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How Good PR Can Help Your SEO Results

March 7, 2008 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

Have you exhausted all of your search engine optimization strategies and you’re looking for a way to boost your website’s popularity and drive additional traffic?

You may not have thought about it before, but actually public relations (PR) is a great way to increase your natural/organic search engine results. And even better news – you don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company to benefit from PR services.

With the vast amount of information published online, you too can gain valuable press, which can boost your website traffic, and eventually lead to more sales. It’s a natural next step after you’ve launched your website, performed SEO and tried other marketing methods such as pay-per-click advertising.

How it works:

First, you write a press release, educational article or case study and submit it to your list of reporters in your targeted media (or have someone like AimFire Marketing do this for you). Once you receive media coverage, the particular media outlet (newspaper, magazine, website or blog) posts the story (or a copy of your press release) on their website or online news room. These stories should (in most cases) include a link back to your website. Make sure to include a blurb at the end of your press release or article with information about your company and a link to your website.

Search engines like Google and Yahoo assign a value to the popularity of your website, so the more websites that link to you, and the more popular those websites are, the higher your website will rank. The SEO term for this is called Link Building.

So if you’re struggling with search engine optimization and wondering what other tactics you might use, give PR a try, and you might find that your search engine rankings improve.

Filed Under: Marketing-Mix, Public Relations, Search Engine Optimization, Website Development

Top Search Engine Optimization Mistakes

January 14, 2008 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

Are you making any of these Common SEO Mistakes?

Here are what I consider the top mistakes companies make when trying to optimize their websites for search engine visibility:

1.   Not doing the right research before you optimize your website. Many people believe they know the keywords and phrases people are using to find their products or services online, but often they are wrong. Without the proper research, you may find that you have optimized your website for a set of keywords in which no one is searching. It does you no good to earn a rank of #1 on Google for that term if people are not using that term in their searches. Let’s say that you own a floral shop in Indianapolis and you’d like to optimize your website to attract Valentine’s Day shoppers. But do you optimize your website for the keyword phrases ‘red roses Indianapolis ,’ ‘florist Indianapolis ’ or ‘floral shop Indianapolis ?’ Without the proper research, you have no way of knowing. 

2.   Trying to ‘trick’ the search engines. Many people think that search engine optimization is all about repeating the keywords as many times as possible on the website page, and even resorting to using white text or other tactics to ‘trick’ the search engines into deeming your site the most relevant. Search engines have caught on to such tactics and if you resort to them, you may actually hurt, not help, your chances of a high ranking.

3.   Thinking that SEO is all about the meta-tags or code. Good search engine optimization is much more than the meta-tags, or the source code at the top of a web page that indicates a page’s title, description and keyword list. SEO involves many factors, including the popularity of your website among other related websites in the same industry category; the number of links from other websites to yours, as well as the quality and relevance of your website content for the given keyword phrase. So focus on the copy, not the code, to see results from your SEO efforts.

4.   Ignoring your website’s navigation in your SEO efforts. Your website’s link structure, or navigation, plays a big part in your search engine optimization results. If your navigation consists of vague phrases such, as ‘about us’ or ‘our products,’ you will have a hard time getting ranked for your product or service keyword terms.  Additionally, if you build your website’s navigational structure as graphic or image-based buttons, you may also struggle with SEO because the search engines are crawling for words, not the pictures.

5.   Forgetting a site map for your website. Many people omit this part of their website and don’t realize its significance in search engine optimization. Just adding a site map can do wonders for your SEO results. Search engines such as Google often use a site map to determine a site’s content and relevance, so don’t forget to include one in your next website design.

6.   Using too many graphics on your website. I touched on this topic in #4, above, but it bears repeating that using too many photos, graphics, excessive Flash or other animation on your website can be detrimental to your search engine optimization efforts. This is because if your graphics tend to take up a majority of the ‘space’ on the page, they tend to dominate the words on the page, and thus force the words further down the page.

7.   Thinking SEO is just about website submission tactics. Many people mistake site submission tools as search engine optimization. While it’s true that once you launch a website, sometimes those site submission tools where you submit a website as new can help a new website appear on search engines, this is not search engine optimization. The art and science of SEO is much more than that. As you know, the phrase, “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply to websites. Not only do you need to market your website in order to attract visitors, you also need to optimize it correctly. The phrase should be rewritten for websites to read, “if you build it right, they will come.”

8.   Being afraid to redesign your website from scratch. You may have developed a beautiful website, and maybe even spent thousands of dollars on the design. But if your website has crucial components missing, or if it was not designed from an SEO standpoint, it may be harder to correct without starting from scratch. My advice to you: Don’t hold on to a website that is not giving you the SEO results you need! You are better off redesigning the website for results than having a beautiful website that no one can find.

9.   Thinking of starting SEO after you have developed the website. On that note, it’s much easier to search-engine-optimize a website before the content, navigation and design, not after. So involve an SEO professional before you nail down any of the above elements and you’ll save a lot of rework down the road, while enjoying better results too.

10.  Afraid to invest in quality SEO services. Many businesses will invest tens of thousands of dollars on a website design and back-end system, only to skimp on SEO. Many of these same businesses then have no problem shelling out more marketing dollars for pay-per-click advertising. But what they’re forgetting is that SEO will pay for itself in the long run. Wouldn’t you rather show up first in the natural search results than have to pay $1 or $2 to appear first in the paid results? Think about what your average cost of sale or lead might be within your organization. If just one person finds you online through your natural search results, it may cover the cost of optimizing your entire site. Weigh this against the cost of other marketing investments and you’ll probably find that SEO is very cost-effective because you only pay for a bulk of your SEO efforts once, rather than many times for impression-based marketing (advertisements).

11.  Not monitoring your SEO results regularly. Generally, it’s a good idea to track your website’s search engine rankings regularly to determine if you need to make changes to your website to improve your results. I recommend doing this at least quarterly, and ideally, on a monthly basis. If you have dropped significantly in rankings, it could be due to a number of factors, including the freshness of your content or an increase in competition.

Filed Under: SEO Strategies, Search Engine Optimization, Website Development, Website Development and SEO

Jump-start your Marketing Efforts

January 9, 2008 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

Stuck in a rut with your marketing efforts this year? 

Here are some ways to get started on your marketing efforts this year:

These are just a few ideas to get you moving forward with your marketing initiatives.

Filed Under: Email Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Plans, Marketing Strategy, Marketing-Mix, Search Engine Optimization

Do Just One Thing to Market Your Business

January 7, 2008 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

At the start of every year, I feel compelled (albeit, for a short time) to do some major cleaning and organizing around my house. As I am de-cluttering one area, inevitably I’ll discover another area or item that needs attention. And so begins my growing to-do list. But I acutally found that it makes me feel better to have a list, checking things off as I go.

So how does this apply to marketing our businesses, you ask? Well, when the task of marketing your business seems a bit overwhelming at first, start by doing just one thing. For example, start with your website. Work on making your website content search-engine friendly, and get some new business flowing from some new, online leads. Next, work on your pay-per-click advertising campaign. Or develop a killer direct mail piece. But pick something fun to start. Don’t worry about the other items on your list until you’re done with the one item.

Once you start something and do it a few times, it becomes a habit. Resolve to do one thing to boost your marketing this month. Then another. And another. And before you know it, you’ve made a lot of progress.

Filed Under: Marketing, Marketing Plans, Marketing Strategy, Search Engine Optimization

Spring Cleaning for your Marketing

April 30, 2007 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

Revisit your Marketing Plan for Better Results

So we’re into the fourth month of the year. You had good intentions for your marketing plan and budget this year but somehow your efforts have slipped. Or are some of you thinking — what marketing plan? Never fear. Spring is the time for rebirth and renewal. It’s also the time to revisit your marketing efforts, whether you’ve tackled them yet or are just getting started. So give your marketing strategy a “spring cleaning” by reviewing the following checklist:

1. Your marketing plan and budget. Review your marketing strategy for the year, as well as your marketing investment for the first quarter. Do you need to decrease your budget, spend more wisely or increase it to keep up with demand? It’s important to plan what you’re going to spend throughout the year, as well as the best marketing tactics for the dollar. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your money as well as your time and effort. If you find yourself without the time to devote to executing your marketing plan, hire a consultant or internal marketing person to help out, even if it’s just part-time. Or promise to spend 30 minutes a day on marketing your business.

2. Your website. How well is your website performing? Check out your site statistics over the last quarter, or for the past year if it’s been ages since you looked at your web statistics. Where are people finding you? Are they gravitating toward certain pages or exiting on certain pages? Does your site reflect your current company, marketing message and product/service line? Could your website use an updated look? Does it need to be optimized for search engine visibility? Most importantly, is your website properly contributing to your company’s sales goals?

3. Your customer and prospect database. Do you regularly communicate with your prospect and customer base, or do you even know if some of the people on your list are still at that address or phone number? Do you need email addresses for your contacts? Now is the time to consider appending or updating your database. You can hire a company to do this, or you can have administrative staff update the list by making calls or verifying the information online. This will ensure that you aren’t wasting your marketing dollars on people who are no longer working at your prospect’s place of business, and makes your company look more professional. If you need to increase your database, consider a promotional campaign to generate new contacts, or utilize business cards from tradeshows or other networking. If you’re not communicating with your database, consider outsourcing telemarketing efforts, start an eNewsletter or devote an hour a day to prospecting by phone or email.

4. Your brand. Take a look at your existing logo, tagline or even your company name. Is it current and does it adequately represent your brand? If not, maybe now is the time to consider re-branding. Sometimes a new look can make all the difference, and make your company stand out as hip, current and “in the know.” You don’t have to spend a ton of money on a new look, either. Check out some of your competitors’ brands to make sure you are keeping up and that your brand coincides with your position  in the marketplace.

5. Your marketing materials. Have you been sending out the same tri-fold brochure or sales sheet for the past five or 10 years? If so, it’s time to take a hard look at your current marketing materials to ensure that you are presenting the right image to prospects.  Think about revising both the design and the text to make them more current or simply to offer something new, especially if the materials are not doing the job of converting leads to sales.

6. Your advertisements and promotions. Again, the same here with your advertisements. Are they outdated? Have you been running the same promotional campaigns or coupons again and again? If they are working well, obviously keep doing what you’re doing, but perhaps a few tweaks or tests here and there could make your campaigns even better. If you haven’t been doing advertising or promotions, or you’d like to supplement your existing ads, maybe now is the time to think about how to introduce them or make them better. This goes for both print and online advertising such as pay-per-click advertising.

So wipe the dust off your marketing plan. Maybe your spring cleaning efforts will contribute to a fantastic rest-of-the-year result.

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding, Budget Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Plans, Marketing Strategy, Search Engine Optimization, Website Development

The Marketing Mix: Are you Limiting Yourself with your Current Marketing Strategy?

February 2, 2007 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

Does your marketing strategy consist of only one or two tactics? I can’t count the number of times I have read a business profile online or in the newspaper where the business owner is asked, “how do you market your business?” The number one response is usually, “Well, we rely mostly on word of mouth or customer referrals.”

While I’m not discounting the value of word of mouth marketing (it can be very effective), relying solely on this to drive your business forward is very dangerous.

What about those of you who would respond, “Well, we have a website and do some search engine keyword advertising, and sometimes we send out an eNewsletter or printed newsletter.” Or what about, “We make some sales calls and do some networking.” Shame on you!

Some companies are lucky and can survive on a few marketing tactics alone, but they are drastically limiting their potential revenue opportunities. Why not utilize as many tactics into your marketing plan as you can?

Not all marketing activities cost money. Many of them only require a few hours of your time or a few additional dollars (you’d be surprised). And don’t tell me you can’t find 30 minutes a day to devote toward marketing your business. Surely you owe it to yourself and your business to try something new. Quit making excuses!

Fact: The more opportunities your prospect has to see your message, the greater chance they’ll respond and take action (buy your product, contact you for more info, etc.). Experts say that it takes an average of 8 to 12 impressions in order for a prospect to notice you and respond. That’s a lot of sales calls or referrals! Why not have your message in multiple places so that you are the first thing that comes to mind when the person thinks to purchase your particular product or service?

The Marketing Mix: Here are some marketing vehicles to get you started. How many of these can you incorporate to your current strategy?

  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Search Engine Marketing (Keyword Advertising or Pay Per Click – PPC)
  • Online Advertising (banner ads, online classifieds, etc.)
  • Email Marketing 
  • Email Newsletter Advertising
  • Publicity/PR Efforts (sending out press releases, contacting reporters, etc.)
  • Article Submission
  • Print Advertising
  • Broadcast (TV/Radio) Advertising
  • Tradeshows
  • Event Sponsorship (Industry or Nonprofit)
  • Webinars/Teleseminars/Workshops
  • Live Seminars or Speaking Engagements
  • Referral or Incentive Programs
  • Directory Listings
  • Yellow Page Advertising

These are just a few ideas. Imagine the results if you added just one or two of these additional tactics to your marketing mix, rather than relying on your standard or “tried and true” methods to generate leads. Remember, if you continue to do what you’ve always done, you’ll continue to get the same results. Is that good enough for your business? If you want more than that, I think you know what to do. So get out there and do it!

Filed Under: Advertising, Budget Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Plans, Marketing Strategy, Public Relations, Search Engine Optimization

Marketing Planning for the Year Ahead: Will you have a successful year?

December 18, 2006 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

For most businesses, the end of the year is the time to begin the planning process for the following year. And for many sales and marketing professionals, you have the luxury of starting fresh with a brand new (and hopefully larger) marketing budget.

Take the time to analyze the past year’s marketing performance. Was it all that you hoped it would be or do you drastically need to do better? How can you make sure you do it right next year? Here are some suggestions:

1. Do you have a marketing plan? Has it been updated within the last year? Don’t move reactively through the year. If you do, you’re more likely to make mistakes. Take the time to:

  • Research potential advertising options and how they fit with your budget
  • Analyze what associations to join/remain involved in and what tradeshows to potentially exhibit
  • Review what competitors are up to (visit their websites, newsrooms, etc.) and note any new competitors
  • Survey customers’ needs and talk with sales representatives to determine how on-target this year’s marketing really was

2. Analyze your website: Does it need a refresh? Some things to consider when refreshing your website:

  • Is it user-friendly? 
  • Does it adequately represent all of your company’s products/services?
  • Does it do a good job of “selling” for you and moving prospects through the sales process?
  • Is it optimized for the search engines so that you come up on searches for your product, company or industry?

3. Think about your marketplace, your positioning and what trends will  shape the upcoming year. This could relate to your pricing (whether or not to lower or raise prices), your products/services (whether to add more or to narrow your focus). Make a list of trends as well as business opportunities, threats and weaknesses that you want to overcome in the next year.

4. Set some measurable objectives for your business. Whether your goals are to expand into a new industry, pump up your publicity efforts, get more involved in industry associations or update and optimize your website, write down your goals. Align your budget and your manpower next year to ensure that you achieve those goals.

Happy New Year, and good luck!

Filed Under: Business, Marketing, Marketing Plans, Marketing Strategy, Public Relations, Search Engine Optimization, Website Development

Seven Marketing Ideas You can Use Now

August 21, 2006 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

For those business owners or managers who are strapped for time, and looking for ways to market your business with little cost or effort, look no further than these 7 great marketing ideas to get you started:

1. Capture customer testimonials. Call your clients on the phone and “interview” them for five minutes, and see if they’d be willing to be “featured” on your website, or in marketing material. Many of them will be happy to oblige. Testimonials are great because they offer a completely objective viewpoint on your business. You can also add their photos or even video testimonials to your website.

2. Create a referral program. Who better to promote your products or services than those who sell to the same target audience? Find companies who might sell a related product or service, and see if they would be interested in doing some cross-promotional advertising or offer them a percentage of sales or some other incentive for referring business your way. You can even implement employee incentive programs.  

3. Add title tags to your website pages. No element of the page is more significant for search engine optimization than the title tag. Ask your webmaster to alter these tags for each page of your site, using keyword phrases that are most commonly searched upon in your industry or in your region.

4. Create a “free report”. If you would like to capture more subscribers for your email newsletter or gather additional prospects from your website, offer to give the prospect a free report with valuable information that they can use. It could be as simple as a one-page article, or it could be ways to save money on your energy bills, or advice, depending on your product or service offering and what might be valuable to your target audience.

5. Create a USP. Many companies prefer to be all things to all people, but differentiating yourself in the marketplace can help your company stand out. Think about why you are different and why people buy from you and create your own USP, or unique selling proposition. Use this statement or concept in all of your marketing and sales efforts.

6. Add a signature line to your emails. Many people overlook this opportunity to up sell or announce a special promotion. How many emails have you already sent today? Add a simple line at the bottom of your email signature (below your phone numbers) with a phrase such as “Subscribe to our monthly eNewsletter and receive exclusive coupons and special offers”. Change your signature line when appropriate, such as “Sign up for our educational session on search engine optimization at www….”.

7. Leverage your website statistics. How many of you have no clue how many people are visiting your website, how long they’re staying and what search terms they’re using to find your site? This is valuable information for your sales and marketing teams, and most Web hosting companies offer this information as part of their monthly hosting investment. Make a habit of pulling this information monthly and looking at how you can alter your site to drive more traffic or keep people on your website longer. If you’re not sure how to access this information, ask your webmaster, hosting provider or website design firm to set you up with a username and password.

I’ll be sharing more tips like these in upcoming blog posts. Get started on at least one of these marketing ideas today, and I guarantee you’ll benefit from the small effort that it takes.

Filed Under: Email Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Search Engine Optimization, Website Development, Website Development and SEO

Gentlemen (and Ladies), Start your Search Engines!

June 29, 2006 By Susan Young Leave a Comment

Summer is the peak racing season, and no doubt your company is devising its own strategies for getting ahead of the pack. Are you winning the search engine race? If not, I’ll show you a few quick search engine optimization (SEO) strategies that will move your company’s website to the top of the search engine results.

First, you must understand the basics of how search engines and directories like Yahoo! and Google rank websites. Although no one but the folks at Google and Yahoo! truly know the exact algorithms used to rank websites, ranking is generally based on two main factors:

1) The popularity of your web site in relation to other websites on the Web. In other words, the more people visit your website or are linked to your website, compared to others in this same category, the higher your website  will rank. Some good strategies include asking a few partners who sell to a similar audience to add a link to your website from their website. Another way to increase the popularity of your site is to list your website in online product or service directories for your industry. A third way is to conduct public relations campaigns (writing press releases or articles) and submitting them to online media. If you list your website address in these press releases or articles, you’ll receive an instant link back to your website from any resulting coverage.

2) The relevance of your website content for a specific keyword search term or phrase. For example, if your company is a tool manufacturer, you need to include valuable content throughout your website about tool manufacturing in order to rank higher under that search term. If you only sell to individuals living in Sioux City, Iowa, then tailor your content and include the words ‘Sioux City, Iowa’ within your site. A word of caution: Don’t simply repeat your keywords over and over on your site (because search engines have caught on to this tactic and may penalize you). Instead, add informative articles about your topic. Devote an entire page of your website to each particular keyword phrase you wish to optimize for the search engines.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is as much an art as it is a science. Although there are too many strategies for me to mention in this article, you should begin by researching and building a list of keywords that you believe people would type in a web search to find your product or service. Then think about ways that you can incorporate these keyword phrases throughout your website. If you need any assistance, I’d be happy to provide you with some SEO guidance.

The key to winning the search engine race is to research, optimize, optimize again, and then have patience. Remember that the results may take some time, but they are definitely well worth the investment.

Filed Under: SEO Strategies, Search Engine Optimization, Website Development and SEO
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