New Niche Marketing Tools
I have finally arrived as a blogger! I am now receiving press releases to share on my site.
I received this one from Wordstream. After I got over the initial shock and residual feeling of being flattered, I actually read the release. I decided to share it with my readers because I think the tools will be valuable to small business owners trying to manage their SEO and PPC campaigns.
WordStream Launches Two Free Niche Marketing Tools for SEO and PPC
WordStream adds to their suite of free search marketing tools, introducing two new products to help search marketers better identify profitable keyword opportunities
BOSTON, MA – December 16, 2009 – WordStream, Inc., a provider of keyword tools for pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) efforts involving large numbers of keywords, today launched a pair of tools designed to help businesses identify and optimize highly profitable keyword niches.
Tie Your Shoes
Today’s post is by our intern Neil:
Have you ever tried running in shoes without shoelaces? It is difficult, and risky as you can easily trip and fall on your face. 
Running your business website without taking advantage of SEO tools creates a similar scenario. While you are unlikely to be in danger of physical injury, the risk to your business is real. Without a solid focus on SEO, you will find yourself tripping and falling as you attempt to drive traffic and connect with potential prospects and clients.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) according to Wikapedia
is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion
There are many tools you can use to improve your position with search engines such as Google, Yahoo and BIN. Moving to the top of the search list means potential customers find you faster and easier compared to your competitors. This in turn will improve the quantity and quality of traffic to your website.
I have been researching SEO tools for the past few weeks and here are two of my favorites.
- Google Analytics which analyzes your web site’s performance by helping you understand what terms drive traffic, what information visitors search for when they arrive, and how long they stay. By looking at the data you can make adjustments in your site to improve your performance.
- Linkscape from SMOZ.org In the internet world you are judged by the company you keep. These relationships are measured in links. Using this tool you can discover who links to you and more interesting, who links to your competitors.
At Roundpeg we rely on these tools to help our clients rank higher on Search Engines and drive more traffic to their sites. Do you have a favorite SEO tool?
Neil out!
Shout Out to Vincent High School
This is a shout out to the students of Vincent High School of Milwaukee, Wisconsin! You may be wondering why I am doing a shout out to a group of students at a high school I never attended. The answer is simple: WEB STATS!
Last night, as I took a quick look at my web site statistics I was pleasantly surprised by the spike in traffic I experienced on Monday. At first I thought it was because of the guest post by Robby Slaughter (which by the way was really good), but it wasn’t. Instead, more than 50 people (which for my web site is quite a large number) viewed a post from my How to Write a Business Plan series – (Lesson One) which was written on September 4.
Who were these people? And where did they come from? A quick look at the referring information indicated they were coming from a website sponsored by Vincent High School of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The site itself is password protected (as school sites should be) so I am not sure exactly what the site said. My best guess, however is one of the teachers in the business department found my content and recommended it to his/her students.
The point of all of this is that you should be looking at your web stats to figure out what is driving traffic to your site. In this instance, I am flattered that a teacher in Milwaukee likes my content, but since she/he and the students aren’t my core audience, I probably won’t write more just for them. However, if this was a group of small business owners, I would be paying more attention to what they were reading, and trying to find ways to serve up more of the same.
What do your web stats tell you about your readers? With a simple plugs-in like WordPress.com Stats or the more comprehensive Google Analytics, there is much you can learn about your website. It is up to you what you do with the information.
And if you are a student from Vincent High, thanks for stopping by, feel free to post a comment, and then go do your homework!
Five Free SEO Tools
Building a great website is only the beginning. Once built, you need to drive traffic and measure performance. Fortunately there are a number of web tools which can help. Here are just a few tools which you can use to put more power in your eMarketing strategy. Best of all, these tools are FREE
Google Webmaster Tools: Webmaster resources help answer crawling and indexing questions. Using these tools improves traffic, enhances the site’s functionality and helps grow your internet business.
Google Analytics: This tool helps you write better ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives, and improve conversion. The statistics show where visitors come from and how they interact with your site.
Google Alerts: Receive email updates or notes to your Google Reader on the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. For example: select your company name, the name of your competitor or other hot industry topic and when Google indexes a page related to the topic you have selected you will be notified.
Yahoo Site Explorer: Explore all the web pages indexed by Yahoo! Search. View the most popular pages from any site, dive into a comprehensive site map, and find pages that link to that site or any page. Be sure to submit your site to be crawled as well!
SEOBook.com Keyword Research: A fast, easy, reliable and FREE way to perform keyword research. This tool shows you how many people search for keyword phrases in Google, Yahoo and MSN. This tool can help you write more effective copy to help you improve your position in organic searches.
For a more complete list of great tools check out this post from WebBizIdeas.com
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PROMOTION: Curious about how well your website stacks up? 
Discover how visible your site is to search engines and how attractive it is to people.
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Traffic is Good, But Leads are Better!!
When I worked in retail, we always looked at the traffic in the store as the first sign of what kind of day lay ahead. Lots of people, usually meant someone would be buying something!
As I work with clients, many who are not in retail businesses, I can use the measures from their internet marketing to get a feel for the “traffic” to their business.
I review with them raw traffic, page views and time on site. I can point to the number of people who viewed a particular page or blog post, track where they came from and identify the most effective ads.
The numbers are fascinating, but with all this tracking and viewing it is easy to lose track of the real object … CUSTOMERS!
Back in my retail life, there were days the store was filled with browsers who didn’t buy; sometimes the same thing happens on a website. The trick is to convert window shoppers to buyers.
Now, not every business can ” sell ” products on-line. However, every business can use their website to create leads and move prospects along the sales process.
One strategy is to offer free reports, white papers or other resources. Instead of a simple download, require visitors to provide at least an email address to receive the information. Sometimes, people will give you a bogus email address, but most people who are interested in the content provide real contact information. Now you have permission to reconnect and send follow up information to move the prospect closer to a purchase.
We have always had a sign up form for our newsletter on our website but these free offers, like the one below have been much more effective in generating interest.
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PROMOTION: Curious about how well your website stacks up? Discover how visible your site is to search engines and how attractive it is to people.
Request a Free Website Evaluation
Web Design Tip: Getting Indexed
Yesterday, I wrote about moving from a Frame-Based to CMS driven site. Once you do, it is time to introduce the world and specifically search engines to the wonderful new content you have created.
How? Just as you need to get out into the community to introduce your business, you need to get your website into the larger community as well.
Darren Rowse wrote a terrific post, specifically for bloggers, but his suggestions on joining communities and submitting your site make sense with minor modifications for any small business.
For example, Darren suggests joining blogging communities. While it may not make sense for the local butcher to join a blogging community, he probably is already a member of the chamber of commerce or other business association. As a member, there is an opportunity to be listed on their site, with a link back to his.
He also suggests joining social sites, like Facebook and Twitter. While you may never have tons of fans for your Dry Cleaner, the page does create viable links to your site and offering an occasional coupon on those sites may create more than a few loyal customers.
Just like in traditional networking, consider building a referral business for your website. Promote your referral partners with links to their sites and ask for links back in return. Become active in the community online, and make it easier for people to find you.
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PROMOTION: Discover how visible your site is to search engines and how attractive it is to people. Request a Free Website Evaluation
Web Design Tips: Serve Content to Google and People
About 18 months ago, we stopped designing traditional websites. I said goodbye to Dreamweaver and FrontPage, and embraced Wordpress. We initially made the change because it allowed us to quickly create simple websites our small business clients could update for themselves.
Along the way, we discovered other benefits. Our Wordpress sites seemed to perform better in searches then the old style, frame based sites. At the time, we didn’t really know why, but assumed it was because Wordpress presented information to search engines in a way which enabled indexing.
Turns out, we were right. At the MBO conference a few weeks ago, I had a chance to listen to my friend John Nichols talk about web design. He clearly explained why Google ( and other search engines) have a difficult time categorizing information presented in old style Frame-Based sites.
And while Flash and lots of pictures may appeal to live human beings, the search engines prefer text, with important information both headlined and in bold.
So take a look at your website? Is it time for a change? If you are still living with a frame based site which requires significant technical expertise to make even the slightest change, you are missing huge opportunities to present new information to search engines. And, with no new information, you will find yourself dropping in search rankings.
Wordpress is not the only CMS solution, but for small business owners, we have found it to be extremely effective.
Web Site Evaluation
You have a website, but how good is it? Do you know?
- How does it compare to the sites of your competitors?
- How does it look to search engines?
- What, if any, Buzz exists in the online community about your brand?
If you don’t know the answer to these questions, we can help with our Free Web Site Evaluation. Simply submit your request today, and we will send you an evaluation by tomorrow.
The Three “R’s” of SEO
Most small business owners include at least a basic website in their early business launch strategy. For many this is the largest investment the young company will make, and they are often frustrated when the new site does not rank highly on a Google search. With more than 700,000,000 sites worldwide, it is not surprising to see these young companies get lost in the shuffle.
So how do you rise to the top of the stack? There are many answers to this question, and the rules shift as often as Google adjusts their algorithms which drive search results. It can be a daunting task for the average business owner to stay on top of the game, which is why companies like Deep Ripples, which dedicate themselves full time to staying on top of the question, have found a niche in the marketplace.
For the average business owner, there are however, a few basic rules which give you a starting point on how to “get in the SEO” game. While these tactics won’t always guarantee a first place listing, used consistently it will move you significantly in your niche. “R” s you learned in school, (Reading, wRiting, aRithmatic) formed the basis for everything else you learned, so do the 3 “R’s” of SEO (Relevancy, Recency, and Related Links)
- Relevancy – Your web copy and blog posts should contain key words your clients and prospects are likely to use when searching for your firm. This sounds simple, but sometimes, we miss the obvious. I had a client who designed a product which was an alternative to a “vent damper”. He didn’t want any association with the actual term. Unfortunately since consumers did not know his product existed, they couldn’t find him. We rewrote his home copy to say: Unlike traditional vent dampers, our product…. Suddenly, people could find his site.
- Recency - New content goes to to the top of the list. While it is unproductive to update your home page every day, you should have a strategy for adding new content on a regular basis. This is why blogs have become so popular for small business owners. A fresh blog post, containing relevant information, gives visitors, and Google a reason to come back.
- Related Links - The Internet is a collaborative community, and you are judged by the company you keep. To improve visibility, work with your strategic partners to add links on their sites and reciprocate with links on yours. Share the love, with references to associates who have products and services which are RELEVANT to your target audience. Also consider a few links to national trade associations, and organizations even if they don’t link back, this does give a level of authority and credibility to your site. Another tactic is to write comments on other related blogs. Again, this creates a positive impression of you ( assuming the comment adds value to the original post) and it creates a link back to your site.
Want to learn more? Check out Aaron Douglas’ class: SEO for SBO’s
Improve Your SEO
The web creates challenges and opportunities for small business owners. Web sites are more affordable then ever to build, but your site has to do more than just sit there to be effective. It must attract visitors!
So now, once you build your site, you must also look for ways to improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so people searching the web can find you. But how do you improve SEO? ProBlogger, Darren Rose wrote a terrfic post on the first 8 things you should do to improve your SEO.
In his post he recommends:
1. Content is King
The quality of the posts you write is the single most important factor when it comes to Search Optimization on a Blog.
2. Anticipate What People Will be Searching For
Every time you write a post you should be automatically be considering what words people might be putting into search engines to find that type of information.
3. Titles Titles Titles
Google pays particular attention to titles – so make sure you get them right:
4. Keywords in other parts of your post
Use the keywords you identified in point #2 within your post also.
5. Link to Your Own Posts
Don’t over do this one but while links from other sites are a great way to increase your blog’s rankings so are links from your blog.
6. Links from Outside Your Blog
Links from other sites to yours are key in SEO but they can be hard to get.
7. Plugins
Check out 9 SEO plugins that every WordPress Blog Should have for some suggestions on this.
8. Readers Begat Readers
This isn’t an SEO technique as such but it plays a part. The more readers you have the more likely your blog is to be found by other readers. There’s a certain ’snowballing’ thing that happens on a site over time – as you get readers quite often momentum grows as those readers pass on your site to others in their network.
I thought this was a terrific list for small business owners. What would you add?
