9. JOIN LINKED-IN
a. There are thousands of social/professional networking groups/forums you can join, but to make things simple, we are just going to join this one: Link-In ( linkedin.com ). Create an account with them (if you have not done so already). Be sure to include a link to your website in your profile. Put as much valid information into your profile about your business/services as you can. The more professional you make your profile, the better.
b. Login and search for groups to join. This is what makes Linked-In such a great tool. Look for other groups of people that have the same business interests as you and join their groups. There will probably be lots of groups to pick from. Try and go with the ones that have the most relevance and/or members. Don't overdo it. To begin with, let's just stick to around 5 groups. If you feel you can handle more later, then you can join some more then. When searching for groups, try and think beyond just what your business focuses on. For example, Mr. Kung Fu would probably search for 'karate' groups or 'martial arts' groups first. But he might also want to look for 'small business' groups.
c. Wait for your group invitation to be accepted. Once you request to join a group, it might take hours or days before you get accepted. Be patient.
d. Look for friends and associates to link to. You can search for people you know and send requests to them to join your network of contacts. This is a great way to find old friends and business acquaintances. Tell them about your new website! Find out what groups they have joined. You might want to join the same groups!
e. Post an introduction of yourself to each group you get accepted to. As you get accepted into each group, go into the 'Discussions' page and add a discussion introducing yourself and what it is you do. Then ask for a website review of your new website and post a link to it (be sure to include the 'http://' at the beginning of your link - this will make it clickable). This is completely legit and a very acceptable thing to do. Just don't go overboard on your intro. Keep it to only a few sentences. Here is an example what Mr. Kung Fu might post as his first discussion:
Introduction and Website Review
Title:
Post: Hello, my name is Mr. Kung Fu and I just wanted to introduce myself. I own a small martial arts school in Seattle, WA. I have about 35 students and have been in business for about 14 years. I look forward to discussing martial arts and karate with everyone in the group. I just created my first website and would appreciate any feedback you could provide. Here is the link: http://..... Thanks!
10. JOIN YAHOO! ANSWERS
a. Join Yahoo! Answers ( answers.yahoo.com ) if you have not done so already. You will be answering people's questions that relate to your website/business.
b. Do an 'Advanced' search. Fill in each section of the advanced search as follows:
i. Keywords - Enter in keywords that relate to what your website/business is about. Make sure the 'Search for keyword match in' is set to 'Questions'.
ii. Category - Pick the category that relates to what your website/business is about. If you can't find a good category, just select 'All'.
iii. Filter - pick the one that fits your needs.
iv. Question Status - select 'Open Questions - Best answer has not been chosen'.
v. Date Submitted - Set to 'Anytime'.
c. Submit your search. If no results come back, keep modifying your keywords till you start getting results that you feel comfortable answering.
d. Answer 5-10 questions. In the form you fill out for the answer, there is a 'What's your source?' textbox. Put the URL to your website here. Make sure to include the 'http://' in your URL. This makes it 'clickable'. Don't worry about having the perfect answer (or even the correct answer for that matter!). All answers are just opinions for the most part.
11. WRITE AN ARTICLE
a. Article websites are a place where people provide information to others on how to do things. There are hundreds of article websites you can submit articles to. For the sake of simplicity, we will use just one: Ezine Articles ( ezinearticles.com ). Join this website if you have not done so already. Fill out all your PROFILE information. Upload a professional looking photo of yourself if you feel comfortable doing so.
b. In your Profile admin page, under the 'Profile Manager' menu, click on the 'Edit Author Resource Boxes'. Here is where you put links to your website and write a brief resource description about your website/company.
i. Watch the 'Learn How to Create the Perfect Resource Box' video on this page.
ii. Include your TOP TWO keyword phrases (no more than this) that link back to your website sprinkled in with your Resource description.
iii. You will have to write the links as ANCHOR CODE. In the following examples, I will use 'brackets' to indicate what keyword phrases would be converted to anchors linking back to their respective websites:
1. Mr. Kung Fu - Mr. Kung Fu is owner of a [Seattle Karate] school called 'Mr. Kung Fu's Martial Arts'. He has been in business teaching [Seattle Martial Arts] for over 14 years. He has a 5th Degree Black Belt in Kung Fu.
2. Susie Smith - Susie Smith is the owner of the [Home Arts And Crafts] website called 'Susie Smith's Online Crafts'. Her website is an excellent resource for [Home Decoration] ideas as well as other arts and crafts.
c. Now write an article relating to your website/business. It has to be at least 250 words long (that's not very long). You don't need to be an expert to submit an article. Most, if not all, articles are just people's opinions on how to do things. Write something that relates to what your website/business is about. For example:
i. Mr. Kung Fu might write about the 'Benefits of Martial Arts Training' or 'Top 5 Reasons to Get Your Children into Martial Arts'.
ii. Susie Smith might write about 'Family Fun Making Homemade Christmas Ornaments' or 'Top 5 Craft Gift Ideas for Valentine's Day'.
d. DO NOT put links to your website in your Article content. They will be removed from your article content or even worse, your article may not get published at all. Your links will be displayed in your 'Resources' section you completed earlier.
e. Submit your article and wait. It might be a few days before they approve it. Be patient.
12. CONVERT YOUR ARTICLE TO A BLOG POST
a. Many website builders have a Blog built into their websites. Other users will need to find a blogging website to join.
b. Copy your article content and paste it into your first blog post. Here you have more flexibility creating links, so you go ahead and 'tweak' your content to include the TOP TWO keyword phrase as anchors linking back to your website landing page.
13. MASS EMAIL EVERYONE
a. Send out a mass email to everyone in your email address book(s) announcing the opening of your new website with a link to it. Ask them to send it to other friends and/or family members they know of that might be interested in it. Word of mouth sometimes does wonders.
14. DONE! SIT BACK, RELAX, AND WAIT
a. It can take a few days for all of this info to get digested by search engines and users. Be patient and wait. If you did everything I listed here, your website will be well recognized by ALL search engines and you will start to see traffic flowing in. Be proud of yourself! You just did hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars worth of SEO work on your website... for FREE! Depending upon which SEO company you might use, everything you just did could easily cost someone a few thousand dollars.
b. SEO is an ongoing exercise, however. You cannot just do what I have listed here once and then be done with SEO forever. If you want your traffic to increase and grow, you will need to continue doing some things. Lucky for you, everything you need to continue growing your SEO is already set up! See the next section below on how to maintain your website's SEO.
MAINTAINING YOUR WEBSITE'S SEO
1. FOLLOW UP ON ITEM #7 (EXTERNAL LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE)
a. Always keep an eye open for external link opportunities from other websites or web services you know and trust. If a new opportunity arises where you can get a link to your website from one of them, implement it ASAP. Always be sure to use one of your TOP THREE keyword phrases as the text for the link to your website's landing page.
2. BLOG
a. Outside of external links to your website, blogging is the next best way to increase traffic & SEO to your website, especially if your Blog is part of your website. Try to post a blog entry at least once a week if you can, no less than once month. Write about broader subjects outside of your smaller website community. Post things that thousands (if not millions) of people might relate to in your industry or that they might be interested in knowing. Make sure it relates to your website. In your blog posts, work in ONE keyword phase of the SIX you created. Try and use the TOP THREE keywords most of the time... but not all of the time. Make that ONE keyword phase an anchor linking back to your website's landing page. Try and make it the only link in your post if you can, and place it near the top of the post. Make it look natural and not like you are 'keyword stuffing'.
3. SOCIAL BOOKMARK YOUR NEW BLOG POST
a. If your blog post is something that might interest others outside of your local network, you should Social Bookmark it (see item #8 above). Instead of putting in your website landing page as the URL, put in the link to your blog post. Do this for all 5 social bookmark websites listed above. If you have more time to kill and want to expand your SEO, try using Social Marker ( socialmarker.com ) to submit your blog post URLs to 50+ social bookmarking websites.
4. USE LINKED-IN TO POST LINKS BACK TO YOUR NEW BLOG POST
a. Login to Linked-In (see item #9) and post a new discussion in each of the groups you joined telling people to check out your new blog post. Make sure it is relevant to the group and something they might be interested in. If it is not, then don't post it. Also, don't forget to add the 'http://' to the beginning of your link to make sure it is clickable.
5. CONVERT YOUR NEW BLOG POST TO AN ARTICLE
a. This is a flip on what you did for item #12. Instead of converting your article to a blog post, you will do just the opposite: Convert your new blog post to an article. Login to your article website (see item #11) and submit your blog post to it. Again, be sure that it is relevant to something that people might want to read an article about. If it is not, then don't submit it. For instance, if Mr. Kung Fu posted a blog post about his team winning a local tournament in Seattle, you would NOT want to post this as an article. However, if Mr. Kung Fu wrote a blog post about 'How to prepare For a Karate Tournament' that would be something that would interest readers outside of his local community and he could post to an article website. Use good judgment to figure out if you should submit your post as an article.
6. ANSWER MORE 'YAHOO! ANSWERS' QUESTIONS.
a. Once a week try to answer 5 - 10 Yahoo Questions (see Item #10 above). Add a link back to your website's landing page in the 'What's your source?' text area. Be sure to always include the 'http://' at the beginning of the link to make it clickable.
7. PATIENCE AND PERSISTENCE
a. Patience and persistence will bring you a wealth of SEO and traffic. If you do everything I have listed here at least once every two weeks (or more if you can), I assure you - you will be set within a year. The longer you do it, the more successful you will be! The hard part is being persistent and doing it as often as possible. If you keep it up, your website will thrive, I promise you!
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