MacDonald on Marketing

Archive for the ‘search engine optimization’ Category

Welcome to SEO Tuesdays. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of creating a website that enjoys good search engine rankings for the search queries your potential customers are likely to use when searching for products or services your business provides.

Getting good search engine rankings for your site is a longterm project that never really ends, but the results of good SEO are worth it. Statistics suggest that 85% of people who use Google click only on the “organic” search results and completely ignore the paid search listings. Therefore, SEO is worth a significant chunk of your online marketing time and/or budget.

To successfully improve your site’s search engine rankings, you need to understand the four basic steps of good SEO:

1. Identifying keyword phrases
2. Optimizing your website
3. Developing inbound links
4. Tracking your results

Today we’re going to cover the basics of identifying keyword phrases to target in your search engine optimization efforts. When people who are looking for your products or services go to Google, what do they type? You need to identify the phrases your customers are likely to be using to search so that you can begin to optimize your site to improve search engine rankings for those phrases. In SEO terms, these are called keyword phrases.

Brainstorm for a few minutes and will have a list of phrases to start you out. Keep these tips in mind:

• Think Laterally: If you sell aboveground pools, in addition to all the pool-related keyword phrases, what about phrases like summer fun, backyard improvements, etc.?

• Go Local: If you have a bricks and mortar location and you primarily serve a limited geographic area, include geographic keywords in your phrases. You have a much better chance of building a good ranking on “Bangor bed and breakfast” than on just “bed and breakfast” and people who are searching for “Bangor bed and breakfast” are ready to make a booking.

• Use Tools: Use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and the free keyword suggestion tool from Wordtracker to find new keyword phrases and get an understanding of the search volume for each phrase.

• Prioritize: Choose no more than a dozen of the best phrases on which to focus your SEO efforts to start. The best phrases will be very specific to your products, services, and possibly geographic area and have a reasonable search volume. Beware of picking phrases that are too general, because while more people may be searching using these phrases, there will be far more competition from other sites for top rankings.

Now what? Put this list in a safe place — you’ll be referring to it over and over again as you optimize your website.

Next week I’ll show you how to start putting these keyword phrases to use in your SEO efforts. We will cover website optimization, followed by inbound links and analytics. Be sure to subscribe if you’re interested in learning more about SEO for small business sites.

Have you been working on search engine optimization for your small business website? Please comment and share your thoughts and results!

Photo credit: cambodia4kidsorg

Planning your small business website?  Choosing your site’s domain name is one of the most important decisions you will make.  You’ll want to get this right the first time around, because your domain name will be the foundation of much of your online marketing.

Here are eight tips to help you through the process:

1.  Always choose a .com domain name. People assume that your domain will end in .com, so if you choose a .net website you may end up sending your customers to your competitor.  The only exception to this rule is if you exclusively do business in a country other than the United States.  In that case, your country-specific domain (e.g. example.co.uk or example.ca) would be better.

2.  Your domain name should contain your brand or business name, especially if you have a bricks and mortar business.  This will make your domain name more memorable, and also reinforce your branding.

3.  Keywords in your domain name can really boost your eventual search engine rankings for those keywords.  If you have a short business or brand name, consider adding a keyword to the domain as well.  For example, GreenPointHats.com instead of just GreenPoint.com.

4.  Forget about hyphens. Hyphens confuse your customers and they will end up typing in the non-hyphenated domain name instead.  Choose MyGreatWebsite.com instead of My-Great-Website.com.

5.  Shorter is better, but shorter is not everything.  Try to keep the domain three words or less if possible.

6.  Make sure that your domain name is spelled like it sounds, without any possible ambiguity.  Watch out for words that sound the same or words that are tricky to spell.

7.  Register your domain with a reputable registrar. I always recommend GoDaddy.com for domain registration (but not webhosting).

8.  Register your domain name for at least several years at a time. Domains that have a long registration period tend to end up with higher search engine rankings in Google.  Make sure you keep your email address, phone number, and mailing address up to date with the domain registrar.  Your registrar must be able to contact you for rebilling when your domain name registration expires!

Stumped?  Nameboy.com and Bustaname.com are a couple of fun tools that can help you find available domains.

How did you choose your small business domain name?  Please share your experiences and ideas in the  comments below!

Photo credit:  Chrstopher

Welcome to MacDonaldOnMarketing.com. I’m Catherine MacDonald, Internet entrepreneur and small business owner. I’ve been involved in Internet marketing since 1998.

Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about the process of marketing products and services online. When my husband and I founded our web development firm Simply Brilliant Solutions and started developing websites for our small business clients, we noticed something. As our job of creating a website for a client finished, the client’s job was just starting: attracting visitors to the website and converting those visitors into new customers. Many of our clients, experts in their own industries but unfamiliar with online marketing, were unsure how to get started. That’s the reason for this blog.

I aim to make MacDonaldOnMarketing.com the place for small business owners to come for tutorials, tips and fresh ideas about web marketing. I’m not going to be writing posts full of insider jargon and obscure technical debates. We’ll be discussing the basics of online marketing in a way that anyone can understand.

The topics I’m going to cover include:

Small business websites: Internet marketing obviously starts with your website, and we’ll discuss tips and strategies to make sure that your site starts you off on the right foot.

Ecommerce: You may already be taking orders and payments online, or perhaps you are making plans to do so. Ecommerce can help you increase market share and expand into new markets, and we’ll be discussing the different options in easy-to-understand terms.

Search engine optimization (SEO): Everybody wants to get top results on Google and other engines, but most people don’t know how to make this happen. I’ll show you what needs to be done to improve your search engine ranking.

Search engine marketing: SEM is a fancy name for buying paid listings in search engine results on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis. Google Adwords is the most well-known example. Learn how to get the best value for your SEM dollar.

Blogging: Writing a blog (you’re reading one now) can be one of the most effective online marketing strategies for small business. Learn how to increase search engine rankings and build a loyal customer base by creating a blog your customers look forward to reading.

Social media marketing: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more — find out how to leverage communities like these to make it easy for your happiest customers to spread the word.

Email marketing: We’ll look at good and bad examples of email marketing and discuss how to build a list of people who want to hear from you about your products or services.

Analytics and feedback: How do you know what’s working and what isn’t in terms of attracting visitors to your site and turning those visitors into customers? We’ll talk about ways to track your website traffic statistics and invite feedback from your visitors.

Questions, comments, or feedback about these topics and my posts? Please jump into the conversation in the comments sections of the posts or email me at catherine@macdonaldonmarketing.com.

If you’re a small business owner interested in getting the most out of your Internet presence, subscribe now. Thanks for visiting and come back soon!