How To Write High Traffic Business Blog Posts

How do you write effective blog posts for a business? 

What kinds of content are going to connect with customers? 

What types of topics are most popular?

What do customers want to read about on a business blog?

First, you have to understand the intended audience for your business, their needs, problems, and interests. 

Next, you have to deeply understand the business and what appeals to customers. 

Then, you have to be aware of hot news items that relate to the company's products and the problems they solve.

I will now list the 10 most popular blog posts (according to Google) on my client's Davis Dental Diary.

Then I'll explain the marketing strategy behind them and why these are getting such high traffic.

You can apply the same principles to your own business blog.

Top 10 Blog Posts of Davis Dental Diary

(1) Same Day Dentures and Other Dubious Dental Services


http://davisdentaldiary.blogspot.com/2015/08/same-day-dentures-and-other-dubious.html


(2) Cecil the Lion -- A Peoria Dentist Responds


http://davisdentaldiary.blogspot.com/2015/08/cecil-lion-peoria-dentist-responds.html


(3) How To Evaluate a Dentist


http://davisdentaldiary.blogspot.com/2015/05/how-to-evaluate-dentist.html


(4) Kavo DIAGNOdent Cavity Detector


http://davisdentaldiary.blogspot.com/2015/05/kavo-diagnodent-cavity-detector.html


(5) Contact Us


http://davisdentaldiary.blogspot.com/2015/04/contact-us.html


(6) Brush Your Teeth and Get More Dates VIDEO


http://davisdentaldiary.blogspot.com/2015/05/brush-your-teeth-and-get-more-dates.html


(7) Teeth Whitening -- Some Basic Facts


http://davisdentaldiary.blogspot.com/2015/04/teeth-whitening-some-basic-facts.html


(8) Our Dental Services


http://davisdentaldiary.blogspot.com/2015/04/our-dental-services.html


(9) Why I Became a Dentist


http://davisdentaldiary.blogspot.com/2015/04/why-i-became-dentist.html


(10) Basic Facts About Fluoride


http://davisdentaldiary.blogspot.com/2015/05/basic-facts-about-fluoride.html



*********************

Marketing Strategy Behind the Top 10 Blog Posts

(1) "Same Day Dentures and Other Dubious Dental Services" addresses the issue of "fast food" type corporate dental chains, without mentioning any of them by name.


This type of competition has launched massive amounts of TV commercials and online ads, thus must be confronted aggressively. In many cases, these quota driven enterprises are treating patients like cash cows and not delivering good work.


(2) "Cecil the Lion -- a Peoria Dentist Responds" ties in with my #1 SEO tactic: tie in with something that is already viral, a trending news topic in your field.


(3) "How To Evaluate a Dentist" is sharing expertise. People are always looking for good, inside advice on how to select a product or a provider of services. "How To" offers a promise and a benefit to patients.


(4) "Kavo DIAGNOdent Cavity Detector" appeals to the geeks, those who like to know about high tech gadgets. This dentist uses the slogan, "Pain free, affordable, high tech dentistry" so it's relevant to his niche.


(5) "Contact Us" is a bit unexpected to be ranking so high. What this indicates to me is that patients arriving at this blog are highly motivated to take the next step and initiate contact with his office, to set up an appointment.


(6) "Brush Your Teeth and Get More Dates VIDEO" is a funny but realistic cartoon video. It teaches good dental hygiene, while also providing a powerful motivation to keep your teeth in good shape. Again, here's a compelling appeal to a desired result that patients are seeking.


(7) "Teeth Whitening -- Some Basic Facts" ties in with a tremendously popular issue. Teeth whitening is something that is already a viral, trending topic, so people who proceed logically want to learn about it before they take any action with a home kit or a dentist visit.


(8) "Our Dental Services" appeals to patients who want to know what can be done by the dentist. The services themselves are hot keywords, so this post is good for SEO.


(9) "Why I Became a Dentist" is based on the fact that people prefer to do business with providers they know, like, and trust. By explaining his decision to become a dentist, potential patients get to know, like, and hopefully trust this dentist. Plus, people are nosy and like to pry into the minds of others, if only out of simple curiosity.


(10) "Basic Facts About Fluoride" ties in with an issue that is already viral, another trending topic. Fluoride has been in the news a lot recently, with anti-fluoride health-minded individuals questioning the safety of the amounts of fluoride in drinking water and toothpaste (look at the warnings on your tube of fluoride toothpaste.)


While there are many other social media marketing principles I could discuss, these are enough to get you going in the right direction.

Remember: tie in with topics that are already viral, share expertise, and write posts that humanize, personalize, and make your company more known, liked, and trusted.

Pin It

Get a Dog, Get a Life

ASPCA poster at PAWS. "Get a dog, get a life."

The wonderful joy of a dog companion, member of the family, treated like the prince of the property, your loyal ally and protector!

When you realize in your heart how much you sincerely LOVE your dog, it is kind of scary.

You realize that this creature with the intelligence of a 2 year old human child has captured your innermost being with an extreme positive attachment.

He seems to be an actual part of you, not a separate being.

He is your son in every sense of the word, aside from how he was born.

You have adopted him, chosen him, and learned how to be nice to him, patient, soft, gentle, and always encouraging him, praising him, talking to him like a human pal.

You sing songs to him, use repeated phrases at specific times, making his world reassured and regular.

You do your utmost to give him a paradise on earth, making his life full of happiness and positive expectations.

Every day is a good day for your dog as long as you're there, with your dog, and cheerfully greeting him upon returning from an absence. He shows his contentment and fondness, just in the way he looks at you or the way he smiles as he takes a nap on your pillow.

Inter-species companionship, mutual love and kindness, a strong emotional bonding, delight in each other's company -- are an amazing gift to both pet and parent-owner.

Training your dog. Protecting him from unleashed dogs. Giving him medical care and a good diet. Buying him toys and jackets and hoodies.

Going off on wild adventures and explorations. From forests to bright city lights. To rivers and fountains and parks.

Taking your little guy along with you, as an equal partner, inside various homes, stores, offices, festivals, visits with neighbors who also have a dog or cat.

Putting him on a parked motorcycle for a photo opp.

Providing varied sensory stimulation by transporting him to new locales and including him on every household activity, whenever possible.

Teaching your dog words, commands, maneuvers, games.

Talking intimately as he looks at you with attempted understanding.

Being surprised at all the words he recognizes and responds to: go for a walk, go see mommy, go see daddy, doggie doctor, bone, dog toy, go night night on the big bed, poo poo pee pee outside, water, doggie treat, yes, no, go home, get on the sidewalk, cars, icky, good boy, whoo whoo whoo (for a remarkable achievement), okay, sorry, go bye bye in the car, go to the bridge (Schmoeger Park), names of other dogs in the neighborhood.

Bonding with a good dog, whose personality meshes with your own in surprising ways, is one of the greatest satisfactions in life.

If you have the opportunity to comfortably accommodate, pay the bills for, and lovingly care for a dog, please go to PAWS and rescue one today.

Buddy Streight the Minpin, we love you with all our hearts,

Mommy and Daddy

Pin It

Troll Check List

How can you spot, destroy, and delete an internet troll?

Reddit CEO says trolls are winning and taking over debate forums and social platforms.

 No. That's not true.

Trolls can be defined, identified, monitored, and dealt with via blogocombat, banning, and blocking.

What are the characteristics and behaviors that brand someone an internet troll, a griefer, a trouble-maker?

I compiled the following facts to guide your understanding of trollish activity.

 Troll Check List 

 * rarely links to substantiating resources

 * copies and pastes lengthy chunks of articles he found online, scholarly text you're pretty certain he didn't write himself (since it's free of hysteria and cuss words)

 * anonymous or near-anonymous, has obviously fake name, no photo of face for avatar, or no updates on his own profile, so he clearly joined a social platform just to annoy and disrupt conversations

 * gets angry quickly and betrays his paranoia when he misinterprets even your smiley faces as "condescending" and treating him "like a child."

 * launches into personal attacks like that's what they were leading up to

 * is quick to start calling anybody who disagrees with him an "idiot" or "moron" or "watch too much Faux News" or "read too much Huffington Post"

 * uses filthy language

* quick to put you into some ideological group, then attack that group, e.g., "you church people are all the same" or "you atheists never make sense" or "I bet you voted for Bush" or "here comes another libtard."

 * often sexist or racist

* has a teenage immaturity, very sensitive, extremely brutal in unreasonable retaliations, a delicate ego based on pampering, resulting in severely limited logic skills and self-absorbed grandiosity

 * will argue as hatefully against a woman or child as against a male or a peer, thus: has no personal standards of what is socially appropriate

 * thinks he's the only one with all the right answers, similar to a garden variety cult leader or brainwashed group member

* may even tell you his IQ number or list his college degrees, or jobs supposedly held, or make similar insecure, pompously funny assertions of being smarter than everybody else, especially you

 * rushes to conclusions that he can then get angry about

* won't chill out because he's putting on a show for his Red Bulled buddies

 * likes to twist what you say, as though you have bad intentions, or puts words in your mouth, making absurd allegations of what you imply or what you "must also believe"

 * frequently blames everything on the Jews or Muslims or Republicans or Democrats or capitalism or socialism

 * makes wild accusations like they've had too much lucid dreaming, bath salts, and fake pot

 * relentlessly keeps hammering away at an argument, even after you've stopped responding and have moved on

 * will, if you annoy the troll enough, turning the tables on him, eventually get exasperated, and instead of saying something like "well, let's just agree to disagree" says "you're all a bunch of retards. I'm done with this conversation." -- thus you de-fanged the troll and caused him to kick himself out of the online discussion, when his whole point was to be sadistic and hurt people's feelings and mock their opinions.

Pin It

Unproductive Websites are a Waste of Money

You spent from $5,000 to $50,000 on a website. A simple marketing site or a complex, data base driven, multi-functional ecommerce site. Did you get ripped off?

If your website is not generating sales revenue, what good is it? Is just a floating digital billboard?

Website productivity is something that can be tracked via Google Analytics conversion goal reports. 

You set up the categories of actions you want website visitors to take, then see how many are engaged in the desired behaviors: 

* calling the office 

* setting up an appointment 

* ordering a product 

* submitting a contact form 

* signing up for a newsletter

* watching a tutorial or product demo video

* sending you an email

* completing a transaction

* downloading a PDF form

* voting in an online poll

or whatever you want people to do at your website.

There are SEO and web usability techniques to compel customers to take the actions you desire them to take. Then you can assess the results over a period of time, and plan ways to enhance the website to perform more effectively.

Why let a bad investment sit there, rotting away on the internet?

Implement some genuine, deep-insight SEO and watch your website be the hero you originally hoped it would be.

For more information, contact me at:

steven.streight@gmail.com

Pin It

Biggest Mistakes Small Businesses Make

"Biggest Mistakes Small Businesses Make" -- my latest Vaspers SEO & Advanced Technology Show podcast episode on BlogTalkRadio. (26:20) I explain 10 or 12 things that are killing small businesses, cancers that are eating them from the inside out.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/vaspers/2015/06/05/biggest-mistakes-small-businesses-make

Textual Summary:

(1) Not receptive to critique about what's making them fail.

(2) Not paying attention to market leaders, successful competitors and innovative colleagues.

(3) Not adequately assessing customer needs, complaints, problems, desires.

(4) Overspending on TV commercials.

(5) No competitive differentiation with compelling slogan.

(6) Impersonal, aloof, cold, generic.

(7) We-oriented website, instead of customer-centric.

(8) Poor customer service.

(9) Hiring family members -- and retaining them due to blood ties, not performance.

(10) Fantasy profits based on sloppy bookkeeping.

(11) Under-investing and improperly using social media marketing.

(12) Horrible SEO values resulting in poor showing in search results.

Pin It

Unproductive Websites Need SEO

A website may be all dressed up, but going nowhere.

It's increasingly how customers find your business and buy products.

If your website is not performing well, you've got yourself a major business problem. It needs to be fixed immediately, before your competitors do everything right and bury you in search results.

An unproductive website is not a laughing manner.

Is your website generating any sales? Does it have a unique, exclusive phone number, so you can track calls coming from your website? Is anybody filling out the contact form and sending it to you? Are you following up on them?

Does your website portray your business in a totally professional, aesthetically pleasing and appropriate manner? Be honest. How does your website compare visually with the leading giants in your field?

Is your website a hardworking sales tool -- or a dud?

Your website should have tracking installed that reports on most popular pages on your site, completed online sales, phone calls to set office appointments, contact form submissions, video views, email newsletter subscriptions, and other conversion goals.

You don't have to guess if your website is a good investment, delivering an acceptable ROI (return on investment).

You can know for sure what's going on and what may need to be fixed.

The 52 parameters of SEO, once implement correctly, will drive more qualified customer traffic to your website due to better communication with Google's search spider -- and cause visitors to spend more money, because calls to action, product profiles, and form fill-outs are enhanced.

Pin It

8 Things a Business Should Do on Facebook

One of the worst things I see companies do on Facebook business pages is using Facebook as a one-way broadcast medium. Like we're living in the 1950s.

Huge mistake! How much do you enjoy all that relentless sales hype, event announcements, discount deals, and we-oriented messaging? This old fashioned strategy really turns people off. It's annoying and counter-productive.

It's a futile attempt to use social media like traditional advertising venues: billboards, print ads, TV commercials, direct mail.

Constantly pushing product and reposting content from suppliers makes your Facebook page seem cold, impersonal, unsociable.

Is that the image you want to project? I rather doubt it.

Here are 8 ways to use Facebook for competitive advantage and to increase sales:

1. Share your expertise -- educate customers and they'll consider you the Go To Person in your field, the expert, the specialist they know, like and trust.

Answer questions that customers typically ask. If you don't know what these questions are, your business is in serious trouble.

2. Ride on the coat tails of a topic that's already viral, building a conceptual bridge from the hot news item to your products.

3. Click Like, Share, and comment on the Facebook posts of others. Post comments that contribute insight and experience to a conversation, especially if it's related to your industry or products.

4. Show photos of CEO, owner, manager, staff at charity events, company picnics, employee parties, participating in non-profits, etc. to convey sense of connection to your community.

5. Share photos of personal things that humanize you: family gatherings, shopping trips, favorite sports teams, what you had for lunch, what music you're listening to lately, causes you care about.

6. Display photos and video of your products being used by customers to solve specific problems.

7. Promote other businesses and organizations in your community, instead of constantly blabbering about yourself, your company, your products. When you promote other entities, be sure to link to their website, or give contact details (land address and phone number).

8. Stop thinking social media is a one-way communication platform -- start participating like a normal Facebook user, interact with others, start conversations based on your industry, customer needs, and problems your products solve.

Pin It

Key to Modern Marketing is Content

The key to modern marketing is Content. 

Content will make Google decide your website is authoritative and up to date. Frequent original content will make your website climb higher in search results pages.

But content is not king. Content is slave to the needs and interests of customers. Content can never be "just tell people what we do and what we sell." That's 1950s advertising mentality.

Today you must be a Teacher if you want to sell a product or promote an agenda. Teach information. About why you got into this field. About how your industry has evolved. About unique features of your product. About what differentiates you from competing vendors.

But mostly -- About experiences of customers and how to best solve their problems.

When I stumble into a client who really "gets" Content, I know the business will be wildly successful and we're both going to be raking in the cash. Why? Because 98% of businesses, your competitors, don't have a single clue.

Most of your competitors still think Content is something a web design team dreams up for your website, the goal being to aggressively push products on docile consumers.

No. A thousand times No. Content must be you talking with your customers about what they're going through. And how you have the answer, solution, fix.

Correct Content. Content that meets actual current needs. That's 80% of SEO.

Search engine optimizing means having webpages that answer typical questions customers are asking in online searches.

Thus, you must know what those questions. You need to personally mingle and engage in conversations with customers in the real world, on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, wherever your customers are having discussions about the problems your product solves.

When a client is fanatic about Customer Education, and is already an avid Teacher, you're in a win-win situation of guaranteed victory. Sales and brand loyalty are on their way.
Pin It

SEO makes your website more productive

A web designer builds you a website. It looks okay to you. You feel good about it. You shouldn't.

A website without SEO (search engine optimization) is a website that has very little traffic coming to it. It won't generate sales. It just sits there. You think you've got a web presence -- but all you have is an inert piece of internet real estate that's not productive. It's close to being no web presence at all.

You fire employees who aren't productive. Your website needs to be effective in attaining business goals, too. There are methods for evaluating the effectiveness of a website.

If your website is not resulting in people calling your business (via a phone number exclusive to the website alone, so you can track them), people submitting contact forms, signing up for your newsletter, watching your videos, etc. -- that website is a dud. You wasted your money.

SEO can solve this problem. SEO includes proper implementation of HTML meta tags, H tags, robots.txt, XML site maps, Schema.org, Google Hummingbird semantic search requirements, conversational content, and much more.

I give clients monthly SEO reports that show how SEO is causing their website to shoot higher and higher in search results for various keywords. These reports can be verified independently, so you know the SEO results are real.

Super-charge your website. Transform it into a high powered sales tool, with SEO values that your competitors, I guarantee, are clueless about.

Since almost no websites are properly implementing SEO, you'll have a huge competitive advantage.

Pin It

Dangers of free, low cost, automated, and DIY websites

Don't be tricked by the ads that make you think you can get a website at no cost or very cheap.

Here are 15 things that can go terribly wrong with free, low cost, automated, and do-it-yourself websites.

(1) Many times the websites are unattractive, poorly designed, or generic looking.

(2) Mission critical functionality, like contact forms, donation buttons, and email subscription widgets, could be extremely slow, or might stop working.

(3) They tend to be slack regarding security, breach detection and malware removal. This means porn, racism, or other bad things might take over your website. It may take them a long time to fix it.

(4) Being vulnerable to hackers means your customer data could be stolen and your customers could be victims of scams and identity theft -- and customers may perceive these attacks as coming from you! You will probably be legally liable for any damages incurred.

(5) They can put ads on your website, which will make it look extremely amateur, spammy, and untrustworthy. Is that how you want your business to be perceived?

(6) They may not have Google-compliant SEO values built into them. In fact, they tend to violate lots of SEO requirements. That means you won't get very many qualified customers visiting your website.

(7) You may not be able to upload and arrange photos, video, audio files or widgets in the way you desire. You will be stuck with limitations on where you place them and how they appear.

(8) They tend to use a proprietary content management system (CMS). If you try to leave the service and hire a new web designer, that designer may have a lot of trouble working with the CMS.

(9) It may not be mobile optimized or have cross-browser compatibility. So your website might look okay on an iPad, but terrible on an iPhone. It might render well on Internet Explorer, but look lousy on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.

(10) They tend to have poorly written HTML code that's not compliant with web standards.

(11) You may not own the domain name -- and that can be a disaster. If they go out of business, your entire web presence could vanish.

(12) They don't implement Schema.org structured microdata markup.

(13) They are often used by local "web design" companies, who then charge you a lot of money, without telling you they used a free service.

(14) They use generic templates which are difficult to implement custom branding in. Thus, your website looks very similar to thousands of other websites, won't stand out, and won't accurately communicate your marketing message.

(15) Keyword research and internet savvy marketing strategy are not incorporated.

Beth Lee Browning on LinkedIn Pulse states the case well.

QUOTE

When people think about starting a business in the brick and mortar world, they spend hours of time researching and learning about things like location, staffing, marketing, and the optimal way to set up the inside of the store.

There's no expectation of a free building, supplies at no cost, and most of us wouldn't even consider installing the plumbing or electricity.

In fact we'd probably be very dubious about setting up shop in a "free" location.

For some reason this same mentality isn't always applied when it comes to building a website and all too often there's a misconception that it should be free and easy.

END QUOTE



Pin It

Alternatives to Watermarking Photos for Copyright Protection

Watermarks for photo copyright protection? Upload crappy resolutions if you fear people may steal your photos. Or don't post the photos online. Watermarks are easy to hack or crop out.

Are we afraid someone's going to steal our photo and make a ton of money off it? Fat chance.  

Have you ever known anyone this happened to, someone ripped off their photo and got rich? Really, you'll be lucky if anybody pays any attention at all to your photos. There are trillions of photos online now.

PHOTO ABOVE: Kim Johnson, photographer for Art & Society magazine.

On PhotoForum, Josh 66 said: "As far as protecting your work, the best thing you can do is not post it online if you're that worried about other people downloading your stuff. No watermark will stop someone from downloading your picture, and if it's too big it will just make the picture look like crap.

Either deal with the fact that people are going to download your pictures, or don't put anything online.

A nice compromise would be to only put crappy resolution pictures online. That way, when people steal them, their prints will suck."

Studio 101 Imageworks said: "Copyright is Federal Law and to secure all your legal rights, you have to register your copyright ownership with the US Copyright Office, a part of the Library of Congress. www.copyright.org

So, the only sure way to keep your images from being stolen from the Internet is, don't put them there in the first place."

http://www.thephotoforum.com/threads/do-you-really-need-to-watermark-alternatives.187770/

When I see a photographer or studio name on a photo, I automatically think of it not as a stand alone image but as an ad. I hate to say this, but it typically detracts from the aesthetic experience of the image. I feel the same about certain painters who sign their name really big on every painting.

Here's an article with reasons why you should not use watermarks.

QUOTE

While they make you feel more professional, poorly conceived or designed watermarks can make you look like a total amateur. (Make sure you choose a classy font and not Comic Sans.)

One thing’s for sure: Watermarks insert an extra layer of the commercial into your work, and it can be hard to know how people will react to that. If you’re comfortable with that, then you probably have no qualms about plastering your photos with watermarks.

But how many people have you met who actually make money this way? More often than not, successful photographers find clients by referral, not by random searches on the Internet.

That said, there’s no denying watermarks offer a way for you to brand your work if that’s important. But keep in mind that the most renowned photographers don’t seem to need watermarks; their style often speaks for itself.

It may sound depressing to hear it, but that beautiful photo of the sunset at the beach you took last summer is crowded out by about 134 million similar photos in Google Search. Unless you’re running a commercial stock photo agency, your images are lucky to be found, much less stolen.

END QUOTE

http://blog.pixlr.com/post/53343679858/why-you-shouldnt-watermark-your-photos-plus-a

What is your opinion on this topic?



Pin It

News page: your secret marketing weapon

Use your website News page to deliver fresh content to search engines and customers. 

News page content updating helps your branding -- and search engine results page (SERP) ranking. 

Google is increasingly fanatic about fresh, frequent, original content. 

4 major ways to update content:

(1) Website News page.

(2) Blog (embedded as subpage of website -- or cross linked to website).

(3) Social media, primarily Facebook, LinkedIn, GooglePlus, and YouTube (varies depending on client).

(4) New webpages and PPC landing pages.

Today, let's look at winning the content contest by aggressively implementing News page strategies. 

First, you as CEO, business owner, manager must be excited about something new every day regarding your business. Each day you wake up, you should have some focus pertaining to the solutions your products provide for customers who use it to fulfill a need.

You must have one primary thing you'd like to tell the world about your business, every day, or at least a few times each week. 

A new product now stocked. 

A new way to use a current service. 

A new feature installed in a product. 

A new blog post. 

A new employee. 

A link to an interesting article you just read, related to your industry or expertise.

A list of information you want all customers to understand.

A Red Cross banquet you attended last night. 

A new insight on a customer concern.

A news item related to an event related to something in your field that you have a strong opinion on. 

You need access to your website admin panel so you can update your News page with these types of announcements and notices and links.

SEO is now far more oriented to building new webpages that answer customer questions. 

This is now, more than ever, the heart of content SEO. 

Google must see your website as the "go to person," the #1 expert, and the most easy to read answer to whatever questions being asked in internet searches related to your business.

Your website content must be personal, conversational, even breezy and awkward to some degree, to signify a real, warm, human presence. Photos of you, your staff, and happy customers (with permission) will flesh out your website and help people connect with you.

Some human frailty is good -- to avoid the perception of being slick and super optimized. While you need to implement various SEO tactics, your website should not be screaming "I"m Search Engine Optimized." Google even suggests adding some amateurish anchor text for links, like "Click Here" instead of the more savvy keyword anchor like "information about our KSwiss casual shoes."

Does your website content seem human, easy to relate to?

No typos, but eccentric turns of phrase are good. Anything that makes your content original, unique. Not plagiarized, imitated, or copied and pasted from some other website or blog.

Once the HTML is tweaked for SEO values (meta tags, img alt attributes, H tags, robots protocols, site map, etc.), content that is worthy of links and that satisfies customers is the key.

Try to add something to your News page at least 2 or 3 times per week, if not daily. Google will notice. Google will consider your website to be more current and up to date than your competitors' websites. Your website will gradually rise higher and higher in search results.

The next step would be to make sure that once visitors arrive at your website, they have a good experience, find what they need, and are able to work the functional widgets like online registration forms or ecommerce shopping carts.

Excel in the strategic SEO use of your website's News page and gain a strong, hard to emulate, competitive advantage.

Pin It

Directory listings for SEO? Be careful.

Google-compliant SEO is not easy. The rules keep changing and so does how people search online.

Directory listings for SEO are no longer recommended, except for a few local and niche directories. 

Companies used to want to get listed (business name, address, phone number, email) on thousands of directories, for the link back to their own website. This was smart strategy. For a while.

The best directories are tightly focused, well designed, serving a specialty or local community, and include educational material on the industry (a great place for naturally occurring keywords) that explains things, or has a forum, rather than just lists of businesses.

Spammers have hit directories pretty hard. Directory listings have been abused by black hat practitioners, along with article submission sites, press release links with SEO savvy anchor text, guest blogging, and other old skool tactics.

Yesterday's safe directory can become unsafe tomorrow. What may have been a safe link neighborhood at one time can suddenly turn bad. Then you need to get unlisted. You may even have to pay a lot of money to get unlisted by a directory, in order to avoid penalties from Google.

Some still good directories and business listings recommended by Yahoo include:

Yelp
Mapquest
Topix
LocalPages
Manta
Merchants Circle
Yellowmoxie
Mojopages
Avantar
localdatabase
superpages
Americantowns.com
Co-pilot
Tupalo
Yellowbot
Yellowise
8coupons
Metro PCS Whereto
Citysearch
Whitepages
YellowPageCity.com
Elocal
CitySquares
Factual
USCity.net
ShowMeLocal


The main Yahoo Directory has been closed down.

http://www.webpronews.com/the-yahoo-directory-is-officially-dead-2014-12


Yahoo Local Small Business Directory is still considered good. But check out these categories for "Peoria IL Professional Services":

https://local.yahoo.com/IL/Peoria/Professional+Services/

Animal & Pet Services
Auctioneers (10)
Business Organizations
Design Services
Employment Services
News & Media
Office Supplies & Services
Paranormal Services
Photocopying (10)
Photography
Printing Services
Private Investigation (11)
Publishing Services
Sex
Shipping Services
Storage
Telecommunications
Pin It

Win with Customer Oriented Content

Wall Street executives call it "getting dirty," but marketing people call it "getting smart" -- contact with customers.

You can gain incredible competitive advantage by learning more about your customers. This is one marketing secret you don't have to keep secret.

Your competitors won't care enough about customers to implement this strategy.

So this is really a quick and relatively easy procedure that pays off big. You can talk to people who visit your store and the ones who visit your website, blog, and Facebook page.

Quit selling products. Start selling solutions. Solutions based on an exclusive, hard to come by expertise.

You position your company as Top of Mind Choice when a need arises by using user-centric content dominance.

When a customer does an internet search on any phrase or word related to your business (or customer problems solved by your product), your website appears high on the first page of Google results. That's the goal.

You gain this marketing superiority by proving, via content, that you are the Go To person or company, the one with all the answers and products and user guidance for perfect, affordable solutions.

That means grinding out unique, original, frequent content. In FAQ format per Google Hummingbird semantic search requirements.

Content that meets customer needs, websites that answer questions, Facebook updates that share your expertise, and blogs that provide expert opinions on timely issues related to your industry.

PHOTO: Art from Van Loon's Lives.

Pin It

Good Relations microdata for Ecommerce websites

SEO is getting more complex. But it's evolving in good directions. Good Relations is an example of the new ways HTML5 microformats can be used. Structured markup microdata is enabling search engines to be more semantic about search queries -- get better at interpreting the sentences, instead of responding robotically to keywords. 

Google states: "If Google understands your website’s content in a structured way, we can present that content more accurately and more attractively to Google users. For example, our algorithms can enhance your search results with “rich snippets” when we understand that your page is a structured product listing, event, recipe, review, or similar. We can also feature your data in Knowledge Graph panels or in Google Now cards, helping to spread the word about your content."

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/05/getting-started-with-structured-data.html

Also: "By using microdata markup in your web pages, you can specify reviews, people profiles, or events information on your web pages that Google may use to improve the presentation of your pages in Google search results....

Microdata has the nice property of balancing richness with simplicity. As you can see, it’s easy to add markup to your pages using a few HTML attributes like itemscope (to define a new item), itemtype (to specify the type of item being described), and itemprop (to specify a property of that item). Once you’ve added markup to a page, you can test it using the rich snippets testing tool to make sure that Google can parse the data on your page.

As with microformats and RDFa, the vocabulary that we support -- including which item types and item properties are understood by Google -- is specified in our rich snippets documentation as well as on data-vocabulary.org. Marking up your content does not guarantee that rich snippets will show for your site; Google will expand the use of microdata markup gradually to ensure a great user experience."

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/03/microdata-support-for-rich-snippets.html

Schema.org should be implemented in all websites now. Your SEO or web designer should be putting it into your HTML document for your website.

SEO is evolving rapidly. It's now about blogging abundantly, adding new themed webpages based on emerging keywords, video optimizing, image strategy, personalized branding, mobile optimizing, correct use of meta tags, and incorporating the new micro-data in the HTML.

Ask your web designer or SEO specialist about Schema.org, what it is, why we need it, and how to do it.

Chances are, if you say, "You know, Schema.org structured micro-data markup to comply with Google Hummingbird semantic and clickless search," they'll look at you like you're speaking Greek (abstract philosophy) or Icelandic (a very difficult language).

Anyway, there are alternative linked data and deep meaning code proposals out there. Here's one specifically for eCommerce.

http://www.heppnetz.de/projects/goodrelations/

Pin It

Ecommerce Tip for Increased Sales - Promote Solutions, Not Products

Want to improve your ecommerce website and get more sales?

Forget about sales. Focus on solutions.

Realize you are NOT selling products.

You are providing solutions to problems.

Businesses in the Peoria, IL area need to know that SEO looks at your overall marketing strategy. To really gain a strong competitive advantage, try orienting all your marketing toward customer needs, rather than product inventories.

Say that with me right now: "I'm NOT selling products. I'm providing solutions."

This means you need to figure out what problems your customers are having, and then figure out how to most effectively talk about how your products solve those problems.

Dump that stupid sales mentality and focus on being helpful, informative, and educational. Solving, not selling. This is the key.

You'll sell a LOT more product when you switch to a SOLUTIONS mindset.

EXAMPLE: Don't say "We've got wonderful coconut milk soaps. Buy some now." Rather, explain "Get these 12 skin health benefits from our fragrant, creamy, coconut milk soaps." and go on to describe the superiority of your products FROM THE CUSTOMER'S POINT OF VIEW.

Describe how luxurious it is to bathe or shower with these beautiful, aromatherapeutic, bars of cleansing, moisturizing, skin rejuvenating soaps. Use an engaging narrative about how you'll be pampering yourself with these products. Then follow that with bullet points that give details backing up your claims.

Quit trying to push products on people. Stop just listing products with minimal specifications. Never again think you can just tell people what you've got or what you do.

Instead, educate, inform, enlighten, define, describe, compare, contrast, and clarify.

This is beneficial both psychologically and for SEO value.

Google will not send people to your ecommerce site because you list a bunch of stuff for sale. Google will send people to you ONLY if you provide answers to customer questions.

90% of SEO nowadays, since the new Google Hummingbird semantic search engine was implemented, is CONTENT. Rich, relevant, frequent, original, unique, well-written, informative, FAQ format content.

Grind out content in the form of new webpages with keyword themes, constant updates to the News page, and blog posts embedded in, or linked to, your website.

Pin It

How To Sell More Product on Your Ecommerce Website

Almost nobody will ever visit your website if all it does is list products with brief descriptions. Your website has to be answering questions customers are asking about issues related to your business.

You must speak directly to the problems and needs of customers, using their language (not corporate fluff and generic ad copy) -- and THEN explain how your products provide the best solution.

The business with the best content on their website will totally dominate the market, while the "just tell them what we sell" websites will cause businesses to go bankrupt.

Welcome to the new world of Google Hummingbird semantic search.

The rules of SEO and web traffic are all different now. Will your business survive?

Pin It

Your website needs to keep pace with customer questions

Do you have a website that explains what your business is and what you're selling? No wonder you're failing.

Your website must do far more than just tell people who you are and what you do. It must answer questions that customers have about their problem, needs, and interests. An FAQ type format is ideal.

Customers don't care about you or your company or your products. They care about solving a problem or enhancing a lifestyle. Your website must be a fantastic source of well-written information that customers are seeking.

For example, if you're a hospital or health care business, is your website just blabbering about your facilities and how "patient-oriented" you are?

Or do you have a process for developing new webpages on hot topics in the medical realm? Is your website keeping pace with news items in the health field?

Does your hospital website contain definitions of medical terms and answers to questions people have about acid reflux, mammograms, vaccines, boosting the immune system, measles, Ebola, childhood obesity, lyme disease, food allergies, weight loss?

Does your website have enough original, relevant information to make Google rank it high in search results for various questions people have?

A static "finished" website is a thing of the past. Google considers a website with stale content that is never updated, to be outdated, perhaps even irrelevant. and of poor value to people who seek the latest information.

You need to be grinding out fresh, unique content constantly.

You can do that with new webpages, your News page, and your blog that is embedded or linked to your website.

If you're not committed to continually improving your website, Google is going to start ignoring it and your competitors are going to take advantage of your vulnerability.

Web content development is one of the major keys to having a website that is productive, that actually results in sales and customer loyalty.

What is the ROI on your website? Are you using Google Analytics to track conversions? Do you have an exclusive phone number that is used ONLY on your website, so you can tell how effective it is?

Pin It

Goodwill Big Foot message and SEO content diversity

And our Employee of the Month, a Mr. John Yeti, is eager to serve you. To his family for dinner.

Love this image. I bought 3 really great books at Goodwill Industries of Central Illinois on Pioneer Parkway today.

But what is going on in this image posted on Facebook recently?

This is a corporate message using a cartoon of a fabled creature, Big Foot, to grab attention.

This is also a nuanced motivational poster. It's communicating:

"We Goodwill employees are tough. We have the endurance and stamina of a Big Foot or Sasquatch. We can trudge through blizzards and ice tsunamis to get to work. That's how customer-centric we are."

This is a good example also of an SEO factor called Content Diversity.

You gain SEO advantages, for driving more qualified customer traffic to your website, when you provide continuous content updates in varied formats and purposes.

Don't focus entirely on sales hype, grinding out relentless offers, discounts, event invitations, we-oriented fluff, or generic persuasive communications. Joke. Divulge eccentricities. Discuss interesting aspects of corporate history. 

Share your expertise. Speak to typical customer problems, questions, and interests.

Use creative ways to get a message, like "All Locations Are Open," to your target audience and fans.

If you're in the Peoria, IL area, I'm your local internet marketing adviser and SEO services resource. Can I help you today?

CONTACT

steven.streight@gmail.com

Pin It

Streight SEO at Public Relations Association event

I'm spreading my SEO expertise all across the Peoria, IL area, transferring my carefully researched, Google-compliant, ROI oriented information to you.

I will be speaking on SEO at a local business event.

Public Relations Association Round Table Meeting on January 21, 2015 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, at

Barrack's Cater Inn
1124 W. Pioneer Parkway
Peoria, IL


Speakers will be:

Steven Streight, Streight SEO on "Driving Traffic to Websites with SEO"

Steve Tarter, Peoria Journal Star on "Your Job Matters"

Kim Stewart, Volt Staffing on "Career Planning - How Do I Get My Next Great Job?"

Jeff Griffin, President, Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce "Leading a New 103 Year Old Organization"

For more information, CONTACT me at:

steven.streight@gmail.com

Pin It

Get Back to the Meat of Your Product

STREIGHT SEO Marketing Tips for 2015

#1 = Get Back to the Meat of Your Product

You have to stay focused on the real heart of your product. The meat. The central core. What is this essential bottom line reality of your product? The problem it solves for the customer.

It's easy to get carried away with contests, discounts, deadlines, special offers, spectacular events, email blasts, Facebook boosts, TV commercials, radio spots, billboards, etc. -- and drift away from hammering away at the real triggers that compel people to buy your items.

Gimmicks, stunts, and splashy glitzy excitement is not the best way to market most things. You need hard-nosed business acumen and strategic marketing expertise.

You need to zero in on the benefits and unique features of your product -- in a way that is memorable, rational, and complete.

"You don't sell bacon. You sell the sizzle." is an old advertising slogan. When I worked on Madison Avenue years ago, a principle was drilled into my brain -- the USP. Unique Selling Proposition.

You find that one huge benefit of your product.

You find out how customers talk about that need they have, which is fulfilled by your product.

You use their language in all marketing, conversational and competent -- not generic, we-oriented, corporate fluff.

You position your product as the answer to a need.

You differentiate yourself from all competitors with a unique claim or be first to claim something that competitors also have in their product, but have not advertised it yet.

What is the meat of your product?

How are you wafting the delicious aroma of it to those who are starving for a solution to their problem?

Cut through the typical boring hype. Get to the heart of what your product does for customers.

Make sure you have your product story nailed down BEFORE you go off on fancy flights of marketing imagination.
Pin It

SEO and title tags for competitive business advantage

How I suddenly realized I had to fix my own blog's title tag. (A true and embarrassing story.)

As an SEO specialist, I'm always learning. I just recently started blogging heavily about SEO on my Pluperfecter blog. I want to prove the theory that this will help my Google search results page rankings over time.

My tighter focus on SEO topics for my blog started just a month or so ago, and already, when I search "seo peoria il", my blog is appearing at #21, the first item on page 3.

Here is what appears on the Google search results page (a recent post -- note that it is not just any SEO post, but is specifically my post on SEO for Peoria IL area businesses).


QUOTE

SEO for Peoria, IL Area Businesses - Pluperfecter
pluperfecter.blogspot.com/…/seo-for-peoria-il-area-business…
Dec 8, 2014 - When you need SEO services for your website, you know your goal is to drive more ... My clients are primarily local, in the Peoria, IL area.

END QUOTE

That's pretty darn good considering all the web design shops who claim to be doing SEO, and the ferocious competition in the SEO field. I'm waging competitive SEO war against other SEO warriors. This should get interesting quick.

My blog also appears as the next result, #22, the second item on page 3.

QUOTE

Pluperfecter: internet marketing, SEO, web usability, web ...
pluperfecter.blogspot.com/
3 days ago - Why You Must Go FAR Beyond Resumes and Cover Letters in Today's Job Market. Resumes, cover letters and interviews are often ...

END QUOTE

But then I noticed that my title tag "Pluperfecter: internet marketing, SEO, web usability, web..." [truncated by Google] did not have my name in it. Huge mistake that I'm sorry to admit I just now realized. I hastened to update my blog's title tag.

It will take a little while for Google to catch up to this change I made, but when it takes effect, people will see this title tag (shorter, to avoid truncating) on search results page:

Pluperfecter: Steven Streight on SEO and internet marketing - Peoria, IL

It's about time I took some of my own medicine that I dish out to clients.

:-)

Need SEO or internet marketing help?

CONTACT me today.

steven.streight@gmail.com

Pin It