Everyone talks about search engine optimization and how to get a site to the top of the search rankings. SEO experts go around and around in circles debating what Google may or may not be thinking and make every possible excuse not to do something.
I hear it every day. “If that site links to us, Google may not like us anymore” or “We can’t get too many links at once or Google won’t like us anymore.” It drives me absolutely crazy because everyone is just pontificating rather than testing and seeing what works and what doesn’t.
So what does work? I’m glad you asked. Creating good content works and it will always work. Google has always been consistent in the fact that it will reward sites with good content. When a site has good content other sites will mention it and link to it. That is why Google puts such an importance on incoming links.
At the same time your customers and future customers will appreciate you putting out valuable information. And I’m not just talking about good content on your site. You can post helpful information on Facebook, in forums or any of hundreds of social media sites. When people find this content they’ll pass it around.
They’ll tweet about it, they’ll friend you and they’ll send it to their friends and colleagues in their social networks. Guess what all of that does? Right! It creates more and more links and more and more actual traffic back to your website.
Let’s quit trying to ‘game’ Google. Google likes good content and your customers like good content. And at the end of the day, creating good, helpful content is a whole lot more rewarding and enjoyable than buying links or begging site owners to link to you.
What you may be asking is what constitutes good content. That part is easy. Solve your customers’ problems. Whatever you sell – whether it is a product or a service – solves some kind of a problem.
Every day you probably get the same questions over and over about whatever it is that you do. Those are your Frequently Asked Questions or FAQs. Answer those freely both on your site and on remote sites.
If you’re a business owner I know that you’re the expert in your field. Share that expertise whenever and wherever you can online. That effort and the fact that you’re actively and willingly helping people will come back to you in droves.
With the end of the year just around the corner and the holiday rush almost upon us you might be thinking that there isn’t enough time left in the year to boost the search rankings of your website. That isn’t the case. Follow these five easy steps and watch the love Google will give your site.
Structure your site properly. Make sure all of the pages of your site are within two clicks of your home page. Include your keywords in title tags and descriptions and always link your pages together using your main keywords in your links. We geeks call this ‘anchor text’ and it is what Google uses to determine what that page is about.
Submit a sitemap to Google and the other search engines. It is shocking how many sites Google doesn’t even know about. If your site is built on WordPress or another major CMS system, this will be done automatically for you. If it isn’t you’ll have to submit your sitemap manually. Either way, make sure it is done.
Get more links to your site. The number and quality of other sites that link to you is the primary factor that Google looks at when ranking your website. It is important to get both a lot of links through social bookmarking, social networking sites and directories but also to get high authority sites to link to you. Press releases and guest blogging both work well for getting high quality links.
Get social. Many SEO services providers don’t believe that links from sites like Facebook and Twitter count for much but they’re wrong. All links to your site count and leveraging social media is smart. If one person with a large following likes your site it can be passed along through thousands of followers. This doesn’t only increase the number of links to your site but also immediately boost the direct traffic to your site.
Be helpful. Offer suggestions on forums and provide helpful comments on blogs. Drop in links to your site when they are relevant but provide value to the community first and foremost. Yes, links are important but you’ll be shocked to see your links and direct traffic soar as a result of just being nice.
At the end of the day, the Internet is called the Information Super Highway for a good reason. People are snooping around the web looking for answers to their problems, questions and concerns. When you provide the best solutions you’ll quickly become recognized as the expert in your particular area and guess what? People love to do business with experts. They will come to you and they’ll pay your asking price. They’ll pass around the information you provide to their friends and colleagues and all of this buzz will continue to increase the number of links back to your site. As a result, your search rankings will improve AND you’ll discover than helping people feels pretty darn good too.
I stumbled across this video on Rich Shefren’s blog. There are so many lessons to be learned in it that I’ll just point out one here and let you get to it.
Nobody succeeds at anything without having the guts to do something different and be willing to look like an idiot. Shirtless, dancing guy went from being looked at as a lone nut to a brilliant leader in less than three minutes. Watch the video and listen to the excellent narration to see how he did it. It is all about social proof and guess what? So is marketing.
Have you heard about Google TV yet? It is Google’s response to Apple TV and it is pretty cool. Basically, it will allow users to integrate their TV, DVR and the Internet so we’ll be able to do everything through our HD TVs. Rather than going into all the details I’ve included Google’s YouTube video and below that, I share my thoughts on how I feel this may influence marketing efforts.
The bottom line is that people spend far too much time in-front of their TVs as it is and this will only extend that time. The difference is that we’ll be able to switch between what we’re watching on TV and anything that pops into our heads.
So what opportunties or challenges does Google TV pose for marketers? Well, first of all, we can reach TV viewers without having to pay for network time. Remember, viewers will be able to simultaneously watch TV and browse the web. Obviously, we need to have a Web presence of some sort for our business but that should go without saying.
We’ll also want to add video to our sites. Video accounts for more than 50% of web traffic now and that number is only going to increase. I can’t imagine that surfers will stick around a text-ladened site after coming from an HD channel so it will be imperative that we incorporate some kind of video on our sites.
Social media will also play a bigger role moving forward. As someone is researching our business it is very likely that they’ll turn to Twitter, FaceBook or a news feed to see what other people are saying about us. We can’t control these conversations but we will need to be involved so we can influence them. In fact, just through the act of participating and interacting through these channels we’ll be able to show potential customers that we care – and that is the most important thing when it comes to keeping customers.
There has been a lot of buzz lately about the potential of mobile marketing. Essentially, this refers to reaching cell phone users with marketing messages while they’re using their devices. With the proliferation of iPhones and smart phones… and the insurgence of iPads things become very interesting.
The stats are a little bit scary. There are currently approximately 1.5 billion users connected to the Internet around the world yet there are about 5 billion users with cell phones – whether or not all of those cell phones are Internet enabled is highly unlikely. However, I couldn’t find a definitive answer.
Regardless, think about the potential. People never go anywhere these days without their mobile devices. Most of us are totally reliant on our cell phones (contacts, addresses, important dates, etc.) so that is not going to change. What that means is that we can be reached 24/7 whereas typical online marketing messages only reached prospective customers when they are sitting at their computers.
Going way back in time marketing messages only reached consumers when they were sitting in front of their TVs, reading newspapers or sorting through their mail. Considering that we’re all so connected now, it isn’t too surprising that we’re getting bombarded with marketing messages day in and day out.
But mobile marketing is different. I don’t think it will work for every type of business (at least not immediately) but I do see it being the wave of the future. You can now place an ad on a mobile network for your 24 hour pizza joint in Vancouver and allow visitors to simply click to call you to order some za. As an advertiser you can target consumers geographically and you only pay when they call you. AND since mobile marketing is still in its infancy, it is much, much cheaper than advertising on other pay per performance networks like Adwords.
How cool is that? This is only one example and the possibilities are literally endless. I don’t know how mobile marketing will evolve but I am pretty sure that anyone not adapting their website now to be viewable on mobile devices will be left behind.
I find this fascinating – especially when there are still some businesses that don’t even have a website yet. Ironically, many of them are doing just fine. Isn’t business amazing?
During the time Eric spent working with our firm, we recognized an immediate increase in web presence, which translated to genuine sales opportunities. Eric manages to bring creative thinking together with an eye for return on investments to his projects. I would not hesitate to use his services again.
Dallas Macas
President, Trek Escapes
Eric is a pleasure to work with and brilliant online marketer. What he doesn't know is not worth knowing.
Lee Phillips
Amiqus Consulting
Without fail Eric was available to guide our blog and to overcome any marketing problems we've encountered along the way. I don't know where we would be without his help.
Susan McCord
BeaverTalk.com
Even after 13 Months the sales leads that Eric generates still provide a greater return than any other source we buy from. I have no intention of looking anywhere else.
Jim Duval
Able Acceptance Corp.
I've never had an easier sales job than when I worked with Eric at Sao Paulo English. Our online lead generation and email follow-up system allowed me to simply follow-up with prospects that already knew exactly what we did. Most often, I just needed to ask when they wanted to start.
Cheda Mihajlovic
Business Development Mngr.
SaoPauloEnglish.com
There has been a lot of buzz lately about the potential of mobile marketing. Essentially, this refers to reaching cell phone users with marketing messages while they’re using their devices. With the proliferation of iPhones and smart phones… and the insurgence of iPads things become very interesting.
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