Denver SEO Speaker | Business Blogging Consultant

A client sent me a copy of an email last week titled Confessions of a Black Hat SEO. When I saw the client this morning at Starbucks I mentioned the article, and thanked him for passing it on. I then said, nothing new but all valid points. He looked surprised and said : “We’ve never talked about My Space and how about Squidoo?” Alas, he was right-I didn’t think they were worth the effort at this stage of his Search Engine Optimization efforts!

Which brings up an interesting point for those doing their own Internet Marketing SEO efforts or for SEO firms helping clients-What are the biggest payoffs early in the game? Here is a list of things I focus on :
1. Get a blog to supplement your Internet marketing program-be sure that it is linked to your website and that your website is linked to your blog.
2. Set up your WordPress blog to automatically ping all the search engines.
3. With every blog post use your Technorati tags and Del.icio.us tags. Those two things alone are huge and will greatly increase your traction with search engines.
4. Always use your keywords in your tags as well as your categories.
5. Give your readers an option to use RSS feeds as well as email sign ups.
6. Try to incorporate keywords in your URL.
7. Don’t only tag your keywords in Technorati and Del.icio.us but also tag your keyword phrases.
8. Read your analytics program daily and incorporate keywords and phrases that potential customers are using to find your blog. A few of my favorites are : Site Meter, Stat Counter, Google Analytics and Crazy Egg.
9. Start an aggressive link building campaign.
10. If you have a website and it is nowhere to be found in the search engines the chances are pretty good you need a rewrite of your site. We recently did a modified rewrite for a client who had flash on his site. Less than a month later, critical web pages are showing up in Google searches. If I had to do it again-this is the very first think I would have clients focus on.

There you have it. These are the critical components I would focus on in your SEO efforts. There are countless other things you can do-but I feel these will give you the biggest bang for your buck!! Hope you all had a great Christmas and Holiday Season and we look forward to helping you all have a very prosperous Happy New Year!

Steve Mertz
SEO Priorities!

Technorati Tags: Denver SEO, Del.icio.us, Technorati, Google Analytics, Crazy Egg 

I was meeting with a potential client last week. They are a small business here in Denver Colorado with a pretty typical problem. They have a website that gets no traffic, has flash that is not done correctly and they have no web presence when potential customers are doing a Google search…sound familiar? In addition, they want their new website design to address the needs of distributors, contractors and home owners-they sell products for remodeling. But what really struck me about these Denver business owners is when one of the partners asked me : “How will you get contractors to click on our information when they find us in a Google search?”

What a great question and clearly the essence of any small business doing Internet marketing. I told him the cold, hard truth-We could not guarantee that any contractor would click on their information in a search. We can only increase his chances by having meta descriptions on each page of his website and put the appropriate copy and keywords on each and every page. In addition, there are some opportunities for him to address the contractors needs directly through the use of a blog and writing white papers that we will place on his website.

This problem is not confined to Denver Colorado business owners needing search engine marketing but rather is representative of small business owners everywhere. As I told our potential client, it’s not enough to address the concerns of his potential clients, the search engines must also be addressed through the judicious use of headlines and appropriate keyword density. I’ll keep you posted how we fight this battle.

Another thing this client really brought into focus is bad website design-again, not a unique problem to Denver Colorado business owners and search engine optimization firms! It drives me crazy to have to point out to customers that their $5,000 website needs to have a total make over to make the code more search engine friendly. Please, before you have any web design firm in Denver Colorado or your city, design your website-ask them to detail how they are going to make your site search engine friendly. If they have that blank look on their face-give us a call!

Steve Mertz
Denver SEO Tips

All good startups have common characteristics. You need visibility, buzz around your product and a lot of money. Preferably, money from friends and family who don’t want an equity stake in your company-you can pay them back at your leisure…Dream on!

We can help you with two out of three of your basic needs. Let’s start with creating visibility and buzz around your product. Before you spend a ton of money on a web site with flash, that Google will never find, consider going the route of the blog for the following reasons:

1. No one goes to your current web site

2. You have much more time than money

3. I lost that expensive business card you gave me with your contact info.

4. I don’t remember your company name-don’t be too clever with your name. Try to have a name that includes what you do and use keywords in your name.-Unless you are Guy Kawasaki, check that, he recently changed his blog name.

5. Learn the power of using keywords in all your documents and web sites or blogs.

6. You have no customers…while you are worrying about no prospects for immediate cash flow you might as well blog.

7. VC’s are not calling you…You don’t want to give up that much of the company anyway.

8. Search engines will never find all your good keywords and content because you have flash as your very first page!

9. Your marketing director writes fabulous copy-with not one keyword to be found.

10. Your business focus has expanded since you built your web site and you don’t have any money to pay your web designer to update your site.

11. You have new, influential endorsements of your product and don’t know how to update your web site.

12. You discover that your product has international demand but potential clients in Boulder can’t find your site much less those in Hong Kong.

13. While you are waiting for that angel investor to return your phone call you could be writing a post to your blog.

14. Brad Feld has reviewed your Executive Summary you sent him and properly filed it…he’s not going to call you, ditto for David Cohen, so write another post in your blog.

15. The snappy video email you sent to Miss/Mr Big did not make it past the spam filters-You now realize the beauty of your blogs RSS feed! Your information actually goes through and does not use the email system!

16. The “White Paper” that you wrote on your product will not only establish you as an authority, but happens to be loaded with keywords. You don’t know how to upload it to your web site so you are going to send a mass email and hope the spam filters don’t catch it. On the other hand-that same white paper can be a post in your blog and be seen around the world!

17. Your brother is calling and wondering when you are going to be able to pay back that money he leant you-Remember, you had the next Google. Write about this humorous experience in your blog!

18. You are constantly worrying about lack of funding, you can’t sleep at night-Until you do a Google search for your site. After the first 110 pages you are sleeping like a baby……zzzzzz

We can help you with great Search Engine Optimization techniques-Google will find your site! Whether you need a completely new web site design or a great blog optimized for search engines-We can help the search engines find you. We are also very unique in the fact that not only can we help you get in the top of Google searches but we also have world class presentation coaches that can help you hone your sales presentations skills so that when you do present to Sequoia Capital you will have a memorable and persuassive presentation.

Steve Mertz
Startups Have an SEO Friend!

Technorati Tags: Blogs, Search Engines, Guy Kawasaki, Brad Feld, David Cohen, Sequoia Capital, Denver SEO

SearchRank Blog has an interesting article for startups and small businesses looking to acquire customers. The study was done by Piper Jaffray and they conclude that search is the most efficient marketing channel for acquiring new customers, more than twice as efficient as yellow pages (selling yellow pages advertising was my first job out of college)!

One potential issue that I’ve seen with small businesses using search is their failure to measure their results. You wouldn’t do this in other areas of your business so be sure that you have analytics set up on your site and do set a budget with a limit before you start any AdWords campaign. I’ve seen some AdWord advertisers get a nasty shock when they got their first bill!

USA Today also had an interesting piece today about a small business owner. Cosmo Buono calls himself a technology “dinosaur”. Buono is a New York City piano teacher and wanted to find contestants for an international piano competition he’s staging. A student recommended he advertise on Google-So he went online and gave it a shot. His budget: $50. His response: 35 new contestants, so far. “I was up and running in 15 minutes.”

I love it when something works so well! Do your homework before you spend your advertising budget and hopefully you will have as much success!

Via: SearchRank Blog 
Via: USA Today

Steve Mertz
Good Hunting!

Technorati Tags: Denver Search Engine Optimization, Google, AdWords, Internet Marketing

I received an email this morning about website designs:

“We have been designing websites for speakers, trainers and consultants that insure the meeting planners a “user friendly” atmosphere to get to know you. Our website design is just $595.00 for up to 25 pages of information.”

Well, I am a speaker and work with a lot of speakers and other small business owners on Search Engine Optimization so I decided to look at some of the sites they touted in the email. I’m going to give you the links to these sites so you can learn why search engines will never find these sites.

The first one is Susan Zimmerman Speaks. The first thing I would point out is the title bar-the first thing that search engine spiders read-it says: Welcome Page. Surely those are not key words for Susan Zimmerman-she speaks on personal and fiscal growth!

The next thing to look at will require you looking at this site with Internet Explorer. Go to “view” and click on it..Then hit “source” and go down to where you see ” title.” While you are here look at “description” and “keywords”-Notice how those are blank? You can do the same thing on this site to see how they should be filled out for maximum SEO.

The next site is Jay Platt Speaks. Not much better results at this site. There are many other things that could be optimized on these sites including: keyword density, adding a categories section-this would allow you to use a ton of keywords. Adding a FAQ’s page-this also allows you to use keywords and answer burning questions.

These just scratch the surface of SEO techniques that could be employed but these sites are farily typical for many small business owners. For the $595.00 dollars they have spent, they have little more than an online business card that will be very hard for search engines to find. I personally would rather see them employ a blog and give themselves a fighting chance at being found by the search engines and ultimately clients that hire them!

Steve Mertz
Give Search Engines a Chance!

Technorati Tags: SEO, Key Words, Google

An SEO consulting client of mine was sharing his experiences with having a conventional web site for promoting his small business. He told me: ” that the website design before this one cost me $25,000 and the most recent updated site cost me $5,000.” He felt he got a heck of a deal…reminds me of President Bush: “Brownie-You’re doing a heck of a job.”  

Which brings me to our current conversation. He is putting up a blog. He has followed my progress for months and when he saw that my blog Sales Presentations Training was coming up #5 in a Google search-He was much more receptive to exploring internet marketing with a blog. He still wants to have his traditional web site but understands that blogs provide a perfect medium for search engine optimization and a high search engine placement.

Do you live in the Denver, Colorado area? If so, and you would like consulting on your search engine marketing efforts, give me a call at 303-619-8972. I offer Lunch with Steve for $100 a person with a maximum of six individuals. The two hour luncheon will give you a chance to ask your questions and discuss strategies..before you spend $25,000 for that “kickin” web site.
Steve Mertz

Let’s Do Lunch

Technorati Tags: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Denver, Colorado SEO Services