How to Turn Your Website into Money with Good SEO

A Guest Blog Post from
Bare Knuckle Marketing

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of implementing a digital marketing strategy that helps you rank better in the search engines and drives quality traffic to your site. It makes sense that many businesses focus their energy on how well they rank in Google. On average, most websites will receive the majority of their site traffic from Google. And Google is by far the world’s most popular search engine. Google is a verb. Everyone uses Google. That’s why when people ask what Bare Knuckle Marketing does, I tell them “I get you ranked in Google”. But what I really do is turn your website into money, and I’ll share with you some tips on how to do that.

First and foremost, you may need to shift your expectations. Here are a few tips:

• SEO isn’t a one time, quick fix. It’s digital marketing, and marketing is cyclical.
• Don’t chase rankings. Due to personalized results and user settings, Google serves different results to different users. Focus on metrics. Where is your traffic coming from, and is it turning into money once it arrives at your site?
• Diversify your digital strategy. You’ll spend more time trying to gain visibility for one phrase or in one ad network than you will if you take a holistic approach. You’ll also reach more of your market and build brand recognition with a diverse digital strategy. And, the search engines will see you as an authority.
• Success doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s not easy. Hard work pays off, and to gain visibility online, you have to be active online.
• Don’t believe everything you read online. Do your homework, research, and research some more.

It takes money to make money. Not everyone has the luxury of a bottomless pit of working capital, so we have to be budget conscious. But know that investing in your digital strategy could pay off in the long run, just as you would invest in a brick and mortar shop location, or invest in education or employing competent staff. Depending on your budget, here are some wise investments you can make that will help you turn your SEO strategy into money:

• Invest in a good SEO. A good SEO will focus on ROI (return on investment). They will know what you’re selling and how to sell more of it. Good SEOs usually aren’t cheap either, so if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and you will pay for it in the long run. A good SEO will focus on bringing the right kind of traffic to your site that converts to leads and sales.
• Invest in a website that is search engine friendly from the start. All too often, SEOs are an afterthought... and aren’t contacted until after thousands of dollars have been invested in a website that they discover has to be redesigned because it won’t rank well in search engines. Everyone says they “do SEO” but find someone who has experience, as well as a list of references. And when you call, ask them “did they turn your website into money?”
• Invest in some advertising. Whether it’s Google AdWords, Facebook ads, or targeted banner ads on related websites, properly placed ads can generate additional traffic. Online advertising is measurable and you can learn a lot about your demographics, and can track the campaigns and measure ROI. At the end of the day your goal is to make more than you spend, and turn those ads into money!
• Invest in a blog, and host it on your own website. A blog has the potential for doubling your traffic, and can attract an audience at a higher conversion rate. If you double your traffic, and it’s traffic that is actually more qualified and more likely to buy your products or services, how will that affect your bottom line? You can do the math, but it sounds like you might be able to turn this one into money!

Armed with the right attitude, being ready to work, and ready to meet your market with the quality content they are looking for will help you focus your efforts in the right place so you can turn your website into money.

Have you had an experience where you received a positive ROI on a digital marketing strategy? Share with us how you were able to turn your site into money. Your story may just inspire others or give them an idea that they haven’t yet considered in their strategy.

Bare Knuckle Marketing is a Digital Marketing Agency in Cincinnati Ohio. Find us online at http://www.bareknucklestrategy.com or email us at info@bareknucklestrategy.com.

The Small Business Guide to Online Findability

A guest blog post from Scott Gingsberg www.hellomynameisscott.com

Marketing is simple:

Create a product that customers can stumble upon, obsess over, fall in love with, become addicted to and tell their friends about.

There. I just saved you $80,000 in business school tuition.

You’re welcome.

OK, so, maybe marketing isn’t THAT simple.

HERE’S THE REAL SECRET: If you want customers to stumble upon you, you need to become more findable.

Here are ten strategies to boost your findability:

1.      Definition. Peter Morville is the father of findability. He first defined the term in 2005 in his book Ambient Findability, as “The ability of users to identify an appropriate website and navigate the pages of the site to discover and retrieve relevant information resources.”

Ease and comfort. That’s the secret. And, being findable isn’t just limited to online. When I emailed Peter for a more recent quotation on the topic, his answer blew me away:

“For every company that's been flushing money down the toilet – by sending radio messages to people on iPods, sending TV messages to people zapping by TiVo, placing ads in death-spiral newspapers, running ads in Yellow Pages that nobody under 70 uses  – it's about time to reconsider the budgets for outbound messages versus making yourself findable by real people in the real world.”

Relevancy and realness. There’s your next secret. And that’s only the beginning.

FIND OUT: Are you winking in the dark?

2.      Purpose. “The fundamental goal of findability is to persistently connect your audience with the stuff you write, design, and build,” explained author and blogger Aaron Walter from A List Apart Magazine. By persistent he means constantly showing up on people’s radars. By connect he means making your company the conduit. And by audience he means customers, readers, viewers or whomever comprises your constituency.

Walter also wrote, “When you create relevant and valuable content, presented in a machine readable format, and provide tools that facilitate content exchange and portability, you’ll help ensure that the folks you’re trying to reach get your message.”

There’s that word again: Relevancy. I hope you’re noticing a trend.

FIND OUT: What content do you want to become known for?

3.      Survey yourself. Speaking of solving problem: How did YOU “find” the last five websites, stores, restaurants, products or businesspeople that you absolutely fell in love with? What were the exact steps that took you to those sites? And how did those businesses solve your problem? I challenge you to make a list, extract the commonalities of findability and then emulate those attributes in your own business.

You might be shocked at how findable (or not findable) you already are.

FIND OUT: How do YOU usually find things?

4.      Take every interview. As a small business owner myself, the biggest contributing factor to my findability (aside from writing) are the 500+ interviews I’ve done since 2002. From major media appearances on The Today Show, CNN and 20/20, to expert opinion pieces published in WSJ, COSMO, FastCompany and Investor’s Business Daily, to more casual interviews with niche bloggers and podcasters, the point is: Interviews are highly findable. Period. What’s more, interviews position you in a thought leadership role. That way, when people DO find you – you’re perceived as the expert.

My suggestion: Take every single one of them. It doesn’t matter if it’s USA Today, some blogger in Taiwan or a local high school journalism class. If somebody wants to interview you, your answer is, “What time is good for you?”

Interviews lead to more interviews. Interviews get traffic. Interviews are great practice talking about your product. Interviews make you findable. The media is your customer.

FIND OUT: How many interviews have you turned down because the publication didn’t have the words, “New York Times” in the title?

5.      Divorce your ego. Heather Lutze, author of The Findability Formula, says the key reason why businesspeople fail at findability is that they do not take ownership of how they want to be found, nor do they understand what buying customers are typing into the search engines when looking for that company’s product or service.

“Business owners often hold tight to a concept I call ego keywords. These are the broad search terms owners get a physical rush over when thinking about seeing their name listed on the first page of that search results page, such as ‘television,’ ‘stationary,’ florist, etc.”  These terms get searched hundreds of thousands of times each month, and they get dizzy thinking about all that fantastic exposure.”

Lesson learned: You aren’t your customer. It doesn’t matter what YOU love; it matters what THEY’RE searching for. After all, you can't spell "google" without "ego."

FIND OUT: What’s standing in the way of YOUR findability?

6.      Research. Speaking of keywords, meet Adam Kreitman. He’s a colleague of mine and the owner of the Internet marketing consultancy, Words That Click. Building off of Heather’s comment, Adam suggests we ask three questions to boost findability:

·         Which search terms are the people you want to discover you typing into Google?

·         How many people are typing them in each day?

·         How many competitors would you be competing with if you targeted those keywords?

Sure, answering these questions will take some thought and some research, Adam says, but taking the time to do so is essential to making yourself more findable.

FIND OUT: What keywords are the tickets to overflowing with Google juice?

7.      Nichify yourself. “If you're a financial planner, it's going to be tough to get people to discover your generic financial planning blog in the sea of generic financial planning blogs,” Adam warned.

“But, if you blog about small cap international stocks in limerick form, then you're sure to stand alone.” He’s not suggesting becoming a poet. Rather, to think about whatever everyone who does what you do is already doing – then do the opposite. Remember: The more rules you are the exception to, the more findable you become.

FIND OUT: Are you a “same-old-lame-old” business?

8.      Demonstrate to people that you're worth being discovered. When Adam first offered me this suggestion, I nearly peed myself. What a concept! Be worthy of being discovered. Wow.

“The best strategy for accomplishing this is to push out a steady stream of original, quality, remarkable content. Make it worthwhile for people to overcome their ‘click inertia,’ visit your website, watch your video (and then, more importantly) come back for more.”

FIND OUT: Do you have something worth finding?

REMEMBER: Create a product that customers can stumble upon, obsess over, fall in love with, become addicted to and tell their friends about.

Make yourself more findable than a smile at a nudist colony.

Scott Ginsberg is the World Record Holder of Wearing Nametags. He's the author of thirteen books, an award-winning blogger, professional speaker and creator of NametagTV.com. He specializes in approachability, identity and execution, and for more info about books, speaking engagements, strategic planning crusades or to rent Scott's brain for a one-on-one session, email scott@hellomynameisscott.com.

SEO on a Shoe String

Starting AddressTwo from scratch four years ago on a shoestring budget meant that I didn't have a lot to spend on Pay-Per-Click and high-dollar SEO consultants, yet I still needed to be found on Google in order to survive.  Within the first year, we outranked HighRise for the term 'Simple CRM' and today we rank page 1 for several top terms.  All in all, I've spent no money to speak of achieving these results.  It wasn't trickery or secret sauce that accomplished it, just some tried and true methods.  Here's some tips you can actually use today:

1) Title Tags.  Most of the money people spend on SEO tactics have historically included link-building, which is very labor intensive and therefore costly.  But, the #1 most important factor in your site's ranking is right under your nose: page titles.  The title is what shows up on the tab in your browser for your page.  Be sure to use your keywords in those title tags.

2) Authority.  The problem facing many start-ups is that your domain name has only been registered for a matter of months.  When Google looks at your domain, they see a potentially fly-by-night company and they will be slow to give your content any ranking for a long time.  You can build their confidence in your domain, however, with a few tactics:
  -  Register for 3 or 5 years, not just 1.  When registering your domain, many people go with the cheapest option (a 12-month registration) but registering for 5 years tells Google, "we are here to stay."
  -  Get a few inbound links from other domains with higher authority.  It doesn't take many, one or two will help.  Ask a friend who has had a website established for many years to link to yours.  This will give instant credibility to your domain name.

3) Get people talking.  Viral campaigns, social campaigns, user-generated video campaigns, and the like all get people talking about your product, and when they talk, they link.  It's that simple.  The same old principals of word-of-mouth and good PR that have garnered success for decades still work in the online world. 

Why give these three tips first?  Why am I not talking about inbound links, content, keyword density, etc?  Because until you get these three things right, all other efforts will be null.  I built links for two years trying to gain ranking for the term Small Business CRM.  Having the phrase "Small Business" made it a highly competitive term.  But when I heard the tid-bit about extending my domain registration to 5 years, I shot onto page 1 in just a week after extending my registration.  Amazing!  Don't neglect the basics!