When I was a teenager, I learned a valuable lesson about dating from one of the Wise Men in my life.  He told me if my goal was to get a girl to go on a date with me (I know quaint, huh?  Oh for simpler times), I had two options. 

Strategy Number One involved asking as many girls as possible.  If I asked enough girls enough times, one of them was bound to say yes.  You gots to love those odds – although maybe I was going to have to sacrifice a bit on “quality.”

Strategy Number Two involved focusing in on one single girl, spending the same amount of effort as in #1, but completely focused on a smaller “market.”  The odds were lower,  but oh man, she was perfect.

I’ve realized two funny things about this lesson over the years.  First, he was right.  Really these were my only options that weren’t depressing – who wants to wait for a friend to set you up with someone?  Does that ever really work out?  Second, these same two strategies are what I get to choose from when looking at search engine marketing.

The principle holds true whether you are talking about Search Engine Optimization or Paid Marketing such as Google Adwords.  In either case, you can pursue your customers with as very broad net, or stalker-like precision. (more…)

Let’s start at square one on this topic.  Before we even talk about what you want to write about in your website, we need to understand what it is your customers will search for.  The question to ask yourself is, “What will my customer type into the search box in the search engine?” 

Be careful, because it may not be what you think.  For example, insurance agents tend to talk about “auto insurance” while insurance customers tend to search for info on “car insurance” – at a clip of about 40:1!  So if an insurance agent has lots of information about auto insurance on his website and his potential customers keep asking Google to teach them about car insurance, the likelihood that they’ll find his website at all is almost zero.  So be careful in choosing your sites wording that you utilize the words that your customers use.

In addition to the terms that people use, you’ll also want to add (more…)

We’ll cover here both the basic steps and your thought processes that will make your content Search Engine Friendly.   First off, you need to determine if the new info that you are adding should be put on a “page” or a “post.”  The process for both is almost identical, but there are a couple of differences to be aware of.

You should put your new info on a page if:

1. The information is relatively static – directions to your business, contact information, return policy for example.
2. The topic answers common questions your customers have – store hours and method of payment for example.  Essentially, info about “how” you do business.

You should put your new info on in a post if:

1. The information is the “latest installment” on a topic that you cover regularly – my latest advice on improving your website, the newest fashions at your clothing boutique, or your thoughts on last night’s basketball game.
2. Most of the information that people would be searching for your site, covering “what you do” should be in posts as this format lends itself to making your site Search Engine friendly.

In this post we’ll cover the specifics of (more…)