Which three letters bring on sweaty palms and sleepless nights for business owners and web masters everywhere? IRS?  FBI? Good guesses, but the culprit is… SEO.

If you do it wrong or put it off, then your website will spend its days lost in the endless pages of search engine results, like a message in a bottle floating in a vast, dark ocean.

But what if you crack the code on the secret language of meta keywords, H1 tags, and inbound links? Will all the riches and glory of Page One Google Ranking await you?

Well, no.  As with most things, good SEO is less about uncovering “the secret”, and more about taking the time to understand and implement best practices… and then to keep applying them religiously over time.  (Sorry!)

This leads to the big question regarding your website’s search engine optimization… do it yourself or hire an SEO expert?

According to a recent Marketing Sherpa report, just over half of businesses manage their SEO in-house, while about 45% use an outside expert or are considering one… So whichever way you decide to go, you’ll have plenty of company!

Here are a few pointers to get your started down the path to SEO success.

If you’re going to do your own SEO…

• Learn the basics first. Invest in a couple good books on SEO.  There are lots, so find one that lays out the material in a format and style that works best for you.  Browse Amazon to see what other readers are recommending, or just head to the business section at your local bookstore and flip through what’s there.

• Subscribe to SEO information sources. Get a daily stream of advice, tips, and tricks from experts.  Check out this list of 15 good SEO blogs, or if Twitter is more your thing, follow TheSEOList, a great curated list of folks that tweet about search engine optimization.

• Don’t approach SEO as a one-off project. Instead, think of it more like going to the gym – consistent effort over time is what will bring results!  If you need more traffic right away, you should read our previous post, Should You Do SEO or Paid Search?

If you’re going to hire an SEO consultant…

• Educate yourself on what you’ll be paying for. This article from Search Engine Journal, What’s My SEO Charging Me For?, is a great place to start.

• Ask (smart) colleagues for referrals. Part of an SEO consultant’s job is to understand your business and customers, so finding someone who has worked with businesses like yours before can really help get things moving quickly.

• Remember there are no SEO guarantees. Be wary of any consultants making claims that guarantee you a specific ranking or position. Search engines are complex, the algorithms are nuanced, and results take time. Reputable SEO practitioners will happily agree to goals and measurable milestones, and factor these into your billing and payment terms.

And in either case…

Don’t worry about every possible tweak you could make – just start with the basics and you’ll be well on your way. So wipe off those palms, get a good night’s sleep, and we’ll see you on Google’s Page One!

(P.S.  We’re here to help… so feel free to give us a call at 888-330-3236)

Do you know how many times  the search engines (Google, etc.) were used last month? Well if you guessed 15.9 billion times then you win the prize! And that’s only counting searches done in the U.S. market… according to comScore, a digital research firm.

Cool factoid, by why should you care? Because many were prospects searching for products and services like yours. So the name of the game is making sure your website shows up in search results!

Your website can appear in search results in two ways:

1.  Natural Search. The search engines find (index) all the websites on the Internet and then decide what to show when a user does a search. This is called natural or organic search. The search engines determine how relevant your website content is for a given search… based on their own (super-secret) algorithms.

The good news is you don’t have to pay when your website appears in natural search results. That’s the whole point of search right? The bad news is that Google and the search engines have millions of other web pages to choose from besides yours.

But you can influence this. That’s what search engine optimization (SEO) is all about!

2. Paid Search. As the name implies, it means you pay to have your ad show up in the top and right hand side “sponsored listing” sections of a search results page. Of course, your competitors want those spots too… so you get to bid against them to see who’s ad gets the highest ranking (what fun!)

In either case, if prospects can’t find your business when searching the Internet… then you won’t be in business very long. That’s why whole industries (and lots of consultants) have sprung up to help with your search engine optimization and paid search efforts.

So which should you do, SEO or Paid Search?

Let’s do a search “smack-down” before we answer that question:

Natural search is free. It’s worth repeating this one. You don’t have to pay Google or any other search engine to show up in natural search results. With paid search, you pay, and pay, and pay (you get the idea!)

Winner: SEO and Natural Search

With paid search, you control what, where, and when… your ad shows. You control what your ad says and in which search results it shows up. You can also start and stop your ad at anytime to stay within budget. Plus, it’s easy to test different paid search ads to see which works best… since you’re in control!

Winner: Paid Search

People mostly click on natural search results. About 80% of the time users click on natural search listings versus only 20% on sponsored listings.Why? Because people trust natural search more since they know that the sponsored listings are ads.

Winner: SEO and Natural Search

Changing natural search results takes time. Figure it may take 6 to 9 months before your search engine optimization results really pay off. SEO is an ongoing process of big and little changes to your website… to make it easier for search engines to find you, understand what your business is about, and to see that other website owners think you’re important too. And that just takes time.

Winner: Paid Search

Now we’re (finally) ready to answer the question of whether you should do SEO or paid search. The answer is… both!

If you’re starting a business or just bringing your offline business onto the Internet then you can’t wait around for your SEO efforts to work. You need to find prospects and generate sales now. This is why paid search is so great. Once you’ve set up your paid search ad, you’ll start driving potential customers to your website right away.

But don’t put off your SEO efforts. Otherwise, you’ll be kicking yourself later… and running out of cash since paid search bills add up quickly (that’s why Google makes tons of money).

Even if your business has been online for quite awhile… you’re probably still looking to increase your website traffic and find more qualified prospects online… without spending an arm and a leg to do it! So you’ll want to do both SEO and paid search for all the reasons we’ve already outlined.

Once your SEO efforts start paying off, you’ll have a steady stream of (free) visitors coming to your website from natural search. Plus you’ll still be able to tap into paid search… for when you launch new products, need to generate more sales fast, or want your website traffic growing while your search engine optimization efforts continue to improve.

So, definitely do both SEO and paid search.

Now it’s time for a word of caution regarding SEO and paid search (sorry!)

Remember, if you’re website doesn’t show up in search results then your business doesn’t exist… as far as your online prospects are concerned.

You or someone on your team must invest the time to learn at least the basics of SEO and paid search. Read blog posts, download white papers, or buy a few books on the topic. It’s that important. It really is. Or hire an expert if you have the budget. It will be worth it!

Here are some good blog posts (including ours) to get you started:

Guide to Search Engine Marketing for Small Business

SEO Flows Through Everything

SEO Copywriting

Don’t Make These Search Engine Marketing Mistakes

Do You Want to Know What Keywords to Use for Your Website?

And as always… let us know if we can help!  Just give us a call at 888-330-3236.

Site maps are sexy. Yes they are. Maybe not to you and me… but the search engines sure like them and that’s all that matters. Of course, your website visitors will appreciate them too. But (as usual) we’re getting ahead of ourselves…

What is a site map and why do you care?

Just like the name implies, it’s a map of your website. Or said another way, it’s a web page that contains direct links to every page of your website and:

• Makes it easy for search engines to find (index) all your pages while providing powerful clues as to the type of content on your website. This means it’s more likely that your website will show up in the right search results!

• Helps visitors see the breadth of information on your site and makes navigation easier by giving them another way to find what they’re looking for.

• Shows a bird’s eye view of things which helps when you’re planning to add new pages and sections to your website.

Are you ready to create your very own site map?

If you have a fairly simple website (say, 50 pages or less) then just create a web page and add your links in a clear and organized bullet point format. Start with your main sections (e.g., Products, Support, About Us) and then add the links underneath that correspond to those sections.

Your website more complicated than that?

Then use one of the free or affordable site map tools such as: Free Sitemap Generator, Sitemapper, AllWebMenus, and XML Sitemaps.com. Besides quickly generating a regular site map, these tools can also create an XML site map (learn more) to submit to search engines. This will come in handy if your website is new or if you’ve recently made a bunch of changes and need to tell the search engines.

When done right, your site map will look like a table of contents or maybe like Yahoo! Directory with each topic having its relevant links under it.

Now just add a “Site Map” link to your website navigation so that it shows up on every page of your site. That way the search engines and your website visitors can always find it.

It’s time to create your site map… but don’t take too long. The search engines are waiting!

I must confess… I didn’t (gasp!) do keyword research before writing the copy for our website. And the truth is I should have. But better late than never. So let’s pretend we’re writing our website content today (maybe you are)… and then take it from there!

First of all, why is keyword research so important?

Search engines (i.e., Google) are the number one way that people find your website. Your job is to make it easy for them. There’s much you need to do to make this happen… but it begins with figuring out what words and phrases (keywords) your prospects use when searching the Internet for what you sell. Then you need to make sure your website content includes those keywords. Do it right… and your website shows up in your prospects search results!

Here’s how to get started:

1.  It’s all about your target customers. You really need to understand who they are, what they’re looking for, and why they’d buy from you in particular.

2.  Think about what keywords they’ll use when searching on Google for your products and services. (If you already have customers… ask them!)

3.  Then make a big list of all the keywords you come up with.

4.  Add qualifying terms to your keywords that help better define your market… such as your product features and business location.

5.  Boil your list down to the keyword phrases you’re going to use with your website content. These phrases should best reflect your product offering and be search terms your prospects will use often.

6.  Now write (or update!) your website copy with these keyword phrases in mind.

Simple enough?

For example, let’s say you have an Italian restaurant located in Long Island, NY. You want keywords that target customers will use to find your restaurant. The keyword “restaurants” isn’t specific enough. Maybe: “Italian restaurants”? Better for sure. But we need some qualifying terms to make it even more specific. How about “Italian pizza restaurants” or “Italian restaurants on long island”? Now we’re talking! Just include these keyword phrases as often as you can in your website content.

You should target 5 to 10 keyword phrases depending on how many products or services you sell, and the different types of customers you serve. Have lots of products and services? Then you’ll need more keyword phrases.

The good news is there are free tools to help:

• Google’s keyword tool makes it easy to come up with hundreds of keyword phrases to consider. Plus it’ll show you the number of monthly searches for each phrase.

• Wordtracker is another good keyword tool for generating ideas. And it will also show you the popularity of each keyword suggestion.

• Google Analytics is free web analytics software that gives in-depth data on your website traffic… including which keywords send visitors to your site!

Now it’s time for a few cautionary comments (sorry!)

Spicing up your content with good keyword phrases will make it easier for prospects to find you… and also make generic website copy more specific and interesting. But don’t go overboard. Remember, it’s all about making your website helpful and informative for your target customers… not about stuffing your pages with keywords for the search engines. (see our related post)

And the process of keyword research never stops. You need to keep an eye on what keywords are driving the most traffic to your website… since your prospects are changing how they search all the time!

Don’t forget to keep your keyword phrases handy. You’ll not only reference them for your website copy but also for your online advertising campaigns, social media efforts… and even your offline advertising (which also influences what people type into a search box).

Let’s get started with your keyword research!

Btw, did you notice the keyword phrases I’m using for this blog post? Let us know which keywords you used to get here. Thanks!

Just started your blog? Or maybe you’ve had one for awhile but now it’s time to get serious. In any case, we probably don’t need to convince you of the benefits of having a blog. For example, creating more awareness for your business and developing a relationship with prospects… maybe generating leads too!

But how do you get more people to read your blog?

Exposure is critical to building readership… which will eventually result in sales. It really will. So let’s start with the basics. You need to get your blog to show up in search engine results. You also want prospects to stumble upon your blog. What’s an easy and cost effective way of doing this? List your blog with the best blog directories.

Listing with blog directories creates links to your blog. Google and other search engines really like these links because it says your blog is important. The more important your blog the higher up it will show in search results. Not to mention, the best blog directories have tens of thousands and even millions of visitors every month… some of which are potential readers (prospects!) for your blog.

Here are three blog directories that we recommend:

• BlogCatalog is a blogger community and directory which makes it easy for visitors to find, save, and organize favorite blogs… and it attracts millions of visitors every month.

• Blogs.com has a team of editors on the lookout for the best blogs and posts to feature on their site. Maybe your blog will get featured too!

• Blogged is a blog social network and directory with 100+ plus categories to choose from. Its editors will rate your blog and users can “follow” your posts with the click of a button.

Other blog directories to submit to include: Best of the Web Blogs, BlogFlux, Bloggeries, EatonWeb, and BlogTopList.

It only takes a few minutes to submit your blog. You’ll register with the blog directory, type in your blog’s URL, choose categories that your blog fits, and provide helpful keyword tags to make it easy for directory searchers to find you. That’s it.

Best of all, most blog directories offer free blog submission.

In a few cases, you may be asked to pay a fee but even then it’s affordable (e.g., $35 per year)… and some offer advertising opportunities that may make sense for you to consider.  But don’t be surprised if the blog directories ask that you link your blog back to them. Why not as they need promotion too.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s start marketing your blog!