| 1. Strong On-site SEO | | | | some help with adding posts to their site. Some |
| Search engine optimization (SEO) is free once you | | | | will respond if you're a decent writer. You could |
| learn the basics. There are many ways to do this, | | | | even pay a writer to write the guest post for |
| many tutorials available online are free and you | | | | you as a ghost writer. You'll receive a link or links |
| should take advantage of these opportunities. | | | | back to your website. So, you'll benefit two ways |
| SEO basically means formatting your website to | | | | - one is that you'll reach new people that may not |
| make it conform to the search engines' idea of a | | | | have seen anything you write on your own blog. |
| quality site. You can focus your entire site, or | | | | Two, is that you'll gain links from a major site in |
| pages of your site on specific keywords that you | | | | your niche which some people will follow - and |
| hope to show up for in the search engine results | | | | some search engines will follow. It's a |
| pages. | | | | happy-happy-happy. |
| Once you learn SEO and apply it to your site, it is | | | | 4. Get Social! |
| like free marketing. The more you show up in | | | | Social networking websites are the new place to |
| Google and the other major search engines - the | | | | be online. Why? Well, they have all the traffic. |
| less you have to pay out to market your | | | | Facebook, Google, and YouTube have billions of |
| business website to bring visitors. Time spent | | | | searches per day. Your business should be in all of |
| learning SEO is time well spent from a marketing | | | | them. In addition, and not to be ignored because |
| perspective. | | | | they also get significant daily traffic are: |
| SEO is probably the ultimate marketing tool | | | | Friendster, Foursquare, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, |
| available to anyone with an online business | | | | Friendfeed, and Twitter. Register your business in |
| presence. | | | | as many social networking sites as possible, using |
| 2. Strong Off-site SEO | | | | the bio section to put a link back to your site. |
| Inbound links - hyperlinks from other websites | | | | 5. Blog! |
| that lead visitors to your website is part of | | | | Often times an entire business site is built around |
| off-site SEO, and every bit as important as | | | | a blog, as in the WordPress platform. If so, its |
| on-site SEO. These links are very powerful and | | | | very easy to integrate your blog with your site |
| you should strive to get as many links as you can | | | | and be producing new content related to your |
| from other websites. | | | | niche. If not, and you have a traditional non-blog |
| Why Inbound Links Are Important: | | | | website you can easily add a WordPress blog to |
| A. Web surfers at the other site will see the link | | | | your site in a subdirectory like "yoursite.com/blog |
| and follow it to your site - you'll gain visitors. | | | | ". |
| B. Google and other search engines count inbound | | | | Blogging has a couple benefits also. You can not |
| links as a vote of confidence for your site from | | | | only promote your products and services within |
| the site that links to your site. What this means is | | | | your posts, but you can offer discounts at will. |
| - eventually the trust level of your site increases | | | | Eventually you'll build up a following of people that |
| in the search engines and they begin to rank you | | | | read your blog regularly and you can randomly |
| higher for keywords you're focusing on. | | | | throw out specials and coupons - which |
| 3. Write Posts at Other Blogs in Your Niche | | | | customers will eat up. Successful bloggers blend |
| One major problem nearly all sites have across | | | | personal life, business life, and humor into their |
| the blogosphere is creating new content. The | | | | blogs - creating a place people love to visit. As |
| search engines love new content and feed off it. | | | | readers get to know you, and like you, your |
| If you're not churning out new content almost | | | | perceived trust increases among your readers |
| continually you'll get placed behind other sites in | | | | and people start to buy what you're selling or |
| your niche that are. Start writing query letters to | | | | referring them to. |
| major traffic businesses to see if they need | | | | |