Five Simple SEO Steps to Grow Your Online Business

We’ve searched through our archives here at Startup Princess to bring you a little favorite from Sonya Klepper owner of Truly Twisted Marketing. If your SEO skills need a little brushing up then use some of Sonya’s advice to grow your online business and to stay at the top of the list. Sonya’s easy and useful SEO steps are broken up in two parts below:

Five Simple SEO Steps to Grow Your Online Business Part 1

http://startupprincess.com/five-simple-seo-steps-to-grow-your-online-business-part-1/

Five Simple SEO Steps to Grow Your Online Business Part 2

http://startupprincess.com/part-two-five-simple-seo-steps-to-grow-your-online-business/

Search Engine Marketing Basics: Understanding How to Use Content to Your Advantage

Content is KING. I say it ALL THE TIME – ask anyone…really, go ahead…ask!  It’s very simply one of THE most important aspects to growing your web presence. But there’s a trick – a trick to making content work for you that a lot of individuals in online marketing won’t talk about.

The so called ‘trick’ is simply to understand HOW it works and WHAT the search engines are looking for in content. Once you understand this, you can use it to your advantage and isn’t it nice to have an advantage in growing your business?

What You Need to Know About Search Ranking
How a page ranks in the search engines is determined by that particular page’s attributes such as the number and quality of inbound links (inbound links are links coming from other sites and resources on the web), along with on the page factors such as keyword placement in title tags, copy, headers, etc.
Google (the Big Daddy of all search engines) places the most importance on the type and quality of inbound links you have coming into your site and the meta title tag. Get really good at understanding and using these two aspects of content and you’ll have Google eating out of your hand in no time!

Making Content Work for You
On the other hand, adding content in the form of articles, blog postings, resources, buyer’s guides, etc. can boost up your search rank and ultimately your traffic. What you are doing is creating more indexable content for the search engines to crawl (as well as attracting more links).

Content that is informative and written as a resource (always with your key words and search phrases in mind) also gives your site weight and legitimacy in the ‘eyes’ of the search engines. It’s a winning combination that is simple to employ and so well worth the time and effort.

*A note to remember – pages with few inbound links tend to slip out of the search rankings so you want to make sure the content is good and that people will want to link TO that content.

Now, just as an aside…there ARE ways to update content on the page to direct the search engine spiders to that page and then plant links to pages you want the search engine spiders to discover and index. It does speed up the process of getting new pages listed quicker. It won’t impact your ranking but it will be indexed in the search engines quicker so the content is more available. Your best bet, though, is to get it right the first time.

Misconceptions About How to Use Content
Taking the content of the page and rewriting it on a regular basis will not boost your web site rankings. In fact, it will more than likely pull your ranking down.

*Another note to remember…content SHOULD absolutely be updated/rewritten if it doesn’t contain any of the search phrases you want that particular page to rank for. I happen to see this a lot. Your main search phrases and keywords should also be reflected in your title tag, description and keyword tags up in the meta info in the head section of your site. (Hopefully you know this already…if you don’t we should probably set up some time to have a little chat)

Same goes for streaming an rss feed onto one of your web site pages. It doesn’t impact your ranking. It’s a cool tool and can generate traffic to the feed source but again, does not impact your ranking in the search engines.

Sonya Klepper  is an expert at mixing it up in the web development and web marketing arena with winning combinations each and every time. She is the owner of Truly Twisted Marketingwhich specializes in customized, out of the box, solutions to grow businesses with some seriously kickin’ modern design and mad marketing skills.

Ten Tips to Boost Your Bottom Line and Make Your Marketing Personal

Marketing isn’t just about creating that new ad or making a web site or a brochure to hand out…really good marketing consists of being aware of the many ways you actually reach out and touch a customer.

And, the hands-down best marketing is a simple concept that I talk about all the time…it is personal. It can be felt.

The thing is that when you take the time and energy to really think about the different ways you actually touch your customers and make those as personal as possible, they will remember you. They will recommend you to their friends, family, co-workers. And THAT viral word of mouth marketing is exactly what you want.

Ever heard of the Nametag Guy?

Stick with me, this is word of mouth marketing, right here, right now…I’m about to tell you why this guy is so cool – in essence I’m helping him further his brand, build his credibility which could ultimately boost his bottom line and the coolest thing (for him) is that I’m doing the work for him, for free. Now, understand, I’m not doing this because I think he needs help, not because I know him, not for any reason OTHER than he had an understanding of how to touch a potential customer in a way that is personal and can keep them talking about his business.

Isn’t that what YOU want for YOUR business?

Ok, here are ten tips to remember (this is his philosophy for what he calls “approachable service”)…

1. People buy people
2. Friendly always wins
3. Make the mundane memorable
4. Be unique, not different
5. Interaction, not interruption (In other words, INTERACT with your customers, don’t make them feel they are INTERRUPTING you)
6. Be That Guy (or That Girl)
7. You want FANS not customers
8. Don’t sell; allow people to buy
9. Consistency is far better than rare moments of greatness
10. If you don’t make a name for yourself, someone will make one for you

There you have it. Not so complex, really. Just a simple shifting of perceptions and how you interact with your customers.

But if you do all these things your marketing will become more personal and you will, in the minds of your customers, be more approachable. Then the snowball effect will kick in. Your potential customers will remember you for your approachability and personal touch and if you’ve done your job really well, they will pass on how truly fabulous you, your service, your product is to their friends, family and co-workers.

Sonya Klepper is an expert at mixing it up in the web development and web marketing arena with winning combinations each and every time. She is the owner of Truly Twisted Marketing which specializes in customized, out of the box, solutions to grow businesses with some seriously kickin’ modern design and mad marketing skills.