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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 SEO, business blogging | No Responses »
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Tune Up Your Magnet

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

Back when I first got out of the military, I got a job at a local copier repair shop.  We tore down used copiers to their frame and then rebuilt the entire thing from the ground up with new parts.  We had one entire 4-shelf setup for each copier, storing parts that were still good, along with every screw, roller and rubber grommet that went back in. A good sized machine could take three or four days to complete.

It was very important for the repairmen to have nice tools, including a magnetized Phillips screwdriver.  Without this tool, it was pretty much impossible to get into those little nooks and crannies to tighten screws.

From time to time, the magnetism in the screwdrivers would wear off, and we’d have to ‘tune them up’.  We did so by taking apart an old solenoid and putting the tip of the screwdriver in the middle of it, then plug that bad boy in.  The magnetic forces created by the coil would help the magnetic particles refocus and realign, and by morning we’d have a kick-ass screwdriver again.

The Two Versions of Marketing

For years and years, marketing has been all about outbound (or Interruption) marketing.  Companies would interrupt people through email blasts, radio or tv commercials, telemarketing and more to try to get their brand in front of potential customers.  That was the old way.  It’s no fun, not trackable, and most companies weren’t really thrilled with doing it.  A necessary evil.

As the Internet continues to mature, new communication paths and opportunities are coming to business owners, including a great new way to market to potential customers – inbound marketing.  Think of inbound marketing as a lot like a magnet; you create content that people are drawn to.  People want to read your blog because it is interesting and provides insight to an industry or product they have never had access to before.  Can you see where I’m going with this?

If you aren’t doing inbound marketing, well, shame on you.  The time is here (actually, it’s passing you by) to get involved.  Creating content should be something you all the time.  This new content will pull in visitors that are looking for just what you’re talking about.  Yeah, thanks to search engines, RSS feeds and social media, it pulls them in.  You don’t have to go stand on a corner with a megaphone and beg people to come into your store, they’ll come because they are simply interested with what you have to say/provide.

Inbound marketing methods

Blogging – if you aren’t blogging at least once a week for your business, you are missing out on some major traffic.  From ranking your site for ‘long tail links’ to providing your customers with info they need, blogging is by far the number one way to increase your website’s overall footprint on the Internet.

SEO / SEM – If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’ve already been exposed to SEO in some amount.  Search engine optimization is an awesome way to increase your rankings in the “big three” as well as all the thousands of other smaller search engines out there.  SEO also means you understand and watch what your website visitors are doing, and if they’re not buying, how to adjust accordingly to prod them along.

Social Media – Today its all about relationships and community.  From mySpace to Facebook to Twitter and beyond, people are creating their own inbound marketing channels through these websites and methods of communication.

RSS – I had a hard time grasping RSS when it first came out.  It’s a tough one to explain, but once you understand it, you’ll never believe you could have made it through a week without it.  Good thing is, if you’re blogging, you’ve probably already got RSS capabilities, you just need to promote them a bit more.

Viral Media – YouTube used to be something that people visited because they were bored or just wanted to see themselves online.  However, when it sold to Google for 1.6 billion dollars, businesses soon figured out that there is huge potential in video.  Creating videos that people want to share can result in literally thousands of visitors to your website.  Be creative, think it out, and watch it grow.

Tools – As you start to grow your website, you’ll probably start to see some recurring themes.  People will be using search terms that push them to your website, and the information they seek you have.  Smart businesses are creating tools for these visitors, and thus cornering a part of a market that their competitors don’t have.  Examples? Sure.

  • An online mortgage calculator on a real estate agent’s website
  • A wine grading worksheet for wannabe connoisseurs
  • A downloadable town reference guide on a bed and breakfast owners’ website

So how’s your magnet working for you?

Is it focused and aligned, pulling in those customers (and dollars), or is it too weak (or non-existant) to hold onto your goal at all?  Your inbound marketing magnet should be on full blast, and if it isn’t, now is the time to get it tuned.

Posted in Marketing, SEO, beginner sem, business blogging, content, free stuff, small business, social media, traffic, trending, twitter, videos | 1 Response »

Out of Creative Blog Post Ideas?

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

From time to time we endure slumps where we can’t think of anything to blog about.  Every writer has ‘writers block’ and it’s no fun.  If you can’t think of anything to write, let me help.

My regular readers know I’m a fan of Google alerts, and here’s another great usage.

First, a little background.  Yahoo! Answers is a great service that lets people ask questions about anything, and other users submit answers to their question.  And when I say questions about anything, I mean anything.  Which is great – there is lots of content there that we can use.

So in your Google alerts account, set up an alert for the following:

site:answers.yahoo.com keyword

keyword should be replaced with an industry-related word or phrase that people would use in their questions that applies to you.  For instance, if you are a Missour Wine Club (cheap plug), you’d likely use ‘wine’ or even ‘wine’ and ‘missouri’.  Now anytime a question is posted that uses the word ‘wine’ in it, Google will automatically email you a link to the question.

Watch over the questions, reword and use the appropriate ones for your site.  If one person is looking for an answer to that question, there are probably hundreds more looking, too.  Why not get those visitors to your website and show how much of an expert you really are?

Posted in Google Alerts, business blogging, small business | No Responses »

What’s Your 2009 SEO Forecast and Plan?

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

Next year looks to be an exciting year in the world of online marketing.  With the economy in the dumps, a new president coming to office, and the stock market in the trash, there’s no better time than now to sit at your desk and forecast out the next year.

If you’re worried about the economy, just put all zeros across your forecast sheet.  Any money made will be a bonus.

If you’re concerned about the new president – consider this.  Every inauguration year since the 70′s has been the worst for that president.

If your stocks are in the dumpster, plan on selling them for a loss and putting that money into a bag which you can then hide in a Folgers can.

In all seriousness, this really is time to sit down and look at last year’s goals.  Did you meet them? Exceed them? Did you set any goals?  It’s time you do for 2009.

When you set those goals, don’t forget to budget some money for online marketing.  Whether its a link building campaign, direct mail campaign that drives traffic or just some good ‘ol blogging, make sure you’ve got your ammunition stockpiled and ready.  2009 is looking bleak, so go into this war prepared.

As for me, I’ve already started looking at this year’s goals, forecasts and actual revenue which is helping me forecast (conservatively) next years’ returns.  It will be a good year for me, will it be for you?

Posted in business blogging, local marketing, small business | No Responses »

They Still Don’t Get It

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Yesterday I offered 449 entrepreneurs in the Saint Louis area an opportunity to promote their business, show off their subject-matter-expertness and even get a free link back to their business website.  I offered all of this for free, in exchange for a simple article (in which they could also promote their business).

The offer went straight to all 449 InBoxes, so I can safety assume that at least 85% of them were delivered successfully.  In fact, meetup.com probably has bounce measures in place to weed out the false members, so it’s possible that 100% of the members received my offer.

Yet not one took me up on it.

Not one of 449 entrepreneurs took advantage of a great marketing opportunity.  Why?  Could it be because they thought they’d be helping my client and not themselves? Perhaps.  Could it be because they didn’t understand what I was asking for? Perhaps.

But I think the answer is quite simple.  Small business owners still don’t understand the power of marketing on the Internet.  Not even close.

Two years ago I was hired by a local retail mattress store.  They had a website that wasn’t the greatest, and they were paying AT&T an outageous amount of money for traffic and marketing.  Yet their website wasn’t selling a damn thing.  It wasn’t generating leads, it wasn’t producing revenue, it was simply a train wreck.

It wasn’t necessarily their fault.  As with most SMB owners, when a big company like AT&T comes in, they may be overwhelmed with the statistics that are thrown at them.  They are promised ‘online marketing’ and ‘traffic’ with great generality and glazing over of details.  What kind of marketing? What kind of traffic?  They don’t know to ask, and they don’t even know what answer is the correct one.

On top of this, SMB owners aren’t web designers.  They are given archaic tools and expected to produce a customer-friendly website.  They aren’t given guidance, they aren’t even told how to create a simple contact form.  So it’s no wonder the money goes down the drain.  And most SMBs don’t exactly have money to just throw down the marketing drain.

Shortly after I was hired, we started rebuilding their entire website.  They weened off the phone book ads one at a time, canceled AT&T’s “marketing” and put all their efforts into the web.  It’s a good thing, too, as the business was slowly going downhill.  Downhill to the point that had they not made this bold move, they’d probably be out of business today.  (And this isn’t just me bragging, you can ask Doug yourself)

Once we launched the newly designed site, a (not so) amazing thing happened.  They started ranking.  They started getting quality traffic.  People started calling.  Customers started asking for prices and delivery.  Their website was actually generating a decent ROI.

Over time, you’ll learn that one of the best things you can do for a website is to provide new and relevant content often.  Search engines love the content, and if it’s on target with your industry, you’ll start to see rankings for long tail searches you never thought would bring you traffic (and sales!).  Providing this content gets more and more difficult over time, as you start to run out of things to say.

Now, my client still has plenty of content ammunition.  But he also knows that there are things that he doesn’t know, that are related to his industry, but he doesn’t know.  And these things are just what I was asking other SMB owners to write about.  But they didn’t.  Why?

The other huge part of getting more traffic to your website is links.  And in particular, links from industry-related websites are great ways to improve your over SERP rankings.  So writing an article for another website, that is willing to link back to yours, is an awesome opportunity.  One that 449 St. Louis entrepreneurs missed.

Posted in SEO, St Louis, business blogging, content, local marketing, small business | 2 Responses »

How to Find Sploggers Who Have Stolen Your Work

Friday, September 19th, 2008

The readers who frequent this blog often know I’m a big fan of Google Alerts, and I use it often to build links and keep track of a few other things.  Google Alerts is a free service from Google that emails you whenever something new has shown up on the Internets with a search query you’ve specified.

Since I’m sitting on an SEO panel tonight covering blogging, splogging and SEO, I thought I’d post a quick little ditty that you can do to keep track of who’s stealing your content (without permission).

When you blog, there are certain things that you have control over, besides the ‘meat’ of the post.  For most blogging software, you can modify other things, such as posted-by, date formatting and tagging. Somewhere you need to find something that you can make unique to your blog – a phrase, a set of random numbers, or a weird tag.  For this example I’ll use a number/letter combo: 68wcrada72

Once you’ve decided on something, make sure you incorporate it into every post as you write (as I just did).
Then head over to Google Alerts and set up your trap.


(Click to see larger image)

Make sure you add the -domain.com or else you’ll get an alert every time you post.

Now when someone steals your content and posts it on their website, you’ll get an email showing you the link to the splog.  Take appropriate action – ask the author to take down your content.  If they don’t, or won’t answer, take further steps such as flagging inappropriate/spam posts on Blogger or reporting the splog to WHOIS (if appropriate).

People are out there to steal your content.  Since we can’t stop a copy/paste, at least we can still keep tabs on what’s happening.  Don’t let people use your content freely!

Posted in Google Alerts, blogging, business blogging, content | 1 Response »

Diapers and Groceries? No! Rankings, Leads and Sales!

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

In my recent SEO seminar, most of the attendees were surprised to hear me tell them that starting a blog is a great way to connect with their customers. Since blogging is becoming more and more popular every day, getting mentions on nationally syndicated shows, being quoted in the news, etc, more and more people are getting familiar with the word ‘blog’.

Problem is, once people hear it enough, they go online or ask a friend what exactly a blog is. Most definitions fall in line with something like “an online diary or journal. people post thoughts about news or events that affect their lives”.

That’s a good definition, but we’re missing something there. When people hear that definition, the words that hit home are ‘journal’ and ‘diary’. They immediately pigeonhole the concept into nothing more than an online version of what they did that day.

When I mentioned blogging as a great way for your website to start ranking better, particularly for long tail searches, they were pretty surprised. Why? Well, they were thinking along the lines of “I changed the baby’s diaper today. Went to the store. Got some turnips” instead of “Saw a great opportunity for one of our widgets to help an elderly lady today at the store” or “ten great ways to use blue widgets when cutting the grass“.

There are plenty of reasons to start a blog for your business, no matter what the industry. Blogging about industry trends will help get you noticed as an industry leader. Blogging about some of the bigger competitors will get you ranking for their name. Blogging about upcoming events and products (in a non-salesy way) will lead you to more customers. Blogging about local happenings, concerts, trade shows, whatever, will get you noticed in your community.

Think beyond the diary mentality. There is an endless amount of material right there on your desk. Keep it fresh, don’t give up, and you’ll see positive results.

Posted in beginner sem, business blogging, content, site ranking, small business | No Responses »