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Seo guide, seo tutorial, small business seo, seo training,

Simple SEO: 7 Myths to SEO

SEO is often a fairly discouraging expertise for a number of business owners. The cause is that the search engines and how they function are encapsulated in a canopy of mystery and secret. However getting to the top of Google and Yahoo is not routinely a tough achievement.

The following are 7 common myths of search engine optimization.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is hard: When you keep your mind on simple and easy strides, seo is very easy to fully understand. Very much like every single other means of internet marketing, it takes a bit of practice to fully understand, however when you fixate on the suitable actions, then achieving 1st page rankings of Google and Yahoo is straightforward.

I juxtapose Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to three simple actions. 1. Planning your party, Baking a pie, and inviting your guests. After you split search engine optimization down into these particular three stages, search engine optimization is as easy as pie.

When you plan your party is just researching one’s specific niche market and ascertaining the variety of party you prefer to throw. Consequently going out and sizing up competitive websites to understand if you are able to participate in this niche. You would likely also appraise what the characteristic party visitor will be like by executing demographic probing on the existing competitive domains and finding what is the average client viewing the competitive web-sites.

Baking a pie is simply making a web site that your participants will love. And with baking your pie, you have your crust or the fundamentals of your web site, your filling or the website content, together with the instruments which will leverage your effort.

And lastly, inviting guests to your party is simply working at what is required to get your online site detectable and getting to the first position of Yahoo and Google of the search engines like Google and Yahoo. Methods you will raise your visibility and get votes or backlinks to your web site are to comment on blogs, distribute your web site to the web directories, bookmark your web-site with the countless bookmarking websites, generate video tutorials and well written articles to be posted to directories, and a lot more.

2. Search engine optimization is a mystery: There are so many many Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists who would love to keep search engine optimization a puzzle for individuals (lesser competing business for them).

But on the contrary some gurus are open to be unguarded and share with you their strategies. For instance, the Easy as Pie SEO report passes along to you steps I master first page rankings over twenty eight mil websites each and every day with my straight forward report. SEO, or search engine optimization does not have to be a secret if you do not intend it to be.

Find the consultants who are ready and willing to teach you how you can undertake Search Engine Optimization (SEO) the most qualified way and you’ll be set. It’s not for everybody, but it is designed for you if you have developed the desire and perseverance to thrive.

3. Search engine optimization is merely for gurus: SEO, or search engine optimization is for everyone who has the attitude for success. Should you are a small business or even a big business, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a skill-set that can be implemented by anybody.

The secrets are available out there. You only should be open to go out and obtain them. The expert is you. The only person who is able to make things happen is you. Thus make the commitment to learn this critical marketing skill and watch your small business explode with traffic and earnings.

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) calls for a high amount of time: It is legitimate that search engine optimization requires time, and yet when you’re focused on the most ideal steps and doing them first of all, then Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will not be a long endeavor.

It definitely is based on the specific niche market that you are in. If you are wanting to surmount the weight-loss market, then naturally it would need time. However, if you would like to to aid men and women shed weight eating special chocolate, then the niche would be more specific, you’ll gain more targeted consumers and you will surmount the search engines a lot faster.

It all depends on the planning a party phase. Opt for a specialized niche that is very generic and you will be concentrating on that product niche for a really long time. Be a little more particular or identify a market with much less competition and you’ll have accomplishment significantly quicker.

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will take a good deal of work: It is legitimate that SEO involves effort and hard work. But anything that is worth it will?

That’s the quandary with a great number of average professionals in society today. They may be keen to do a specific program for only long enough, may even observe a certain amount of achievement from it, even so then will promptly move onto the newest shiny object or training course, or website promotion application. And that’s why countless professionals won’t achieve significant returns when internet marketing. SEO, or search engine optimization is like any form of marketing solution available to choose from, it demands time and effort, nonetheless you will have to put trust in the fact that the rewards are extremely delectable!

6. SEO, or search engine optimization won’t yield a profit: Search engines by their nature are catering to your subscribers. Select the most qualified keywords and you can have visitors thinking you are the subject matter expert.

Keywords are what drives Search engines so Search engine optimization only is worthwhile if you determine the proven recipe. With the knowledge age, professionals are either looking to the internet for info, or a solution to their condition. In the event that you prescribe the solution to their problem, they will reward you with their dollars. For example if you give them worthy knowledge and grow a rapport with them, they will order. Search engine optimization, not like almost every other promoting, SEO will still put money in your pocket while continuing to be free. All the effort you place into it will be worthwhile 10 fold for a long time.

7. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a “grey area” in marketing: You’ll find countless internet marketers or people who misleadingly trust that controlling the Search engines is a “grey area”.

That could not be farther from actuality for the reason that optimizing your web site and then announcing it through the means, is exactly what most small businesses do through internet. Blog commenting, directory submissions, etc. are all typical actions to earn a living through the Internet. And every single tactic offers you the feature to incorporate a URL to your web site.

Bottom line is that SEO, or search engine optimization is a fantastic tactic to achieve 1st page rankings of the FREE side of the search engines. Each of these misconceptions are purely difficulties for almost every other people considering that they are terrified of the unknown or uncertainty that surrounds some of the rewards in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). And yet when you look for a proven guide that mentors you distinctly which are the proper actions to focused entirely on and guides you step-by-step, you and your business profit.

Role Of A Search Engine Optimization Agency In Your Small Business

You will be surprised to know that 80% of internet users do not get past the first page of their search results. There are millions of websites which compete for the first few spots on search results page. In order to beat the competition you need optimization of your search engine with the help of professional search engine optimization agency.

Search engine optimization agency helps in effectively optimizing your website, improving website visibility and increasing traffic of prospective customers to your website.

Search engine optimization service keeps customers interested in your website by optimizing your website search engine. For repeat visits to any website it is necessary to keep its content regularly refreshing and loaded with relevant keywords to obtain high rankings. Search engine optimization agency helps businesses websites by monitoring pages for optimization.

A search engine optimization agency provides following services:

1.Analyzing existing content and web pages

2.Submitting optimized pages to crawlers

3.Identifying appropriate keywords for content and mega tags

4.Identifying websites that can link up your website for improvement of rankings

By selecting a right agency you can significantly expand your clientele and increase profits.

While generating small business start up ideas, you need to give due consideration to customer relationship management. A web based CRM software provides more benefits compared to those obtained from traditional on-premise CRM solutions. A web based CRM software system changes the way you view business and brings in a sea change in the way your customers view you. With the application of software you can win new customers and succeed in retaining those you worked so hard to gain. A small increase in customer retention percentage can generate substantial increase in profitability.

The system can provide reports and statistics in real-time by taking up-to-date information from anywhere in the world.

The main objective of any business is generating profit. When you think of business start up ideas to put up your own business you will be more concerned about having enough capital to start. This issue can be addressed effectively through virtual office solution.

Virtual office solution is an office which helps in monitoring all the phone calls and emails addressed to your company. It helps in saving expenses on electricity and internet connections. There are lots of companies that offer virtual office solutions. Without a big capital outlay, you can have virtual offices established anywhere in the world. They provide wide range of technical support services and virtual office to businesses of all sizes.

Virtual office solutions eliminate need for transportation to and from office since their workers work from the comfort of their own homes.

If your website contains lot of database then you need database website development in order to maintain it. Web database management ensures regular updates and additions of latest information on the site. You can avail services of database website development agencies that use database languages such as MySql, Access and SQL server for database.

Search Engine Optimization Tips for the Small Business Owner

At the very start when you’re planning your website, you need to think about search engine optimization. This is important because sooner or later, you would want your web pages to be shown on the first page of search results for your keywords so that you can get free targeted traffic. Here are some essential SEO tips for the small online business owners.

1. Your URL

Your website’s domain name is important for ranking in the search engines. If you want to target for the words “coffee mugs” then it would be ideal if your domain contains these words.

With every web page you create, put the keywords as the file name for your web page. For example, /coffeemugs.html, /coffeemugsandcups.html

You will see that the names of your web pages helps your search engine rankings.

2. Title Tags

Title tags are what appears in your browser’s window title right at the top. Don’t put your company name in the title tag. Instead put your keywords and try to make sense of them. e.g. Coffee Mugs | Coffee Cups

The keywords in the title tags will be seen as important by the search engines to rank your web page.

3. Links

Have links to other quality websites on your web pages. These help because they tell Google that you are providing good information to visitors and not just promoting your own website.

4. Quality Content (Text)

Have good content on your web pages that are focused with your keywords. The more text you have, the better it will do in the search results.

The internet is about information. People search for content that they are interested in. This is why in order for search engine optimization to be effective, your website must have a lot of content and targeted to your niche.

5. Images

If you have images on your website, you can turn them into keywords that will be noticed by the search engines. You do this by assigning tags to them. Basically you describe what the images are about.

So don’t just put pretty pictures on your website. Make them help with your search engine optimization.

6. Anchor Text

The search engines will love your website if you have many other related websites linking to you.

To get ranked high for your keywords, you need other websites to link to yours with an anchor text. The anchor text will contain your keywords.

The more anchor text you have linked to your website, the more credit you will get from the search engines. At the end of the day, it is the number of links you get to your website which will make you win the search engine war.

With these search engine optimization tips, you should use them as soon as you start building your website. The reason is because search engine optimization takes a long time. You can’t expect instant results.

The website that will rank at the top, is the one with the most quality content and the most amount of links from other authority websites. If you do get to rank as the top 3 for a competitive keyword, you will get an avalanche of free targeted traffic.

There are other techniques that will help you with your SEO such as writing press releases and articles. You need to do some further reading to understand them. For now, the 6 SEO tips mentioned in this article will help you get off to a good start.

Can your small business survive without search engine optimization marketing services?

Neglecting search engine optimization marketing services in today’s challenging markets can be a fatal mistake to a lot of small and medium size companies.

More than 90% of all internet surfers never search beyond the first 3 pages on any major search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing and others). So, if your website does not achieve a top search engine placement for your targeted keywords, you’re losing customers to your compactors every single day.

Search engine optimization services and search engine marketing services are of vital importance to every small and medium size company for the following reasons:

1. According to Computer Industry Almanac, by 2010 there will be 1.8 billion users on the internet most of them will rely on the internet to find any business they may need.
2. More than 55 % of all customers use web search before using the yellow pages.
3. More than 60 % of all traffic goes to the 10 top search engine placement results.
4. More than 80% of all online traffic comes from the search engines.
5. More than 90% of all internet surfers never search beyond the first 3 pages on any major search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing and others).

So, if your company does not achieve a top search engine placement for your targeted keywords, you’re losing customers to your competitors every single day.

The last few years have witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of commercial websites and consequently these websites are fiercely competing to attract the attention of the internet surfers.

Right now, many of your competitors are using different search engine optimization marketing strategies to steal your customers, so protect your interest and fight back. Every website wants to increase its visibility and popularity to attract more traffic and to achieve a place in the top rankings of all search engines.

Search engine optimization marketing companies can help you to improve your website ranking position. They design seo marketing strategies to get you a top search engine placement, while keeping in mind that the ultimate goal is always to increase your business’s sales and profits.

Today, internet marketing especially seo marketing is by far the fastest growing advertising method for all companies.

Search engine optimization marketing is definitely the most cost effective advertising method.

There are many advantages of search engine marketing over other forms of advertisement:

1. The cost of search engine optimization marketing is much less than any other type of marketing.

2. The results of successful search engine optimization marketing lasts longer than any other type of marketing. Once your search engine optimization marketing campaign has been finished the sales and profits will continue to come for a long time.

3. Affordable search engine optimization marketing services are now more available than any time before.

4. Guaranteed search engine optimization marketing services ensures good quality website promotion by most expert seo services.

5. Free search engine optimization marketing services in the form of free seo consultation, free seo analysis and free seo reports render the process even much more affordable and guaranteed.

For small and medium sized businesses, which are always on a tight budget, search engine optimization marketing is definitely the most cost effective method to choose.

To be able to compete in today’s markets, small and medium sized businesses need search engine optimization marketing much more than big businesses. Big businesses have huge marketing budgets and can afford to market in many other off line media. An efficient internet marketing strategy will ensures that the maximum amount of traffic will be directed to your website by the various search engines.

There should be no doubt that, neglecting search engine optimization marketing services in today’s challenging markets can be a fatal mistake to many small and medium sized businesses. Search engine optimization marketing must be the primary foundation to all your internet marketing strategies and internet marketing advertising campaigns.

Search Engine Optimization Services for Small Business

In Part 1, we have seen the initial step of search engine optimization services, the keyword research and analysis. Now in this article we will see the competitive analysis and it’s important in the present SEO practices.

Market research is the study of groups of people in order to determine if there is a market for your product or service. Your market research must be for your real problem not for imaginary one.

In terms of SEO, market research means a thorough study of your competitor’s web marketing strategy so that you can gain an edge over them to become the front-runner in the market. Through this research you can get the following useful information:

Learn what keywords they are targeting through their Adwords or Yahoo! ad campaigns.
Discover what websites send them the most traffic through paid advertisements and/or links.
Examine your competitor’s search engine optimization strategies to help you understand what measures you need to take in order to increase your chances of outperforming their sites in organic rankings.
Advantages of Competitive Analysis and Search Engine Marketing Strategy:
Higher and consistent ranking assured among all the major search engines
More extensive and better presented information
Precisely targeted to shared prospective customers

Parameters of Market research in SEO

We can check for a number of factors in the competitor websites in the process of Competitive Analysis, including the following:

Search engine positioning tactics and techniques
Ranking Reports
Status of Link popularity
Keywords in domains/ page titles/ folder names
With whom the competitors share reciprocal links
META Description
The competitors’ messages
META Keywords
Frequency of website updating
Page Headers
Content
Linked Keywords
Navigation
Location and amount of content
Life of the website
Number of pages on the website
Trends in Search engine page cache
Structure of the website

Additional Research Services

Domain name research

You should have domain name research so you can find domain name which is most suited to your brand or company.

Trademark/Copyright research

Trademark or Copyright violation is a burning problem of the day and companies now want to be aware well in advance that their choice of domain name or website would suffer or not?

Marketing niche studies

Is it worth for your company to invest M to enter marketing niche X? Marketing niche study provides a thorough picture of the competition that presently exists in a particular marketing niche and helps you understand the strength of each competitor and what it would take for your company to have a dominating presence. You should have information about the level of demand that presently exists from web users for a particular marketing niche.

Web traffic analysis

You should have a thorough analysis of your website’s web traffic, helping you understand recent traffic peaks (or lows) as well as determine the effectiveness of various web/print/multi media advertising techniques. Web traffic analysis is valuable for determining where your web marketing strategy is weak and what changes are necessary to maximize the effectiveness of your current online advertising budget.

User behavior analysis

Are you curious to know the behavior of web users when they visit your site? Wondering if shoppers are getting lost in your shopping cart or why most web users’ exit the moment they visit your company’s site? User behavior analysis can help you understand user behavior on your site and help determine which pages, graphic design elements, navigational systems and textual content are most effective for conversion.

Website Search Engine Optimization Tips For Your Small Business Website

If you have a website of your own for your small business first of all congratulations. Many of you competitors do not have one yet. You have a leg up on them. For those that do have their own website they may not have it optimized for the maximum results from the search engines.

Here are a few ways you can get a leg up on them with proper search engine optimization for your small business website.

1. Duplicate Content: As a general rule keep all of the content on your website fresh and original. Don’t use someone else’s content unless you have paid for it and it is 100% yours to copyright.

2. Links: Outgoing links are bad. Incoming links are good. Internal linking to other pages within your site are good. Use hyperlinked keyword phrases to tell the search engines and your visitors what the page is about.

3. Keyword Density: Keep you keyword density at 2%-5% per page. This means that if you have an article of 400 words on the page don’t use your primary or secondary keyword phrases more than 20 times. Personally I think that is to much and would shoot for 8-10 times. More than that and it sounds like spamming and it probably is.

4. Title Tag: Keep you words to a minimum and include your primary kewyord and secondary keyword one time.

5. Description Tag. Keep your words to a minimum and include your primary and secondary keywords to describe what your web page is about

6. Keyword Tag. These do not serve much of a benefit from a search engine optimization standpoint, but it is o.k. to include 2 or 3 as they relate to your page.

7. Alt Text. Search engines can not read pictures, only words. So tell them again what your site is about by including your primary and secondary keywords followed by the word graphic or image.

8. Headline Tags. h1, h2, h3 followed by the keywords in order of importance. Then use those again one time in the body of the text following the headline tag.

9. Bold, underline and italicize your primary keyword one time in the first paragraph only. Use keyword variation throughout the page without any bolding, underlining or italicizing. Bold your primary keyword one more time in the last paragraph and finally again as the last word in the bottom of the page.

Search engine optimization for your small business website is really all about making it easy for a search engine to understand what your page is about. The easier you make it for them the better they will rank you for that keyword search.

Search Engine Optimization Cost – Tips to Make SEO Costs Easily Affordable for Your Small Business

1..What is the number one priority, objective, or goal that you want to achieve through your online marketing efforts?
- Are trying to establish your business as an “authority site”?
- Are you trying to build a community using social media?
- Are you trying to generate more leads to fill your sales funnel?
- Are you are trying to attract more customers to a retail or physical location?
- What is your desired outcome for visitors to your website?
- What is your “business model” for your online marketing?

The responses to these questions will affect the online marketing strategy, approach, or techniques that are most suitable.

2. The BIG SECRET of Internet Millionaires and virtually ALL Successful Online Businesses…
Actually, this “secret” is painfully obvious – it is one of the fundamentals of achieving success online. But, just as major league athletes focus on the fundamentals of their competitive sports, it is worth highlighting here: TRAFFIC MATTERS MOST – IT IS A FUNDAMENTAL REQUIREMENT.

To be more specific – targeted traffic is what matters most. Attracting targeted traffic essentially means that the visitors to your site are already pre-qualified to the extent that you are presenting them with information that is aligned with what they are searching for. This assumes, of course, that the methods used to attract them are consistent with search engine optimization and search engine marketing best practices.
Practicing “Attraction Marketing” or “Magnetic Marketing” or Customer Centric Marketing leads to “friction free marketing” and long-term relationship-building.

3. How do prospects and customers find you now – and how could you attract more?
- Which keywords do prospects use when they are searching online for what you offer?
- Where is your business currently ranked for those terms in the search engines?
- How competitive are the keywords that you are currently using to promote your business?
- How viable is it that you will be able to rank for those keywords in the near future?

4. What does “Google Page 1 Rankings” actually mean – and why does it matter?
A Google Page 1 Ranking means either that a particular web-page appears on the first page of the natural “organic” Search Engine Results Position (often referred to by the acronym: “SERP”) in response to a search for a particular keyword or keyword search term, OR that an advertiser has outbid all other advertisers to appear in the Sponsored Results.

Google Page 1 Rankings matter greatly because:
- 81% of people search online before making a purchase.
- 72% of people use Google when performing online search.
- 98% of people choose a business on “Page 1″ when making a “buying decision”.

Conclusion: If your business isn’t ranked on the first page of Google’s “natural” or “organic” search results, you will be missing out on close to 75% of potential prospects, leads, and sales.

Important Note: Recent metrics evidence that people performing online searches increasingly look beyond the Sponsored Results and directly to the “organic results” for the information they seek.

5. Generating Traffic through Paid Advertising (AdWords, Facebook Ads, CPA, CPC, etc):
Paid Traffic remains the fastest way to generate traffic for new websites, to test keywords, and to “pump” life into websites that are stuck on page 2, 3, 4, 5….157…or otherwise not prominently displayed in the search results….BUT…the value of the bought traffic may be worthless…especially if it doesn’t convert to sales.

When business owners or webmasters get frustrated with their online efforts, there is frequently a temptation to try to make up for lost time by purchasing traffic from advertising brokers (i.e. the “content network”). As tempting as it is to generate “traffic” fast using this method, it should be understood that there are very real risks associated with it.

Anyone with a valid credit card charging capacity can generate traffic fast. Beware, however, that the traffic generated from many of these sources is a total waste of money. Ask almost anyone who has tried it.

Obviously, Google and Yahoo have made literally billions of dollars by selling this kind of traffic (i.e. paid clicks). In the early days of Adwords and Adsense lot of savvy internet marketers created online advertising empires by functioning as advertising “arbitrage” agents. For the past several years, however, many of those very same marketers complain of losing vast sums on advertising campaigns.

Caution: If you choose to use paid advertising to buy traffic, proceed carefully – and limit your spending until you verify that the cost/benefit ratio of your advertising program is within your accepted tolerances, and expectations.

6. Keyword Research – and How to “re-position” your company online (if necessary).
One of the smartest things you can do, and definitely one of the first things you really should do, is to perform some basic keyword research. Only by conducting detailed keyword research can you know how to proceed with your online marketing efforts. Only after performing keyword research can you determine whether you will be wasting time and money (and lost-opportunity costs) by trying to promote your business based on words or terms or “keywords” that are either too competitive, not sufficiently searched, or otherwise non-performing.

You can begin to get a sense about all of this for free by using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.
Start by entering a broad term that relates to your business or niche. Then scan the results for the keywords you are currently using.
Then review the competition, both in terms of Adwords and also in the search engine itself. If the first page of natural SERP results is dominated by major corporations, major “authority sites”, or other stiff competition, then that keyword may be difficult to rank for. This is especially true if the SERP results are for main indexed pages.

On the other hand, if the first page of Google returns a lot of “inner pages” (i.e. pages that are on the third hierarchy of the site structure, or lower), and if they are not from “authority sites”, but rather from blogs or smaller sites, then ranking for those particular keywords may be achievable, and perhaps even relatively easy).

7. Knowing Who Your Visitors Are – Capturing Visitor Contact Details for Lead Generation
The single most important missing element from most business websites may be a “lead capture form”. It’s hard to believe that with literally billions of websites published, so many websites lack such a valuable but inexpensive and easy-to-implement tool.
Lead capture forms have been available for at least 10 years. And we have all grown accustomed to using them – as consumers, or as “subscribers”. You may be reading this information as a result of having entered your email address into a basic lead capture form (sometimes referred to as a “squeeze form” or “squeeze page”, depending on how it is implemented).
Lead capture forms are typically integrated with Auto responders such as Aweber, Get Response, iContact, Infusionsoft, 1ShoppingCart, or others.
If you are trying to develop any kind of business intelligence about your website visitors, and trying to establish a follow-up rapport with them, it is essential to incorporate lead capture forms into your website.
At the most basic level, setting up a lead capture form can be accomplished in minutes.

8. Understanding Web 2.0 and How Social Media Can be Leveraged to Facilitate SEO and to Grow Your Business:
Web 2.0 and Social Media are extremely complex and dynamic developments. The easiest way to understand the potential of Web 2.0 and Social Media, in terms of how they can help you grow your business is this: Make It Easy For People to Learn About You and What You Offer – and expand your circle of influence or like-minded “friends”.

Unlike “web 1.0″ sites, Blogs are “Web 2.0 ready” – what this means is that they are preconfigured (in most cases) to allow for RSS feeds, Social Network Sharing, Commenting, etc.

It’s no secret that the way Google (and other leading search engines) rank their search results is largely based on what other people think. It follows that the more people who link to your site, the more Google will consider your site to be an “authority site”, or at least a meaningful site, within a particular niche, or for certain keyword terms.

The easiest, cheapest, and one of the most effective things that you can do to improve your search engine optimization is to incorporate a blog into your website (or make it your website), and to create meaningful and relevent content on a regular basis (e.g. 4 times a week or more).
Make it easy for other people and blogs and organizations to get your content and to derive value from you. RSS feeds and Social Bookmarking tools are ideal for this task.

Search Engine Optimization Cost Reduction Tips for Small Business SEO Success

1..What is the number one priority, objective, or goal that you want to achieve through your online marketing efforts?
- Are trying to establish your business as an “authority site”?
- Are you trying to build a community using social media?
- Are you trying to generate more leads to fill your sales funnel?
- Are you are trying to attract more customers to a retail or physical location?
- What is your desired outcome for visitors to your website?
- What is your “business model” for your online marketing?

The responses to these questions will affect the online marketing strategy, approach, or techniques that are most suitable.

2. The BIG SECRET of Internet Millionaires and virtually ALL Successful Online Businesses…
Actually, this “secret” is painfully obvious – it is one of the fundamentals of achieving success online. But, just as major league athletes focus on the fundamentals of their competitive sports, it is worth highlighting here: TRAFFIC MATTERS MOST – IT IS A FUNDAMENTAL REQUIREMENT.

To be more specific – targeted traffic is what matters most. Attracting targeted traffic essentially means that the visitors to your site are already pre-qualified to the extent that you are presenting them with information that is aligned with what they are searching for. This assumes, of course, that the methods used to attract them are consistent with search engine optimization and search engine marketing best practices.
Practicing “Attraction Marketing” or “Magnetic Marketing” or Customer Centric Marketing leads to “friction free marketing” and long-term relationship-building.

3. How do prospects and customers find you now – and how could you attract more?
- Which keywords do prospects use when they are searching online for what you offer?
- Where is your business currently ranked for those terms in the search engines?
- How competitive are the keywords that you are currently using to promote your business?
- How viable is it that you will be able to rank for those keywords in the near future?

4. What does “Google Page 1 Rankings” actually mean – and why does it matter?
A Google Page 1 Ranking means either that a particular web-page appears on the first page of the natural “organic” Search Engine Results Position (often referred to by the acronym: “SERP”) in response to a search for a particular keyword or keyword search term, OR that an advertiser has outbid all other advertisers to appear in the Sponsored Results.

Google Page 1 Rankings matter greatly because:
- 81% of people search online before making a purchase.
- 72% of people use Google when performing online search.
- 98% of people choose a business on “Page 1″ when making a “buying decision”.

Conclusion: If your business isn’t ranked on the first page of Google’s “natural” or “organic” search results, you will be missing out on close to 75% of potential prospects, leads, and sales.

Important Note: Recent metrics evidence that people performing online searches increasingly look beyond the Sponsored Results and directly to the “organic results” for the information they seek.

5. Generating Traffic through Paid Advertising (AdWords, Facebook Ads, CPA, CPC, etc):
Paid Traffic remains the fastest way to generate traffic for new websites, to test keywords, and to “pump” life into websites that are stuck on page 2, 3, 4, 5….157…or otherwise not prominently displayed in the search results….BUT…the value of the bought traffic may be worthless…especially if it doesn’t convert to sales.

When business owners or webmasters get frustrated with their online efforts, there is frequently a temptation to try to make up for lost time by purchasing traffic from advertising brokers (i.e. the “content network”). As tempting as it is to generate “traffic” fast using this method, it should be understood that there are very real risks associated with it.

Anyone with a valid credit card charging capacity can generate traffic fast. Beware, however, that the traffic generated from many of these sources is a total waste of money. Ask almost anyone who has tried it.

Obviously, Google and Yahoo have made literally billions of dollars by selling this kind of traffic (i.e. paid clicks). In the early days of Adwords and Adsense lot of savvy internet marketers created online advertising empires by functioning as advertising “arbitrage” agents. For the past several years, however, many of those very same marketers complain of losing vast sums on advertising campaigns.

Caution: If you choose to use paid advertising to buy traffic, proceed carefully – and limit your spending until you verify that the cost/benefit ratio of your advertising program is within your accepted tolerances, and expectations.

6. Keyword Research – and How to “re-position” your company online (if necessary).
One of the smartest things you can do, and definitely one of the first things you really should do, is to perform some basic keyword research. Only by conducting detailed keyword research can you know how to proceed with your online marketing efforts. Only after performing keyword research can you determine whether you will be wasting time and money (and lost-opportunity costs) by trying to promote your business based on words or terms or “keywords” that are either too competitive, not sufficiently searched, or otherwise non-performing.

You can begin to get a sense about all of this for free by using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.
Start by entering a broad term that relates to your business or niche. Then scan the results for the keywords you are currently using.
Then review the competition, both in terms of Adwords and also in the search engine itself. If the first page of natural SERP results is dominated by major corporations, major “authority sites”, or other stiff competition, then that keyword may be difficult to rank for. This is especially true if the SERP results are for main indexed pages.

On the other hand, if the first page of Google returns a lot of “inner pages” (i.e. pages that are on the third hierarchy of the site structure, or lower), and if they are not from “authority sites”, but rather from blogs or smaller sites, then ranking for those particular keywords may be achievable, and perhaps even relatively easy).

7. Knowing Who Your Visitors Are – Capturing Visitor Contact Details for Lead Generation
The single most important missing element from most business websites may be a “lead capture form”. It’s hard to believe that with literally billions of websites published, so many websites lack such a valuable but inexpensive and easy-to-implement tool.
Lead capture forms have been available for at least 10 years. And we have all grown accustomed to using them – as consumers, or as “subscribers”. You may be reading this information as a result of having entered your email address into a basic lead capture form (sometimes referred to as a “squeeze form” or “squeeze page”, depending on how it is implemented).
Lead capture forms are typically integrated with Auto responders such as Aweber, Get Response, iContact, Infusionsoft, 1ShoppingCart, or others.
If you are trying to develop any kind of business intelligence about your website visitors, and trying to establish a follow-up rapport with them, it is essential to incorporate lead capture forms into your website.
At the most basic level, setting up a lead capture form can be accomplished in minutes.

8. Understanding Web 2.0 and How Social Media Can be Leveraged to Facilitate SEO and to Grow Your Business:
Web 2.0 and Social Media are extremely complex and dynamic developments. The easiest way to understand the potential of Web 2.0 and Social Media, in terms of how they can help you grow your business is this: Make It Easy For People to Learn About You and What You Offer – and expand your circle of influence or like-minded “friends”.

Unlike “web 1.0″ sites, Blogs are “Web 2.0 ready” – what this means is that they are preconfigured (in most cases) to allow for RSS feeds, Social Network Sharing, Commenting, etc.

It’s no secret that the way Google (and other leading search engines) rank their search results is largely based on what other people think. It follows that the more people who link to your site, the more Google will consider your site to be an “authority site”, or at least a meaningful site, within a particular niche, or for certain keyword terms.

The easiest, cheapest, and one of the most effective things that you can do to improve your search engine optimization is to incorporate a blog into your website (or make it your website), and to create meaningful and relevent content on a regular basis (e.g. 4 times a week or more).
Make it easy for other people and blogs and organizations to get your content and to derive value from you. RSS feeds and Social Bookmarking tools are ideal for this task.

Summary: If any of the above sounds too technically challenging for you, or if you would simply prefer to focus on running your business, rather than trying to manage your search engine optimization costs and rankings, then you should seriously consider outsourcing your SEO Package to a trusted advisor.