving mostly residential customers I’d suspect.  His question was this:

“I talked to a guy yesterday who could set me up with a web page and then it could collect leads.  I would pay him $12 for each lead.  What are your thoughts?”

Pay Per Lead – The Way to Go?

In the past I’ve done some work for contractors in various industries.  One guy I remember did HVAC repair.  He was paying up to $75 each to Service Magic for air conditioning repair leads.

That’s not bad if you can convert them, and $12 is even better.  But there’s a problem:

Websites like Service Magic are great for customers looking for someone to come fix their air conditioning system.  There are many contractors on there, and their rating system, etc is a great way to pick out who’s the best one to hire for your problem.  You can get plenty of bids in a short amount of time.

But, the same thing that makes sites like this so great for consumers is also the thing that makes it so bad for contractors looking for leads: there are many contractors on the site already.

So what happens when John Doe needs AC repair and ends up on Service Magic?  Well, he fills out a form, hits submit, and that lead goes to all 20, 30, or 50 contractors that are signed up for that particular niche.

Some of these contractors (such as my caller - aka Mr. Contractor) are one or two-man shops. Mr Contractor goes out and works, then comes back to the office, checks email, phones, etc and follows up on them.  By time he follows up on the lead that Mr. Doe submitted, Mr. Doe has already had ten calls from qualified contractors, and he probably already hired someone.  Meantime Mr. Contractor is spinning his wheels chasing dead leads. As a business owner, that sucks.

Now, it should be said here that Service Magic is making $12 off of each contractor that is signed up.  They are making a killing off those leads.  So even though that lead was only $12, it still virtually has a value of $0 to most small shops.

Keeping Up

If you wanted to sign up for something like Service Magic offers, you’d need a few things:

  • A full time staff member that can follow up on any submitted leads immediately.
  • A guarantee that you are in a niche with just a few competitors.
  • An automated system that receives leads and forwards them to a cell phone or other handheld device so you can follow up quickly.

Looking at a Long Term Plan

Sites like Service Magic also have nice Search Engine rankings.  These rankings, in my opinion, are by default, because no contractors (or very few) in Mr. Contractor’s industry are building websites to collect leads themselves.  Reasons for this could include initial startup costs, ignorance, or even laziness.

If you have a decent staff that can follow up on these leads, then you may not see the need to have your own website.  The leads are coming in, you’re making nice money and everything is good.  Well, except that a good portion of your business depends on one source.  But as long as that source doesn’t dry up, you’re good, right?

For contractors who don’t have the luxury of a phone staff, or ability to respond quickly, a good search engine-friendly website is definitely a must-have.

If Mr. Contractor were to put a few thousand dollars into building a quality-written, search engine friendly website of his own, he could easily outrank Service Magic and cull all of those leads for himself.  This long term approach could be supplemented by the short-term leads from SM or others, but there would be obvious cash issues involved.

What Do You Think?

I’m curious to hear what other contractors have experienced in issues such as this.  Are you happy paying for leads? Do you make enough profit to justify a service like this? Or do you think the long term SEO+website is the way to go?

Posted in leads, Marketing, small business | 4 Responses »

Mobile Twitter Coupons

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

I think the power of social media has yet to begin to peak.  The potential out there is just incredible.

Today I met with a potential client who owns several Italian restaurants here in the St. Louis area.  They are (just like every other restaurant) wondering how they can tap into the search engine and social media fields to gain new clients.  With the down economy, people are being more and more select about where they spend their money for dining.  Here’s where Twitter can come to the rescue.

I don’t want to go into the whole explain-twitter-to-me thing, but here’s something cool that many people may not know – twitter can link up to your cell phone, and you can receive updates about whatever it is you choose to see updates about.  You can see what friends are saying, or you can get notified anytime someone uses a certain phrase, etc.

So let’s say I’m looking for a good Italian restaurant in St. Louis and I post a quick note to Twitter via my cell. (Just a note here – if you don’t use your cell phone to do that, don’t think others don’t.  A *lot* of people are using their phones for this and a lot more.)

Using their API and search tools, Mr. Restaurant Owner can watch for phrases like “italian food” and “st louis”, “saint louis”, etc.  Anytime one of those phrases come across twitter, Mr Restaurant Owner immediately (or through automation) sends out a coupon for a free drink at his restaurant.  Or a free appetizer.  Whatever.

Using social media, getting clients that may have otherwise never known about you will get easier and easier.  But if you don’t know how to use the social media platforms to do these things, you’re going to be stuck standing on the front porch hoping customers see your sign.

Posted in local marketing, site ranking, twitter | 5 Responses »
Tags: , , , ,

March SEO Seminars

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

For those who are waiting for my next announcement on the free SEO seminars, you can get the info at the link below.

Free SEO Seminars in Saint Louis

Posted in Saint Louis, seminars, SEO | No Responses »

You Cheapskate – Get a Real Website

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Dear Mr. Restaurant/Band/Coffee Shop/Nightclub Owner,

MySpace is for thirteen year olds.  If that’s not your target market, get a grown up website.  Seriously, do you have any idea how stupid it sounds to hear your commercial on the radio pointing us (the ones with the money you want) to your myspace page? Give me a break.

Getting a simple ‘brochure’ website, while still not the best and most practical way to go, is probably going to cost you less than $1000 including your own domain name and hosting.

Then when you realize that you need a real website, call me.  I’ll get you more traffic and exposure than you’ll know what to do with.

Posted in customer service, local marketing | 1 Response »

« Older Entries