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Do-It-Yourself SEO

November 18th, 2009

The Wall is Made of Lava

photo credit: Orin Zebest

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

By now, if you’ve put any amount of time into developing your brand on the web, you’ve likely figured out quite quickly that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is key to solidifying your web presence. But operating a successful website is not quite the Field Of Dreams you thought it might be… you’ve built it, but they didn’t come.

SEO can be overwhelming at first glance, and depending on your expectations it can be a real challenge. In fact, this is why some businesses go out and hire SEO specialists to focus on this one task: keeping your name on that elusive first page of search results. However, there are some tricks you can do yourself to help your search engine ranking that will save you much needed time and effort in the long run, and since we all know that time is money, your wallet will thank you.

So, let’s get to it shall we?

1. Put Keywords in Your Content

When developing content for your website, be it a blog post or simply your About Us page, it’s a good idea to sit down before you begin and brainstorm a list of keywords that you’d like to be found with. When you begin writing the content, pepper those keywords throughout your writing. The more search engines see these keywords on your site, they’ll start to get a better idea of what your business is all about and can begin to rank your website properly.

2. Link Building

Do you belong to any industry associations? Local Chamber of Commerce or enterprise groups? Ask these groups and associations for a link swap, where they’ll list your company on their website in exchange for your self promotion as a member of their association on your website. Submit your link to the Yellowpages website. Anywhere your company contact information appears on the web should have your website address plastered at the bottom. It’s kind of like a popularity contest; the more inbound links from other websites, the more search engines have to rank you with.

3. Expand Your Social Network

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn… you’ve heard about it a million times. So why aren’t you on board? The thing about social networking is that it allows for as much shameless self promotion as you wish, so long as it’s tasteful (wink, wink). If you’re a little uncomfortable discussing your business with close friends and relatives, there are oodles of social networking sites out there just for business people and entrepreneurs (like the aforementioned LinkedIn).

4. The Little Things

Hank Scorpio, the James Bond-esque villain from The Simpsons once told his new employee Homer: “Well Homer, you can’t argue with the little things. It’s the little things that make up life.” Even our daily actions that we sometimes take for granted can have great meaning and potential.

*Cough*EMAIL*Cough*

*Sneeze*BLOGGING*Sneeze*

Gesundheit.

Putting your website address in your email signature, putting keywords in your blog titles, adding captions to your photo galleries… all the little things that you may think “What’s the point?” can have the most impact of all. The little things often add up to big results.

You don’t always need to hire an SEO guru or buy ad space and special website plugins to achieve the results you want. Of course it all depends what you want to get out of it, but more often than not a business that takes care of the basics will be recognized for it. It’s not like you need to throw a sacrificial offering into Mt. Pinatubo to gain brownie points with the Greek God of Google. Follow the rules, be persistent, and most of all, have patience. You won’t see instant improvement. It can take weeks, months, even years but if you keep on developing your Search Engine Optimization you will see results.

Looking to get started? Contact Point.Click Media.

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Posted in Tips and Tricks on November 18th, 2009

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