SEO = Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines. 

SEO Misconception

So a common misconception with Google and Bing is that they are directories – like the yellow pages – where you just put in your site info and it automatically shows up in the search rankings.  Yes, registration with the search engines is very important but there are many other factors that determine search rankings.

Search Engine Purpose

A search engine is not concerned with displaying every single site on the web.  It is only concerned with providing the most useful information to the user, which is based on relevance and popularity.  When someone types in a query, the search engine scours the web for the most relevant and important links, sites and pages for that specific search. 

Relevant Information

Relevance is based on hundreds of factors, some of which I have discussed like meta keywords, descriptions and titles and most importantly useful, current content.  In addition, things like domain age, page traffic and a good sitemap play into rankings as well. Again the search engine is only interested in returning the most relevant results from a proven authority to a user.  

Popularity

Importance essentially means popularity.  The way your site can exhibit popularity is again site traffic but most importantly, links into your site from other sites.  This is social proof that you have information that is worth the search engine returning in its results.  The search engines rely on users recommendations in the form of links to your site to determine how valuable your site is to someone conducting a search. In addition, engaging in the online community through forums or commenting on other blogs you will be positioning yourselves as an authority and this too will help your rankings.  Social media is also playing a bigger and bigger role in search engine rankings, so using Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn will help.

Action Items for You

So, what to do?  If your domain is relatively new, over time google will begin to recognize your site – domain age is a sign of consistency and legitimacy – but the two things you want to focus on are content and links.  It’s critical to keep your content up-to-date, relevant and useful.  The easiest way to do this is by consistently blogging and establishing yourself as a trusted resource.  If you can’t work blogging into your schedule, be sure to schedule some time on a regular basis to review your site and make changes where necessary.  Maybe you are offering new products or have an upcoming talk to promote or a teleconference that you have done that you want to post.  

The second focus area is inbound links – sites that link to your site.  You want as many inbound links from other respected sites as you can get.  Start out by reaching out to your contacts, friends, family, local businesses and ask them to link to your site – you will be surprised at how many people want to help.  As I mentioned above, forums and commenting are a great way to build up links.  Guest blogging is terrific for driving traffic and providing links.  As well, get in touch with the top bloggers and respected sites in your line of work and ask them if they want to exchange links with you.  When doing this make sure you are providing them with a value proposition – what do you have they that they don’t have?  what makes linking to you attractive?

This is just the tip of the SEO iceberg, but the question of how to get your site to show up on Google’s first page has come up lately so I wanted to provide a quick overview.

What do you do to improve your rankings?

Photo via flickr courtesy of Jeffrey Beall

I have a friend that works in show business and he is exposed to all kinds of things that us regular people never get to see or experience.  Things like celebrity events, backstage looks, inside information and insights on “the making of”.  I always tell him that he should blog about his experiences, because the rest of us want to know how the better half lives!

While he is a terrific writer, he says that he never feels like his writing is good enough, according to his own standards.  So from his perspective he feels like he is not a good writer, period.  What I see is a problem/barrier/hurdle that needs to be reframed.

The issue here is that based on the criteria that he has set forth in his own mind, he is not a good writer.  When in fact, on the rare occasions that he has shared his thoughts, he has received rave reviews by friends, family, acquaintances and total strangers.  So this say to me the real issue are the standards that he has put in place – NOT whether he is a good writer or not.  Where these standards come from, whether its fear or perfectionism or somewhere else, is a topic for another day, but the point is that he is projecting his own feelings for his writing on to the public.

How often do we refrain from sharing our unique skills or life experiences because we have our mind set in a particular way?  What if it is not a tangible problem, but rather a perception problem?  What if it is not a person problem, but rather a place problem?  What if it is not a behavioral problem, but rather a situational problem?

Call it what you want: “taking a 30000 ft view”, “putting the shoe on the other foot”, “getting some perspective”, but take a look at your own life and career.  Is there something that you have had such a myopic view on that you don’t actually see what the real problem is?  I am guessing there are more than 1 or 2 things where that is the case.  What stories are you telling yourself that may not be true? Try reframing and let me know how it goes?  Did it help the issue or did it stay the same?  Did you  actively make changes based on what you discovered when you did the reframe?  I’m curious.

Our life experience, the internet, the people we know, our education all contribute to us being an “expert” in something.  Expert is of course a relative term and it is not a matter of being an expert or not being an expert.  The definition is much more nuanced than that and you are much more complex than that.  Especially in a day and age where specialization is not only expected, it is required.  This becomes really muddy when you are discussing what you do and what you know.

The reason I bring this up is because I once again realized a couple of valuable lessons today.    The first, is don’t ever assume that you are being elementary when discussing your skills and knowledge with others.  No matter how seasoned or mature they are, they have had a different life experience than you and there is ALWAYS some value that you can add to the conversation.  Don’t be afraid to mention something that you consider obvious – it’s not always obvious to everyone.  Consuming information is like drinking from a fire hose, so it is more than likely that you can contribute something that others haven’t seen or heard or used.  Maybe its a technique or tool or tip or insight, just say it.

Secondly and more importantly,  it is imperative that you have a strong handle on and are able to express what you know.  Even if you take it for granted, tell people that you do it or know it or can explain it.  The key to communicating and connecting with people is to be able to illustrate in words, writing, digitally, speaking what you know.  This is paramount if you want people to truly understand what value you are going to infuse into their life, business or relationship.  In this case, don’t assume that people “get you” just by looking at your website or your resume or because they heard about you.  Start from scratch in every new meeting and skip ahead as needed.  This will help you represent yourself fully and will give you a sense of completeness and satisfaction.

Put it all out there and let other people tell you that you are already telling them something they know.  Don’t walk away feeling like you left something incomplete.

Does this resonate?  Any examples you want to share?

Your “core” can be your center or your foundation or your stability or your most basic piece that allows you to achieve your goals.

I Want Six-Pack Abs

When we talk about “core” in relation to our body, we immediately think of our abs, stomach muscles (and lower back).  If we get six-pack abs, we will look great, stand up straight, be stronger and feel more fit.  Most people that want ripped stomach muscles will spend hours a day doing crunches, sweating, in pain – to strengthen their “core”.  This is not glamorous.  This is not “I am taking pilates to get great stomach muscles” or “I am fasting because I want ripped abs”.   Crunches are getting down to the core (pardon the pun) of what makes your stomach muscles strong and just doing the hard work.  In business and marketing and life, it works the same way.

What is your “core”?

First I suggest defining your “core” and this may be flexible and be changing from day-to-day, so don’t worry about that.  Identify 3 things that help you do what you do, work the extra hours, work more efficiently, read that additional article when you’re exhausted and push towards your goals.  Maybe it’s your website or your business partner or your spouse or your kids or your tribe.  Whatever it is define it.

Now do crunches

Next figure out what is going to make that foundation, those pillars stronger for you.  Again, it’s probably not going to be glamorous or get you a lot of attention, but deep down you will feel more solid.  Maybe it’s looking at your website with a fresh eye and getting it redesigned to help  you convert visitors into clients.  Or maybe it’s sitting down with your business partner and mapping out the next several months and building a plan of attack.  Or maybe it’s consciously spending time with our kids or spouse.  Or maybe it’s rekindling an old friendship and asking for help.

As you can see the hard work is rarely ever something that you can shout out and say “look at me and what I am doing’, but it is necessary to fuel growth and have you face the marketplace and the world with confidence.  While you need to avoid getting bogged down with tedium, it’s important to distinguish those tasks that are difficult but critical.

What is your “core” and what kind of crunches do you do to strengthen it?

Photo courtesy of sanchom via flickr

I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to run through the basics of Twitter’s Retweet (RT) function.  I say basic, but if no one ever explained it to you than it can be quite confusing and frustrating.

What is a Retweet?

First let’s start with the definition of a Retweet.  So a Tweet is a message that someone sends out to all their followers on Twitter.  A Retweet would be a resend of that same message by another person.  So person X Tweets “Today is going to be a great day”.  You see that and decide that you feel like it’s going to be a great day as well and you want to let all your Twitter followers know that.  To Retweet that message, you simply roll over it with your mouse and click “Retweet”.  You will get a pop-up message that says “Do you want to Retweet this message to your followers?”  You click “Retweet” and that’s it.  You have now told all of your followers that “Today is going to be a great day”.  You will then see a little green triangle in the top left corner that shows you that you Retweeted that message.

Keeping track of your Retweets

Twitter allows you to see what Tweets you have Retweeted, who has Retweeted your Tweet and also all of the Retweets of the people you are following.  So why is all of this important?  Well, while Retweeting other people’s information is fine and encouraged, you want to make sure that is not all you are doing on Twitter.  Twitter relies on everyone in the community pitching in to make everyone else smarter.  Therefore it’s good for you to Tweet your own info or your own research.  It shows you are working on being a leader in your niche.

Retweet “etiquette”

Seeing who Retweets your stuff is important because Twitter “etiquette” claims that you should thank someone when they Retweet your info.  Makes sense really.  They are distributing your name and your information to a whole new set of people – their followers.  They thought/think enough of you that they are willing to vouch for you as a resource.  All good stuff and a thank you for the Retweet is not too much to ask – “Thanks for the RT”  – that’s it.

Any questions on this?  You can find me on Twitter here.

What are you up to this week?  Post-holiday, pre-New year malaise sometimes sets in and inertia is tough to fend off.  Many of us are taking stock of 2010 and making plans for 2011.  It’s mid-week and I will admit I have slowed down a bit and spending more time with the family, but many advocate that this is the time to rev up.  My belief is that there needs to be a proper balance and you are the only one that can determine that.  The important thing this week is for you to begin (if you haven’t already) to plan for 2011.

I prefer goal setting to resolutions.  Resolutions are fad-like and fade away quite quickly, but goals tend to be long-lasting.  When setting your goals make sure that you leave some room for flexibility and that you are open to opportunities that present themselves.  Sometimes goals keep us so hyper-focused that we neglect to see what is right in front of us.

Here are some questions that I have been thinking about lately.  Hopefully they will spark some positive aciivities for you. Have you started planning?  What tools are you using?  How are you going to serve your clients in 2011?  Are you ready for the success that all this planning is going to bring?  Being mentally prepared for success is just as important as being mentally prepared for barriers.  Who are you going to help in 2011?  What is your business about?  Where has it been and where is it going?

Take some time this week to reflect on what the past 365 days have brought you.  Recognize and celebrate all the changes you have made.  Then become resolute, instead of making resolutions, and rededicate yourself to something that you love to do.  Don’t forget to give and offer help – it will always manifest something positive.

Happy New Year!

As we speed towards the new year, I am sure you are all doing your planning and setting aside time for some special events.  While working on a project for a client that needed a simple solutions for course registration, I came across a terrific plug-in to manage all aspects of event registration.  You can find more about the plug-in at the WordPress site, but I have included some screenshots here:

This is the plug-in main page with all the options in a navigation bar at the top of the page.

Options -

This is what will show up in the sidebar of your dashboard.  As you can see the functionality and the options are pretty all encompassing.

Registration -

This is how the registration would look on your site.  Obviously you can name each event, have multiple events on 1 page and have a listing of all events.  Pretty straight-forward signup process.

Manage Attendees -

After registration, you can keep track of who is coming and all of their contact info in the Manage Attendees screen.

Payments -

You can even accept payments with this plug-in.  You can set all the parameters, info required, payment type, etc.  This really sets this plug-in apart from any other event management plug-in.

Managing Payments -

You can see a list of attendees and see what they have paid.  If they pay you offline, you can keep track of it on this page.

Send Email Reminders -

You can pull up the list of attendees and send a reminder email to all or select attendees right from your WordPress dashboard.  This is incredibly efficient!

Events Calendar -

There is an option to add a nicely designed events calendar to your sidebar as well.  This will highlight upcoming events and make special note of any events occurring that day.

Event planning and management can be extremely time consuming, confusing, frustrating and labor intensive.  This plug-in will dramatically streamline and organize the process.  Hope it helps!

If you do use it, send me some feedback.

Do you set boundaries for yourself around work?  I know that when I worked “regular” jobs I had a hard time with boundaries but it was much easier because at least I was coming and going to and from the office.

What are you sacrificing? Is it too much?  Is it your relationship?  Your kids? Your health?  Exercise? Friendships? Hobbies? Spirituality?  I’m guessing you said yes to a lot of those because I know that I have let all of those things go from time to time.  Sometimes it’s good to ask some people in your life how much you are sacrificing – just to get some perspective.  For example, just yesterday my son said to me – as I was picking him up from school at 3pm in the afternoon – “What are we going to do today?”  I said, “Well, I have to do a little work…” to which he responded, “Awww, but dad you are ALWAYS working”.  So, despite the fact that I am home way more than I ever have in his life AND I am picking him up from school at 3pm, he still feels as though I am always working.  This is his reality and I need to be conscious of that when I am reflecting on what I sacrifice.

Having yourself as a boss is often times much, much harder than having someone tell you exactly what to do and when to have it done by.   As entrepreneurs we don’t put limits on how much work we do, because we are our work and our work is our life.  We take calls late at night, we answer email on the weekends, we skip important events because a project “has to” get done.  That is sometimes the price you have to pay for the flexibility that this kind of work affords.

As you are [intlink id="1986" type="post" target="_blank"]rounding the corner at the end of this year [/intlink]take a good look at what kind of sacrifices you are making for your business.   I have no doubt that you are putting in the hours and grinding it out to make it successful, but what about the other side?  As a business owner you are never going to have a fully balanced life, but you owe it to yourself to keep the other areas of your life in your sights.  Cultivating and nurturing customers and leads aren’t the only things that need that kind of attention.

How are you going to do a better job in 2011 to establish more balance in your life?

Health and wellness professional have a plethora of knowledge that seems second nature to them, but is really quite foreign to the public.  So let’s get you to share it and let them see how much you really know and how much you can help them live better lives.  Commit to yourself that you are going to generate content regularly.  It could be everyday, every week, every month, etc. , but make that commitment public and show people that you are serious about providing useful information to them.

Being consistent is critical.  People will forgive you 1 or 2 times, but there is so much info on the web that is easily acceptable that you really have to be there consistently to have a chance to stand out.  Plus, remember this is the [intlink id="1703" type="post" target="_blank"]number one way to consistently drive traffic to your website.[/intlink]
Ok, I know, this is way easier said than done.  You are probably thinking to yourself that you have nothing to say or it’s not interesting or your not a writer or don’t have time.  I have struggled with all of these myself for sure, so here are a couple of things that will hopefully help you stay on track.

• Use a publishing calendar - WordPress has a great Editorial Calendar plugin that will help you keep track of what you have published and what you have upcoming.  It will help you be topical and seasonal as well.

• Do posts in advance – the publishing calendar will help immensely with this, because let’s be honest, there are going to be days when you are not going to feel like blogging or you have other obligations or life gets in the way.  So do a couple of posts ahead of time to plan for those occasions.

• Don’t disregard your life experiences – just because you are now a wellness professional doesn’t mean that the rest of life was a waste.  Draw upon the things you have done in the past and apply them to your current profession. Describe an experience in your life that was perhaps negative and see if you can turn it into a learning experience for others.  This is not only going to help you feel better about that experience, but it is going to be infinitely useful to your audience.

• Be aware - take a close look at current experiences and how they are shaping you and be aware of how they can help others.  Sometimes we just absorb and forget that we can also share new things.

• Just be a writer - look, blogs are not necessarily novels or literary works of art and that is OK.  People want to be spoken to in a “human voice” , not flowery language or corporate speak.  Always remember that you are developing relationships and write with that in mind.

• Use different mediums – switch it up every now and then.  you don’t always need to write.  do a photo blog post, a quick video of your thoughts or instruction, podcast, whatever you feel comfortable with at the time.

• Have fun – try and have fun.  the bottom line is you are an expert and you want to share and bring people into your tribe or community (and ultimately make some money), so try to enjoy it!

My hope is that these ideas will get more ideas flowing for you and help to get you motivated to share your knowledge and know-how with the world!

What do you do to keep pumping out your content?

You spend a lot of time online working on getting people to engage with your business, building your tribe,  so I thought I would take a look at a couple of ways that people find you.  Luckily there are several ways in which a potential client or interested party can experience your offerings, below are the three that are probably the most talked about.

Website traffic – Good but…

[intlink id="2012" type="post" target="_blank"]Traffic[/intlink] to your site is absolutely important, without it there is no opportunity to you to showcase what you know and what you offer. Traffic, though, can come and go.  You could have a spike because of an interesting blog post or offer or contest.  Unfortunately, this traffic tends to be fleeting and is not necessarily helping you build a community.  This is not to say this should be ignored, by any means!  We are just talking about active and passive engagement, so keep doing what you are doing.

Social Media – Much better

[intlink id="1900" type="post" target="_blank"]Getting followers for your Twitter [/intlink]account and[intlink id="1951" type="post" target="_blank"] Facebook Page [/intlink]is also important because it allows you to expand your reach and engage with more people.  It’s really fun to watch the numbers climb, but as you know to be a follower or fan is a pretty passive activity.  That being said, social media engagement is far more important to your business than just traffic to your site.  Just try not to get too hung up in the numbers.  Remember – quality not quantity.

Email – This is the best!

Email subscribers are where  you are going to find your most dedicated followers.  This is the group that will be first to hear about your new product or new program or special offer.  Think about all the emails you get every day and how easy it is to unsubscribe, yet you still have people on your list.  You are doing something right and providing them with value and in exchange they remain subscribers, which then gives you a chance to market to them.  This is considered “permission marketing” and in this day and age, with all the messages that are out there, this is clearly the best way to get the word out.

Spend your time wisely

Efforts to grow your email list are really the most critical actions that you will take online and time is your most valuable resource.  Be mindful of that when you are [intlink id="1937" type="post" target="_blank"]allocating your time [/intlink]to all of your other online business activities.  You will see growth by actively cultivating these relationships and paying attention to their needs.

Is all of this consistent with your experience?  What do you think?

Photo courtesy of Simon Law via flickr