SEO – Search Engine Optimization:

I am the first to admit that SEO can be a complex and labour intensive thing.  If you want to seek number one results on the top 100 keywords of your niche, you have a ton of work ahead of you.  If you want to build web pages and web sites that are SEO sound, without being SEO manipulated, it is actually quite easy.

There are only a couple of steps involved in creating a great SEO optimized site.

Step One: Decide on the keywords you would like to be placed for.  You should pick 1-5 keywords to begin, and they should be your broadest/most general terms for your business/product/service.

As your web site grows, you will want to expand your keyword list while maintaining the relevancy of the initial list.  There is no problem with having a site optimized for the top 100 keywords for your vertical, you just need to do it properly so that your users are happy, and the search engine doesn’t think you are trying to cheat the system through black hat SEO tricks.

Step Two: Keep A List Of The Essentials.  Now this couldn’t be easier because I’ve done the work for you.  Here is a list of the essential areas of your web site that affect your SEO:

Page Title
Meta Tags
Heading Tags
Page Content (Remember any text inside images will be overlooked by the search engines)
One Way Back Links

These are the 5 most important areas of SEO.  You can see how little extra time will be required.  By creating a list of keywords before creating your web page you are able to simply copy paste for your page title, meta tags & headline tags.  The whole process may take an extra 20 seconds per web page.

Finding great one way back links is a process that will require both pro active activity on your part, coupled with killer content that other sites will have to talk about.

As I said, SEO can get incredibly complex as there are literally thousands of other factors that go into your search engine ranking.  By practicing solid SEO principles on a daily basis, you will be certain that your web pages will place well on search engines.  If you are consistent with the amount of content you add to your site, you will notice even more intense search engine placements.

This is how I sell through email without becoming a spammer:

The Russian mafia murdered a kid for spamming.  Granted, this “kid” was responsible for one third of all spam messages being sent, but that should show you how counterproductive spamming really is.  I believe email marketing really is only useful for a) opt-in campaigns, and more importantly b) contacting CURRENT customers.

Current customers generally want to receive useful information from you.  I know that seems so cliché.  I mean when was the last time you thought about how much you would like your local stationery store to send you some information.  The truth is, customers only realize they want your useful information when they receive it.  Unfortunately, we’re not the in the top 100,000 priorities list for most of our customers… even though they are normally number one to us.

The real trick is only sending the client USEFUL information.  This can include an upcoming sale date, with the featured products, or a white paper on the subject you know they are interested in.  If you work in a B2B environment, sending the client useful information that directly influences their bottom line will be a definite hit.

You don’t always need to be selling something in your email marketing either.  Email is a free way to tally an impression.  You see, in advertising, the golden rule is this, “For your advertising to be effective, you need to send your message to a person a minimum of 5 times every seven sleeps.”  Anything less than this and your message gets saturated by other competing messages.  If you can use email as a way to tally 1, 2 even 5 of those impressions, you will be making an impact on your customers for little to no money.

The true catalyst for success in email marketing (with current customers) is creativity.  You can make dozens of free sales (free, in the sense that your direct marketing cost is $0) any given day of the week simply by creating a great offer, coupled with an excellent price, a sense of urgency & strong persuasive copy.  All of these things are directly influenced by your own creativity, which like email marketing, is free.