Get Ready - Now! - For SEO In 2008
Believe it or not, another year is almost gone. How did your year go in the world of search engines?
* Is your website ranked high in Google and other search engines on strong keywords?
* Are you spending too much money (or not enough) on pay-per-click campaigns and other online advertising venues?
* How old is the content on your website?
* Is your website creating new sales?
Now, not next year, is the time to take the initiative and plan for bigger and better things in 2008.
Here are 10 ideas on how you can improve your company’s website; gain higher rankings in Google and other search engines and, ultimately, earn more sales:
Idea No. 1 – Write Fresh Content. The motto “Content is King” rings true in 2008. Search engines, just like humans, love fresh content. Re-write your website’s content. Make sure your content is keyword-rich. Write how-to articles; share tips; publish press releases on your website. Cost: $0
Idea No. 2 – Create A Blog. Right now. You don’t need to be the best writer on the Internet to create a blog. Get other employees and staff members involved in contributing to your company’s blog. Even if you only have a staff of 4, have each person contribute 1-2 times per week. Eventually, potential customers/clients will read your blog. Search engines will read it. Use free blog tools such as Blogger, Typepad, etc. Cost: $0
Idea No. 3 – Find & Use the Best Keywords. Research to discover the best possible keywords for your business, service and products. Then, use those keywords in your website’s content, articles, and meta tag codes, especially the Page Title. If you’re just getting started or are on a tight budget use the free keyword research tools offered by Google and Yahoo. Cost: $0
Idea No. 4 – Participate in Social Media. This is a new area for many businesses, but there are some big opportunities in MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media websites. Go to MySpace; get a free account and see how many businesses have pages there. Cost: $0
Idea No. 5 – Earn Links. Great content, especially articles is an excellent way of earning more inbound links pointing to your website. Quality is more important than quantity. Don’t send out e-mail blasts asking for links (that’s called SPAM). Don’t buy links and don’t participate in link farms (a link farm is a website or web page with a ton of links). Instead, get your website listed in quality directories and industry-related websites. Trade links if you must, but don’t trade just for the sake of trading. Do you know your link partner? Check to make sure your link is correct in Chamber directories and other online memberships. Cost: $0
Idea No. 6 – Get Listed in Google Maps. If you have a physical business location, you need to be listed in Google Maps. Cost: $0
Idea No. 7 – Create an XML Sitemap. All search engines now share a sitemap for their web spiders/crawlers. A sitemap does not help your site earn higher rankings. However, it will ensure properly page visibility to the search engines. There are many free XML sitemap utilities available on the Internet. Cost: $0
Idea No. 7 – Community Participation. Participate, comment and contribute to blogs, bulletin boards and social media websites. Answer questions in your industry and you’ll soon be considered an expert. Post your name, company name and a link to your website. Cost: $0
Idea No. 8 – Use Google Base. If you are selling products or services, you can list them for free on Google Base (base.google.com). This is a no-brainer. Cost: $0
Idea No. 9 – YouTube. Ever heard of YouTube? Guess what? Studies show that 90% of corporate knuckleheads waste 50% of their workweek checking out videos on YouTube. Fortunately, not everyone is watching drunken light saber fight videos. Currently, there are 2,190 videos on YouTube about “marketing training” and 437 videos on “direct mail.” Cost: $0 (video camera not included)
Idea No. 10 – Don’t Cheat. If you try to beat the system and use search engine optimization “black hat” techniques by hiding keywords; overstuffing your website with multiple uses of the same keyword over and over and create doorway pages with the intent of tricking Google, your website will drop in rankings and/or be banned. Then, unfortunately, you’ll wish you had spent more time on the nine previous steps. Cost: $0
