The SEO Consultant

This blog post marks the first in a series that will show you how to increase your online sales by converting website traffic.

It seems everyone is talking about search engine optimization these days. At least in a lot of Internet marketing circles. It's SEO this and SEO that. Everyone is obsessed with search engine rankings and visibility.

I get it. These things are important, and I've been known to check my own Google rankings from time to time. Okay, maybe once a week. But I also realize the importance of website conversions (lead and sales generation). This is something a lot of business website owners tend to neglect. They have plenty of traffic, but they are not generating online sales from their traffic -- at least not like they could be.

So in this article, I'll explain the importance of traffic conversion and show you to ten ways to increase your online sales for greater success.

Let's start with a definition, just so we are on the same page...

Within the context of online marketing, a website conversion takes place when somebody goes from being a casual website visitor to something else. For example, if somebody visits your website and eventually purchases a product or service, a website conversion has occurred. The person has "converted" from a casual website visitor to a customer. You have generated an online sale from one of your visitors.

There are many kinds of conversions, and they differ from one website to another. It all depends on what you want people to do when they reach your site. If somebody contacts you about your products or services, another type of conversion has taken place (from casual visitor to inquiry). If a person signs up for your newsletter, yet another type of conversion has taken place (from website visitor to subscriber).

Donations, sign-ups, clicks, purchases, downloads -- these are all forms of website conversion. In each of these actions, the visitor has become something more than "just a visitor."

And that brings me to another point...

Turning Web Traffic Into Sales

Website traffic is not the ultimate goal of an Internet marketing program. Many people obsess over their traffic levels to the point of neglecting other things (like website conversions). So let me say it once more. Traffic is not your ultimate goal. It is only a stepping-stone toward your ultimate goal -- online sales and lead generation.

Here's an Internet marketing observation that may shock you. The average business website has more than enough traffic to support the company's business goals, but simply does not capitalize on that traffic. In other words, people are visiting the website on a regular basis, but not doing anything once they get there. In this common scenario, the business owner needs to do something to increase online sales and grow the business.

I can give you a prime example of this from my own experience...

I once did SEO work for a real estate agent who swore he did not have enough traffic. After analyzing his website analytics, we found that he actually had about 1,000 visitors per month. Those of you familiar with (A) Internet marketing and (B) the real estate business will realize that this person had plenty of traffic. If the agent turned five of those 1,000 visitors into clients each month, he would have had more business than he could handle!

But therein lay the problem. The vast majority of visitors were leaving without doing anything. This is a website conversion problem, and it was costing him a lot of business. So we addressed that problem in tandem with the SEO services he wanted.

This real-life story underlines the importance of converting web traffic. By itself, website traffic will not help you grow your business. You have to get those people to do something. In order to increase your online sales you need an effective system in place designed to do just that.

How do you go about it? Good question! That's the subject of this new article series. In the dozen or so blog posts that follow, I will offer you many tips for increasing your online lead and sales generation.

Labels: Internet Marketing

Posted by Brandon at 9:01 AM | Permalink | | links to this post

If you're a business owner, you've probably heard about blogs and blogging in some way. It seems everybody is talking about them these days.

But many people are utterly confused by the topic, and therefore do not understand the benefits that blogging can offer. So in this article, I'll explain what blogging is and how you can benefit from it.

Let's start with a quick definition. What is a blog? You're looking at one! This is the SEO Consultant Blog, where I publish advice on search engine optimization and Internet marketing.

Look around and you'll notice some common features of blogs. Notice that the information is posted in reverse-chronological format, with the most recent posts at the top. If I make another blog post tomorrow, this one will be pushed down to make room for the new one.

Now we are getting into one of the primary benefits of blogging. For one thing, it's really easy for me to publish this information online. It will be just as easy for you to publish your own blog. You just type the information and click the "publish" button -- the blogging program does the rest.

But that's just one of the many blogging benefits you will discover. Here are some more:

Benefits of Publishing a Blog

• Blogging is an easy way to grow your business website
• It's also a great way to "feed" search engines with relevant content
• Thus, blogging can help you increase your web traffic
• It can also help you position yourself as an authority in your field
• Blogging adds valuable content to your site, which keeps people coming back
• It has the potential to start a dialogue with your audience
• It has the potential to generate leads and sales

This is just my own list of blogging benefits based on my own experiences. Once you start using a business blog, you will probably be able to come up with your own list as well. Maybe you'll find that it's a nice creative outlet. Maybe you'll enjoy the archiving features of your blog. Whatever the case, there are enough benefits to business blogging to justify you giving it a try!

Labels: Blogging

Posted by Brandon at 8:28 AM | Permalink | | links to this post

by Brandon Cornett

So you've been researching ways to get more business from web, and you found out about something called search engine optimization consulting services. It's a mouthful, to be sure, but what does it mean? In this post, I'll explain SEO consulting services are, how they can help you, and how to choose a competent search engine optimization company.

In order to understand what these consulting companies do, you must first understand the nature of search engine optimization (SEO). In essence, the goal of these programs is to help you improve your website's ranking in the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask. Actually, the ultimate goal of an SEO program is to increase the number of qualified visitors to your website. In this context, "qualified" means people who are most likely to need your products and/or services.

So when you seek search engine optimization consulting services, you are seeking a company who can help you boost your website's visibility and traffic levels. That's the nature of what these companies do. Now let's talk about how they do it. Or at least, how they should do it.

SEO Consulting Tools of the Trade

Essentially, search engine optimization boils down to three main components -- link popularity, website content, and overall website structure. I know that a lot of SEO consulting firms will argue with me on this point, but that's only because it's in their business interest to argue the point.

You see, the last thing a search engine optimization consulting company wants you to know is how fundamentally simple it is to increase your rankings. They want you to think it's a highly technical, overly complex field ... that way you'll be more inclined to hire them for their services.

I never fool my clients into thinking SEO is beyond their ability. My clients come to me not because they can't perform SEO work, but because they don't have the time or desire to do it. But I digress. Back to the subject at hand...

So with those primary components of SEO in mind, it makes sense that a search engine consulting firm should be able to help you with these things. They should be able to increase you link popularity (the quantity and quality of other websites that link to yours), as well as your website content and structure. So when screening these companies, be sure to ask what they will do to help you in these areas.

Search Engine Optimization Consulting - Or Legwork?

You should also find out how much of the actual production work a consulting firm is going to do for you. This is something that varies widely from one firm to another. For example, some search engine optimization consultants provide the direction, but not the actual legwork. They might tell you to expand your content around certain phrases, but they'll leave the actual writing up to you.

Other SEO consultants will provide the direction as well as the production work. This is the category we fall into. We explain to a client what they need to do in order to improve their website rankings ... and then we help them execute that plan. Sometimes it means writing content. Sometimes it means building up their link profile or fixing optimization problems on the website.

I hope this guide to search engine optimization consulting helps you make smart choices when hiring an SEO consultant. Good luck.

Labels: Search Engine Optimization

Posted by Brandon at 4:21 PM | Permalink | | links to this post

by Brandon Cornett

Can your small business website compete with the "big dogs" online? Sure it can. That's the great thing about the Internet. Here's how to go about it...

With the right approach, your small business can outperform larger competitors online. It's like the old tale of David versus Goliath. In this article, I'll explain how you can use the Internet as an equalizer.

In the old tale of David versus Goliath, the hero used his cunning and his aim to defeat a much larger opponent. Here's how your small business can do the same thing online...

From a business standpoint, the Internet serves as an equalizer between small companies and large corporations. You see it all the time. A small company will work hard to grow its Internet presence, and before long that business is competing with the "giants" of its industry for web traffic and sales.

The Internet as Equalizer

Online, it does not matter how large your budget is, or how long you've been in business. It only matters how effectively you drive traffic to your website, and how well you capitalize on that traffic. This is what I love about the Internet, and it's what I strive to teach others.

For instance, I have a real estate website that ranks up there with the largest corporate sites in the major search engines like Google. It also provides just as much content as the big corporate-owned sites. They have budgets and staffs that make mine seem insignificant -- I'm just one guy who happens to be passionate about web publishing. But by learning how to be more effective online, I've taken their size out of the equation.

Online, Smarter is Better Than Bigger

You can outperform your larger competitors in a number of ways online, regardless of their marketing budget or staff size. Here are some of the ways you can beat "Goliath" in terms of Internet success:

• By doing more keyword research to find out what phrases your customers are searching online (i.e. search engine optimization).
• By creating more content -- and better content -- built around your list of key phrases and topics (i.e. content development).
• By having a nicer looking website, or a better organized website (i.e. web design and usability).
• By doing a better job converting web traffic into leads and sales (i.e. lead generation).

These are just a few of the ways you can use the Internet as an equalizer between your company and your larger competitors. Online, nobody cares how much money you spend on your marketing program ... or how many people it took to create your website ... or how long you've been in business. They care about products and services that help them achieve their goals. If your website does a better job of presenting those products and services than the websites of the "giants" in your industry, then so be it.

In our current web-based economy, the Internet can make or break a company -- especially a small or medium-sized business. Good search engine rankings alone can easily triple a company's sales. That's how powerful the Internet can be for your small business. And if you work hard and build a strong web presence, there's no reason you can't slay some giants.

I hope this article has given you the motivation needed to take your Internet success to new heights. If you'd like some practical advice on what to do next, refer to the website listed below.

Brandon Cornett is the author of many articles and e-books on small business website success and similar topics. Learn more about this topic by visiting http://www.austinseoguy.com/small-biz

Labels: Internet Marketing

Posted by Brandon at 3:52 PM | Permalink | | links to this post

Article summary: What's the best way to learn website content writing or to hire a company who provides it? By taking some tips from a veteran website writer. Here come some now!

The other day I did some highly advanced computations to determine how much website content writing I've done over the years. Okay, so I guessed. By my estimation, I have produced somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 pages of website content (if a page of web writing can be defined as 500 - 700 words).

In all that time, and through all of those pages of website content, I've learned some good lessons along the way. So to spare you the trouble of going through this learning process yourself, I thought I'd share some of the things I've picked up over the years.

Website Writing Tips

Whether you are in the process of choosing a website content writing company or you plan to write your own content, these tips will serve you well:

• What you write about is much more important than how you write. A web writing expert cannot make a mediocre product or service seem interesting (without lying). On the contrary, a great product or service will shine even when described with average writing skills.
• Most people dislike reading online. They will scan the content and, if they are interested, print the page out. Make their job easier by creating summaries at the top of each page (like the one atop this blog post).
• Plain language works best online. Be a straight talker when writing website content and avoid jargon. Don't tell me something will help me "leverage my internal knowledge capital" when you can simply say it will "make my employees perform better."
• Hyperlinks are great, when used logically and sparingly. If there is a key topic within a sentence, and you have a page elsewhere on the site that explains that topic, link to it!
  
• Don't write for search engines. Write for people first, and then go back and make sure it's keyword optimized for search engine visibility. Search engines won't buy what you're selling.
• If you have not web writing talent in-house, outsource the job to a content writing company. Your visitors will judge you by the content on your website, so it's worth the money.
• Write your web content around the topics your audience is researching. You can find this out by doing some keyword research. In fact, that's the entire premise behind our content center approach to web writing.
• Create purposeful content for your website. First define the objective of your web page, then write your content to support that goal. Example -- this article is intended to educate you on the web writing services we provide.
  

If you plan to write your own web content, I hope this article provides you with some useful tips. If you need help creating website content, check out the service listed below:

Labels: Website Content

Posted by Brandon at 3:11 PM | Permalink | | links to this post