Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is big business. Many Internet companies proclaim that they can increased your web traffic and page ranking. Of course, they charge big bucks to help you improve your web site traffic. What you are really paying for is their so-called expertise or what some call intellectual capital. This leads to a simple question: If you could reallocate some of your limited marketing dollars through your own efforts and achieve your small business Internet marketing goals, how would that affect your business During these last few months, this is precisely the action that I took.
First Lesson Learned: SEO is more about simplicity than complexity. The challenge is to understand the simplicity within the complexity of search engines, robots and key words.
To understand the simplicity of SEO begins by returning to why web sites exist. Originally, web sites were considered to be cyber space storefronts. As the Internet evolved, web sites evolved with incredible graphics and even more information including the ability to sell products and services through a Shopping Cart.
Today, web sites are still evolving and objectives ever expanding. Some are used to demonstrate subject matter expertise while others are to share collective information within a companys internal and external customers. Each micro second trillions of bytes of data travel through this Super Highway.
Returning to the highways of yesteryear, what do we remember Possibly, the Burma Shave slogans on the numerous road signs come to mind If you can recollect the Burma Shave signs, the product Burma Shave was always on the last sign. (You can visit http://www.fiftiesweb.com/burmal.htm for verification.)
Second Lesson Learned: SEO is about what you do, not who you are.
Advertising agencies understood the value of benefits and that people bought based upon benefits. For example, women did not want rough cheeks and men enjoyed driving cars wide open. So what does this have to do with your web site you might ask
Third Lesson Learned: I needed my own Burma Signs.Each web site has a page title or what I respectfully ask you to now consider them as your own Burma Signs on the Internet Super Highway. Your page title is one long uninterrupted road sign instead of several small ones. By using http://inventory.overture.com, you can determine what key words that you wish to place on your Burma Signs.
When I began revising my website, I had a page title that began with ADVANCED SYSTEMS. In checking key word searches, I learned that ADVANCED SYSTEMS was searched less than 700 times during the previous month. However, when I keyed in the word training, I received over 165,000 searches. Title selection just became quite simple. (Note: See second lesson learned.)
So if you wish to hit your target of increased web traffic, then simply begin with your page title. Use key words that describe what you do and not who you are. Remember to try to keep the title to 77 characters and include your location because this is the Internet highway and sometimes travelers do get lost.
Copyright 2005(c) Leanne Hoagland-Smith, www.processspecialist.com
This article may be freely published. Permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way (grammatical corrections accepted).
Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S. CEO of ADVANCED SYSTEMS located outside of Chicago, IL, is the Learning & Process Specialist. With over 25 years of business & education experience, she helps her clients to double their performance. By uniting systems, strategies and people to create loyal internal customers, Leanne delivers ROI solutions in 4 key areas: financials, leadership, relationships and growth & innovation within a variety of industries including education, healthcare, manufacturing and professional services. As co-author of M.A.G.I.C.A.L. Potential: 7 Capacities for Living an Amazing Life Beyond Purpose to Achievement due for 2005 release, Leanne speaks nationally to a variety of audiences. Please contact Leanne at 219.759.5601 or visit if you are seeking to connect your passion to your purpose to double your performance for unheard of results.
Nearly a year ago, I had started a business blog about a fictitious paper startup company and named it BusinessWorks Inc - A Dotcom in making. In this blog, I wrote articles about brainstorming, technology (RFID in particular), created a complete business plan, tips about Venture Capitalists, Vendor evaluation and many other entrepreneur related articles.
There is a real company by the name of Businesswoks Inc, which is in business since 1992. Out of curiosity, I searched for Businessworks Inc on Google to find my business blog listed first on search results to my surprise. First page of search results showed four out of 10 results related to my blog! This intrigued me and I conducted same search on MSN, Yahoo, Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves and AOL.
With the exception of Yahoo and Alta Vista (where my blog is listed at number 2 position), all other search engines, including Google (one that has 53.2% of Search Engine market share) listed my blog on the top of its search results!
This example proves, writing a business blog can be very beneficial for the small businesses, especially if it is written by a professional blogger. Imagine a situation where your product or service comes up in the search results well above the competitor, what it can do for your business. Appearing on first page of search engine results is considered very important for the product. Companies pay large amount of money for search engine optimization (SEO), and for paid insertions based on keywords. What if your company can achieve same results by having a business blog at a fraction of cost Will you go for it
A Business blog outsourcing company can help you achieve the dream results of appearing on the first page of search engine results based on various keywords and fresh content found in the business blog written by them for you.
Harish Keshwani is a Strategic Blogging Consultant, Software Developer, Blogger and an Entrepreneur. He is focused on consulting and guiding small and medium businesses in setting up their websites and blogs as well as manage it for them as an outsourced process.
He guides corporations of small and medium size to realize the potential of blogging for their business. With appropriate content, he helps companies to keep their existing customers satisfied and attract prospective customers. He promotes blogging as a marketing and customer response tool to the companies. One of his Business blogs was recently featured in FORBES - Best of Web under Small Business Category.
His contact information is:
Email: businessorati-at-gmail-dot-com
Company: Ideologic L.L.C.-A Small/Medium Business Blog Process Outsourcing Company.
Website:
Blog 1:
Blog 2: - Featured on FORBES - Best of Web for Small Business Blog Category.