Small Business Marketing Secrets Newsletter

SEO TIP

How many people arrive at a site from a search engine?

Surprisingly, only about 50% of the people who arrive at a website got there from a search engine.

The rest of them got there either by typing in the URL themselves or through a link from another site.

Think about that the next time you want to increase the number of people coming to your site.

Is my URL simple and easy to remember?

Have i cultivated relationships (and swapped links) with other websites related to my industry but not direct competitors?

TESTIMONIAL

Bob,

I enjoyed your presentation at the TC Web Pros meeting very much. I learned a lot about how to write for the web. It makes me want to re-write every website I've ever created. I'll probably just stick to re-writing my own though!

Michelle Adams
Michelle Adams Web Design

WEB WRITING, COPY WRITING & SEO WRITING ARTICLES FROM
Small Business Marketing Secrets NEWSLETTER

What You Absolutely Must Know About Search Engine Optimization

Disclaimer: I don’t do Search Engine Optimization. I have an expert that I work with and I offer his services through WordsmithBob. However, I apprenticed under him so that I would know what he does and why. That way, when I write copy for websites he has search engine optimized, I can maximize the effectiveness of his work.

Now, on to what you absolutely must know about Search Engine Optimization. The first and most important thing you must know is that no one can just “SEO” your site and be done with it. If someone offers to SEO your site and it’s just a one shot deal, don’t waste your money. Proper SEO is an ongoing process.

Keywords and Meta Tags

Now, when I write copy for a website, one of the services I offer is to research keywords and then write the title meta tag and description meta tag utilizing some of those keywords. And I use some of the keywords in the text. That is not search engine optimization.

Six or seven years ago, that could pass for search engine optimization. Today, that's the absolute minimum of what every website should have. Real search engine optimization starts there and moves forward.

One more caveat about Search Engine Optimization: You or your website designer should be consulting with your SEO expert before the first bit of code is written for your design.

How the website is laid out, how the structure is arranged, the names and URLs of every page, the menu, the graphics and even the W3C compliance message at the very top of the HTML can all have a profound impact on how well you do in the search engines. Once the website is created, it's too late for a lot of the important SEO factors.

What search engines really want

Search engines constantly change to improve their results for searchers. Their only interest is in figuring out how to get the most informative sites to come up when you type in your search terms. And a true SEO expert's only interest is in figuring out what the search engines are looking for and modifying your web site to reflect the current search engine standards.

What that means is that someone needs to be regularly monitoring your website and making the constant adjustments necessary to reflect the changes in the search engines. And yes, that means a regular monthly fee. But unless you're a big company with a big site, that fee shouldn't be much more than the cost of hosting your site.

It also means that you must constantly add new content relevant to what your website is about or you will drop in the rankings no matter what your SEO expert does.

Watch out for bad SEO advice

You may have read a lot of articles about search engine optimization and think you know all about it. Believe me, the stuff that's in those articles on the web is old information. The real experts don't put their secrets out there for you to find. At least, not until it's out-dated.

Okay, so what did we learn?

Keywords and meta tags are the absolute minimum and real SEO starts after that.
There's no such thing as “I'll search engine optimize your site” and it's done.
Real search engine optimization is an ongoing process and there will be a reasonable monthly fee involved. And by the way, you should expect a regular monthly report on where your site sits in the rankings of at least the top four search engines. And the realistic goal should be to have you in the top ten results for at least one of your keywords.
The “do it yourself” articles you read on the web on search engine optimization are outdated and ineffective. The real SEO experts don't tell you their secrets.

Contact me for a quote on writing powerful website copy that turns visitors into buyers
Contact me for a quote on effective search engine optimization that puts you ahead of your competitors

Learn why placing links within your website text can boost your ranking in the search engines.

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Contact copywriter WordsmithBob in:
Minneapolis , MN

Cell: 612-226-7667
Email: info@wordsmithbob.com

WordsmithBob is your source for a:

Website writer, web text writer, web copy writer, SEO copywriter. I also offer classes, e-classes, seminars, public speaking and more. Contact us for a quote on web copywriting or search engine optimization.

This document may not be reprinted, reproduced, used or posted online or off-line without express permission from the author. If you would like to use this article, please contact the author at 612-226-7667.

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Writing for the Web, Marketing, and Sales