Search Engine Optimization seems to always have been about tactics. Website owners are constantly asking, “What tactics can I employ to get ranked higher on the major search engines?” Some tactics include peppering web pages with key words, adding a long list of links on the bottom of each page, adding another long list of cities served on the bottom of a page, and similar “tricks” which focus mainly on search engines, not human visitors. While many of these tactics work, they are short-sighted and can often backfire. I’ve seen so many websites rank well, only to wonder why they’re not generating any sales. Continue reading →

For SEO purposes, having an XML sitemap is extremely important. An XML sitemap is a page of code which is downloaded onto your web server where your website files reside, and its purpose is to alert Google’s spiders of all of the pages of your site which exist. Without the sitemap, it’s possible that Google’s crawling bots may miss some of your pages, but the sitemap says, “hey, look here – here’s a list of all of the pages on my site that you should crawl.” Continue reading →

We recently did some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) work for an insurance website. This company sells auto, home, life, and business insurance, and has several branches throughout Florida. We did some keyword research and came up with a strategy for their meta tags. After consulting with them and agreeing on the key words we were targeting, we implemented their meta tags, submitted their site to a nice amount of directories, made some minor content changes on their site, and waited about 8 weeks to see the results. Continue reading →

“All I need to do is add some good meta tags to my website, buy some links, and then I’ll have lots of traffic to my site, and people will then buy my products.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this, or something very similar. Many new e-commerce website owners are so eager to get on the search engines, and often naively think that once they have their meta tags inserted, buyers will flood their gates.

In reality, just like a brick and mortar business, it takes time to build the business and grow your customer base. It takes patience. It takes multiple forms of online marketing – search engine optimization, link submissions, e-mail marketing, and maybe also blogging and frequenting social media sites. It takes traditional forms of marketing – direct mail, print marketing, personal networking, and advertising.

Keep in mind – if it were just a matter of optimizing your site and adding meta tags, everyone would be doing it. And these days as more and more people are doing it, then the playing field has become leveled. Why should consumers buy from you rather than buying from a similar site? Likely they have never heard of you. Why should they trust you?

It sounds like it’s easy, but an online business is no different than any other business, so treat it as such and you’ll be on the right track.

Getting visitors to your website is one thing – converting visits to sales, what is known as the “Conversion Rate,” is something else entirely.

Most experts say that you should expect a conversion rate of 1-3%. This low figure may surprise you, but if you think of how many searches are done daily on any given term, how many competing websites are out there, and consumers growing distrust of many website scams, then it may shed some light on this percentage.

So what can you do to increase your conversion rates?

Have your contact information displayed so it is easily found. If people need to search endlessly to find a phone number or e-mail address to reach you, they will either give up trying, or lose trust in you as a legitimate business. Have your phone number and e-mail prominently displayed in the top area of each web page.

Make sure your site is secure. Nothing takes the trust away like a site that takes credit cards, but is not encrypted and secure.

Make sure your site looks professional. If your site looks like it was created over the weekend by your teenage nephew, don’t expect people to buy.

Get some good buzz out there. Referrals and word of mouth are very effective, so generate some good buzz on social networking sites, forums, etc. Have testimonials of satisfied customers on your site as well.

Don’t neglect traditional forms of marketing. So many new net entrepreneurs rely solely on internet marketing, and that is a mistake. Print business cards and brochures or postcards, do some personal networking, and you’ll get people to visit your site.

Repeat business is always easier to get than new business. Send monthly e-mail newsletters to customers who have already purchased from you. Promote new products and specials.

These are just a few ideas, and the basic idea is to build trust and confidence in those who browse your site. Good luck!

Everyone wants to be highly ranked in search engines, and so many people and companies are looking for a quick and easy way to attain results. Just as there is no magic weight loss pill, or easy get rich quick scheme, there really is no quick fix that will have meaningful or long term effects for search engine rankings.

I have come to learn that just as in so many areas of life and business, anything done for the wrong reason won’t work too well. If you’re optimizing your site, buying links for the sake of it, starting a blog purely for SEO purposes or paying someone not knowledgeable in your industry to write articles for you, I would bet that you won’t likely have good long term results.

On the other hand, if you are writing good, quality, relevant content in order to improve your website, writing a blog to provide more value to your customers or to start a web community, getting links naturally from articles you wrote or were written about your business, or generating links from other companies, associations you belong to, or other such sites that want to link to yours, then you’ll probably attain much better results.

Much like building a successful small business, getting good rankings happens gradually over time. I speak to people daily who want to be #1 in Google overnight. Keep in mind, it’s one thing to get traffic, it’s another thing entirely to convert that traffic to sales. Most website owners are astounded at how low the percentage is for visitors that make a purchase. But in this new world where everyone’s optimizing their sites and getting lots of visitors, consumers are fickle, will leave a site quickly if it offers little or no value, and must trust you before they buy from you. Remember, if it’s so easy to get traffic and make sales quickly, then you’re not the only one doing it.

Another common mistake often made is expecting that internet marketing can be the sole form of marketing. Traditional marketing techniques should not be neglected, as start-up sites often need word of mouth and personal networking to generate sales at first. Like any business, marketing should be a multi-pronged approach, including traditional and online marketing techniques.

Link building is definitely the hot thing right now. So, what exactly is link building? Simply put, link building means increasing the number of links on other websites which point to your website. Why do this? The idea is that in the eyes of the search engines, the more links a site has pointing to it, the more relevant and important it must be, therefore it gets ranked higher.

There are several ways to build external links, some more effective than others:

1. Submit your site to directories. This used to be very effective, but now since it seems like everyone is doing it, the search engines have caught on a bit, and it has also leveled the playing field to some extent. Submitting your site to directories in your industry is the best way to go.

2. Join online forums. Most forums allow you to have a signature which includes your url. Every time you post a comment, your url appears, thus another external link is born. Contribute to these forums, post new topics, get involved. The bonus is you can learn something while you’re there.

3. Write and submit articles. If you like to write, this is a great tool for you. You can submit your articles to sites such as http://www.ezinearticles.com, where others may use your articles on their sites. Every time your article appears, so does your signature which includes your link.

4. Join social networking sites. Sites such as http://www.linkedin.com/ (Which I use) or Myspace or Facebook are great places to interact with others, post comments, and a great place to build links.

5. Blogs. Start your own blog – its free and easy at http://www.blogger.com/ or http://www.wordpress.com/. It’s a great source for links, and creates lots of relevant content. Also, post comments on other’s blogs. This will create more links to you, plus if you post a comment on someone’s blog, they are more likely to check yours out and do the same.

Keep in mind, though, link building is just one effective tool in the SEO arsenal. Do it well, but don’t neglect the other methods.

I wish I had a nickel (actually, a nickel won’t get you far these days – make it a $5 bill) for every time a client said to me, “OK, now that you’ve designed our website, I want to be #1 on Google.” And I think to myself, “Really? No kidding. Who doesn’t??!!” So here are a few good tips to increasing your ranking on the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN):

1. Content is King! Good content drives traffic – and the search engines pick up key words on content-rich web pages.

2. Add meta tags to your web pages. A meta tag is simply a snippet of code that tells the search engines about your website. This code is inserted onto the site and isn’t seen by viewers. Have a web designer add it for you – it’s very simple. (The trick is knowing what to put in the meta tags – that part is more art than science.)

3. Increase the number of external links to your site. Basically, the more links on other sites are pointing to yours, the more it looks like you’re a major player. This can be accomplished by submitting your site to web directories (the ones in your industry are best), joining online forums, or my favorite method – by writing articles. In exchange for your article – which will be used for content on their site – most site owners will include a link to your site at the bottom of your article.

There are more ways, but those are the basic and most effective. Above all, remember that this takes time – you won’t get to the top overnight. Do these consistently over time, and you will be amazed at the results!