The majority of my income comes doing Search Engine Optimization,
positioning, research and marketing for small business. I spec-
ifically targeted this demographic, knowing that many small
business owners cannot afford to play in the big leagues with
major internet companies. Many large corporations spend $3,500 to
$10,000 monthly to gain and then maintain good search engine
positioning so that they rank well in key search phrases related
to their products online.
Many major retailers spend those monthly amounts on multiple
segments of their web site to maintain market share of comparable
product sales, knowing that their competition is doing the same
with their web copy.
But my customers are very often the one-person shop in which the
owner does it all, including building and maintaining their web
site! When they come across my articles discussing SEO techniques
in small newsletters, they'll contact me asking what I can do for
them within their marketing budget. That budget, more often than
not, is less than what they spend monthly on their yellow page
phone book ads or their (very small) office rent.
Faced with that level of spending, I knew that I would have to
do high-volume of work in order to make a living. What I decided
to do was to create an online tutorial that explains in detail
how to go about achieving good search positions. That tutorial
would rank well in the search engines for all the phrases
relevant to Search Engine work and attract lots of customers
seeking to improve their business online.
What I expected was harried business owners too pressed for
time to do reading to find out how to improve their own search
engine rank. They'd come seeking information on metatags,
keyword density, linking campaigns, page architecture and when
they arrived, they'd realize it would take them more time than
they could afford to effectively learn and implement those
ingredients into their sites. The idea was to offer lots of
free information for them to read, then when they find out how
complex the work is, they would say, "Ummm, I'm too busy this
week, could you do it for me?"
What I got was harried business owners too pressed for time to
read all that FREE information provided in hundreds of pages
which I already offer FREE. Not surprisingly, they DO then ask
me to do it for them, but being frugal and diligent, they ask
me HOW I do it after they hire me - through voluminous email
during my work for them. Sometimes they ask me how to do it
before they hire me, at which point I tell them that it is all
in my search engine tutorial and they can read it for them-
selves. The address is...
http://website101.com/SearchEnginePositioning/SEOtutorialindex.html
But then they remember that they don't have the time to do it
and agree to pay me for my services and let me begin the work.
During the job, they will look at what I've done on their site
and ask "Why does the change of the order and frequency of words
on my page effect my search engine rank?" Then I refer them back
to the tutorial.
Even though I provide a report at the conclusion of the job,
clients ask the same questions repeatedly as I am working and
I've decided to short-circuit that experience by providing a
parody of a sales letter for all potential clients to read
before they hire me. It's all meant in fun, but helps silence
those who ask lots of questions as I work. A typical email:
"My main intent is to be able to get into the search engines.
I want to be able to submit to Yahoo, pay the submission fee
(UGH!) and get in for sure with a decent ranking. Will you
explain how to do this when you write your report?"
I'll explain it right now and make the report shorter.
I want to be certain you understand that there's a big difference
between search engines and directories. Yahoo is a human reviewed
directory - nothing can be done to influence the reviewers short
of quality content and submission to the proper category, that is
http://Yahoo/SearchEngine/Evaluation/SEOHow-to/Do-it-yourself/
(That advice ALONE is worth $199.00!)
There are two other human reviewed directories that you might
consider submitting to as well.
One is the Open Directory Project at http://www.dmoz.org where
your proper category is:
http://dmoz.org/SearchEngine/Evaluation/SEOHow-to/Do-it-yourself/
and a second category you would submit to is
http://dmoz.org/Reference/Education/ShowMeHow/SEO/Articles/
(That advice is worth $135.00!)
Submitting in the proper category is essential to getting listed
at the Open Directory Project as it is staffed by volunteers and
they will ignore your submission if you choose inappropriate
category. Submission is free and this directory is critical
because literally thousands of additional directories in
specialized areas (including yours) rely on the ODP database to
populate their own topical and theme-based directories.
(That advice is worth $250.00!)
The second additional directory you might consider costs as
much as Yahoo does ($399) and is called LookSmart and they will
have a human review your site and place it properly in their
directory. They supply search results to thousands of sites,
including several VERY big ones that you won't get listed in
otherwise, simply because of their partnership arrangements
with large portals.
(That advice is worth $150.00!)
"Crawler based search engines send software-based "robots" or
"spiders" to analyze your site content, keyword density,
metatags, page structure, link structure, link popularity and
site theme - based on all publicly accessible pages. You might
consider increasing your number of free pages by writing articles
about specific projects, referring to additional resources
available online and adding content to your site overall with
information that you would not be able to sell otherwise.
Increased CONTENT ALWAYS HELPS YOUR SITE TO RANK BETTER.
(That advice is worth $650.00!)
The key to ranking well with the crawler based search engines
is combining all of those ingredients in appropriate measure
and with good page structure, which is what I do for you.
I use techniques that are search engine friendly and gain top
positions in the "crawler-based" search engines, then submit
your site to those that accept free submissions within the top
eight engines. Contrary to what many scamsters claim, it is
entirely irrelevant to be listed in hundreds of search engines
when only 4 or 5 are used by the vast majority of people on the
web. The top 8 U.S. based (English) engines are:
Google
Fast / All The Web
Alta Vista
Netscape Search
HotBot
Lycos
AOL Search
MSN Search
The other important web resources rely on the Open Directory
Project index, LookSmart and Yahoo to populate their own
directories, which then increase your link relevance, which
then help to improve your crawler-based engine rankings. It
is all very neatly tied together if you understand it
thoroughly.
(That advice is worth $1500.00 all by itself!)
Using a traditional sales pitch, I would tell you that all of
this advice and information is worth a total of $2884.00, BUT
WAIT, if you hurry and place your order by today, we'll include
all of this, PLUS be available for occassional questions and
advice in the future!
You need to know how the search world is changing. WebSite101
subscribes to over a dozen industry publications on search
engine methodology, mergers, partnerships and those ever
changing search algorithms. This keeps us thoroughly informed
and up-to-date with all the latest information needed to
maintain your top ranking search positions. We also attend
conferences around the country to maintain complete and
thorough understanding of search industry standards and
practices.
(That follow-up advice is worth $1050 by itself!)
This means you get $3934.00 in benefits for your investment of
just $427.50!
About the Author
Mike Banks Valentine does Search Engine Optimization for Small
Business and REALLY LOVES discussing SEO techniques for Free -
When he's not working ;-) http://www.website101.com/search.html
Over 25 Free Articles on Search Positioning and Marketing
http://website101.com/SEOtutorialindex.html