You may recall our September 14th post on the launch of Google Instant, Google’s advanced search engine that returns search results with each letter you type, and our follow up post a month after its launch on how it had improved the likelihood of businesses connecting with their ideal clients. Well, it’s been another month and courtesy of the Google geniuses, we’ve got another update: Instant Previews.


Instant Previews is shaking up the SEO world once again as the concept of web design comes back into focus. Because Instant Previews allows Google users to get a sneak peek at the websites in their search results, now not only can they opt to skip or visit your site based on the value of your title and description, they can check out your design before they ever click your link.


Now, some may argue that content is key and that when it comes to a website’s value, design is secondary, and that’s ultimately true. (Clichés like “lipstick on a pig” come to mind.) However, people like pretty. Whether we want to admit it or not, we’ve all got a little magpie in us and we’re drawn to shiny, attractive things – and so are your clients and potential customers.


Think about it; corporations devote entire departments to creating, updating and maintaining their websites with a team specifically focused on making sure they’re attractive and user-friendly. Why? Because: design is important.


The thing is, when your ideal client does a search for your products or services, your competition comes up in the list of results with you. Thanks to Google Instant Previews, the deciding factor in which link they choose may very well be the design, especially if your site’s content is comparable in value to the others. It’s definitely something to think about. By the way, since the previews shown are not necessarily of the homepage, every page on your site needs to be taken into consideration. <br>

Our weekly blog posts usually focus on generating ideas for maximizing your SEO efforts and increasing your presence and visibility around the Internet with tools and strategies like social media, newsletters and researching and implementing targeted keywords on your websites. Such tactics are great for helping you drive traffic to your site and generate revenue but they also take a good deal of time and effort that might be better spent working on your products or with your clients.

 

A great way an Internet marketer can take advantage of all the strategies and tactics available to him while maintaining a tight hold on the actual focus of his business is through delegation. Employing and utilizing staff to handle day-to-day administrative and marketing tasks can keep the business end of your business running while you concentrate your efforts on handling clients and creating merchandise. Of course, hiring full-time employees is a cost that many new businesses can’t easily take on. Luckily, it’s not necessary.

 

These days there are tons of Internet businesses centered on assisting companies virtually that work on an hourly or even minute-by-minute basis. That way you’re only paying for actual work, not for someone to warm a chair in your office until you have something for him to do. From scheduling appointments to organizing your databases to researching keywords and phrases for your website, assistants – virtual or otherwise – can take care of a lot of the menial but necessary tasks that are integral to running a business.

 

Whether it’s designing and launching your website, writing and posting articles, or simply checking your email and deleting spam for you, office support employees can help you wisely leverage your time so that they essentially pay for themselves. Sure, you might be willing to sacrifice all of your time and energy to handle every aspect of your business … but why would you want to?

Having a website full of duplicate content is one of the quickest ways to be dropped to the bottom of search engine rankings. To maintain a successful online business and ensure that your website’s pages are filled with informative and unique content, it’s important to evaluate and identify any redundancies on your site. When search engine robots scan the web for sites to use in results, those with pages bearing over 70% resemblance to each other are quickly dropped to the bottom of the rankings.

 

Easy, right? Just scan your website to identify whether you have duplicate content and rectify the situation. Well, no. Duplicate content isn’t only determined by onsite copy, but by meta descriptions, title elements and other items you may not think to check. Plus, what if you have hundreds of different pages on your site or templates that have redundant information? What do you do then?

 

Luckily, there are several diagnostic tools you can use to identify and then alter your website’s duplicate content. Here are a couple of free ones for you to check out:

 

• Google Webmaster Tools: Get detailed reports on your pages’ visibility, understand how Google crawls and indexes your site, find out which Google search queries drive traffic to your site and share information about your website with Google to be more involved in the search and result process.
• Webconfs.com Similar Page Checker: Determine the percentage of similarity between web pages. Simply input the two URLs and Similar Page Checker will give you a quick, precise evaluation.

 

Once you pinpoint duplicate content on your site, you can then begin to take steps to correct the situation. After you have evaluated and re-worked your site, be sure to continue to monitor your content to keep your pages at the top of search engine rankings.

 

 

A month ago Google launched its new search engine, Google Instant and the SEO blogosphere went bananas. People across the web were making huge proclamations like, “SEO is Dead!” and wringing their hands in anticipation of what was coming next. SEO authorities declared that Google Instant was going to revolutionize the way Internet marketers thought and worked.

 

And it did … kind of.

 

We’re a few weeks into this new era of web searches and from most reports, not a whole lot has changed. So far keyword search rankings haven’t been significantly impacted and neither have the numbers on search term length.

 

There has been one notable positive result: organic traffic to websites is up, which is great news for Internet marketers. As Google Instant refines search terms while a user types, they also personalize the results so that a user has a much better chance of finding exactly what they are looking for.

 

How is that great news for Internet marketers?

 

Well, for businesses who have pinpointed their ideal client and have targeted their marketing toward them specifically, Google Instant is a new best friend. The combined forces of a company’s well planned SEO efforts and Google Instant’s ability to produce individualized search results create the optimal atmosphere for joining marketers with their target audience faster and more accurately than ever!

 

 

 

Although sending out a regular newsletter may seem like a daunting task, it’s really easier than you think. You can include things like helpful tips and tricks, lists of useful information or links to articles. Marketing is a tricky game because the moment you’re ready to promote your services does not necessarily coincide with the time your customer is ready to buy. Newsletters remind your clients and potential prospects of what products and services you offer and guarantee that when they’re finally ready to make a move, you’re within easy reach.

 

A regular newsletter is a great way to stay in touch and remind your client base what your company offers and what products you have available for them. By sending periodic newsletters on your company and services, you can keep in contact with your list and ensure that your name is the first on clients’ minds when they’re ready to buy what you’re selling,

 

Offering a well thought out, professional newsletter is a great way to keep your company and product in front of your clients without pressuring them to purchase. At the same time, it ensures that they always have quick access to your contact information. As time passes, a potential client you met at a networking breakfast who is finally in the market for your product might not remember that you sell it. Or maybe in that conversation you mentioned your teleseminar, but you didn’t get the chance to talk about your retreats or eBooks. A newsletter gets that chance back for you.

 

Make sure that your newsletter short, interesting and valuable. Because it’s a representation of you and your company, you should also be sure it’s well written and looks professional. Most important, be consistent and get your message out there because, if you’re not telling them, who will?

 

Creating a website isn’t so hard. You purchase a domain, hire a designer, add your subject matter, and boom done. Right? Well … yes. However, if you’re in the business of building websites to market a product or company, you’re missing a huge component of the process that is integral for your site’s eventual success: information architecture.

 

Information architecture is an industry term that basically means website blueprint. Just as you wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint, you shouldn’t build a website without first organizing and planning your information architecture. Few ventures without a solid game plan are successful; a website is no different.

 

Here are five things to keep in mind when planning and organizing your information architecture to maximize the potential of your website’s success.

 

1.     What is the goal of your website? Whether you are looking to sell products, secure a fan base for your new novel or create an online community for harmonica enthusiasts, you need to know where you’re trying to go with your site so you can make a plan to get there.

2.     Who will be using your website? In order to create a clear, easy-to-navigate site for your users, you need to understand who they are and what they’re looking for.

3.    What content will you be putting on your site? Identify what you need to include as well as what you don’t need to include so that you can organize and layout your site to be of optimal use for your visitors.

4.    How should your information be organized? Look at what your site is offering and work with your designer to plan the most logical, direct path for getting the information or products to your client. For example, if you’re selling pink bunny slippers, you want it to be super easy for your client to find their size, place the order and check out in your shopping cart without having to guess where to enter their payment information or shipping address.

5.     Don’t you love it when a plan comes together? Once you get to the build phase, take comfort in the knowledge that you have developed a well thought out, organized blueprint for creating the exact site you have in mind.

 

 

 

For people starting new Internet marketing ventures, discovering the strategies and tactics of SEO can be very exciting. When you first learn about search engine optimization, it’s easy to get caught up and a lot of people end up overdoing it. Of course you want to do what you can to attract spiders and search engine robots to your site, but too much of a good thing can be detrimental. What is known as “over optimization” comes across as trying too hard, and frequently leads to a lower ranking on search engine results, not higher.

Search engines such as Google and Yahoo implement programs that dispatch virtual creatures known as robots or spiders out to the Internet to gather information so that they can categorize and rank the millions of sites on the web. Their findings are then compiled so that they know where your site should appear in search results. Proper headlines, keywords and anchors are integral for identifying the content of your site and attracting the attention of the spiders. However, giving them too much emphasis can backfire, causing the exact opposite result than what you are hoping for.

A common SEO-newbie mistake is creating too many cross-links. If every link on your website sends your visitor to another page on your site, the robots are going to catch on and most likely lower your rankings based on their findings. Another thing to look out for is repetitive phrasing. Using the exact wording in your page title, H1 headline, sub-headlines and anchors can come across as spammy and send a signal to the robots that your site may not be valuable to viewers.

The point is to make efforts at improving your search engine rankings while finding a good balance with keeping your content natural and “humanized”. A site that comes across as standardized or obviously manipulated for optimization will have a negative effect on the spiders and will decrease your chances of being found via a web search.

Are you a professional looking to start your own Internet business?

Do you need help navigating the challenges and obstacles of starting your own company?

Could you use the support and structure of a franchise that teaches you the ins and outs of Internet marketing while allowing you the freedom to create and develop within your own area of expertise?

Join me for a FREE one-hour webinar: Build a Professional Internet Marketing Business

This Thursday, September 9 at 12:00PM PDT. https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/597913345.

The hour you invest will provide you an inside view as to how I left the corporate world after 20 years and have been building my own successful business providing high value internet marketing and consulting solutions to help my clients achieve their business goals.

If you are looking for a new career in a high growth and exciting industry, then don’t miss this opportunity to get an inside view of how you can start up your own business quickly and successfully.

I started WSI Net Advantage after I got laid off from a successful senior management career in the electronics industry. I set out to start my own business but found it difficult to package and communicate my experience, even when I knew I had extensive knowledge and skills to offer. Using the WSI products and marketing tools, I successfully created WSI Net Advantage (www.WSINetAdvantage.com), a professional Internet Marketing services company, a franchise under WSI Internet Consulting, based in Toronto, Canada.

The Internet is constantly growing and most businesses only scratch the surface when it comes to taking advantage of the power of the web. After joining WSI, I became one of the most informed people about Internet Marketing out there. With the marketing and product support provided by the WSI franchisor, I have grown my business consistently, year after year.

 

I created my own successful Internet business; in my webinar, Build a Professional Internet Marketing Business, I will teach you how to do the same. Click here to sign up: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/597913345.

If the rat race has got you down and you are looking to work for yourself in an intellectually challenging field providing continuing growth, this webinar is for you.

If the thought of going through the start-up phase for your own business is overwhelming, attend this webinar to learn how the marketing and product support of a WSI Franchise can kick start your Internet business and get your new career off the ground.

Join us for this one-hour webinar on Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 12:00 PM PDT.

 

Please visit https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/597913345 to reserve your spot. You won’t want to miss this!

For entrepreneurs marketing an Internet business, understanding and implementing the basics of search engine optimization, as well as general marketing strategies, is an essential part of creating a successful online presence and a positive balance in your company’s bank account.

The ultimate goal of any marketing effort, SEO based or not, is to widen your reach and increase your audience. If your company’s name isn’t the first one potential clients think of when they need the service you provide, it’s your competition who will get their business. So, how do you make sure that doesn’t happen?

Last week we began a two-part series on the do’s and don’ts of small business SEO, offering a list of 5 do’s for successful Internet marketing strategy. This week we offer the don’ts:

1. Don’t Spam. Not now, not ever. Spam includes bombarding customers and potential clients with unsolicited emails and materials, as well as inundating unrelated blogs, guest books and the like with links to your site.
2. Don’t procrastinate on implementing SEO efforts. No matter whether you’re launching a brand new site or upgrading an existing one, it’s never too soon to think SEO. Early on, develop a process to manage, monitor and upgrade your SEO efforts and stay up to date on current Internet marketing practices. Keep in close touch with the needs and wants of your client base so that you can focus your SEO efforts on what matters the most.
3. Don’t let an SEO company fully take the reins. In many cases, hiring a professional SEO company to manage your marketing is your best bet in maximizing the potential of your SEO efforts. However, don’t assign the task and consider it “handled.” Participate in the process and stay in close contact with your SEO advisors. They may know Internet marketing, but you know your clients. It is your job to make sure their needs and interests are kept at the forefront of every strategy implemented.
4. Don’t over-Flash. By now you are well acquainted with the search engine robots commonly known as spiders. Spiders are the ones in charge of assessing your site’s content and reporting it back to the search engines to establish your ranking in the results. If your website is completely designed in Flash or Java, the spiders won’t be able to read it and all the keyword research in the world won’t help you.
5. Don’t forget the importance of keywords. If you use overly general or inappropriate keywords, your site will be incorrectly assessed by robots and placed in the wrong search engine results lists. Also, remember to use keywords with an emphasis on buying over research-based ones. For example, “plumber” implies as search for someone to do plumbing tasks, “plumbing” implies more of a do-it-yourself search. (For more on this, see our post Target Potential Clients Using Keywords)

In an industry as complex and individualized as search engine optimization, there are literally thousands of specific strategies and practices to maximize your marketing efforts. Hopefully this list of don’ts, as well as last week’s list of do’s will get you started on the right path to your Internet business’ ultimate success.

Marketing an Internet business requires some tricky maneuvering. It’s important to understand and implement the basics of search engine optimization while understanding that creating a successful online presence is more than using the right keywords and creating spider-friendly websites.

The purpose of any Internet marketing strategy is to increase your online visibility while augmenting your company’s bank accounts. Your website needs to be at the top of search engine results as well as relevant and useful to your target market. So, how do you make sure that when potential clients search for the service you provide, that it’s your company they go to first?

Presenting part one of a two-part series on the dos and don’ts of small business marketing. Part one we offer a list of 5 Internet marketing do’s that will increase your online visibility and keep your company and services at the forefront of potential customers’ minds.

1. Expand your expertise. As an entrepreneur, you have to be well versed on much more than your products and area of expertise. In order to run and maintain a successful business, you need to understand the Internet’s marketing strategies and systems. We’re not suggesting that you have to be an SEO expert per se, but you should learn enough to give yourself a competitive edge. You can start by reading our post Why Search Engine Optimization is Vital to Your Success

2. Build a better website. Start by taking an objective look at your website in comparison with your top competition’s websites. How does yours rank? If you’re not within the top two or three, it’s time for an upgrade. Try viewing your site through your customer’s eyes. If you were in the market for your product or services, what would you expect to see on a website advertising them.

3. Cater to your clientele. Always keep your clients in mind when creating your website or developing marketing strategies. As you learn more about SEO techniques, it’s easy to get caught up in trying to follow all of the marketing gurus’ rules and tips. Be sure to write any and all content for your clients first before worrying about, for example, getting the right percentage of keywords in your text. It’s your clients who are going to be paying for your services, not search engine robots.

4. Remember the robots. Just because we promote keeping your customer first in mind when developing marketing strategies doesn’t mean you cater to them only. Keywords, meta tags, proper link names and so forth are all important elements in creating a spider-friendly site that gets pushed to the top of search engine results. Use web analysis software to learn how search engines view your pages, set goals for increased views, and watch your progress as you achieve them.

5. Prepare to persevere. You should realize that creating a marketing plan that gets results is not an overnight affair. One of the most important elements in any business’ marketing strategy is patience. It takes time to research and develop strategies that work well and once they’re up and running, you’re still responsible for keeping them current and relevant for an ever changing market. Your customers will grow and develop over time and so should your business.

Now that you know what to do, go out there and do it. Also, be sure to check back for part two … what not to do.