Search Engine Academy of South Carolina

I spent the evening setting up our first Search Engine Optimization Meetup!  I have been wanting to get this under way so I am glad I finally got it going.

I am planning our first meeting May 15th here in Lexington.  We will be discussing “How to Lower Your PPC Ad Cost with SEO.”   This is really becoming a hot topic.  I must get once or twice a week someone saying to me that they wish they could find a way to  lower the cost of their Pay Per Click Ad on Google and Yahoo. 

With having such a passion for getting free organic listing in the search engines I have come up with a 4 step plan to lower your PPC Ad cost.  I felt this would be a great topic to launch our first SEO Meetup.

Many large cites across the country are doing these Meetups and I am really excited to get one launched right here in Lexington. 

If you live in South Carolina and would like to join us please follwo the below link to sign up to jopin us on May 15th.

REGISTER TODAY! Seats are limited.
Lexington SEO Meetup

There are four parts to a properly setting up your Pay Per Click ad text:

1.      Compelling Headline – The first line of your ad is the one the searcher sees first.  It should include your keyword phrases so when the searcher sees the keyword phrase they searched for they will automatically make a connection with your ad.
Example: Triton Bass Boat X20

2.      Clicking Trigger – The clicking trigger should be those words that entice some one to go further. Think of your clicking trigger as a solution to problem or an answer to a question.  What conditions in someone’s life would need to be happening if they where looking to buy a bass boat.
Example: Tournament Ready

3.      Benefits - The benefit is something that your product will do for the searcher or why someone should do business with you. Normally the benefit is what entices someone to buy one product over another.
Example: Unmatched Riding Comfort

4.      Call to Action – Your third line should introduce a sense of urgency so they will take immediate action. The call to action takes your visitors by the hand and tells them what to do next.
Example: Order Now Save $1000

Many of us forget about the easiest way to build liks to your site and that is by Internal Linking. By using absolute links rather than relative links you can build your link popularity by using your own Web site.  Every page on your site should be linked within your site 3 places using absolute links.

Take a few minutes and review your site look for three places where you can link your own content to content on another relevant page.  Look for a good keyword phrase on your homepage and link it to an inner page with more information so that readers will stay longer and explore further.

This internal linking is often overlooked and is actually a great way to keep people digging deeper within your site. It will also encourage the spiders to crawl deeper within your site and give your site credit for the links .

We are given so many options when it comes to Social Media Marketing many are often left confused on the best choices.

I have a list of my favorites that I would like to share with you:
 
http://del.icio.us/ - del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website — the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too.

http://digg.com/ - Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Everything on Digg — from news to videos to images to Podcasts — is submitted by you. Once something is submitted, other people see it and Digg what they like best. If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of our visitors to see.

http://www.propeller.com/ - The new Propeller.com is a social news portal programmed by you—the audience! All of the stories on Propeller are submitted and voted on by members.

http://reddit.com/ - reddit is a source for what’s new and popular on the web — personalized for you. Your votes train a filter, so let reddit know what you liked and disliked, because you’ll begin to be recommended links filtered to your tastes. All of the content on reddit is submitted and voted on by users like you.

http://www.scribd.com/ - Scribd is a technology that makes it easy to share documents online. You can think of Scribd as a big online library where everyone can publish original content, including you!

http://www.squidoo.com - Use Squidoo to create mini pages (lenes) about your industry targeting your keyword phrases.

http://sphinn.com/ - Sphinn is a social site for search and interactive marketers. It’s designed to allow you to share and discover news stories, read and take part in discussions, discover events of interest and network with others.

http://www.linkedin.com/ - When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients, and partners. You can add more connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you.

 Let’s set the stage…

You’ve just invested valuable time and money by completing your hands-on SEO Training.  You are now sitting back in your office contemplating all the wonderful information you just gathered, but you’re really confused on where to start.  You pick up your notes leafing through them hoping something will inspire you to know what to do next.  You start to drift back to class wishing you where still there.  You hated to leave, you didn’t want it to end, you silently wish your instructor was there telling you where to begin.  

Good news!  I am going to share with you a detailed search engine optimization and internet marketing plan to get the most out of your seo training and to get you started today.

Step #1 – Setting Goals

Before you can really get started you have to know what you want to achieve with your Web site. There could be a number of goals that you have in mind but your first step is get a clear picture of what you want the outcome to be.  It could be:

• To gain higher rankings.
• To redesign your Web site to be more user friendly.
• To implement SEO basics throughout your site to make it search engine friendly.
• To increase your visitor response online.
• To open additional windows to your site through social media marketing.
• To launch an article marketing plan.
• Or all of the above.

What ever your goal is it is important to write it down and post it where you can see it every day.  “Goals that are not written down are just wishes.”

Step #2 – Keyword Research

Any new project should always include this step.  Keyword research is the basis for any successful page on your site.  Let’s take the goals above and see how the keyword research you learned to perform in your seo training can be used.

• Higher rankings can be achieved by finding those keywords in your industry that have a high KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) and low competing pages.  You should concentrate on finding five phrases that you can work on simultaneously.
• By redesigning your Web site you can be including your new found phrases and work them into your sales copy. If you are creating a new site this is the ideal time to make sure you are concentrating on your visitors experience while on your site.  
  •  
    • Include a call to action above the fold
    • Contact information above the fold in straight html including area code and zip code.
    • Only use Flash in small elements and not as the whole page.
    • Include something that will grab your user’s attention. Something out of the normal that will make your visitor stop and take notice of your page.
• Implementing SEO basics can be a daunting task if your site is large or it is many years old. Tactics that where used years ago are no longer useful and most times are being flagged as spam. Depending on how many elements need to be addressed you need to determine if it would be better to start with a fresh page or redo the existing page.  A determining factor would be if the current page is already indexed.  If this is the case then it would be best to fix the existing page.  If the page has too many errors and creating a new one would be wiser be sure to name the new page the same as the old one or do a 301 redirect to the new page.  Include your keyword phrase when implementing your basic search engine optimization.
• Visitor response will increase if you are giving your visitors exactly what they are looking for. Only your keyword research will help you with this.  We are in an instant gratification world and your visitor will only give you a few seconds to answer their search, so make sure it exactly what they are looking for.
• Open additional windows into your site by using your keyword phrases in your social media avenues.  A couple great places to include your keyword researched phrases would be in your blog post and creating a lens in Squidoo around your researched phrase.
• Article marketing is not for everyone but it does allow you to open multiple windows into your site but writing articles around your phrase and submitting them to places like Scribd, ArtcileFactory.com and EzineArticles.com.

Step - # 3 – Which one to choose?

I know you want to implement each and everyone of those goals into your site and you still don’t know where to start.  

Stop here and go find five phrases to work with and don’t even think about anything else at this point.  

After you find those phrases refer back to your SEO training notes and refresh your memory on how to create a search engine friendly Web page and create content for each of the new keywords you found. It is going to be hard not to get side tracked but stick to the project at hand. Your only concern is finding 5 phrases, creating content and designing five search engine friendly pages.

Once that is done go ahead and publish the five pages to your Web site.  Include each page on your site map, link it from and to relevant pages on your site and include keyword rich link text within the body of the page.  Make a note of the day you added the new pages to your site for later use. Now that you have the first three steps under your belt you are ready to move onto step four.

Step #4 – Addressing Existing Web Site Issues

Now that you have gotten a good start with the above steps, you can start working on bringing your current Web site up to par while you are actually waiting for indexing on your 5 optimized pages. 

Your next plan of attack would be working on existing pages within your site.  You may not be able to change every issue with your site but remember every small change could result in increased ranking for your site.  You may only be able to change your title and Meta tags and not be able to change your corporate sites navigation so tackle what you can and don’t worry about the rest.  Each and every issue is just one of the over 200 factors so learn to pick your battles and fix what you can.

Step #5 – Social Media and Article Marketing

Your whole goal is to open as many windows into your site as possible.  You have already started this by creating 5 new pages into your site now it is time to open the windows even further.  Whether you decide to use article marketing or all the endless possibility of social media marketing now is the time to concentrate on one or both of these window opening wonders. You can use the five phrases you found in your first step or you can find 5 new ones but at this stage you are creating content to be used in articles, on blogs or bookmaking pages within the many social media avenues. 

Your title is the most important element when tackling this step.  Make your title keyword rich, compelling and deliver what your title describes in the article or blog post.

If you are not quite ready to dive into social media start at least with adding a blog to your Web site.  Your best results will come from the blog residing on your server and not one that is hosted on a free blogging site. Make a commitment to blogging regularly and always about your industry so your site and your blog are industry related.

Step #6 – Tracking Your Progress

Web analytics can show you information about all of your optimization projects.  Not only will it show you your results for the 5 keyword phrases you are working on but it will open your eyes to how your visitor is moving through your site.  Record your results on a weekly or daily basis.  This step will help you in testing each one of your projects and help you decide which one you should concentrate more on. 

Usually I find 2 or 3 phrases that are really performing and those are the ones I concentrate on blogging and adding it to the social media venues.

Step #7 – Keep Up With the Changes

There is no other step as important as this one.  The internet changes its landscape on a daily basis so it is imperative that what you learn in your SEO Training is always the latest information.  Your Web site and or clients are depending on your expertise so don’t let them down by applying out of date or useless techniques. 

There are many places you can turn to for guidance.  The first place would be Google, Yahoo! and MSN’s Webmasters guidelines.  Each is posted on their site and is updates each and every time they have made changes to them.

Another place would be to subscribe to one of many search engine optimization and marketing blogs created by industry leaders. Your instructor should be able to point you in the right direction to their most trusted resources.

Continue learning by attending your favorite SEO Training provider’s courses on a yearly basis.  Principles and techniques change often so always keep on top them.

Often students are overwhelmed with the amount of information they are given at class but if you learn to take them in small steps starting with setting your goals you will find that your seo training is working for you and your Web site

To learn about SEO Training or how you can become SEO Certified please visit our Web site at http://www.searchengineacademysc.com

If so you can now add your analytic reports to your iGoogle home page for easy access.

Google’s Webmaster Central is giving you a new way to access the diagnostics and stats for your sites. Rather than log into your Webmaster Tools account, you can add the Webmaster Tools gadget to your iGoogle page and access information from there. You can choose what components to display on your iGoogle page.

Vanessa Fox gives you the exact instructions in her post at http://searchengineland.com/080228-134802.php.

Article marketing is one of the easiest and quickest ways to flood the Internet with information about your industry. Many Web site owners are confused and often overwhelmed with trying to learn how to unlock the vault to Internet success. With all the information on search engine optimization, internet marketing, search engine algorithms and the ever changing landscape of the Internet it’s a wonder why many are given the wrong combination.Web site owners come to us for training with many backgrounds. Some are very technical and excel with competitive intelligence. Some have a design background and can relate to designing a site that is user friendly. All understand and can implement basic search engine optimization. But my greatest challenge is to teach everyone (even those who say they can not write) how they can take article marketing and leverage the Internet to their full advantage.

From the very first step of writing to the very last of seeing it get indexed I have come up with an 8 step combination to ensure article marketing success.

Learn in 9 Steps how to apply Article Marketing to your Web site. Read more>>

Link building is becoming a real art when it comes to directing “good” traffic to your Web site.  We have all heard of the penalties that Google is now applying if they think you are participating in paid link programs. So the number one question I get these days is “what is considered good link building?” 

One of the main things I try to emphasize is the search engines are looking at your site and wanting to see that you are directing your visitors to other industry related sites.  They are looking for similarities on sites that you are pointing to and those sites that you are pointing to.

In days of old it was easy to purchase links and not worry about it because the more links you had the better.  It is not like that anymore the quality of that link is far more important that the quantity of links.

Well adjusting our practices I have come up with my top 10 Link Building Principles that we use everyday when building links for our Web sites.

1. Match the titles of your link text to that of the page you are linking to. Review the sites you are linking to and see what is listed in their title text.  Include some of the keyword phrases that they use in their title with your link text.
2. Vary your link text – avoid patterns.  When adding your site to other Web sites submit variations of link text so all your incoming link text is not the same.
3. Get links from high Page Rank pages.  Page Rank is becoming a not so important tool but we still use it when looking for industry related Web sites to link to.
4. Submit your site to Industry Related Directories.  – Check our www.smartylinks.com
5. Make comments on industry related Blogs
6. Create a Squiddo page for your main keyword phrase. – Want to learn more about Squiddo read my blog post “Squiddo Meets Bum Marketing”
7. Create a Press Release written around your keyword phrase on www.prweb.com
8. Write Articles and submit to article marketing sites. For my top Article Marketing Sites read my Blog post, “Top Article Marketing Sites”
9. Answer questions on Yahoo! Answers.
10. Utilize a company like Article Underground where they allow you to post your articles on announcement Blogs. 

Marketing your services online or offline can be a daunting task and one that never ends and building your opt in list can be even more challenging. In today’s marketplace every business competes with thousands of other companies and sometimes it all comes down to how well you market your services that count. I have spent a better part of the last 6 weeks concentrating solely building my opt-in subscriber list.

Building my subscriber list is a valuable marketing tool for me and I give a lot of value to my subscribers that sign up to receive our FREE SEO Tips of the Day. They are readers that are truly interested in what I have to say and I am excited to share my knowledge about search engine optimization and internet marketing with them on a daily basis.

Let me share with you my 10 marketing approaches that helped double my subscriber list in six weeks.

1. Make blog posts that entice readers  to learn more. Add a call to action at the end of all your post…in our
    case it was to sign up for our FREE SEO Tips.

2. Answered questions on Yahoo!  Answers. Set up an account with Yahoo Answers and frequently sign into your related subject area and share some of your knowledge by answering  questions in your field. Invite your reader to signup for your newsletter to  learn more about your subject.

3. Set up a Google Alerts for some  of your keyword phrases so when any one blogs about your subject you will be notified via email. Comment on the Blogs that you feel you can contribute to  and it will send new traffic to your site.

4. Answer emails from authorative sites. Often authorative Web sites will send emails out looking for  information from its subscribers in exchange for free listings or  advertising in their publications. Take a few extra minutes to read what  they have to say …who knows it may just land you a free listing in their  newsletter or magazine.

5. Submit articles to Industry related  newsletters. Most publishers are always on the look out for new articles  to publish in their publications.

6. Look in your own backyard for  publications you can submit your articles to. Chambers of Commerce’s are a good place to start. They are always looking for material to help their  members and if you have an article that could be of interest they often will  include it in their publications sending you new traffic and most times for free.

7. Hold free mini seminars or  workshops to answer questions in your field of expertise in exchange for  sign ups to your subscriber list.

8. Participate in business expos  and offer a chance for a give away in exchange for a signup to your subscriber list.

9. Hand out business cards that  have your subscriber information on the back.

10. Include your signup in your signature line of your emails.

Can you use any of the tips to build your list? Try to think of ways that are completely different than what your competitors are doing and you too may well be on your way to doubling your subscriber list in as little as 6 weeks.And by all mean if you are not already a subscriber to our FREE SEO Tips of the Day please sign up here: 
http://www.searchengineacademysc.com/seo-tip.htm

SEO-Browser allows visitors to view their website the way search engines do. The results show you the metadata, page load time, number of links and the description and keywords the search engines see. It also allows you to view the page in HTTP script, check links and view the source code. This handy little tool can provide a lot of useful information about how search engines see your site, which, in turn, can help you improve search engine rankings.

Give it a try you may discover some things you did not see before.

SEO-Browser