A place to discuss our free small business SEO course!
- How it can be improved.
- What other tips should be included.
- What you thought of the course.
- Questions about the course.
- Questions your have about your own website and getting better rankings.
Feel free to say hello and write any questions you may have on any SEO topic.
Regards
Chris Taylor
1. Chris’s Blurb - Future Devlopments
Well it’s been a while since I last sent out the newsletter and am now looking forward to sending out the newsletter much more frequently!
As you may know it’s quite easy to get caught up simply being busy and with way too many projects.
For years I’ve been keeping my finger in my old industry as a finance consulting as I loved to get out and meet new people and simply get of the pc for a while. Of course the main problem with this is that you spread your self way to thin.
So you’ve got your blog set up and now you want to get the word out about you new blog! Here are some very easy and practical steps to help you get the crowd coming to your blog.
1. Set up your ping list.
Make sure you have your ping list set up on you blog software so that every time you write a post it pings the major rss aggregators.
All bog platforms usually have a setting where you can place a ping list. For wordpress it’s under options > writing.
Good business means not being the most mysterious for your customers. Loyal customers need to have some idea of who you are and what makes you tick.
The About Us Page on your website is most likely the first place that they will look. You have an opportunity here to lay the foundation for an ongoing business relationship or to wreck the future of any business relationship.
The About Us page can double for a contact page with specific contact information. Regardless of warnings about Internet security, your customers are not all stalkers who shouldn’t know your address. More of them are people leary of someone operating solely in cyberspace. They feel more comfortable with a brick and mortar address to which they can snail mail some communication. They will learn more about your business culture by knowing your geographical location.
A real telephone number and customer service or support resource for your business is essential for your success. A chat option is very appealing to customers, right up there with the telephone contact. The Chat Option could be your instant messenger or Skype ID being activated to respond to a question or contact.
Read the rest of this entry »
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a proven way to improve the number of targeted visitors to your web site through the natural process of finding your web site on the Internet through the search engines. There is some difference of opinion among the experts as to what is acceptable and what is not, but the search engines are clear on what they will accept and what they will not accept.
The search engines are clear that they will accept anything that provides relevant content to the searcher and the search engine. There is no doubt that a well-designed web site with relevant, unique, and fresh content will rank well against its peers. As your web site gains relevant links, both inbound and outbound, it will rank even higher.
Ranking well with the search engines is a science. As such, it follows a well-established formula. With the appropriate amount of time and effort, any web site can rank well. If the web site owner does not want to invest the time, they can hire someone to do the work for them. Whether hired, or designed by yourself, there are some things that will make your web site rank high with the search engines.
Content Must be Relevant
First and foremost, search engines look for relevant content. This is the single most important aspect of a high ranking web site. Having a web site that is well designed is wonderful, but it will not help with ranking. Good content is content that is grammatically correct as well as free of spelling and factual errors. As important as the grammar, spelling, and facts are in your content, never lose sight of the fact that your content should be unique. “Borrowing” content is illegal as well as unethical.
1. Ensure that your live help link or image is always at the top of the page or in a prominent position so that the customer can clearly view it when landing on the page.
2. Only put live help on your most important pages. Getting a pop-up on every page a customer visits will drive them away.
3. Set up your automatic push settings immediately after installation. Have a clear understanding of your pages content and the time it takes to read so that your automatic pop-up triggers at the most appropriate time.
4. Make sure that operators are well trained and versed with the products benefits and features. Nothing worse than a customer service representative that doesn’t know their stuff and keeps you waiting while locating specific information.
Placing your link in major directories is still by far one of the best ways to not only increase ranking in the search engines but also obtain targeted traffic to your site.
When deciding on which directories to place links, authority directories should be your target whether it be local directories, major business directories or themed business specific directories.
Directory Qualities
Here is a quick list of items that should be considered when looking to place a link on directories.
- Authority within market place
- Age
- Theme – by industry or country inbound links – number and quality
- Yahoo listed
- Dmoz listed
- Links allowed – number
- Internal page allowed
- Price
- Directory pages cached by major search engines
