First inversion of the day. Go easy. Go slow.
These soothing words are music to my ear as Pat, my yoga instructor, predictably encourages us to take our time, ease into things on our first downward dog. In the next two hours she will take us through the most excruciating routine of sun salutations, contortions, head stands and back bends, pushing our mind and body into shapes and states you never imagine you can reach before you start, all while breathing deeply. I relish my Saturday morning routine not only because I come out feeling completely cleansed and energized but also because it reminds me of how much you can achieve if only you set things in motion and take the first step. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, right Lao (Tzu)?
This is why today I finally take the first step that I have been coaching all my SEO clients they must take if they want to improve their business – start a blog. I’ve put in my two hours of yoga and have a clear mind and my conscience is telling me, it’s time!
As with any large project you embark on, driving traffic to your website takes time and dedication. But it is the collection of efforts and techniques that will eventually establish you as a credible online authority to make you be successful. So why not start with fixing the little things, one at a time and eventually taking on the larger, more time consuming jobs (like writing a daily blog), rather than let yourself be overwhelmed by this thing called SEO and being on the web and how do I get people to visit my site now!? There are infinite things you can do to drive traffic to your website. Check this space regularly for actionable SEO tips that you can implement on your site.
First things first, whether you are a retail business, an online publisher, a web based service, make sure you are writing quality copy. Think about the words that are important to describe your business and that users may use to find your business and make sure that those words are present in the descriptions of your store, service or products. Do not aim to overpopulate your pages with text but make sure each page has at least two paragraphs (if possible more) of useful text and that your keywords are within that text. Sounds simple enough? You’d be surprised how easy it is to miss this basic point when you are concerned with how your website looks, and, well, running a business!
Why?
Search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Ask, MSN) need text in order to determine what your website is about. They are not able to interpret images on their own, for example, so if you have an image describing what your business does, make sure you have surrounding text explaining it. (We’ll get into other technical ways to achieve this.) Using relevant, quality text on your pages is one of the techniques that allow search engines to gauge the quality of your site and compare it against other sites. The more relevant the text in your site is to a search term, the more likely the search engines will return your website in the results. The first step is to come up in the search results, the next step is to rank highly and to drive relevant traffic to your site in order to improve your conversions (i.e., turn that traffic into business).
Breathe in. Breathe out. You can do it!
Tags: SEO, Small Business, website marketing
