SEO (search engine optimization) is a critical component to any online marketing strategy. Its purpose is to help companies attract their ideal customers to their website and incentivize them to take a specific action or actions. When you create your strategy, you need to establish a budget to go with it. So if you were to ask an SEO consultant, “How much does SEO cost?” you probably wouldn’t be satisfied with the answer, “It depends.”

While this response may seem like a salesperson’s trick to raise rates as high as possible, it isn’t. Why? Because there are a number of factors that can affect your ability to get to the top organic ranking on the SERPs (search engine results page). To get a sense of the complexity of the question, how would you respond if you were asked how much it costs to buy a house?

There are a number of questions that probably come to mind before you can answer.

• Where is the house located?
• How old is it?
• What upgrades does it have?
• What condition is it in?
• How many comparable homes are currently on the market in the same area?

SEO operates in a similarly dynamic market. Google alone has over 200 on-page and off-page factors that affect how they index a website and its pages. Some of these elements include:

• the quality and frequency of the content you post
• the keywords you select
• how you utilize them in your meta tags
• the quality and quantity of links you have coming to and going from your site
• and more …

And these factors change regularly. For example, I recently wrote about the Google Penguin alrogithm update. In total, reports indicate that they perform about 600 tweaks every year to improve the quality of the results on their SERPs.

So before you can get an appropriate response to how much SEO costs, you have some important questions to answer, including:

• How aggressively do you want to market your business?
• What results do you expect?
• How saturated is your target market with competitors?
• What are they doing to help them rank highly?
• What are you already doing that you can improve versus what do you need to start from scratch?

To get an understanding of what it will take to help you accomplish your SEO goals, at SmallBizMedia.tv, my SEO, SEM, SMM and PPC company, we start by performing an in-depth market research and analysis of your on-page and off-page SEO s well as those of your top competitors. This gives us the lay of the land and a baseline to use in monthly analysis as your site improves with our SEO strategies.

As part of our on the page SEO market research, we review the following attributes:

• Title tags
• Meta descriptions
• Keywords
• Header tags
• Image tags
• Image alt tags
• Anchor text and embedded URLs
• And more

Additionally, we assess the technical attributes of your site that may cause it to load slowly or prevent the search engine spiders from crawling it. We review off the page SEO elements and compare all of this data to that of your competition.

To find out how much SEO will cost you, simply contact us by calling (928) 273-5069 or fill in the form on my Contact page.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

It was just a little more than a year ago when I reported about the roll out of the Google Panda algorithm version 2.2 as Google further attempted to measure user response to the quality of their SERPs. Since then, they’ve made dozens of tweaks to the algorithm. Last week, they released a new version of their algorithm called, Penguin, to identify and penalize sites guilty of “SEO over-optimization”.

Word of this pending change started circulating at the last SXSW when Google’s famed head of their Webspam team, Matt Cutts, talked about the “over-optimization penalty”. Then last week, he made the official announcement that Google will be penalizing those sites that are using “aggressive web spam tactics” for gaming their way to the top of Google’s rankings.

So what does this mean for SEO and your website?

If you’re following white-hat SEO practices and you’re posting high-quality, compelling content, you have little to worry about. And I only say “little to worry about” because the reality is that Google does sometimes get it wrong with all the best of intentions. However, if you are using aggressive black-hat techniques, like keyword stuffing, unusual linking patterns, and spun content with anchor text that links to pages with content that is completely unrelated, then you should be concerned.

This latest update should raise a couple of questions for your SEO strategy.

1. Are you trying to cheat your way to the top?

The bottom line is that if you want to get to the top of Google organically, you have to work for it. If you’re a small business owner and you are considering using the low-cost services of faceless sites that promise to get you thousands of links quickly, realize that these are some of the same services that use spun articles and unrelated links that Google is targeting with Penguin.

2. Does your SEO strategy focus on what makes your target audience happy or does it focus on Google’s algorithm?

As the image at the top of this post indicates, you shouldn’t be creating your SEO strategy based solely upon what makes Google happy. Yes, we all want the great visibility and click-throughs that come with sitting in the #1 organic ranking spot on Google’s SERPs. And yes, you should be aware of the how the algorithms work.

However, have you ever seen content that was obviously created for a machine and not a human reader? These are the posts that have low quality content and read as if certain phrases were dropped in repeatedly, with little relevance, or in a way that doesn’t flow grammatically with the rest of the content.

Google will continue to hone their algorithm to improve their SERPs. What you create to cheat the system today can cost you tomorrow. Plus, some of the gaming tactics are pretty obvious for the people who find your content. What does this say about the quality of your products and services? Even if you get this content past Google, you’ll lose credibility with your target audience for being guilty be association.

BTW - I have to give credit to high_plains_drifter in the Warrior Forum for the creation of the amusing image in this post. Great pic! Don’t get caught in this viscous circle.

3. Are you leveraging other channels to reach your audience online?

Even though Google is the king when it comes to search engines and it can bring your business great clicks and targeted traffic when you rank high on Page 1, Google’s search engine isn’t the only game in town. Your target audience spends time on other sites, including social media platforms, bookmarking sites, video channels, and more. Do you know where your target audience spends time? Connecting with them on various locations online increases your visibility and your credibility which ultimate will increase your odds of improving your profitability.

4. Do you know the difference between white-hat and black-hat SEO?

The rules for SEO change pretty frequently. What you may hear as a “good idea” or best practices today can be obsolete in a few months or could cost you rankings in the future. If you are unsure how to differentiate the two or simply don’t have the time to stay up-to-date with these ongoing changes, it’s best to bring on professionals that do. If you are concerned about your past and current SEO strategies and tactics and want a professional review, contact us.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

When I say, “social media,” you say …

“Facebook”
“Twitter”
“YouTube”
“LinkedIn”

Maybe you threw in Pinterest and Google+, too.

Unfortunately, many solopreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses have been drawn by the buzz of these sites and have forgotten about the value of blogging as part of their social media strategy. Or maybe it’s because social media seems so much easier to do.

A quick tweet or the sharing of a picture with a short comment on Facebook takes only a minute. Blogging, on the other hand, takes time. There are brainstorm topics, researching your keywords, writing and editing the content, and embedding hyperlinks while taking advantage of all the SEO elements on the page and in the backend of your website … definitely not a 60-second task.

Just for the record, I’m not saying building and maintaining an effective social media presence is easy. As a matter of fact, if you take a look at all the tasks that I said you need to do for blogging, the same hold true for social media. It’s just that many people don’t perceive it that way. The thought of tweeting a message doesn’t cause most social media managers or small business owners the same level of anxiety that writing a 500 – 700 word blog post does.

It’s this tension that causes them to believe they simply don’t have the time to keep up with a consistent blogging schedule. And if you can’t do it well … why bother, right? Here are two big reasons why and how you can dedicate time to blogging for building your online brand and connecting with prospects and customers.

Why blogging benefits your social media strategies

If you were to envision a successful social media profile for your business, say your Facebook fan page, you probably picture posting content and questions, sparking great conversation, leading to more likes, more shares, and more fans. Here’s how blogging fits in with your vision …

Writing quality blog posts helps your business flex its expertise. It creates a connection and a following. It allows you to give your target audience something of value that they are more likely to share with people they know who have similar needs. Posting links from your blogging on your social media profiles just makes it that much easier. Plus, when you link to your blog posts from your social media profiles, you increase the SEO for your branding site and profiles, giving you greater visibility. And depending on your target market, you may want to consider using Tumblr as a microblogging platform and social media network, all in one.

How to develop an editorial calendar that will keep your blogging on track

When you walked in to the office this morning … sipping your cup of joe … you were probably thinking about the list of action items you wanted to complete before you punched out for the day. How did it go? It’s easy for the day to get away from you if you aren’t focused and committed to completing certain task. Unless you’re a dedicated writer, blogging usually fits under the category of “when I have time”. And when was the last time you felt like you had an extra hour or two in your day?

Creating an editorial calendar helps your blogging stay on track. Once a week or monthly, set aside some time to strategize the following:

• Issues of importance to your target audience
• New products, services or other news about your business
• Seasonal themes that you can tie in to your content
• Keyword research for best SEO practices
• Links you will embed to direct traffic to your site

Once you have your data, you can set a schedule of blog post titles, synopses, keywords and links, with release dates. With a complete editorial calendar, the thought of sticking a post doesn’t seem so daunting.

The big question for you to answer is: How often are you willing to commit to writing? It’s up to you to decide the right frequency that you will stay committed to. Sure, it would be great to write up a new post every day, but if you’re a small business owner wearing multiple hats and juggling a wide variety of tasks, are you setting yourself up for failure, if you do?

Can you commit to once a week? You should try to make this a goal. Once every couple of weeks or once a month isn’t going to give you the SEO boost you want. Plus, it will give you limited content of your own to share as part of your social media strategy. You’re fans aren’t going to be visiting your profiles if you only show up once every other week.

Think of your blog as your hub of information about your business and how you are engaging your market. Your social media profiles help carry your message out to your followers and their friends, and bring them back to your site with the links you have embedded.

If you’re having trouble creating your social media strategy, setting your editorial calendar, or simply want to turn your blogging over to the pros to manage for you, contact us.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Sure, you’ve watched ‘em on YouTube. You’ve shared other people’s videos on Facebook. But have you let your business star in its own online videos as part of your SEO strategy?

If you still question whether online videos are right for your business consider this …

YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google

83.8% of the US Internet audience viewed online videos

Cisco believes that online videos will be 90% of all global consumer traffic by 2015

Why do online videos rock? Here are some the primary benefits:

• Grab people’s attention
• Tell your story quickly
• Add another dimension to your ideas
• Create a buzz with edutainment
• Bring your brand into the 21st century
• Help build your SEO

Creating killer online videos with valuable content is a great start. However, there are some SEO elements you must include to maximize your exposure.

1. Alter the file name before you upload it.

When you download your video, you’ll likely have a non-description file name. Although YouTube allows you to rename it after you post it, rename it first. YouTube has shown some ranking boost when your video has a keyword-centric name before you upload it.

2. Write a keyword-rich description.

Don’t take keyword-rich to mean keyword-stuffed. Remember, ultimately you’re hoping to attract human viewers for your videos, so write a description that they understand and gets them to click on the play button. Having descriptions that look like they were written for a robot won’t help your cause. Make sure you include an active hyperlink adding in the leading http://.

A little insider secret … we recommend that you include the link at the beginning of your description because a limited amount of characters will appear in a Google search and in postings on other sites. This way when people see your video come up under a search, they can click on the link to your site.

3. Take advantage of the tags and other categories criteria.

YouTube and some of the other submission sites allow you to select categories for your videos. For example, does your video fit under the … or the … category? Update the tags to include relevant keywords. If you aren’t sure which keywords are best, you can always do a search on the video site and see what keywords competing videos use to rank high. If your business only services the local market, some directories give you the option to mark your location.

4. YouTube isn’t the only option.

While YouTube is the big boy on the block, there are a variety of other video submission sites where viewers spend time. You can upload your video to Vimeo, DailyMotion, and MySpace. By submitting your video to these other directories, you are increasing the possibility that you will capture more eyeballs. Plus, you are then including more links from reputable sites back to your site, helping your SEO.

5. Link to your videos.

Once you upload your videos to the different directories, link to them from your social media profiles and bookmarking sites. Share them on Facebook. Add them to your blog posts. Bookmark them on Digg and StumbleUpon.

If you have questions or want help producing online videos and taking maximum advantage of the SEO elements, contact us.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Setting up a new Facebook fan page is easy. Creating a fan page that draws in new prospects and keeps ‘em coming back takes a few extra steps. And now, Facebook is making things interesting by forcing you to migrate from the current page design to the timeline layout.

Normally, I would break up a post of this length into a two-parter. But since Facebook is forcing you to migrate to the new fan page layout on March 30, I figured we would give you all of the details you need to know so you can get your updates done in time.

I want to set some appropriate expectations. Realize that what I’m going to recommend here are proven practices, not cheap tactics to manipulating the active users into liking your page. Yes, one of the goals with these changes is to help you improve your number of likes. But getting more likes shouldn’t be your only goal.

There are three things you need to keep in mind before you move forward:

• Keep your fan page consistent with your brand,
• Keep your posts conversational and professional,
• And implement these next six steps …

1. Masthead Image

As your fan page transitions from the profile pictures on the left to the 851px x 315px masthead image, you will need to take a different approach. In the older version, you could create a custom image that included your logo, your personal pic, images of your products and services. The new masthead image, however, is a little different. You get the bonus of having a billboard splashed across the top of your page. However, unlike billboards, this image cannot be promotional in nature, meaning you can’t display your latest discount. My recommendation is to use a pic that resonates with the personality of your audience, and then alter your picture every one to three months to keep it fresh.

2. Info Sections

When you enter in information into the various sections on the Basic Information page, there are some basic rules to follow:

• Write keyword-rich content
• Be concise
• Include active hyperlinks

It’s important that you know your target keywords before you write your content. When choosing your keywords, start with the keywords on your branding site. If you don’t have a list of phrases, you can use Google’s free keyword tool to help decide. Look for keyword phrases that you believe your target audience would use to find the products and services you offer.

When you write your copy for these sections, make sure it flows for your audience. Don’t write copy that simply satisfies the search bar with a high keyword count if it doesn’t connect with the people you want to “like” your page and get active on your Wall. Keep your content concise. The people visiting your page don’t want to read a book. Most people will only spend 10 – 15 seconds tops skimming your page. You need to get your message across and convey the benefits you provide. Using bullet points help. Plus, always remember to include active hyperlinks (include the http:// at the front of your URLs) out to your branding site. This helps with your SEO and it makes it easy for visitors of your fan page to get to your branding site.

Both the concise rule and hyperlink rule are critical when you write your copy for your About section. You need to quickly convey who you are and provide a hyperlink to your branding site so it shows on your new Facebook fan page without visitors having to click on the “more” link to see everything you’re written here … because most won’t.

3. Claim Your Custom URL

Part of your brand is your URL. You want to protect it; you want to own it. Plus, this can help your SEO. It amazes me how many businesses don’t take advantage of this feature.

If people on Facebook are trying to find your fan page, many will simply try typing in your company’s name following after Facebook.com/. If you haven’t claimed your URL and there are other fan pages with similar names to yours, Facebook will redirect them to another page. This will confuse your audience and they may assume you don’t have a page.

Plus, think about when you want to include your fan page URL into other marketing collateral. Do you want a long, non-descriptive address or one that fits neatly into your marketing materials and is easy for your target audience to remember? The answer is obvious.

Previously, Facebook has a requirement that you have at least 25 fans first; not anymore. Here is the Facebook page where you can claim your custom URL.

4. Custom Tabs

Think of these custom tabs as landing pages where you can target the different niches you serve or display your various products and services individually for better conversion. For example, if you are a nonprofit organization, you could create one custom tab explaining in greater detail your mission and a second tab for collecting donations.

There are some special requirements for setting these pages up. You need to know how to use the iframes apps. If your pages are text only, your content will be hosted for you. However, if you want to add in any images, video, or custom forms to the page, you need to host them on a secure server, otherwise people visiting the page won’t be able to view it.

If you don’t have a secure server, or if you aren’t sure if you have one, ask your hosting company. Your hosting company can supply a SSL certificate for you. They may charge you and additional $5 month; it’s worth it.

With the new Facebook fan pages, you have a couple of bonuses with tabs. First, Facebook made the tabs wider at 780px. Second, now you can create your own custom images for these pages instead of the previous text only links that ran down the left side of your page as navigation below your profile pic. These new thumbnail images will go horizontally below your masthead. You can have multiple tabs and arrange them how you want. If you have more than 4 tabs, an arrow will appear to the right for visitors to see “More”.

5. Wall Posts

The strategies for Wall posts on the new Facebook fan page are very similar to the current Wall:

• Post on a regular schedule
• Keep the content consistent to the likes of your target audience and your brand
• Use videos and images when possible
• Link out / share content from other sites you are following
• Don’t try to sell with every post
• Reply to comments

However, you’ll notice some differences between the previous single-column wall and the new side-by-side layout of the new timeline design. I liked the previous layout better because it was easier to follow the chronological order of the conversation. With that being said, the new format does have one new feature that you can put to good use; if you click on the “Edit or Remove” icon in the upper right corner of a post, you can select “Pin to Top”. Selecting this option will keep your post at the top of your timeline wall for up to seven days. Consider using this feature if you have a promotion or other popular posts that you want new visitors to see first when they land on your wall.

Don’t forget that with the new Facebook fan page, your Wall becomes your default landing page. You can’t set a custom tab as your landing page like in the old layout. So pinning a post to the top of your Wall makes sense when you want to make a good first impression.

6. Apps

There aren’t any shortages of apps for Facebook. Why wouldn’t a developer want to get their name in front of 845+ million people? While there may be some niche specific apps for your market, here are the primary apps I recommend:

• Networked Blogs
• YouTube

These two apps automate postings to your Wall from your branding site’s blog and your YouTube channel. Both are great to get in front of your market. Plus, since you can automate them, it will help cut down on the amount of time you spend on social media. Just a quick word of caution with both of these apps … if you upload more than one blog post to your branding site a day, you may not want to automate this. And with the YouTube app, you may not want to use the automated feature since you won’t be able to control your call to action that comes with each video. Automating these apps may save time, but they can give your fans the feeling that your page is run by a robot and not real people.

Some people may suggest you include the Twitter app to your list. I’m not sold on it because you may have the conversations about the same content on Twitter and Facebook and it does help create links between your social media profiles, but how you have those conversations is different on these two platforms. You’ll have to decide if using this app is right for your market.

If you’re wondering how to set up apps, here are Facebook’s instructions.

I hope that you found this post helpful. I know there seems to be a lot of work here to get your new Facebook fan page in order. It really depends on your level of confidence for jumping in and handling it on your own. If you’re comfortable updating your fan page and you have some other ideas of how people / businesses can improve their page, leave your ideas in the comments below. Why not show off and get some credit for it?

If, however, you’re a little lost by all of this, contact SmallBizMedia.tv for some social media love. We’ll make sure your fan page has a solid foundation for helping you connect with your fans.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide