By Brian B. Carter, MS
Don't put the cart before the horse.
You can't do SEO (optimize your web site for search engines)until you've researched keywords. You can't research keywordswithout a clear view of your target market, your prospect types,and how your offerings fill their needs.
Affordable Small Business SEO
Affordable small business SEO not only uses the same oldbusiness and marketing basics, but also leverages the depth ofaccessible metrics for creating increased online traffic andbetter web site ROI.
When small business people ask me how their web site could beimproved by SEO, I give them some version of the following listof questions. When you know the answers to these questions,you're much less likely to waste money on SEO efforts, and morelikely to succeed online. You might even pull off some of thisstuff yourself- and that'll save you big in consultant fees!
To find the right keywords to target with SEO and/or PPC,consider the following…
Goals: How much monthly traffic and sales do you get now?Where would you like these numbers to be? What are your mostwanted responses- what do you want your ideal prospects to do onyour site? (e.g. buy something, sign up for your ezine, etc.)
Market Segmentation: Who's your ideal customer or targetmarket? If there is more than one group, characterize each.
Keywords that work: How do people find your site? Whatsearch phrases show up in your web logs?
PPC Metrics: Do you already use pay per click (PPC)advertising? What are your conversion rates? Are your bidsprofiting, or at least breaking even?
Getting more traffic is pointless if your site isn’t anefficient sales machine.
Profit Margin: What is your online profit margin for eachoffering?
Conversion Rate: What percentage of your offlineprospects make the purchase? (to gauge expected conversion ratefor your services and find disparity in online results)
Customer Loyalty: How many people are on your ezine list?How often do you email them? What do you send them?
5 Common Critical Website Errors and How to Fix Them
About 75% of the web sites I've seen make all of these mistakes.As a result, their rankings and traffic suffer, and they losepotential sales revenues.
No Sitemap. No matter how well your pages are designedand no matter how nice the graphics are, every site need a good‘sitemap’ page for search engines to index it more easily. Thisis a simple page of links- no frills except perhaps a bulletedoutline structure. Even better, you can use the new Googlesitemap xml template, and upload it to Google to increase thechances they’ll index your whole site.
Insufficient Search Engine and Directory Submission. Inthe ideal cyberworld, you wouldn’t have to submit your siteanywhere- it would just get indexed and put where your prospectscould find you. The reality is we still have to meet theseservices halfway. There are only a half dozen super-big sourcesof traffic (e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.), but you have abetter chance of showing up in them if you’ve submitted yoursite to the 100-200 minor directories and search engines. Also,there are niche directories that will help you rank on your bestkeywords and attract more prospects directly. Submit your siteto these places with a free tool like WebCEO.
Mysterious Website Owners. Your visitors want to know,"who are the people behind this website? Can I trust them?"Unless you have a particularly snobby target market, put yourpicture and brief bio on the very first page of your site (ifnot every page). Let them know who you are. This might be tabooin offline marketing (not really- look at Ben & Jerry, SteveJobs, Donald Trump, etc.), but online, genuine personality is acompetitive advantage. It fosters trust, creates credibility andemotional bonds, and bridges the cold gap of cyberspace. You cando it appropriately for most target markets. The real questionis: are you ready for the prime time?
Confusing Site Structure. Does your site confuse people?Do you know where they want to go, what they're really lookingfor? Where do you want them to go? Good site structure bothguides your various prospect types to the places you want themto go and satisfies their needs. Get some of your target marketto sit in front of you and use your website- watch what they do-it'll surprise you. And put a search engine on your website thatgives you reports on what people search for- you'll get cluesabout what else to put online.
Ezine Neglect. The ezine signup form isn't prominent onsome sites – make it obvious and 'sell' your visitors on signingup. Tantalize them into ezine subscription with a free bonus.Why? Not everyone will become your customer the first time theyreach your site. They may like your offerings but not trust youenough yet or be ready to buy. They may have questions. Once youhave them on your list, you can sell them on you and your stuff(by helping them with tips) every week or two until they buy.
Not only do they need a free bonus to stimulate them to sign up,they also need to know what kind of thing you’ll be sendingthem, that you’ll keep their email address private, and thatthey can unsubscribe anytime. And I'd suggest using doubleopt-in to avoid spam- that means they sign up (you don't addthem), and they confirm via email before they ever get an emailfrom you.
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