Saturday, January 24, 2009

And the Winners Are.....

seo contest winners

We would like to say Congratulations to our 1st and 2nd place winners!

1st Place Winner:
WAHM Biz Tips
Winner of our SEO Package (20 Hours value $400.00)



2nd Place Winner:
Teacups and Mudpies
$100.00 Visa Gift Card



Congratulations to our runner ups as well. Each Runner up with receive a Best Dressed Website Award to proudly display on their site.

Runner ups (not listed in any particular order):

www.mypolishpotteryshopping.com








www.faithworksboutique.com



www.crybabyzboutique.com



www.miloscreations.com





www.therosebridge.com



www.twolittlewhales.com



www.couturebabyboutique.com



www.dreamscapesbaby.com



Tuesday, January 20, 2009

New Website! I am so excited.

While I was working on SEO services for one of my clients I came across a cool site idea.

Well it started off as just a simple site at 5pm on January 18th then by 2:00am. I was writing down ways to promote the site and cute little categories, and website colors and options......

Oh yeah, creative juices were flowing.

Well, now I have decided to go through with the idea.

It's a great concept that I have actually never saw before, well maybe I have seen it but it was done poorly.

I am offering a way to increase sales in a fun and creative way.

Intrigued?

I hope so because if I don't hurry up and get this site going. I am never going to get any sleep!

If you are a WAHM looking to increase your income. Make sure you subscribe to my Posts by clicking on the Post button to the right. You don't want to miss out on this opportunity!

Stay tuned to find out how you can increase your sales and become part of an exciting venue. Designed with you in mind!

Until then, happy days and even better nights.

Carla

Sunday, January 18, 2009

My Interview with Who Hub

I was asked to participate in an online interview by WhoHub last week and I finally got around to doing it.

I thought it was fun and would like to invite everyone to take a look.

I hope I didn't come off as a complete goof!

http://www.whohub.com/myseogal


I still have one more interview to do but I have to take a break and tend to the little ones.

Let me know what you think.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Are you ready to go Universal?

Did I get your attention? Well I hope I did because if you don't know what universal search is then you might be left in 2008 as far as search engine page rank is concerned.

I came across a great informational article and here's what I got from it about Universal Search. It's long but worth the read.

What exactly is Universal Search and What does it have to do with you.

This blog topic will explain what Universal Search is and ways you can benefit from implementing these tactics into your SEO plans for 2009.

There are some sites that are already using these tactics and they will benefit from them and their are tons of website who don't even know about these changes and these new tactics will ultimately end up working against you.

Universal Search in a nutshell is the combination of all Google's search engine databases into one index that will serve a single set of search engine result pages.

Examples of some of these databases are: Google Images, Google News, Google Blogger and Google Video.

So when you go to Google and do a search for whatever you are searching for that day. You usually get a list of links that may be relevant to your search. Well instead of just getting those links, what you will get is a list of everything combined together; Blogs, Images, News, and Videos.

Pretty Cool Huh!?

Maybe Not....

So right know we all know that you would have to search each of those databases in order to get the information you are looking for. What Google is planning to do is to integrate everything into one BIG search engine.

On one hand as a searcher what this means is easier access to everything you would look for in Google News, Images and Videos would be available in one search. On the other hand as a business owner looking to get more targeted traffic, this could either be a good thing or a bad thing.

This seams like a cool idea as long as it doesn't get too complicated. As long as their layout is not too confusing then I think this is a really great idea.

So I guess you are wondering what this has to do with your online business?

Well these changes can work against you if you don't take action now and start getting your site optimized and keep up with the jones so to speak.

What should you do to make sure you aren't left in 2008:

  • Organic Results : If you site isn't already optimized for organic or natural search engine results (listings that you do not have to pay for by Pay Per Click ads), this would be the place to start. Without this type of SEO you have no chance of competing in the search engines with or without Universal Search.
  • Since Universal Search will be taking information from databases like press releases, blogs, images, etc.. It would be wise to start using one of these resources to get exposure for your site.
  • Google Image Search: It's a great idea to have images on your site that convey a message, sale or promote a product. Now Google has it to where customers can find your site via a Google Image Search. Make sure you optimize your images with descriptive, keyword-rich file names and use ALT tags in each image. This will be useful to those who can only search text formats.
  • Google Video: Use good, keyword file names for your video files. Create a good keyword title tag, description tag, and video site map.

  • Google News: Submit your press releases for display as news. You can also make a new content page on your site and display your press release on your site as well.
  • Google Blog Search : Use Social Media sites and Blog Submission sites to drive traffic to your website. Make sure to submit your blog to Google Blog search and your blog can help you with Universal Search as well.

So when someone does a search for a product or service that you have to offer using the Universal Search Results and your website comes up. Within the same search your competitors site comes up under videos, images, news and blogs. That searcher is more likely to click on your competitors site since they have more results that come up for the keyword phrase being searched for instead of your site.

Without knowing exactly how Google will layout the results. Just know that you will be competing for the top listing. The top position could be videos, blogs, images, or news and if you are missing one of those listings then you will miss out on a potential customer.

So in summary you want to make sure you optimize your site to have most if not all of databases listed above.


Make sure you don't wait until it's too late to start optimizing your site! If you don't do it, your competition will. :)


Thursday, January 15, 2009

Why am I not Getting any Sales?!

It's depressing I know. You get your website set up, add products, optimize your site and get traffic coming in on a regular basis but no sales!

So I was sitting here and getting depressed from hearing everyone talk about not getting any sales or depressed because they are not getting the traffic that we all know you deserve and I decided to do my free tips here tonight.

Okay, so now you have to start analyzing your site and figure out what you can do to convert your traffic into sales.

Some questions you need to ask yourself:

Is my landing page relevant to the keyword used to optimize the page? Just assuming that you optimized one of your pages using the most relevant keyword possible for what that page is offering. If you didn't and a consumer clicks on your link just to find out that the "new" baby blanket they thought they were going to be looking at purchasing is actually a page about used baby blankets then you have lost a sale. Make sure your content matches your keywords/meta tags.

Are you collecting your visitors information when they come to your site? Do you have a form to collect your visitors information visible on your website. If you don't then you are missing out on potential customers. I know in the perfect world you want a visitor to buy right then and there but you are going to have some visitors who love your products but say to themselves that they will come back later or when they get paid. Truth be told, they won't! Statistics say that it usually takes anywhere from 7 to 8 follow ups before a customer makes a purchase from you. So in saying that, it takes me back to my original post. Gather your visitors information by collecting their name and email address or whatever you'd like to collect. You can do this by having a signup form on your site for a free product sample, 10% off their next purchase etc.. By doing this, you get to market to those customers who don't buy right away. You get to send them future offers and follow up with them and therefore increasing your sales. Follow up is the key to your success!! Start collecting email addresses today.

Are the descriptions based off exactly what is being sold on the page showing up in the search engines and does the description state the color, type of product, if it's plain or trendy? A small description shows up under each listing in the search engine for the product or service you are offering. Consider adding the size, color, style, manufac. in the description usually within the first 25 words of your description page. This way when a consumer looks at your listing in the search engine results, they know exactly what they will see and get when they click on that link.

Are your prices competitive? Check out your competitors and see what they are selling their products at. Are they lower or higher than yours. If your prices are lower, don't be afraid to state that in your description etc. "We have the lowest price online!" You will definitely lose a customer if your prices are too high.

Do you display your shipping cost on your site and which shipping carriers you use? Most customers want to know up front how much shipping will cost them if they purchase a product from your site.

What payment type do you accept? Place a logo that is visible for your customers to see i.e. in your header graphic. Top right hand side or left hand side.

Do you ship internationally? I don't know how many times I have received emails from international buyers wondering if I ship to other countries besides the US. By the time I get their email in the morning, they are either sleep or it has been 6 hours since they emailed me and have found the product at another online store. Customer lost! So now I have a message/graphic posted on the home page, although now that I think about it, it should be posted in the site message section so it can appear on all pages! Okay, will do that later.

Are you offering enough products? Do you have enough products on your site or do you have just two or five for each category? Think about expanding your inventory to include more products. Consumers like to have options, items in different colors, option to personalize items, a large variety of items to chose from etc.

Do you have a phone number visible on your site? It is important to have a phone number visible on your site. Half of your visitors will not even bother to call but they feel more comfortable seeing it there just in case they want to call. It's a security feature and a must if you want to continue to run an online business. I know this is not something that you want to hear. I know you don't want your phone ringing at 1 am. But there are affordable services out here that you can sign up for to get a 1-800 number on your website.

I personally use Ring Central.com. There is a device that you can download onto your computer. Everytime a call comes in, your Cell Phone icon starts to ring to let you know that there is a call. You can chose to ignor the call and it will go directly to voicemail or you can chose to connect to the call. You can also place an icon on your site that lets your visitors go directly to the link and enter in their number for you to give them a call. Pretty neat feature if I say so myself!

They offer affordable monthly plans and you can try them out for FREE for 30 days. If you don't like it, simply cancel before your 30 days are up.

Try them out at this link below:

Try RingCentral Fax FREE for 30 days


Last but not least!

Have you sat down and made a budget for PPC campaigns. I know a lot of people tend to shy away from this type of marketing because of the cost and YES natural searches are always the best and I encourage them, but they take time and since some of you do have full time jobs you just don't have the time to optimize your site enough to start to see a ROI, the investment being your time spent away from family, friends and even having a life (which I obviously don't have because I am typing this at 12am.).

Sit down and really think about this, PPC ads are really the best way to bring in traffic and convert that traffic to sales if you have the right landing page and products.

Write down a list of keyword terms that you are interested in and check the daily searches. You can use wordtracker to find these out or find a SEM (Search Engine Marketing) expert that you can trust to help you chose the right keywords that will bring you in some much needed traffic but won't break the bank.

Think about it like this, you are more likely to spend thousands of dollars in advertising cost in the Yellowpages, magazines, print ads, radio ads etc and you will most likely never get one sale from it, not only that you most likely won't be able to track if the sales are coming from them unless you have a special phone number you have set up per ad or coupon code ( If the buyer even remembers to enter in the code with their purchase). But if you set aside some money to use for PPC ads on high traffic websites ( that offer you a way to track your clicks/traffic) or Google Adwords you can see where your traffic is coming from and track your ROI. If you get no sales then you know to move on to another marketing venue.

To be perfectly honest everyone. Marketing takes time and although we would all love a really good get rich quick scheme you know that it's just not going to happen.

So be patient and do your research, find a good SEO company or a SEM company if you don't want to over exert yourself with all of the SEO mumbo jumbo.

That's my tip for the day and I approve this message!

Sorry, just miss hearing that every other 10 mins. on the t.v. Wink

Sending you all positive vibes and hoping that your sales increase even through these bad economic times. Hang in there!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Long Term Search Engine Optimization

I will be adding long term search engine optimization services within the next week or whenever my 4 month old allows me to take some time out to get the information added to the website.

What to Expect with Long Term SEO:

6 Months worth of SEO for your website that includes:

  • Link Building of Course
  • Monthly Maintenance: removing keywords that were once popular search phrases but are no longer searched for as much maybe due to seasons, holidays etc.
  • SEM (Search Engine Marketing): I will help you out with different techniques to increase your traffic. This is important because SEO and SEM are part of the same family but are two different services IMO. SEO brings traffic to your site but you need some SEM to get that traffic converted into sales.
  • Keyword Research: I will find profitable keywords for your choosen niche. Keywords that are searched for on a large scale each month.
  • Content Writing throughout your site.
  • Category work (choosing the right categories for your niche)
  • Product suggestion: Finding products that are profitable for your field you have choosen.
  • Updating or creating new landing pages that will be engaging to your visitors.

There are more benefits to this service of course that will be listed on the site.

My question is to you! What do you think is a reasonable fee for 6 months worth of SEO.

My services are geared toward small businesses. I like to ask small business owners opinions when it comes to prices and what you as a small business owner would be able to afford.

and of course although I will take into consideration all suggestion they must be reasonable suggestions. What's reasonable and what's not under 200.00 not too reasonable at all, over 500.00 definitely reasonable and considerate for the time it takes to dedicate attention to each feature of the package.

Looking forward to hear your suggestions!

Thanks
Carla

Saturday, January 10, 2009

See the Winners of my Best Dressed Website Design Contest

There were hundreds of entries but now we finally have the top ten winning sites for our contest. Congratulation to all!

Now it is up to the public to decide.
The website with the most vote will win 20 hours worth of SEO services and the second winner will win a Visa Gift Card in the amount of $100.00! All runner ups will receive an award seal from us to proudly display on their website:


Here are the winning sites from our first round of votes (the sites are not listed in any particular order). To vote for your favorite website, just click on the blue Vote For link next to the websites address:

Vote For: www.mypolishpotteryshopping.com




Vote For: www.wahmbiztips.com



Vote For: www.faithworksboutique.com



Vote For: www.crybabyzboutique.com



Vote For: www.miloscreations.com



Vote For: www.teacupsandmudpies.com



Vote For: www.therosebridge.com



Vote For: www.twolittlewhales.com



Vote For: www.couturebabyboutique.com



Vote For: www.dreamscapesbaby.com

Get listed on Google in less time

Over the past week or so I have received or been asked numerous questions about how I get sites listed on the first pages of the search engines for my clients targeted keywords in less than a month or what type of keyword tools I use.

So I decided to give a tip based off of those two questions. Well okay, I guess it would be tips instead of tip.LOL

I will start with the keyword tool first. When researching what type of keywords people are using for products you are selling or thinking about selling you can try Wordtracker or Miva. They both have free tools that you can use. Just enter in your type of product and there will be a display of keyword suggestions along with the number of daily searches. Locate the best that works for your products and use them in your meta titles, keywords in description.

Hurray!!! You are on your way to being listed on Google. Well no, not really. Yes keyword research is a MAJOR part of getting listed on the first pages of Google but.... that's not all to it though. If using the tools mentioned above and putting the keywords in your meta title and keyword tag and description were enough we would all be SEO experts.LOL

But the truth is, keyword optimization is not the win all situation.

Yes you can have the keywords in your meta title separate them by any symbol of your liking have them in the description over time you will start to see your site on the first four pages of the major search engines just by using that method but not any sooner than two months to a year.

It is somewhat difficult to really know how fast any SEO campaign will show results, and every campaign is different of course. SEO results are impacted by a lot of factors. One is the number of competitors competing for a keyword, the age of the site, the age of your competitors sites, and how well set competing sites are.

Okay so got the keyword thingy covered. So here's how you get listed quickly and I already know you guys know this but do you really know how it works?

How do I get some of my clients sites listed in as little as three weeks?:

Link Building

That's it!

Link Building. ..

Yes, it's tedious and boring and can make your head spin but it works.

You may say, well Carla that's what I have been doing for months and I am still not being listed on page 1, 2, or even 20!

Yes, but it depends on the type of links you are building.


You must focus on one way link building instead of just reciprocal linking. Reciprocal linking is okay and necessary if you are new and don't let anyone tell you that reciprocal link building is not good for your site! Yes, if you go overboard with it, it is not. For example, if you are exchanging links with over 100 sites per day than that just isnt natural and Google can see right through that. Hint stay away from sites that promise you thousands of links. They most likely own tons of websites and they just submit your website to all of their sites. Not good at all and it is known as one of those black hat tactics.

Start getting people to link to your site via site reviews, or product reviews. Create content that will make other sites want to link to you. Post comments on blogs with high page ranks and that do not have a "no follow" tag. If you get incoming links from sites that have a page rank of 3 or higher you will start to see your site appear right away in as little as four weeks.

So I know that's not what you wanted to hear because link building is truly boring but so worth it.

So put that on your to do list. Start getting incoming links, then your keyword research will come into play and things will all start to come together naturally.


I hope this helps out.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Wishing you all a successful business day.

Affordable Link Building Services starting at only $45.00 a month!

Free Internet Advertising Resource Guide

I spent months getting this internet advertising resource guide together.

If you are looking to grow your business and increase your traffic. Download my Free Internet Advertising Resource Guide.

It is in a pdf file format so make sure you have an adobe reader installed on your computer.

Here is the link you can visit to download the free guide.

You should receive your report within 5 minutes. Let me know if you don't receive it and I will email it to you right away.

http://myseogal.com/pages/advertisingreport.htm

I finally finished adding my Cool Business Cards and Personal Business Cards

Okay,

This is the story. I added over 100 cool business card designs and personal business card designs to my website about two weeks ago. I was very proud of myself because I wanted to add them for months. So I got all of the designs together, put them on my site and stared at them in awe throughout the day.

Well I added some of the designs to my magnetic business card category and chose to delete the products listed in that category via a global update option in my shopping cart. Deleted them!

That's right, I deleted them in that category plus all of the other categories they were listed in!

Bummer!!

So I finally got some of them added let me know what you think. Here's a preview of a couple. You can click the link below to see more:






http://myseogal.com/category_63/Business-Card-Designs-.htm

To Blog or Not To Blog That is the Question!

I finally did it! I created my very own blog. I have told tons of small business owners and WAHM's to create a blog, blog away, blog, blog , blog. But I didn't have a blog of my own.

So I took the plunge, my little one is finally sitting quietly with my 11 year old daughter and my 7 year old son. So while I have a piece of sanity left. I have decided to post my very first blog entry!

I am so happy.

I know it's not much but believe me, I will be posting something more informative later. Just wanted to break the ice and post.

So my answer to the question as mentioned in the title. Yes definitely Blog, Blog away!