If you're doing your own small business marketing, and you're using the Web to attract your customers, you need to be sure that your Web site is getting the most possible traffic. Simply repeating a keyword in the SEO description is not the way to do it if you plan on long-term success. A redundant, pointless description doesn't attract the types of readers who convert into sales. It doesn't even provide any SEO benefit.
Instead, carefully thought out SEO descriptions grab your reader's attention because you've interested them in the first place. You will have a much higher chance of a sale if that reader peruses your site than if they click on your link wondering, "What's that?"
But getting that client to click on your link if you're not found on the first page is pretty slim, because most people never make it that far. A key ingredient to accomplish that is a great link strategy. That starts with referencing other material with links to specific topics that relate in some way to your niche, and ends with a great deal of back links from other sites into yours. Not just any site will do. Hook up to the wrong site, and all the hard work gone into your site could suffer. The links you need have more authority than yours, and you won't attract them willy-nilly.
High-authority back links are very helpful to the authority your site will enjoy when an outsider realizes your information is worth mentioning on their site. That can happen when you comment on their site and are allowed to leave a link back to your domain, you engage in a two way dialog in the comment section, or it can happen if you're reviewed and mentioned in it.
Other outside links can be built by you and your team, putting some effort into writing informative, interesting, or controversial topics, and using Web 2.0 sites to link back to the original site you're promoting. All of those methods have some relevance to your 'big picture', but here's where I see many problems that can ultimately have very negative effects. You don't want to go to all that trouble and then lose credibility over too many reciprocal links or poor anchor text use.
Keywords are very important - if they're the right keywords. Industry-standard word use usually isn't going to help the small business owner or contractor that's trying to develop their Web presence. Market Samurai breaks down the keyword research to finely tuned words and phrases that can be craftily woven - not stuffed - into your online writing. Words that many of your clients currently search on, but your competitors ignore, or simply haven't found out about yet.
When you carefully use keywords in anchor text that links from a Web 2.0 site such as Weebly, WordPress.com, Blogger, Squidoo, etc., you begin to develop authority on your Web site for those keywords. Using an effective strategy will improve your visibility over time.
Ah, time...the other factor. The longer your site exists with continual updates and activity, with active unbroken links and user-friendly navigation, the more you will gain credibility in the search engines. Shortcuts won't be effective long term, and if you get penalized for them, can take you down a peg or two for a long time. You're much better off to get your strategy in order, continue to update, and know that staying in the game is infinitely more important.
Susan Hamilton is a freelance commercial copywriter in the Dallas, TX area. Susan has a passion to see the small business survive during economic hardship through better marketing practices, and teaches home-based, service, and contracting businesses how to compete inside their market. Read more about small business marketing strategies on Inside Line.
(c) Copyright 2010 Susan Hamilton Copywriting
