Business Coach Houston
In this issue of “Friday is for Friends” our guest blogger is my good friend Paul Sherland, Founder and President of IX Brand SEO Services Co. He’s got some good stuff for us here. Learn and enjoy!
To many people, search engine optimization is the process of improving your website’s ranking on Google and the other search engines. However, your business also wins if a prospective customer finds you on YouTube or on Facebook. You’ll make a sale if a prospect sees your great customer reviews on Yelp or Tripadvisor, even if he or she never visits your website. So search engine optimization really should look at all of these factors determining your online visibility, and your SEO process should try to improve every one of them.
Do you need to hire a professional like me to do your SEO or can you do your SEO yourself? It really depends on how large and how competitive your marketplace is. If you have a business in a very small town and you only serve customers in your local area, then reading this article should give you the information you need to move ahead of your competition. If you have lots of competition and if you market to a larger geographic area, you may want to consider hiring a professional SEO consultant. However, whether you hire someone or not, you can improve your search engine rankings yourself by following these four simple steps.
Keywords are the phrases your customers might use in searching for your products or services, and the absolute first step in any SEO effort is identifying your keywords. I pay for a software tool that helps me identify thousands of keywords for my clients and my software gives me information about the level of competition and the search volume for each keyword. In a competitive marketplace, this detailed information is absolutely necessary.
However, you can get a start by thinking about the keyword search phrases your customers are likely to use. If you own a plumbing company, you should recognize that people will be much more likely to search for plumber sugar land tx than plumbing company sugar land tx. If you’re an attorney handling personal injury matters, your prospective clients might search for your services using car crash lawyer katy tx. Those are the kinds of keywords you should list for your business. Ask yourself what words would your customers use.
If you use those keywords you’ve just identified in Step 1, in a Google search for your local business, you’ll likely see some business listings at the top of the first page of results. Those listings are provided free by Google, and you can claim control over them and improve them by adding your business description, your website address, pictures, and even videos about your business. You should claim your listings for Google, Yahoo, and Bing for starters. You should also make it a regular practice to keep your local business listings updated and ask your customers to leave reviews there. Just taking this step alone might put you at the top of the first page of search results!
Check your website to ensure that you’re using your keyword phrases in the page titles, headings, and text of your website. You’ll need to have a substantial amount of relevant, well-written, keyword-rich text on your website to do well in search engine rankings. If you have a local business, make sure that you provide your complete address information on every page of your website — not just on a contact page. You want Google and the other search engines to associate your business with a specific location and one mention of a location on one page of your website won’t do that.
Your business Facebook page can serve as an alternate website for your Facebook friends and it can also do well in search results. Make sure that your Facebook page name includes your business name and a short keyword phrase. For example if you have a real estate company called Smith Realty in Richmond, TX, use Smith Realty -Realtors Richmond TX to your Facebook page name. Update your business Facebook page with the same photos, videos, and other information you used in your business listings.
So you can SEO yourself by taking these four simple steps! If you have any questions, please give me a call at 979-531-8300 or visit my website for more information. Thanks to Glenn Smith, The Growth Coach Houston, for the opportunity to visit with you.
Tags: Friday is for Friends
Anyone can learn and do SEO, but is it worth your time? For example, anyone can learn and do plumbing or electricity or A/C repair. However, unless that is your core business you are better off hiring a professional. Google makes an average of 1 1/2 changes per day to their ranking algorithm. Good search engine optimizers keep up with all of the changes and their clients have a competitive advantage over those who ignore SEO or try to do it themselves.
Before you decide to do your own SEO/SEM, determine your hourly value to your company then multiply that by how many man hours it would take for you to learn SEO/SEM. Also figure in how much time it would take for you to apply what you learn, fix your mistakes and the economic impact those mistakes would have on your company. Also add in the value of missed opportunities during your learning curve. Also consider the impact of working in an area that may not be a strength for you while your strength areas are being neglected.
Mark, you make some excellent points that every business owner should consider. Thank you for commenting.
Paul, thank you so much for some great tips! This advice is simple but powerful. I appreciate the contributions you make in our local business area.
I doubt very seriously you can afrfod the best SEO company on the internet even if someone could narrow it down to just one. Companies like SEOmoz.org get $1000/hr or more. I am an independent SEO consultant with no where near the resources of a company like SEOmoz.org, and I charge $100-125/hr depending on the job and type of work. Most people online looking for SEO think $5-15/hr should get them a good SEO. But most of the people willing to market themselves that low are either 1) VERY inexperienced or 2) live in a 3rd world company, have learned a few buzz words related to SEO, and now “claim” to be SEO experts.Figure out how much money you’re willing to invest in SEO and then search for the best SEO firm that fits within your budget.