Here is the part two guest post from Matthew Egan of Image Freedom about internet marketing done right. You can follow them on Twitter. You can guest post as well! Read how to here.
3. Don’t Skimp on the SEO!
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” It’s the science and the art of setting up a website so Google can index your pages. You can then rank on Google for keywords that will drive new customers to your business and grow your revenue. Most website developers say that they offer SEO service, but only about 5% of them know their keywords from their title tags!
Two parts power SEO: the on-site optimization and your off-site reputation. On-site, you want to include your most valuable keyword or keywords in your pages’ title tag, in the front. You need a minimum of 250 words on your homepage. If possible, those words should be very “on topic” for your keywords. If you sell tennis shoes, talk about tennis, talk about tennis balls—don’t use overly generic language. Bold your primary keyword once or twice in your page copy if you can. This highlights those keywords for Google. SEO “experts” will tell you that SEO is this crazy complicated process, but improving your Google ranking is really very basic.
Off-site, the name of the game is links. When Google “crawls” the web, their robots go to one website, follow links from that site to other sites, follow links there to other sites, etc. Every time a website links to your website, they are building a valuable path for Google to follow to your website. As more people link to your website, as more paths are created for Google to reach you, your rankings will improve. If no one is linking to your website, Google will not index your site very often, and you’re not going to show up in the rankings.
You can’t just do the on-site stuff, you need people to link to you in order to move onto Google’s first page.
As a consultant and a blogger, I wanted to be known in my industry as an expert—I wanted to be one of the elite. What I found was that helping business owners make sense of the multitude of internet marketing opportunities was my true calling. I was pushing myself in one direction, to be one of those speakers you see at the marketing conferences. But what I learned was that those speakers only really seem to be preaching to other speakers. They’re early adopters, they’re excitable, they’re ready to jump on the latest social media bandwagon and take risks.
If I’ve learned anything from Dave Ramsey and Chris’ EntreLeadership podcast, it’s that you can’t afford to take too many risks, especially when it comes to spending your marketing dollars. I don’t have 20 years in the trenches like Dave, but I have owned Image Freedom for three years now, and I’ve worked with dozens of businesses who have grown their revenue by millions of dollars each year by following simple advice like you see above.
There isn’t some big secret. Sometimes the best marketing is simple and obvious. Be consistent, stay in control, and you will reach your goals.
Question: How does this change the way you look at SEO?
