A little FYI . . .

We are talking with another firm about partnering on a more robust product offering.  Essentially, we’re going to offer our complete SEO Bible Training package for “free” as an inclusion to those who purchase the other firm’s product set through us.  That’ll mean you could benefit by getting all of our SEO knowledge through the pending videos, podcasts, and eBooks as a bonus for purchasing the other firm’s product in a few weeks (it’s not out yet).

While the more robust product package is not going to be inexpensive, it’ll really pack a lot of value into one package and teach you SEO plus internet marketing techniques sure to help make you money long term.  Our next planned product set was to include internet marketing techniques so this will speed the delivery of that knowledge to you which is our goal.

Stay tuned for more details, but this has tremendous potential to benefit all involved.

I just got done doing a little “inventory” of our main consulting site’s rakings (http://smbconsultinginc.com), and we’re moving up the charts and maintaining some valuable positions. 

Business consulting–rank #3 (Google) of 25,200,000 competing pages; #8 (Yahoo) of 1,450,000,000 (that’s BILLION!)

Marketng consulting–rank #8 (Google) of 16,500,000 competing pages; #6 (Yahoo) of 661,000,000

We started out optimizing the site for terms such as “business consulting Louisville” and “small business consulting services,” but the broader (and more competitive) terms have driven more traffic our way and increased awareness much better.  While we rank very well for the “longer tail” terms we set out to rank well in the beginning, the broader terms provide a much better proof of concept of the knowledge we’re sharing in The SEO Bible. 

If you want to rank well, our methods must work pretty well based on the results shared above.  These aren’t overnight wonders either–it’s taken awhile to get here (8 months+), and we’ve been consistently climbing for the last three months so they are fundamenally sound (white hat). 

Why share this information you might ask?  Most people tend to say “show me some results” before they start digging deeper when evaluating SEO firms or training material. 

No fluff here–just a quick list of SEO tips that hopefully stimulates further thought from you.  Add to the list anyway you see fit.     

1. Understand how search engines work
2. Have some form of web analytics
3. Goal conversion
4. Create conversational content that engages the audience
5. Check your site for keyword relevance
6. Modify your web content frequently
7. Remember keyword density
8. Build inbound links to your site
9. Directory submissions
10. Create a blog
11. Engage in online discussions
12. Focus on writing for humans
13. Include strong call to action
14. Don’t hard sell people to take action
15. Direct response literature
16. Speak to the reader and not yourself
17. Write content about current “hot” topics
18. Create one page for each of your keywords
19. Create a sitemap
20. Learn the art of link baiting
21. Start broad with buzzwords and slang
22. Utilize free tools to ascertain the most productive keywords
23. Longer tail searches often times equate to ready buyers
24. White hat only!
25. Focus on your copy
26. Sell your content before your products
27. Stick to your theme
28. Encourage repeat visitation
29. Strong title tags
30. Comment on popular industry related blogs

Hire an experienced professional who can market your website.  You wouldn’t hire a auto mechanic to perform heart surgery would you?  Treat your website like the valuable marketing vehicle it is by entrusting its promotion to someone who knows what to do and how to accomplish your goals. 

If you’re looking to perform SEO in-house, look for a firm that offers training or some sort of combination of doing the work while educating your personnel along the way so they can take over the repetitive nature tasks at some point.  Better firms will not have much of an issue with this approach.

Remember to run the other way if someone guarantees a top ranking in any of the search engines however.  As you have likely read numerous times, organic search engine rankings are dynamic and cannot be purchased.   

As with any service you’re considering an external resource to perform, do a little background research on the firms.  Reputable firms will have testimonials and case studies to review along with live customers you can chat with to find out how well they’ve performed and how easy they’ve been to work with. 

Many webmasters make the mistake of believing that submitting articles to e-zine websites or article directories for reprint will result in instant traffic.  This isn’t necessarily the case as it takes time to build a presence in the e-zines just as much as anywhere else online.  People are naturally suspicious of someone “new” so if you’re writing frequent articles, don’t be shocked to see increases in traffic down the road more so than immediately.     While this sounds like an obvious tip, always write on subjects that you have sound knowledge versus trying to write about things you merely have a cursory knowledge.  What if you write an article giving advice about something that you’re not very well versed, and that person ends up following your advice only to learn that it was half baked?  Think of the impression that will leave on that person and the people they share the story with.  News travels extremely fast online so keep that in mind because it can cut both ways.   Don’t get caught in the ‘quantity over quality’ trap.  Your reputation is on the line anytime you produce something for public consumption, and the internet is the ultimate “public consumption” resource.