Correct Keyword Placement in Your Blog Posts Will Boost Your Search Rankings

The correct keyword placement in your blog posts can be as important as the keywords themselves. So what are the most effective ways to use keywords in your blog posts to achieve the highest search rankings possible? Here are some tips for placing your keywords and achieving higher search ranking.

1. Your most important keywords should be placed is in your blog title. It’s the first thing people will see in search results. If possible, place your most important SEO keywords early-on in your blog post title. Google generally assumes the words that appear earliest are the most important. That’s why the title is the most important part of your blog post when it comes to SEO.  
2. Videos are working nicely! Make sure your interviews or narration use the optimal keywords. YouTube and Google index all the closed-captions. You could even upload transcriptions. So try that and embed a vid on your post!
3. Search engines, especially Google, love internal and external links in the body of your blog posts so use your best keywords as text links. Link to other articles on your site or you can link to other authority sites.
4. You should add images to your posts and use your best keywords as alt tags for your images. Search engines don’t see the images when scanning your site, but they do read the alt tags.
5. Use the best and broadest keywords as your categories. Each one of your blog post should feature one of your best SEO keywords that fit into at least one of these categories.
6. Tags are another way of saying keywords. “Blog specific” keywords should be used is in your tags for each blog post. 

Finally, as important as the correct use of keywords in your blog posts are, you should write for readability. Reading the same keyword phrases over and over is not only bad writing – it’s also bad SEO strategy. Search engines deliver people who are actively searching for what you have. Unless you employ strategies like keyword placement, your site may never be found by those who need what you offer.

Maintaining Momentum is Critical to Your Marketing Efforts

Too few small business owners realize the value of creating and maintaining momentum in their marketing. Many think they can flip a switch and marketing will be busy producing results, but marketing doesn’t work like that.

Marketing builds momentum over time.  This is true with online marketing, social media marketing or offline marketing. With each impression, people become aware of your brand and they begin to form an opinion of your business, your products and your services. If they like what they see, they will move from a disinterested by-stander to serious prospect and, eventually, a loyal customer.

So what is momentum? Webster’s Dictionary defines momentum as a “strength or force that keeps growing”. That means if you want to get your profits growing and keep growing month after month, your business needs to have the power of momentum working for you.

Inertia kills momentum. Marketing has been compared to rolling a heavy rock up a steep hill. Too many marketers give the rock a push, stop, rest, chat, give it another push, stand back, then too late they realize the rock has returned to the bottom of the hill and they must start all over again.

Many businesses struggle to maintain a consistent level of marketing activity. Energies and resources are often diverted to deliver work for paying customers. Indeed, many business owners don’t see the point in spending precious budget and time when they have plenty of work. It can create a dilemma that causes marketing can slip to the bottom of their to-do list. If you want to grow your business, marketing must be maintained at a constant level.

Many business owners ask, “Why keep marketing when I’m already busy?”  Because marketing for growth means marketing consistently. Here are some reasons why marketing must be consistent:

1. Marketing builds a steady and predictable sales pipeline

Many small businesses constantly find themselves in ‘feast or famine’ mode. Consistent marketing can break this cycle. If you know how long the buying cycle takes, then you know for how long you need to be generating leads. When you forget to do your prospecting because you’re too busy that’s when famine happens.

2. Consistent marketing doesn’t waste resources by constantly repeating yourself

If you haven’t done any marketing for a while, people may not immediately recall who you are and what you do. But, a program of regular marketing can continually keep you in their minds when they are ready to make that purchase.

3. Consistent marketing generates the right kind of work for your business

You want to attract the right kind of work for your business – it’s more profitable, enjoyable and it builds credibility. Consistent marketing allows you to generate the right kind of work. The wrong kind simply takes up time and barely turns a profit. Being busy does not always equate to being profitable, or fulfilled. Consistent marketing allow you to present yourself as the expert in your field – leading to more of the right kind of work for your business.

4. Consistent marketing helps you maintain your marketing skills

Marketing is made up of many different skills and techniques. If you only practice them occasionally, you’re likely to need to re-learn what you once knew. What’s more, with digital marketing techniques are growing and changing at a staggering pace, if you are not constantly marketing new techniques may have passed you by. Regular, consistent marketing activities will embed the skills so that they become second nature.

A Few Easy Tips & Tricks That Will Increase Your Twitter Following

Twitter has become one of the most effective marketing tools in the world. It’s an easy marketing tool that lets you influence people’s lives, careers, and daily life events.  And it’s an absolutely free!

Now, let’s talk about how you can add more Twitter followers for your business:

·  It’s all about relationships: People who care about what you say will retweet or re-post your comments and share with others. Build your network by following people who follow the influential people you know. The importance of building relationships can’t be overstated.

·  Follow your followers: Following people back creates quality followers, increases the volume of your followers, gives you leverage and more traffic.

·  Give educational tips: If you have a good business tip – share it with people. If your blog is about educating your clients and helping them, link to it.

·  Update your profile description: Make sure your profile is enjoyable and easy to read. It is not a resume. Keep the tone conversational.  

·  Keep it conversational: Like your profile, your Tweets need to be easy to read. Make sure the tone is relaxed and conversational. 

·  Use pictures: Pictures can increase the number of followers on Twitter. Pictures reassure people than there is a real person behind the Tweets. If you can’t use a picture of yourself insert a generic photo an avatar or your company logo.

·  Respond quickly: Reply to people as soon as possible if they’ve said something to you. This is critical if they are not yet a follower. Follow them back. Establish rapport quickly. Pass on something valuable for them to and/or think about.

·  Be yourself: Don’t create new life on Twitter. Just be yourself.

·  Give compliments freely: Do not forget the power of a simple and sincere praise or compliment. Everybody loves to receive a compliment. So pass them on.

·  Questions and more questions: People love questions. Ask them and start a conversation. Create dialogs and make sure you reply back when your followers answer. It just shows common courtesy – always the best policy on Twitter.

·  Invite existing friends, followers and connection: Invite friends from other social networks. For example, invite your connections from LinkedIn to follow you on Twitter. It’s very simple to do and they’ll probably love it.

·  Retweet: Be sure to retweet or re-post what others say if you like it. (Hint: if you don’t know the person or company well, read their profile before retweeting.)

·  Links within your Twitter posts: Send all traffic to your blog, website, or landing pages announcing your new book, speaking engagements, or other special offers. Your followers will want to know what you’re working on.

·  Link to Twitter: Do not forget include links to Twitter on your blogs, your other social networks, your press releases, articles and other publicity platforms.

Twitter allows everyone the opportunity to voice their opinion and share important (and not so important) news. When used correctly Twitter can be turned into a publicity powerhouse.

5 Easy Ways to Boost Local Search

Are you using social media sites to boost your local search results? It’s no longer a question of should be active in social media.  The question is how to develop a social media strategy that will give you greatest impact. 

An effective social media strategy will let you:

·  Communicate directly with your customers

·  Create engaging discussion topics

·  Take your marketing viral

·  Boost your online brand awareness

·  Help propel your business to the top of organic local search results

The evolving social media landscape can be a confusing place for marketers. However, here are some tips that will help you achieve those goals:

1. Build a following on Facebook.  Nearly half of Facebook users follow a specific brand and more than half of them eventually purchase that brand.  “Likes” on Facebook spread brand awareness virally, delivering information to everyone befriended by your followers.

2. Twitter is a great way to keep in touch with your current customers.  Increasingly, Twitter users follow a specific brand and most will eventually purchase that brand. Twitter posts should be used to engage your followers by providing them with helpful information about your products and services.  Offering special deals to your Twitter followers is a great way to grab their attention.

3. Encourage customers to review your business. Consumers love online reviews because they can see what others think about you and your product or service before they make a purchase. In addition, reviews on social media sites improve your organic search engine rankings and will drive free web traffic.

4. Leverage YouTube videos in local search results.  Embed your videos in Google Places, websites, and social profile pages.  Videos showcase your products and services while putting a human face on your business.

5. Give customers incentives to share your information online.  “Share and Receive a Reward” programs encourage consumers to share your offers with their friends via Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels in exchange for discounts or special deals.

By creating an effective social media marketing program, you make it easy for customers to find your business and to talk about it online. The results can greatly enhance your web marketing results by boosting your long-term brand awareness and increasing sales and profits.  

Getting More Customer Reviews on Your Website

Many online businesses often overlook the power of customer reviews. There are many benefits of reviews to your customers.  

Customer reviews reveal insights about your product or service that does not appear in your own copywriting. This is very important to online shoppers, as there is not a salesperson on hand to discuss your offerings. This allows customers to research their purchase more thoroughly, with honest opinions. The more review content you have, the less likely the visitor will turn elsewhere.

Consumer surveys consistently show that people prefer shopping on websites that show customer reviews. In the customers mind, it reduces their risk of purchasing a bad product. Research shows that consumer reviews are trusted nearly 12 times more than manufacturers’ descriptions. Consumers actively seek out sites that offer a wealth of reviews. The same survey shows that over 80% of consumers consider the availability of customer reviews to be “very important” in their purchasing decision.  Even negative reviews can help create positive feelings about your product – it shows transparency and honesty.

But attracting customer reviews can be a challenge. How can you motivate customers to take the time to contribute to product reviews? Here are a few suggestions.

The simplest and easiest way to get a customer review: just ask for it. It’s a no-brainer that you should reach out to customers post-purchase and request reviews. But it’s a fact that few are actually doing it. Many industries have offered incentives for customer review with great success. But they should be used sparingly in ecommerce. But you should offer incentives for reviews sparingly. Web users are sensitive to the issue and such tactics often draw criticism or hurt the perceived authenticity of the review.

Follow-up emails are another great way to increase customer satisfaction and increase customer reviews. Of course, timing is critical.  Follow-up after the product is in your customer’s hands and he/she has had a chance to use and evaluate the product. Then email the customer and ask for a quick review. (But don’t want to wait too long.)

A review solicitation via email should be crafted like any other email campaign. Care must be taken to choose an effective subject line, and body copy. And be sure to monitor your open and conversion rates.