The Internet has dramatically transformed the way people learn about and shop for products and services. Just ten years ago, companies reached their consumers through trade shows, print advertising, and other traditional marketing methods. Today, consumers start their shopping by looking on the Internet first, using search engines, blogs, and social media sites. For companies to remain competitive, businesses’ websites need to be found online by their customers already searching for the products and services that you are selling. Today it is now possible for a small business to actually compete with larger companies if you create the correct SEO for your Website.

Businesses must get found online by the customers searching for their products and services in the three main areas.

• Search Engines – Google, Yahoo, Bing, and MSN
• Blogs – Blogger and Digg fro example.
• Social Media – Technorati, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

 Search Engines

Customers most frequently go to the search engines to research and purchase products and services. Is your website getting found by consumers looking for you?

Please Note: Organic Search is Best!

In the example below; If you look at the Search results, you can see that there are 3 parts to the search. Next to the RED lines is Paid Search Results and the Green represents Organic Search Results.

Paid Search Results are those listings that require a fee for the search engines to list their link for particular keywords. The most widely used form of paid listing is Pay Per Click (PPC), where you pay each time someone clicks on the link in your advertisement. The price increases with the competitiveness of the keyword.

Organic Search Results are gathered by search engines’ web crawlers and ranked according to relevance to search terms. This relevance is calculated by criteria such as extent of keyword match and number of links into that website. Ranking in the organic search results is better because not only is it free, but research demonstrates that people click on the organic results 75% of the time and paid results only 25% of the time.

How Does Google Decide

Google and the other search engines rank websites in search engine results pages according to the relevance of to the search terms. This relevance is calculated by looking at both on-page factors such as the content on your site and off-page factors in the form of inbound links to your website. Off-page factors are some of the biggest influencers in your website’s ranking in search engine results.

How To Use Search Engines

 1. Find Keywords

• Search Volume – Given two different keyword phrases, optimize for the one with the larger number of searches.
• Relevance – Choose keywords that your target market is using to describe and search for your products and services.
• Difficulty or Competition – Consider your chances for ranking on the first page of Google for that keyword phrase. Look at the sites ranked in those first 10 slots, their authority and relevance to search terms, and then create a strategy to overtake them so you can secure a spot on that first page.

2. Use On-Page SEO

•  Place keywords in the page title, URL, headings, and • page text.
• Optimize your page description for maximum click-through-rate when your site ranks in Google searches.
• Place keywords in other “invisible” places on your site, • including meta-keyword tags and alt-text on images.

 3. Use Off-Page SEO

•  Build more inbound links from other sites into yours.
• Each link serves as a recommendation or a reference to tell the search engines that your site is a quality site.
• Build more links within context, i.e. those with • valuable keywords in the link anchor text (the text that is hyperlinked to your site). Link anchor text provides context for the search engines to understand what your site is about.

Build more links from trusted websites. Just as references from well-respected friends and experts offer more value, so do links from trusted and well-respected websites.

Link-building tips

• Submit your website to directories like Google Yahoo , Bing, and Business.com
• Communicate with others in your industry through blogs and other social media

Create compelling tools (such as an interesting Software Application) or A Blog.

4. Always Measure & Analyze

• Track the number of inbound links, keyword rank over time and compared to competition. You can use Alexa Rankings to do so!
• Measure real business results: number of visitors, leads, and customers using tools like Google Analytics

 Get Found Online By Using Social Media

What is social media? Media (content that is published) with a social (anyone can add to and share it) component. Social media is like a business networking reception without the constraints of time and space.

• Social Media is Inbound Marketing
• Social media helps with SEO
• Social media promotes your blog
• Social media is permission centric
• Since the conversation has started it’s time that you’re aware of it and develop a strategy for engaging in it and using it for marketing your products and services

Use Social Media

1. Some Guidelines for Engagement

• Try to meet people and start conversations, become a active member of the community and don’t just join to advertise your products or services
• Add value to the community – answer questions and help others.
• Ask questions – trust experienced users advice

2. Publish, Share, and Network

• Publish: Everyone can publish anything for everyone
• Publish everything you have anywhere you can
• Monitor what others publish and promote it
• Empower your customers to publish and share with others

If you are new to internet marketing it is essential to seek the advice of experienced Internet Marketers that can help you get started and succeed! Feel free to contact me and I will be happy to consult with you!

William