There’s lots of hype about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I have business clients who want to sign up with every SEO salesperson who comes along promising to make their site come out on top of the rankings. Because most people have only a vague idea of how SEO works, they sign up. It’s the modern version of a snake-oil salesman.
Know Your Target Market
I could just make a tape recording of this and play it once a day for my business coaching clients and students. Who do you want to have buy your service or product? Where do they come from? When they go on the Internet (and most do), how do they search?
When an SEO salesperson comes along and tells you that you can be at the top of the heap, you need to ask yourself — which heap? If you are selling lipstick, then being at the top of the Men’s Basketball heap probably won’t help you too much. (WWF Wrestling might be another story!) Does it matter if you are on the top of the results for the search term “chiropractor”? Is someone living on a different continent really going to come to your office to get aligned?
So, know your target market. Who are they and how do they search the web? Don’t know? It’s simple….ASK THEM.
Web Site SEO
So after you have an idea of how people find you on the web, make it easy for them to find you. Make sure that you use the search terms you have uncovered liberally in your web site content. Use them in headers. Use them in alt tags for pictures. Use them in links. Use them in page titles.
Make sure that people are able to contact you. Just today my husband, The Web Mechanic, went to a website of a business consultant. I had mentioned to him that she had a problem. He was going to send her an email about how to fix her site. (I had found her on Twitter.) Unfortunately, he couldn’t. There was no email address listed.
If you want people to contact you, give them every way possible to do it. Some people prefer phones, some emails, and some live on Twitter. If you know your target audience, you will have a good idea of how people want to contact you. Let them know how.
These are just a few of the basics. You might be surprised how many people who are spending a lot of time on Twitter, Facebook and Linked In, haven’t taken the time to understand and reach their target market. Are you one of them?
(Want help on this and other Internet Marketing issues? Consider joining the Wise Woman Circle and get group coaching at an affordable price.)
Good content.
Just wanted to add some points here that may be helpful for those looking out for professional SEO services. There are tons of SEO companies offering different SEO packages and solutions at highly competitive rates. However, when looking our for these services, its important to not only look at the affordability factor but also what is unique about their SEO service and what differentiates them from other companies.
While choosing an SEO company its equally important to analyze the SEO company’s website in terms of their Rankings, Yahoo links, Google index, Alexa ranking and similar such factors which indicates the company’s expertise in the field of SEO. So make sure you are doing enough research and smart work before investing your advertising spend.