Are you just following your competitors?

By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

by Mike Moran

I know that it's hard to be creative. I know that it's hard to be unique. Get over it. On the Internet, merely copying your competitors works far less well than it does in offline marketing. Unfortunately, Google bares all. If you do the same stuff as everyone else, count on the ones who did it before you to reap the benefits, with your results bringing up the rear.

Why do I say that? Because many small businesses don't like to admit it to themselves, but their biggest edge over the years is that they were local. They were close to where the customers were. There wasn't anything about their business that customers would miss if they moved 50 miles away, because there is another business just like theirs in that town.

I've been talking to a small auto repair shop owner who fixes any kind of car and has a great reputation locally, but on the Internet, he can't break through the clutter. He has always skated by with his local business, but now he needs to realize that specializing is what wins on the Web.

So, if you just see what others do, and say "Ditto," it is unlikely to make you the destination site for your customers on the Web. Because on the Web everyone is equally close, so you need some other to way to be unique besides geography.

Time for you to stare at your navel and decide exactly what is it that you do better than everyone else. The one thing. It's likely to be just one of the dozens of things that you do in your business. It's fine to keep selling all that other stuff, but online, you need to specialize in something. You might even need a separate site.

Our auto repair shop owner is realizing that, online, he needs to trumpet his work on restoring classic cars. It's not the biggest part of his business, but it is the thing that will make people drive an hour to see him, because they won't do that for an oil change on their 2007 Taurus. He might even want to put together a separate Web site just for his vintage car restoration business, to get the best search results.

So what about you? Do you have a "Ditto business"? If you do, you'll never get credit for what you do if someone else is known for having done it first. And Google won't have any reason to single you out. Instead, pick something you really do in a unique way, and bring that to the fore of your Internet marketing. Specializing will break your business out of the mass of clutter and give Google and your customers a reason to separate you from the pack.

Check out our small business news site.

So You Know Your Stuff… But You Still Don’t Know Jack!

By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

by Stoney deGeyter

One of the things I like to tell my clients when I'm trying to get them involved in the SEO process is that they know their business better than I do. This is true. What do I know about flow meters, motorcycle batteries, baby diapers, ski jackets or cost segregation?

An argument can be made that as soon as I take on these clients I need to learn everything I can about their industry so I can market it properly. This is also true. But no matter what, I'll never be an expert at cost segregation. Nor do I believe my clients want me to be. They want me to be an expert in SEO and that takes enough of my time as it is.

And this is why clients need to be involved. I can do the keyword research, weed out the junk, and help them organize them into strongly optimization groups. But I still need the client's help telling me what's good and what's not. How am I to know that "net present value equation" is a good keyword while "net present value annuity" isn't. The client, that's how.

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Your SEO Kung-Fu is Strong!

By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

by Stoney deGeyter

Once a site has been fully optimized, there is still a lot work still to be done. The first pass at keyword optimization isn't always the best, making further edits necessary. After making the big, site-wide optimization edits to your site its often beneficial to go back and review things on a more granular level. You can find the areas that are up against more competition than others and explore further improvements that will be needed for even more improved success.

Unfortunately you can't know how well your SEO'd title tags will perform until you make the edits, wait for the search engine to index the page, and check the results. Depending on how deep your site is and the frequency of the search spiders coming back, even the most basic changes can take several days to a week to show in the search results.

When dealing with ecommerce sites you don't often get the luxury of making changes on a page by page level because everything is pulled from a database into templates. Generally it is counter productive to implement site-wide changes until you know how those changes will work. The last thing you want is for all your pages to drop in rankings at one time because you tweeked the global template for a new title or description.

Recently, working with a client, I was able to run some tests on the Title and description on a single product page. I went through several iterations, reviewing each for performance in the search results for a variety of keywords until finally settling on the title and description combination that gave me the best possible results for all the keyword combinations I was looking at. Not only did it get me top spots for over a dozen possible phrases, it also improved the likelihood of the search listings to get clicked when seen in the SERPs, based on keyword usage and positioning.

I started my test searching only for the model number of their product. This was a replacement product so the likelihood of the model number being searched is extremely high. We've got other pages optimized for the more generic keywords which are performing quite well, so at the product level the product model number was our best route.

I noticed first that the product ranked in the second position in a search for the model number (MN), but quite lower for search for MN product (i.e. "TM456-k widget"). The real problem is that the original title tag wasn't that compelling compared to the other sites in the top positions. So I set out to remedy this.

I moved the MN to the front of the tag and then followed that with some other product information and descriptive text. After a week Google re-indexed the page and the result was positive. The page moved to the #1 spot for the MN plus a few variations following that. At this point I did some more keyword research and found that the keyword variations I used were not as actively searched as others so I set out to make some more changes. I also lost five spots for MN product, which was no good.

At this point I started tracking for over a dozen keyword combinations using various qualifiers that were important. I was ranking in the top spot for seven different combinations but 2,3,4,5 and 7 for a few others that were important.

My next iteration of the title tag included the product after the MN and added a plural version of the product on the end. The results were promising. All but two of the phrases were ranking #1.

From this I made one more change, adding the manufacture name in there for good measure. It's a little known manufacture but one I know the client wants to brand for themselves believing it will benefit them as it becomes more recognized over time. By doing this I pushed one product page above the manufacturers website! Another check on the rankings and all is good.

I now have my winning combination on product title tags for this site and we can start making global changes. I'm sure that performance will vary from product to product but this is a good indication of what works. Not only are the rankings there but the title tag is probably the most compelling you'll find in the search results for these searches.

So with a bit of testing I made my already strong SEO Kung-Fu even stronger. Before making global site-changes, make sure your SEO Kung-Fu is strong too, and then you will feel the power of SEO surround you!

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Making Pretty URLs for Search Engine Spiders

By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

by Mike Moran

Most search marketing experts are full of advice for folks who are struggling with weird looking URLs that search engine spiders really don't like. I should know, because I have always been loaded with that kind of advice, too.

I mean, here is an actual URL I saw on the Web site for Sears a few years ago:

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/dpp.do?vertical=Buying %20Guides&cat=Televisions&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&splash=true&n-state=http://www.live.bguides.webcollage.net/_wc/televisions_1.html~~~G!0B6765CD4C51!XRHzYAguDp1SwH5C~~~~@http://guides.sears.com/server/sears/bguides-televisions-showcase

You can't make this stuff up.

Now, not only is that a URL that only a dynamic Commerce engine could love, but it's one that both search engines and normal people avoid. Spiders probably won't index it and other sites won't link to it.

So what do you do if you have funny URLs? Not necessarily THAT funny, but you have a few dynamic parameters dribbling off the end of your URL, with question marks and equal signs and other weird-looking stuff?

There are some standard things that people (yeah, people like me) advise:

• URL Rewrite. Depending on how you serve up your pages, your Web server probably has some way to rewrite those URLs from something crazy to something intelligent.
• Redirects. Sometimes, you can change odd URLs (such as those with metrics parameters dumped at the end) so that many weird-looking URLs reolve to one URL. Just be sure to use 301 redirects instead of other methods, or the search spiders will ignore your instructions.

But suppose that stuff is beyond you? Or you don't even have access to your dynamic Commerce server? Or your shared hosting plan doesn't allow you to do redirects the required way?

That would probably mark you as a normal person who does not beep when you talk. Is there anything that you are allowed to do that you actually have a possibility of being able to do?

Well, you actually have an option in some of these cases. If you have several weird URLs that you are trying to map to a single URL (such as those pesky metrics tags at the end of what is basically the same page), check out the <canonical> tag. The search engines all pay attention to it now and if you can code HTML tags, this should be something you can do.

But there is a bigger lesson here. Just because you can't personally do something doesn't mean it can't be done. If your host or your Web server doesn't allow you to do these things, then complain to them and think about switching to someone new, if that is possible. If you are simply incapable of doing this stuff (I understand), get help from someone who knows how.

Weird URLs seem like a nit in search marketing, but they can have serious consequences. If your URLs are the size of a small Latin American country, you need to do something.

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Web Copywriting Voodoo: The 8-Step Secret Copywriters Might Not Want You to Know

By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

by Karri Flatla

I might get in ca-ca for sharing this with the entire readership of Search Engine Guide, but it's time to reveal what a lot of web copywriters probably don't want you to know. Why? Because keeping you in the dark about how we crunch out great copy day after day keeps us in business.

Or so one would think.

Personally, I'd rather spill the beans. It's too much pressure to have everyone believing that we web copywriters and SEO copywriters are practitioners of witchcraft. While I readily admit that I cannot always explain how I craft each and every line of compelling copy, there are a few "tricks" that I use--and I'm pretty sure other copywriters use--when words fail me.

Voodoo That Will Help ANYONE Write Better Web Copy (Even SEO Copy)

The voodoo secret behind some (maybe even a lot) of the great copy you read online is what I call "freestyle copywriting." It entails temporarily suspending rules and formulas so you can get the creative juices flowing and ultimately, so you have something decent to work with later. Here's how it works:

Step 1: Do the requisite pre-work. Research your target market. Research potential keywords. Get your head around the main message for the page you want to write some great copy for. Write it all down in a notebook. Slam the notebook shut. Walk away.

Step 2: Get a good night's sleep. The brain works in mysterious ways. (Told you this was voodoo.)

Step 3: Open your notebook and review your pre-work. Chances are you suddenly have some additional insights you'd like to add to your notes. Write them down. Squeeze stuff in the margins. Use arrows and squiggly lines to connect related ideas and words. Try to keep this little brain dump all on one page if you can. This creative dance is the foundation for the witchcraft that follows.

Step 4: Open up a blank Word document. A new post or page in your WordPress or Typepad dashboard screen will do just fine as well. Take a sip of coffee and crack your knuckles a few times. Stretch your arms up above your head. This helps you feel like a real writer and puts you in the zone for some copywriting voodoo to happen. (No pressure.)

Step 5: Think about your key message and start typing like a mad scientist. Worried about the headline? I don't care. Start typing anyway. Not sure where to begin? Then don't start at the beginning; start in the middle or even at the end and work backwards. Just TYPE. Let the voodoo flow through you. Don't get up to go to the bathroom. Just type until you've got nothing more to say about the subject matter at hand.

Step 6: When the mad typing starts to feel redundant (and it probably won't for at least a page or two), STOP. Stretch out. Crack your knuckles. Take a sip of (now cold) coffee. Click save, and walk away.

Step 7: Get a good night's sleep.

Step 8: Turn on your computer and review your voodoo copy. Not bad, is it? It surely needs a lot of editing, rearranging, and a ton of ruthless deletion. But overall, I bet there are some real nuggets of gold in them there pages. This is where copywriting can actually be fun, because now you have the opportunity to take lots of raw, honest words and sculpt them into something concise, compelling, and able to incentivize action.

The point of all this? You've now got something much meatier than a blank page. You've got ideas, emotion, passion and hopefully lots of interesting facts and tidbits about what you're trying to pitch. Even if you have to look up some copywriting formula to know where to begin editing this mess, you've got an incredible starting point.

And that, my web friend, is how you win the battle. Find a starting point and jump off. It's what every web copywriter and SEO copywriter does when the words just won't come. Use this bit of copywriting voodoo next time you're stuck for words, and I promise, you'll end up with a call to action that is a helluva lot more inviting than something coerced by a template.

Check out our small business news site.

Striking Out On My Own All While Staying Put

By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

by Jennifer Laycock

Regular readers of Search Engine Guide probably noticed I've been less than active as an author and Twitter voice this past year. All of that's about to change. Over the next few months you'll all see me getting back into the swing of things here on Search Engine Guide and hopefully back to my chatty self on Twitter and other social media sites.

Returning to My Roots

As of this week, I'm back at Search Engine Guide full time to resume my position as Editor-in-Chief. I'll also be launching my own consulting company so I can continue to work with small businesses and larger corporations to build practical and impactful social media strategies and campaigns.

Regular Search Engine Guide readers know that apart from a false start on a new Facebook series last month, I've been fairly quiet this past year. Those in the industry know my lack of writing was because I'd joined my good friend Matt Bailey as his new Director of Marketing for SiteLogic and simply didn't have the time to develop content. After five years of churning out thousands of words of content a day, I was severely burned out and was itching to get my hands dirty with client work again.

While I've enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to go back inside an agency, I've missed Search Engine Guide and my readers immensely. As such, after eight months with SiteLogic, I've made the decision to strike out on my own as a social media strategist and consultant to give myself the freedom to spend more time with my children and to once again get back to cranking out the type of content Search Engine Guide readers have come to expect from us.

Want to Hire Me?

I'm obviously exploring my options right now, but for those of you who may be interested in working with me, there are several types of services I'll be offering. You'll continue to see me on the speaking circuit at shows like Search Engine Strategies, PubCon and various others. I'm also available for corporate training, local events and speaking at anything else social media, blog or reputation management related. Of course you'll also find me over at Market Motive continuing to crank out training courses and content for their Social Media classes and expert certification. (In fact, their next round of social media certification starts in January, which makes it a great time to get your budget approved and sign up!)

I'll also be accepting a limited number of social media consulting clients. I'd like to keep my load light to allow plenty of time for Search Engine Guide, but this past year has taught me how much I really do enjoy the strategy side of things. While I'm open to working with all types of companies, readers here know that my heart lies with small business. My ideal client is the type that has internal staffing and resources or a willingness to put some time in themselves, but needs guidance, strategy and creative ideas from someone with experience in the industry. Coming along side those types of businesses to help them build their internal processes and learn how to create and manage their own campaigns is what I really enjoy.

As always, you can feel free to get in touch with me about any of these things via email. (I wouldn't complain if you spread the word to friends and associates about my new availability either!)

What Type of Content Are You Looking For?

I've got quite a few content ideas up my sleeve, starting with the Facebook series that I haven't had a chance to finish. I'll also be diving back into social media strategy, a new take on creating a viral marketing campaign, various social media tools and perhaps a new series on blogging. If there are specific topics, tactics or tools you'd love to know more about, leave me a note in the comments and I'll add them to my list of ideas.

Photo Credit:

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5 Worries That Can Blow Your SEO Budget

By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

by Stoney deGeyter

Many small businesses are at a financial disadvantage when it comes to marketing their website. Too often they don't have the funds, time, or resources needed to engage in as much marketing as they would like. Unlike larger businesses with deep pockets, small business often have to rely on do-it-yourself strategies built upon free advice gathered from blogs, forums, and social networking sites.

This gives them a lot to worry about, making sure they are doing it right and that the results will be all they had hoped for. And hoping it doesn't break their budget in the process.

Every small business owner wants to get the most value for the money they spend on their marketing efforts. Simply put, the ROI must be there. But even with a good SEO and a good campaign outline, you can still break your budget--or render your SEO campaign ineffective--when you let your worries get the best of you. Worrying about smart things is smart. Worrying about the other stuff, well, that just sets you up for failure.

Here are five things you should stop worrying about if you don't want to blow your SEO budget over the top:

1) Worrying about perfection

SEO isn't an exact science. Nor is usability. There are many trials and errors along the way and if you're not prepared for that then you'll likely spend too much of your time trying to perfect what can't be perfected.

There are many trade-offs made when optimizing a site. Ultimately you want to do what's best for your visitors, while doing what's best for the search engines. While the search engines like to believe those are one in the same, the truth is that they are often two different things. But the differences are not always that great between them. The problem is when you want perfection on both, when you may need to settle for less than perfect in order to get a perfect balance.

When it comes to both engines and visitor usability the paths to the perfect site is always changing because what would have been perfect yesterday is not perfect today. While I don't advocate settling for poor performance, sometimes you have to accept what you have, get it out there and then move forward perfecting it later. If you try to make it perfect first, you'll be spending your budget on that while you get no improvement from the search engines. Isn't it better to start getting the benefit of the changes sooner, and perfect it later?

2) Worrying about getting #1 rankings

Wouldn't it be nice if getting that #1 spot were easy (and cheap?). Unfortunately we don't operate in a vacuum and there are many competing forces out there.

If you're in a highly competitive industry, it's not just your competitors that you're up against. Informational sites such as Wikipedia, blogs and other informational sites can often dominate the top search engine rankings for your most profitable keywords.

Achieving top search engine placement for all your keywords is great, but sometimes your money is better spent making improvements elsewhere. Once your site is optimized you can often get better return on your investment by improving your website and visitor's experience. Instead of wanting to be #1, why not build a site that actually deserves to be #1.

You may never outperform sits like Wikipedia, and you may never be able to outspend your competition. Get your self settled on this and you can direct your, and your SEO's, efforts on things that will make a real difference in your optimization campaign.

3) Worrying about competitor movement

Do you see a competitor climbing in the rankings? Are you worried that they will over take you? Do you see them outperforming you on some keywords? While this may be disconcerting, you can't expect your SEO to jump in and stop that from happening. Yes, you can invest in more SEO or links or social media... and maybe you should, but short of that, a site can only get so optimized for certain keywords.

Honestly, the question here isn't whether your SEO is doing their job or not. The solution isn't to demand that they start doing better. The real and only viable solution is to assess your campaign and make changes as needed. This may require spending your money in new areas, or spending more money altogether in order to remain competitive.

The problem with worrying about how your competitors are performing is that there is so much you don't know. How much are they spending? Are they profitable? Are they focused on the right things? These questions are just a few you need to know before you decide what, precisely, is worth worrying about.

4) Worrying about traffic over conversions

We all want rankings so we can get traffic. But why do we want traffic? Traffic alone isn't worth much unless it converts into paying customers. We often lose sight of that as we optimize sites. We pay our SEOs to deliver traffic and are often happy to see traffic come, even if the conversions do not follow.

While traffic is a required result of the SEO campaign, conversions should matter more. Before worrying about traffic increases or declines, look first to see what your conversion rates are. SEO can often result in more traffic but less sales. How does that benefit anyone?

If your traffic improves, your conversion rates need to be monitored. If you're getting more sales, great. But if you're losing in your conversion rate then you may need to focus on improving that before looking to improve traffic any further. Why bring more people to the site if fewer and fewer are going to convert?

5) Worrying about slow growth / instant success

SEO is a long-term process that rarely, if ever, brings over night success. One of the most difficult expectations to overcome when pitching SEO services is the expectation that results will come fast.

Some sites can be optimized and see near immediate benefit. Other sites take longer to get optimized therefore the benefit in rankings takes longer. Newer sites have a much longer hill to climb before they see success.

Before beginning an SEO campaign be sure that your expectations are in line with reality. Don't look for a get-rich-quick solution, but instead be willing to invest in a long-term strategy that will pay off only as you let it mature.

Small business budgets are tight and they have to make the most of every dollar. But sometimes trying to squeeze every bit of juice from a dollar ultimately squeezes the life out of it. Worrying too much about the performance of your SEO campaign can lead to jumping the gun on bad intel and making a seemingly bad situation worse.

Give time for your SEO campaign to work before jumping in to make changes. I know, it can be difficult if you are spending money and don't see things going your way. There is risk in everything, including worrying about something that you shouldn't. Worry less, and let your SEO campaign perform more.

Check out our small business news site.

When Should I Build a New Website & Invest In SEO

By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

by Jeff Howard

The Holidays are no further than one week away, and on the other side of everyone going bonkers is a new year. Chances are at this juncture new budgets will be set, taxes paid, and 2010 business goals established. If you're on the fence about shifting marketing funds toward SEO, or whether or not to build a new website here are objective methods packed into two PDF guides that can assist in the decision making process.

Many factors come into play when deciding whether or not to build a new website for your local business, aside from the obvious such as who will build it and what it will look like, first its best to understand all the reasons for building a new website. Without those reasons it's hard to make a clear decision as to whether the time investment, and monetary invest is worthwhile.

From a local perspective, now Google and search engines have become the number one resource to find local business information, more than the Yellow Pages. It's also been shown that 1/3 website visitors who finds a business online will take action by calling or visiting the store (source). These trends make a strong case for building a new website and to engage with SEO in the upcoming year.

On the flip side investing resources in local search marketing, or creating a new website does require time whether doing the work yourself or with the help of others. These two guides will help pave a clear path if a new website and SEO can help build more business in 2010. Here are the topics covered in the guide:

• What are the critical reasons for building a new website.
• What are the important and emerging reasons for building a new website.
• How to find out if people search for a business like yours on Google.
• How to audit your current website's search engine traffic performance.

Finding answers to these questions will help make the decision on a new website, and SEO a clear one. Download each guide by clicking on the links below.

• When Should I Build A New Website
• What Can Local SEO Do For Me

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5 Worries That Can Kill Your SEO Campaign

By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

by Stoney deGeyter

Small businesses are often seen fumbling around in the dark when it comes to figuring out which SEO strategies really work and which don't. There is an onslaught of information freely available online, much of it contradictory or confusing. Small business owners who attempt to perform SEO for themselves don't often know which strategies are more important than others, which are worthwhile and which are worthless, or how do you tell the difference.

Slogging through SEO forums, blogs and article sites can provide a great deal of good information, but it can also leave the small business owner confused on what--or what not--to do.

Those that choose to hire an SEO provider can push some of their SEO decision-making burdens off onto someone else, but some then open the door to a whole new set of worries that can circumvent their online success, even with a successful SEO working for them.

Spending nights worrying about your SEO campaign can eat up a lot of energy that is better applied to other, more important matters. While every business owner needs to be fully aware of the progress being made by their SEO's efforts, they also need to trust that the SEO knows what is needed for them to succeed. For that to happen, here are a few things the business owner need to stop worry about. Failure to do so can kill an SEO campaign in its tracks.

1) Worrying about making page edits

Without changes there is no SEO. You can focus on link building, social media, ad campaigns, etc, which can bring you limited success on their own. However, if you want your site really perform for your targeted keyword phrases, you have to be willing to make keyword focused and other architectural edits.

All too often site owners don't want to make necessary changes to their site's because they are afraid of losing customer focus. This is a legitimate concern but also one that is often misplaced. Site improvements designed for search engines often align with site improvements for your visitors. If searchers are using specific phrases in their search, it makes sense that your visitors will be served seeing those very same specific phrases on your site.

Don't be afraid of making changes to your site. The goal of any good SEO is not to just improve your search engine rankings, but help you increase your business.

2) Worrying about shifting rankings

It's a simple fact of life that search engine rankings change. New sites are always going online, old sites are disappearing, new information is added to the web, and new competition with fresh marketing dollars emerges. Add to that the fact that search engines are always tweaking and adjusting their algorithms and you've got a search engine ranking roller coaster.

That doesn't mean that you ignore keyword rankings completely, but if you're compelled to monitor your rankings, don't do it on a day to day basis. Most search engine ranking changes are insignificant and just part of the normal fluctuations that occur.

What you do need to be concerned about is overall trends. If you do start seeing a month to month trend of a loss in rankings dropping that's when you need to start looking at things more closely. Don't sweat the small stuff, but instead look at the bigger picture.

Another problem worrying about small shifts in rankings is people often get concerned about the wrong keywords and the wrong engines. Google drives the most traffic, but isn't always the best at converting. Improvements in other engines that may convert better may be worth a sacrifice of lower rankings in Google. Again, it's about the big picture.

3) Worrying about trying new things

Good optimization and marketing isn't a linear process. Every site is different as are the site's needs. Many changes recommended will be standard fare while some will seemingly come way out of left field. Give all proper consideration, and don't be afraid about doing something different.

One thing to keep in mind is that success comes through trial and trial produces error and failures. We've all heard the story that when Thomas Jefferson failed thousands of times for every success he ever made. Hopefully you won't have to fail that often in your website marketing, but be prepared for some things not to work.

Fear of failure is not a reason not to try. We tell the same to our kids and we need to take that to heart in our businesses. Step out, and be willing to try something new.

4) Worrying about making large-scale changes

Before a site can be optimized for your targeted keywords, it needs to be optimized for search engines. I call this having a "search engine friendly" website. A lot of sites are build by developers that don't know much about SEO beyond meta tags. The sites they build may look good but won't perform well in the search engines because the site architecture isn't search engine friendly.

The last thing you want to do is to pay a lot of money on an expensive optimization campaign if your site isn't in a position to be optimized. That's just putting SEO frosting on a website dung pile. Big changes need to be made before you can really start focusing on the actual on-page keyword targeting. In many cases you have to be willing to burn the site to the ground. Other times it's less severe but many structural changes will need to be made before any SEO can be effective.

Failure to make these big changes will ultimately result in poor performance of any optimization campaign you implement. Don't be afraid to make the big changes necessary for your small SEO changes to succeed.

5) Worrying about investing in long-term SEO

SEO is a long-term investment, not a one-time expense. The changes you need to make to optimize your site will cost you both time and money.

All too often businesses looking for an immediate boost turn to SEO as if it's some sort of magic bus ride to the top of the search engine rankings. They don't want to spend much money but they have very high expectations. Unfortunately, SEO isn't like building a fence. There is much more to it than having a bit of knowledge and a few tools to work with.

Those who are afraid to spend what it takes for their SEO campaign to succeed rarely ever do succeed. They limp along with sites that under perform and ultimately cost more to market than if the money was spent sooner to make the changes requires.

Worry tend to cause bad decisions. When we worry, we tend to make decisions based on how we feel at the moment rather than basing our decisions on facts and evidence. When you turn your SEO campaign over to another person, or even do it yourself, there is enough to worry about without adding to it.

As business owners you have enough on your plate. Make wise SEO decisions but leave the worries over superficial matters behind. By focusing on the wrong things you can sink your SEO campaign before it even has a chance to get off the ground.

Check out our small business news site.

Are you ready for Bing?

By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

by Mike Moran

No, not that Bing--Microsoft's Bing search engine. And no, I haven't been living under a rock. (Who does that, anyway?) I know Bing has been out for months. That's not what you need to be ready for. You need to be ready for approval of the Yahoo! deal with Bing, because once that happens, everything you've been doing with Yahoo! will change. And if you haven't been doing anything with Yahoo!, you might want to change that, too.

The latest guess is that a regulatory decision will come in the first quarter of 2010, but the government follows no timetable, so it could come sooner or later than that. If approved, and many think it will be, Yahoo! will start dismantling its organic and paid search platforms and substituting Bing, country-by-country, probably starting in the U.S.

What will that mean to the search business? It means that Bing, which holds around a 10% share of U.S. searches today, will suddenly get close to 30%. You might have easily ignored Microsoft before, but it's hard to turn your back on a 30% market share. Those people buy stuff, too.

What will that mean to the search marketer? It depends on what you are doing with Yahoo! and with Bing today:

• You don't use paid search. If you currently rank well in Bing organic search, but not in Yahoo!'s, it's a happy day, because now your rankings improve. Of course, if you are in the reverse situation, problems for our heroes. You might want to experiment to bring up your Bing rankings before it becomes critical.
• You use Yahoo!'s paid search but not Bing's. Time to crank up that Bing account. It won't happen immediately, but Yahoo! will eventually send their ads packing and it makes sense for you to get familiar with Microsoft adCenter and start dialing up your campaign now.
• You use Bing paid search but not Yahoo!'s. Get ready for an influx of traffic but also a hit to your budget. Your paid search costs will likely triple, if you haven't capped them. That might not be an issue if you are happy to get more profitable traffic, but you ought to be prepared.
• You use both Yahoo! and Bing paid search already. How this affects you depends on how well you are doing with each search engine. Over the next few months, you ought to spend way more time optimizing your Bing paid search results.

Most of the companies that I work with tell me that they are using Google AdWords but are not working with any other paid search program. For you, nothing will change on the paid side if the deal goes through, but you might want to re-examine that stance. Perhaps it made sense to forego all the extra work of managing two vendors to try to get that 30% share, but should you make the same decision when it is half the work?

It's unclear whether Microsoft's latest search strategy will make any dramatic inroads on Google (I'm betting that it won't), but 30% of the market is nothing to sneeze at. (I'm not sure why sneezing is an issue, but just stick with me here.) If you've been looking for a low-effort way to improve your paid search results, doing some experimenting with Microsoft adCenter over the next few months might be a good use of time. If the deal is approved, you'll have already learned what works and you'll be reaping the benefits at a time when your competitors are just noticing that the world has changed.

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