Easy SEO Tip
October 12, 2009
Here’s a quick tip for you – and it works nearly every time (although, it wouldn’t if everyone does it, so I’m wondering why I’m telling you!).
Anyway – I’ve written about Product Comparisons as a content generation strategy before. Here’s a really simple way to ramp up your results from that:
Just put a “Vs.” in the title. As in “Red Widgest Vs. Blue Widgets” – you’d be shocked how important that “Vs.” is to search engines, and how few people have optimized for that.
Just don’t do it for any niches I’m working in. Please.
My “Secret” SEO Toolkit
September 23, 2009
Recently – I’ve been pushing out some sites that are doing very well in the search engines (and doing it very quickly). Now, while I can’t give away EVERY secret for this, I can let you know some of the tools I’m using to make this happen.
We’d all like to think that we can manage on our own without any help – and, eventually, maybe you can. But, if you want to move quickly – and get your site out there and ranking (or make some drastic improvements to your site) it helps to have several tools at hand to make life a bit easier. The beauty of it is, none of these things are all that expensive, and they aren’t garbage “Secret SEO Software” that will rip you off for a couple hundred bucks. Each of these tools has paid for itself in time saved and results.
Be forewarned though – you still have to put in some work to make things happen here, but this is a really good start. Here’s the cocktail I’ve used to get to the top 5 in several competitive categories:
Shoemoney PPC/SEO Tools. Hands down the best deal in intensive niche research. Jeremy is letting you try this out for $3.95…so it’s cost effective way to test it out.
Thesis Wordpress Theme. Wordpress is the best blog engine out there, and Thesis is the best way to leverage it. I credit the super-SEO readiness of this theme with about 60% of my recent success. Watch the video and see for yourself.
Nichebot Keyword Research. It’s not the prettiest, but it’s the best value. Lots of ways to generate more, and better, keywords for SEO and PPC.
Cheap/Awesome Hosting Services – Hostgator has provided me with incredible customer service – and more importantly, has a push button Wordpress Installer that is second to none. You can’t beat $4/month for high-quality hosting.
Lastly, you want to makes sure that you get active in Google Webmaster Tools – it’s great intelligence for further optimization, and is a huge benefit in getting your entire site indexed.
(disclosure – I should tell you that if you purchase any of these products, I’ll be paid a small affiliate fee. If you’re not cool with that, just take the affiliate code out of the link…I’d recommend them anyway, because we’re friends)
Using Product Comparisons for Fun and Profit
April 28, 2009
One of the best ways to create new content is to do a product comparison. You can go about this from a few different angles:
1) You Vs. Competitors – Use a comparison page to show why your Unique Selling Point (you have one, right?) is powerful enough for your customer to purchase your product or service over your competitor’s.
2) Product Option A vs. Product Option B – Use a comparison page to show different features of your products or services. A good example would be if a landscape company created a page showing the differences between, say, organic and inorganic fertilizers…and the pros/cons of each.
3) Affiliate product comparisons – It’s possible that you’re running an ad supported site, and are selling competing products, create a comparison of them to increase your sales of both!
So, what are the benefits of comparisons? For one, you can clearly and concisely illustrate why your website visitor needs to purchase from you vs. your competitor. On a deeper level though, it is an opportunity to create content that will rank well for a number of longer keyphrases.
For example, my site receives a good bit of traffic because I did a comparison of SEO and PPC – so now I get Google searches for “SEO vs. PPC”.
This is just one more step you should be taking to enhance your web prescence. Keep up the good work, and be sure to check back for more!
Content Strategy for Your Website
April 21, 2009
I was in a client meeting yesterday, discussing content strategy and how it relates to their need for SEO and better conversions. We’ve made some really good progress in a super-competitive area the last three months, but were having trouble converting visitors and wanted to expand our SEO footprint.
The CEO asked me, “Is it better to have several pages that are always changing, or to have a site that is constantly growing with new content?”
The VP of Sales laughed out loud when I answered that question, “Yes!”
We all know that fresh content is vital to SEO success. It’s also important for visitor conversion. And, it’s important to not only have your most prominent pages (home page, etc…) “freshen up” every now and then, it’s also important to push out new content on a regular basis.
From a search engine standpoint – it gets spiders coming back more frequently, which gets you indexed more thoroughly, more often, and often better. From a visitor standpoint, it gives you the opportunity to excite and engage the visitor more.
More and more, we are seeing that visitors need more than a catchy landing page, a great offer, or a slick form to turn in to leads or customers. Search is becoming less and less a direct conversion tool, and more of a sales process that you need to nurture in order to get the customer.
Of course, this rings true a little more for larger ticket item purchases than for, say, a book or pair of shoes.
What does this mean for your business? For one, you need to craft all your content with an eye for the ultimate goal – conversion. You need to come up with a schedule and stick to it (this is much harder than it sounds). You will need to create content that is interesting and useful for someone, even if they aren’t your customer. You need to give options to share your content (social bookmarking buttons, email this buttons, etc…) – and encourage people to use them.
In short – your website needs to start to become a combination of promotion and enhanced conversion strategies, and real substance.
Where can I find the time?
April 9, 2009
One common question I field from business owners is – “Where do I find the time to do all this stuff?”
That’s a fair question, because, as a business owner, you have a lot of things going on. First and foremost, you’re likely having to service your customers – you may be cleaning their air ducts, returning a package, or tailoring their suit. There’s not a lot of time to agonize over search engine rankings while you’re doing this.
Unfortunately, you also don’t have time to ignore online marketing – and especially search engine marketing. Why? Because your competitors sure aren’t ignorning it.
You have a couple options when it comes to managing your own online marketing – there are some tools out there that can make it a lot easier:
- PPC Management Software – There are several good options out here, all running in the $300-$500/month category. You may need a little help getting started, but you’ll be able to quickly manage your PPC campaign after a few months of getting used to it.
- SEO “Systems” – I may be being unfair here, but as a resident expert on SEO, I’m telling you there isn’t a system out there worth anything. Save your money.
- Off-shore outsourcing – This can be cost effective, as some companies will work with you for less than $300/month. However, every time I’ve done it, the results have been less than optimal (at best), to ridiculously bad (at worst).
- 7xo Media – Hey, I wouldn’t be fair to myself or your business if I didn’t plug 7xo here. You can get affordable, expert, top-quality service and results – all put into a no contract, no obligation system that makes sense for your business. From $150/month to $15,000/month – we’ve done it all!
Email me if you’d like more info on what we can do. We’ll start with a free analysis of your business, and talk about a plan that is custom built for your business.
10 Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking Today
April 7, 2009
Since we’re just getting this site off the ground, and sent out our first newsletter only yesterday (to over 600 people!) – I wanted to post some of the info I shared. This one is really – simple, 10 things you can do today to improve your search engine rankings:
1) Do your Keyword Research. Try to target search phrases, i.e. “Affordable Widgets in
Kansas City” vs. “Widgets.”
We have some free keyword research tools linked here.
2) Write Unique Title tags for each page.
3) Be sure to have unique, interesting, and well-written content that covers your keywords.
4) Make sure you regularly update your content, as well as adding new content
(”Freshness” is key).
5) Be sure the every page on your site has an internal link. Create a sitemap to help this out.
6) Be sure your site’s main navigation structure is accesible to search engines.
7) Use your keyword phrases in your internal links.
8) Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes,
domain name, and file structure.
9) Focus on accumulating quality inbound links.
10) Remember that SEO is an ongoing process!