Do a Google search for “become a coach” and watch CoachVille’s Coach Training Program come up as result # 2. Now get your hand ready for a pat on my back. My work in creating that page with the support of a stellar team caused it to get that excellent rank which translates into thousands of dollars in sales.
How did I do it? How can you do the same? You’ll hear a lot of noise about what gets a site to the top. But what you may not hear… is that the landscape is constantly changing and even pros are always trying to keep up with the latest.
Search engines change their algorithms and ranking strategies all the time. Trying to stay on top of it all can be daunting. And unless you want to sell stuff to millions, you don’t have to be an SEO (search engine optimization) whiz. (If you want to become one, however, check out my resource suggestions at the end of this article).
You just have to cover a few basics. First, a short analysis of what works in the CV page I created:
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Notice the title of the page uses the search term for which it’s being optimized, “become a coach.” It’s important to get your search term in the title tag so that the search engine considers it a match.
It would have been even better if we would have gotten the search term into our URL. Notice the one result that beats us (my friend and colleague David Wood, an internet whiz) has the URL that matches the search term.
Second, search engines look for content. This was one of the things that made working with the CV site so interesting… there was such a wealth of material, starting with the great stuff that Thomas Leonard, CV’s founder, created. Now, before you get discouraged and say, “I don’t have that much content,” don’t worry! Start small. By consistently sticking to your content creation strategy, you will soon have more than you know what to do with! (It’s a nice problem to have). For instance, since I left CV to focus on my own work, I have catalogued over 120 articles that are waiting to be either posted, completed, updated or turned into a larger product like an e-book. Whew! You’ll be seeing new things added to the site every week.
Third, it’s time to get a bit techie. If you have no idea what I’m talking about or if what I’m saying gives you the heebie jeebies, then skip it and ask your web designer to handle it. There is no sense stressing a subject that can take years to learn. A note about this however… I’m a big fan of outsourcing but I follow the “don’t lead blind-folded” school of outsourcing. You may not need to know the details of what has to get done, but you are the one who ultimately has ownership of what happens in your business. Simple fear of the unknown shouldn’t keep you from having a working knowledge of what needs to get done in marketing your business. But since you’re reading this article you already know that.
The techie stuff:
Title Tag: As mentioned above it should contain your keyword. How do I figure out what my keywords are?
Keywords: make sure they’re in your meta tags.
Alt tags: Often images in websites are “lost content.” You can name them so search engines can know what they contain.
www.Searchengines.com has a a checklist you can use if you’re doing your own optimization. You can find it here: Optimization Checklist
Do you want something in between doing the “hard-core” SEO work and throwing your hands up in despair? Try Web Position Gold. You can find it at http://www.webposition.com It analyzes your web pages, tells you what changes to make and submits it to the search engines. A nifty program to have. It retails for $149 (or $389 for the Pro edition… if you’re going to optimize more than 5 sites).
Related articles:
How can I figure out the search terms people would be using to find me?
Suggested sites to visit:
http://www.highrankings.com/
http://www.searchengines.com/
http://www.searchenginewatch.com
Maria E. Andreu
maria@andreumarketingsolutions.com
©2005 Maria E. Andreu. Service business owners, get the AMS Letter and receive 10 great tips for marketing, as well as free audio of the popular Building Mktg Confidence PLUS a guide to keeping your New Year’s Resolutions. Get instant access, e-mail to subscribe-956611763@ezinedirector.net or http://www.andreumarketingsolutions.com/newsletter.htm
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