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SEO, SEM and SMM Services by Cheryl Waller
Written by Cheryl Waller | July 22, 2009 12:30 PM How To... in Port Saint LucieNo comments | 104 views
Looking to dominate Google Search engine results for your business? My name is Cheryl Waller and I am an experienced SEO, SEM and SMM consultant. I will work with your website to apply various SEO and SEM techniques to NOT ONLY optimize your website, but also dominate Google results for your search terms. But, before we go any further I must remind you that Search Engine Marketing and funneling more traffic to your site is NOT about tricking the search engines, it is NOT about how much you can pay per click and it is NOT how many websites link to your website. At the end of the day, it is about how well you optimize your website for visitors as well as search engines. The SEO process, when employed correctly, enables potential clients that are ALREADY LOOKING for your product and services to find you easier and faster in that coveted top 10 results of Google for your specific keywords.
When you partner with me as your consultant, your website will be optimized using trusted Google webmaster guidelines. I will never use black-hat strategies in your Search Engine Optimization process. Black-Hat strategies are dangerous to fool around with and can ultimately get your site removed from the index of most major search engines. Beware of SEO consultants that say they can get xxx links to your website in xxx time. They are probably using black-hat strategies. Search engines actually LOOK for these unethical methods to remove your site from their indices. Black hat strategies use methods such as spamdexing and keyword stuffing. I have helped hundreds of business owners get much higher rankings in the major search engines and improve the overall bottom line of their business without using any unethical or ‘manipulative’ techniques of any kind.
What Do you ‘Do’ to Dominate Google Search Results?
There are several key elements we will be working on to improve your website rankings over the next few months:
Keyword Research and Selection: As the foundation of your entire SEO project, I will research your current keywords and provide feedback as to what keywords we need to continue to use, what keywords we don’t need to be using and what keywords we should add to your site. Once we have our initial list we will get to work on optimizing your site for these keywords.
Meta Data SEO: I will take each page on your website and begin to categorize each page for specific SEO goals. The titles, descriptions, keyword content and on-page navigation will be made search engine friendly and will enable your site to be more properly indexed. One of the most shocking things that I find during this step is that many of my clients are using the same titles, descriptions and keywords across many pages… this is actually one of the top 18 Ways to Mess up Your Search Engine Optimization strategy.
Website Content SEO: One-by-One I will take each webpage and optimize the content to be both search engine and visitor friendly. It is important to carefully balance what the search engines want to see with what people will want to read and more importantly REACT to by contacting you for more information or making a purchase on your site.
Inner-Page Linking SEO: I will work with your code and navigation structure to make sure that all of your pages are being indexed properly, that there is accurate inner-linking relationships for all of your web pages and that both search engines and visitors will be able to find the information that they are looking for quickly and easily.
Link Building and Social Networking: Depending on the plan you choose, I will submit your site to various websites around the internet using my social network and many connections. These links will be relevant to your website and business. Many times I get the question during this phase, “How many sites will you submit me to?” or “How many links will I get?” and my answer is always the same. It depends on your business and where I can place relevant links back to your site. Yes, you can probably find a site somewhere that will give you 14,000 links to your site for $14.95, but how many of those are even relevant to your business, how many are link farms and how many will actually still be there in a week. You DO NOT need 14,000 links to your site… what you do need are relevant links to your business from reputable websites that are trusted by search engines. We do this by developing a link campaign SPECIFIC to your business, not by paying for links or participating in link exchange scams.
How Do I ‘Know’ it Is Working?
Not only can you Google the key word phrases that we chose in the planning phases of your search engine optimization project, but I also provide reports about your site before we start, during the process and at the end of the project. During every step of the process you can always contact me directly and ask questions. I know my business like you know your business and it’s my job to make sure that you understand how my services are affecting your business every step of the way. I will forewarn you that even though much of the SEO will affect your site almost immediately, that it may take time for the traffic on your site to convert. That is why we use Google analytics tools to measure the progress and watch how visitors navigate your site and make improvements along the way. Once we have the traffic to your site, we have watched visitors navigate your site and given visitors exactly what they are looking for when they arrive; then you will start to see significant change in your conversion rates.
What Makes You ‘Different’ Than Other SEO, SEM or SMM Consultants?
Many SEO consultants are just that. They understand SEO and how it works but they have no background in web design, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing or Social Network Marketing. I’ve seen horror story after horror story of people that went to lower cost ‘SEO companies’ or ‘SEO Consultants’ and spent thousands of dollars on nothing but guess-work. I not only understand SEO, but also web design, SEM, SMM and Social Network Marketing. All of these work TOGETHER to funnel traffic to your site and get your website in the top 10 of Google results for your search phrases; naturally! While it is true that SEO alone can help your site, the true is the same for good web design. My having a true understanding of all of the elements, knowing how they all work together and being able to implement a plan that works faster, more effectively, and MOST importantly is time-tested and long-term is what sets my services apart from the competition.
What Can You Do for ‘My’ Website?
Glad you asked. Just shoot me an email with the URL for your website and I will be happy to send you back a quick overview of what we need to do with your website to get it where it needs to be and make you more sales. Click on ‘Contact’ at either the top or bottom of my website to send me an email with your request.
-Cheryl
www.CherylWaller.com -
18 Things You Can Do to Mess Up Your Search Engine Optimization Plan
Written by Cheryl Waller | July 21, 2009 10:34 AM How To... in Port Saint LucieNo comments | 126 viewsSearch Engine Optimization is just another tool in your marketing bag. If used properly it can bring you more customers, more prospects, and more clients faster than any other form of marketing. But, like anything else in marketing, it requires a plan. Plans require a clear end result to be defined. This is first and foremost in your online marketing plan: your end result (or conversion). What is your desired conversion?
Whatever your conversion goal is, it will involve a living breathing person on the other end of the internet connection. Before the existence of the internet, before the existence of direct mail marketing, conversions involved face-to-face interactions. Keep this in mind while developing your marketing plan. Search Engine Marketing is NOT about tricking the search engines, it is NOT about how much you pay per click and it is NOT how many websites link to your website. At the end of the day, it is about simulating that face-to-face interaction as closely as possible.
When your prospective customer reaches your website, they probably do not know who you are. They are not familiar with your company and most importantly they do not want to be ‘sold’.
But WAIT??? You say. 'I have to make money. I have something to sell. That’s why I spent so much time and money bringing people to my website'.
Yes, but here is something to ponder. When you are shopping in a brick and mortar store, say for instance that you are shopping for a new stove. What are YOU initially looking for? …
INFORMATION!
You want to know what makes the $600 model better than the $400 model. You ask yourself, “do I really need all the features of the $600 model or can I live with the $400 model?” So you are sitting there reading all of the information on the tags. You are gathering information. If a salesman walks up in the first few moments, you tell him that you are ‘just looking’ to get him to back off. It isn’t until you have settled on one or two models that you ask for help. It isn’t until you have gathered all of the INFORMATION that you even glance in the direction of the salesman, fearing that even looking at him before you are ready will cause him to come running across the store and stand two feet from you until you make your final selection.
You don’t want to be ‘sold’. You want to make an informed decision and when you finally do ask for a salesperson, what are you looking for?
MORE INFORMATION!
You are looking for more information to support your buying decision. Only when you have satisfied all of your questions do you ever even pull out that credit card and make the purchase.
Keep that in mind when you are creating your internet marketing plan.
The successful salesman knows that he has products to sell. He knows that he must sell X number of stoves to put food on the table. But most importantly, the successful salesman KNOWS that in order to make the sale, he must know his product. He must have the INFORMATION. He must know how to communicate that knowledge & also how to make the sale passively without being a ‘salesman’.
So, back to how to market ineffectively online….
If you truly want to lose potential customers… if your passion is to sit around all day and figure out how to trick the search engines into ranking your website in the #1 or #2 spot….. If you love paying way too much for pay per click traffic… if you are absolutely sure that you do not need to pay attention to proper Search Engine Optimization... then here are a few sure fire ways to completely waste your time with your website:
- · Use LOTS of cute graphics… especially the dancing cowboy one… everyone loves that right?
- · Put everything you can possibly think of on the first page
- · Include links to every single site you can think of
- · Link exchange with everyone that asks
- · Ask everyone to link exchange with you
- · Make your contact information hard to find
- · List your contact information everywhere and anywhere it fits
- · Have no sensible navigation whatsoever
- · Name your home page ‘Home’, your contact page ‘contact me’ etc
- · Use images to link your inner pages
- · Have at least three broken links on every page
- · Use the worst possible picture of yourself and make sure its cropped wrong
- · Use the same title tag on every single page
- · Use the same description on every single page
- · Design your entire site in flash (remember to include the broken links)
- · Buy 14,000 links to your site for $14.95
- · Hide text on your website so search engines see it and people don’t
And the #1 thing you can do to completely waste your time with your website is…….
- · Don’t include any information anywhere about anything having to do with your business
- · Use LOTS of cute graphics… especially the dancing cowboy one… everyone loves that right?
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Goodbye to Google Ranking
Written by Cheryl Waller | November 18, 2008 12:25 PM General Area1 comment | 492 viewsThe days of Googling your keywords to measure the effectiveness of your SEO strategy are coming to an end. According to Bruce Clay of PubCon, there will be big changes in ranking. In the name of Top Shelp Organic SEO, Google will be tuning into the specific behaviors of individual users to serve up more customized results.
What this means to the end-user is better results and less spam.
What does this mean to SEO professionals?
Well, for the good ones it means more business. For those that have been concentrating on ranking without any reference to traffic, bounce rates and conversions it means a serious reality check.
At the end of the day, this is a change for the better. More individualized search results means higher conversion rates for companies that have a well built website. This does not mean that SEO is no longer important; it actually makes it more important! Tracking your marketing efforts will definitely require more diligence.
Q: What should you do to get ready for the change?
A: Nothing that you should not have already been doing.
The most important part of a website is the ends result; attracting more leads and increasing business. To get there you have to attract website visitors, keep them interested in your website long enough to stay past the first page and finally get them to convert. By convert, I mean to get them to perform a specific action like sign up for a newsletter or request additional information. Conversions vary by website. A conversion for you may be a request for information about one of your listings while a conversion for amazon.com could be the sale of a bestselling novel.
I, for one, think this is a great lead by Google. It forces website owners and SEO professionals to take a closer look of what traffic is actually DOING when it gets to your website. It puts the emphasis on website content, navigation and functionality.
Sending people to your website and getting XXXXX visitors is one thing, conversion rates are a completely different (and more important) aspect. I mean, you can send all the traffic (paid or otherwise) in the world to a dilapidated home, but if they never get out of the car and go inside... it's not going to sell.
It's time to get your website to do what it's supposed to: SELL!
Go Google!
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Hold on to Your Socks: Facebook is NOT a Social Network
Written by Cheryl Waller | October 20, 2008 12:04 PM Tech Tips in Traverse CityNo comments | 441 viewsAt least that’s what Facebook says. It seems Facebook is making a public stand that they are a ‘social utility’ and not a ‘social network’.
According to a Blog post on TechCrunch, Facebook users’ accounts are being deleted and users are being told that “…Facebook accounts are meant for authentic usage only. This means that we expect accounts to reflect mainly “real-world” contacts (i.e. your family, schoolmates, co-workers, etc.), rather than mainly “internet-only” contacts. As stated on our home page, Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you, not a “social networking site”.
As discussed in a recent blog post by WebProNews, it seems that Facebook is getting its feathers ruffled over a popular Facebook application called PackRat created by Alamofire.
In this game users gather, purchase, steal and collect cards. Apparently, this game is so popular that many people are making soaring amounts of ‘internet-only’ friends in violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use and quickly finding out that participation in the game has caused the cancellation of their Facebook account.
Who knew making new friends would get your account canceled?
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