Whether you’re a large corporation, a small start-up, a freelancer, or anything in between, you probably want to get found online. So how do you do that? Terms like ‘SEO’ (Search Engine Optimization), ‘SMO’ (Social Media Optimization), and ‘PPC’ (Pay-Per-Click Advertising) are thrown around a lot, and to ‘optimize’ your website and social media sites takes a little more work than sprinkling in a few good sounding keywords. Although you can take online optimization as far as you’d like (some people spend thousands of dollars and hours of work), here are five simple and free ways to get started…

1. Research Your Keywords. Do you know what keywords will rank your site? Most people will think up five keywords that kind of sound good, but is that what your readers are really searching for? If you sell hand-stiched hand bags, your main ranking keyword probably won’t be ‘bags’… try searching for that on Google and you’ll find a wide array of grocery bags, purses, backpacks, hiking bags, golf bags, etc… you get the point. You’ll want to specify down to your target audience; in this case, people searching not just for bags, but for hand-stiched hand bags. You’ll also want to factor in the location of your potentials buyers – do they have to be local? If they do, then you need to include your location into your keywords, like hand-stiched hand bags in Denver. If location doesn’t matter, then don’t worry about it. A simple way to find your top keywords is to run your site through Google AdWords – use the free Keyword Tool (type in your URL and a list will pop up, which will be exportable into Excel). You’ll get a big list of keywords, some relevant, some not. Use that list to cherry pick what you think a user would realistically type in to try to find you, and also consider that keywords competition and searchability (data available on the spreadsheet). There are much more complicated methods of doing keyword research, but Google AdWords is free, simple, and fast.
2. Optimize Your Website. Now that you have a list of top 5, 10, 20, etc keywords, use that data to optimize the website copy on your main website. Insert your main keywords into the static text on your website at a density of about 8%-10% (equals roughly 8-12 keywords per 500 words). You can do this yourself, or you can hire a freelancer or an SEO agency to help you. If you choose to do it yourself, make sure the keywords are evenly placed, does not exceed 10% density, and that the words surrounding your keywords are different each time (ex. …buy hand-stiched hand bags in Denver now… purchase hand-stiched hand bags in Denver today… find hand-stiched hand bags in Denver online…) You can use tools like SEO Doctor Add-On for Firefox application to run an SEO audit on your website to see what you can do next (you must install Firefox web browser, get the free add-on, then visit your website using that browser and a tool bar will appear at the bottom telling you what you can improve upon).
3. Socialize Online and Optimize. If you’re not on the big social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube) then you’re never going to be findable online. Period. I don’t care if you think Facebook is stupid – just do it. Set up business professional profiles on each site, insert your keywords where ever possible (about us descriptions, posts, comments, photo captions, video captions, descriptions, etc). You can set up a service like Hootsuite to schedule bulk status updates so you don’t have to do it all every day, or you can do it manually. Be sure to Tweet at least once a day, post on your Facebook Fan Page (different than your profile) 3-5 times per week, and blog 1-2 times per week. If you’re able to make videos, post videos at least twice per month. Be sure to put all of your social media icons and links on your website, and also sign up for services like Digg, Reddit, Delicious, StumbleUpon, TwitterFeed, Tube Mogul, Ping.fm, etc to syndicate your posts and get found even more! Don’t forget to check in with your followers to see if they’ve messaged you, @mentioned you (on Twitter), or tried to reach out to you in any way about questions, problems, criticism, etc. Addressing this and messaging people back will make you seem like a much better company. Social Media profiles and videos rank in all the major search engines. These are like mini websites that will show up when people try to find you! Why wouldn’t you be on social media?
4. Blog, Blog, Blog. You must blog. Again, I don’t care if you think blogs are stupid. You must do this. Blog at least 1-2 times per week about topics relevant to your business. Enrich with your main keywords, and syndicate to your social media platforms using TwitterFeed. Make sure to moderate your comments (comments are gold in the blogging world) and include inbound links to other pages in your website (ideally, links that include your keywords in the url… ex. www.example.com/buy-hand-stitched-hand-bags-Denver/). If your blogs are enriched with keywords, linked to your website, and syndicated on all your social media platforms, you’ll have no problem getting your info out there.
5. Measure Results and Respond. Use an analytics service like Google Analytics (which is free and easy, by the way) to measure how your website, social sites, blogs, and other efforts are doing. Once a week, pull all the data and really sit down and think about what that means. Are you getting lots of traffic from Facebook but not Twitter? Maybe ramp up your Twitter efforts while whetting your Facebook followers’ appetites with specials, deals, inside information, etc to make them more excited about your brand. How is your blog doing? If there’s not much traffic, maybe you need to optimize your blog posts a little better. Analytics isn’t just about looking at a graph and calling it a day – you need to use that information to react and refine your online marketing efforts.

If you stick to these five major principals, continue to learn and be involved in Internet marketing, and stay flexible with changing technology online, you’ll have no problem increasing your ranking and strengthening your ROI. Approach internet marketing like a traditional marketing campaign: create a plan, schedule actions, create assets, measure results, and repeat. And as always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me any time!