SEO for Online Business

You’re most likely checking this out this because you want your site to be found—not by some random individual, who trips over your website, but by your prospects. That means that you’ve got to know how to climb in in the search engines. There are 5 steps to accelerating your climb.

Conduct Keyword Research

Some business managers choose some keyword phrases and get moving. But that’s a short cut that’s going to cost you a heap of time. You’re better off if you do a bit of research first.

To make this a little easier, you need to use software. I use Market Samurai to help with my keyword research. It’s a tedious process so you want all of the help you can get. The first step is to create a big list of keywords and keyword phrases that are relevant to your prospects. Then you want to find out which of them drive traffic. Of those, which are profit-making? The last, most frequently missed step in keyword research that is totally vital is to determine which keywords aren’t overly competitive. They’re difficult to find. Often it’s like looking for snow in Florida. But you have to do it otherwise you’re wasting valuable time.

Get the Technical Stuff Right

You’ve got to make your website friendly for the search engine spiders. Invite them in and give them a guided tour. Don’t let them stumble over Flash, Java script, damaged links and image links. Make it easy for them by making a site map exclusively for them. Add some sign posts to help them through your website—internal links that clearly identify the content where the link goes to.

Attract the Search Engines with Search Engine Optimization Copywriting

Now you have to write to draw in the search engines. But never forget that your copy has to engage your visitors too. Otherwise, what’s the point? Visitors find your website, but they’re clicking away as quickly as they can.

Have a look at who’s on top of Google, Yahoo or Bing and figure out the percent of time they use your keyword phrase, and where they use it on the web page. Use that as your model. Sprinkle your web page with your keywords in similar proportions and places. (Remember, just like spice, too much can be a bad thing.) Add header tags, alt tags, titles and descriptions and you’re ready to go.

Develop Content

A simple 5 page website isn’t going to get much attention. You need to have an ongoing plan to add content. Add more pages to your website. And create a blog.

Link it Up

Now you’ve got to get the news out. Invite the search engines to check out your website. And start developing backlinks. You can do it by writing and syndicating articles (just like this one), publishing online publicity releases, creating RSS feeds to your blog, social booking and more.

It’s a lot of work but profitability follows when prospects find your site when they’re trying to find what you have. If you don’t have the resources or understand how to do it yourself, find a website copywriter who can help.