DIY Beginner SEO (Part 2 of 2)
2012/01/10 10:00 AM
Dear Sarah,
How do I implement simple SEO? Where do I put all the keywords? I am not really sure what the title tags and heading tags are exactly……ugh!
Thanks in advance,
Lisa Lehmann Studio Jewel
Dear Lisa,
Again, I am reaching out to my friend Lauren about this…..I find this super fascinating and complicated but she makes it sound so easy! I especially love the tip about naming your images with keywords to help with SEO. This is what Lauren suggests doing yourself to get better SEO ranking in general.
Figuring out where to put keywords can seem tricky, but it’s actually quite simple and follows three basic rules:
1) Make sure that the keywords you’re targeting for each page are focused. In other words, don’t try to focus on more than a couple per page. I see many people try to have each page rank for every single keyword on their (target) list and it tends to backfire. Don’t overload the keywords on each page, and make sure that you separate them out so that each page is only trying to rank for 2-3 keywords.
2) Put keywords in prime locations. There are a few mandatory places for keywords, and these are the page title tag, the heading 1 (H1) tag, and in the image title and alt description of any images you have. After that, you want a couple of mentions of the keyword in the body text. After all, if the entire page is centered around the keyword, it makes sense to write about it. You also want to see if you can fit one or two mentions of the keyword in bold or strong tags. Wherever you put it, keep in mind that Google puts preference on keywords that appear towards the beginning of lines and paragraphs, so try to make your title and headings start with appropriate targeted keywords.
3) Make your content relevant to users. This is the most important rule of all, and one that is all too often ignored by amateur SEO DIY’ers and many professional SEO consultants as well. Remember, you’re writing for people, not for robots! Don’t try to stuff keywords, and don’t let your keywords dictate the direction of your content. Instead, write the kind of content that your users want to read. If you make it relevant to what you’re trying to sell, and to the customers you want to attract, then your keywords should fit naturally and organically. Google has made huge efforts to make their search engine intelligent enough to look at websites from a human user point of view, and they’re getting better with every update. If you’re not sure exactly which keywords to target, you can search for them on Google Keyword Search Tool – it’s a huge help in finding your niche keywords.
Lauren Fairbanks is partner at Stunt & Gimmick’s – a digital marketing firm that specializes in content and SEO.
Tagged: Ask The Entreprenette, Branding, business, Copy Writing, Entreprenette®, Keywords, Launch Tips, Marketing, Public Relations, SEO, Website
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Deck Contractor says: These are really simple but effective SEO tips. Thanks for sharing.
I just found this amazing website regarding SEO – http://www.seobook.com/ there are so many tools to find out which search terms are best, and what your competitors are using as keywords etc. truly a HUGE help to upgrading my SEO!
Another great tool is seomoz.org. They do a thorough analysis of your pages and recommend changes.
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Building an email list can be tough, I totally agree. But an email list is just as important as social media in my opinion. Social media is fleeting. Your customer might not see your post flash by, the FB or Instagram algorithm changes all the time so you never really know if anyone is seeing your posts (as much as you hope at least), and unless they purchase, it’s hard to tell if it is driving traffic or not.
When I started my handbag line, the internet was just getting started, and people were just beginning to get online for the first time and the biggest thing since sliced bread was www.match.com.
Note the www…… everyone used that back then so you’d KNOW it was a website. LOL.
And to get on the website, even just to learn more about it, you needed an email address to get past their “paywall”. The Paywall was a pop up of sorts that asked for your name and email in order to “grant” you access to see what was behind the curtain. They built a list of millions in a few short weeks and that was more valuable than anyone just “knowing” about their company because they could market to them incessentanly.
Daily. And I mean sometimes multiple times a day. I’d never seen anything like this.
They were the first company that I knew of who “collected” emails, then turned around and marketed to you to get you to sign up for their services. And they were relentless……
I’m not saying you need to send emails daily, or emails multiple times a day, but if you don’t email your list at least weekly, they will forget about you and end up buying something similar chez someone else who is sending them emails.
So Why are Pop ups so important? Pop ups are a way to collect emails via your own “Paywall” and continue to market to potentially interested customers. If they take the time to sign up (first baby step) then they are showing you that they are on the first step of the staircase and want to keep walking up. It’s your job to keep enticing them to the top! AKA buy something.
Step 1: Sign up with a content management system like Active Campaign, Mailchimp, Klayvio or whichever one you like best. I like Active Campaign and have been using it for over 10 years. Some people choose to use the forms that come with these programs and I have too in various situations, but I also recommend Privy if you use Shopify, and Ninja Pops if you use Wordpress. They can easily be installed and connected to these CMS systems.
Step 2: The first and easiest way to collect emails is to have a homepage pop up with an offer for a % off the first order. That is a way to ‘collect” emails and give something in return. It’s the first step in building rapport with your potential customers. It’s like saying, let’s be friends, I’ll give you something you want, and you give me something I want, your email.
Step 3: Make sure you have an automation set up in the CMS system. This is an automated email series that will be sent to anyone who gives you their email address on your pop up. I call it the Hello Series. The idea of this series is to again, build rapport, and tell the customer a bit about you and your company over a 2 week period. This series has nothing to do with your regular email marketing emails. This is a sole and separate email series to build rapport so just set it and forget it. Yes customers will probably get some of these on the same days as other marketing emails but just don’t worry about it.
This is how it works:
a: The first email to go out immediately is the one with the coupon code they just signed up for. Add something about your brand and photos of your products linking to your website.
b: The second one goes out the next day and asks them if they had a chance to use the coupon yet, and then tells them to whitelist your email so they don’t miss your promotions and special offers for people on your list. Always have images of products that link to your website.
c: The third email goes 4 days later and in this one I like to tell a story about how I got started with the business. Add images and links here too.
d: The fourth email shares something cool about your business. Could be some nice stores you are in, a press placement, a celebrity who has your stuff or perhaps posted about it on Instagram. It can also be a tutorial about how to use your products, or a blog post you wrote on a topic they’d be interested in. Share something that will make them feel happy for you, and encourage them to hang with you.
e: The fifth and final email in this sequence encourages them to follow you on social media. I like to entice them with “doing” something in exchange for a gift. Could be something like “post your photo using or wearing our product, and be entered in our monthly drawing for a free X”.
Step 4: Now that you have collected more emails with a pop up, your ongoing marketing efforts will start to pay off faster. As the list continues to build, you’ll have more people to market to, invite to events you do, and share your good news with. Hopefully they will become loyal customers, share your site with friends, and continue to be an active part of your social media channels. Keep sending emails weekly ( at least) to your list so keep them active and engaged. I’m sure you’ll see a big difference.
If you want ideas to help you fill in the blanks about the above, drop me a comment below and I’ll be happy to help out.
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