Relevant Content: Search Engine Bread Crumbs

On our 5 Traps of Internet Marketing teleclass yesterday, almost 1000 people registered and we got some interesting questions. Here's one:

"What is the most important thing to do to get people to find your site when you cannot afford to buy placement on search engines?"

Getting found once you've got a site (website or blog) is what Denise and I call The Great Internet Challenge. We even wrote a white paper on it (if you want the long answer to this question, www.onlinemarketingchallenge.com

Short answer: Write relevant content. Then write more content. Then publish even more content on other sites such as article directories, press release sites, white papers, newsletters archived on your site, etc.

Each time you write content about your key topics, you are seeding the Internet with keywords. Like bread crumbs that lead back to the gingerbread cottage, those keywords will help readers find you.

Search engine optimization experts charge you an arm and a leg and then still ask you to do the same thing as I'm telling you here: write relevant content.

Use your keywords strategically. Okay, so you need to pay attention to that phrase and learn what that means. It's not a buzz word and it's not something only relevant to geeks.

If you're running a business and you want to get found online, you need to know which keywords are relevant to your business, i.e. what words do your readers/users/clients use to find you or to find similar businesses like yours?

But maybe that's a good post for tomorrow. Let's get back to getting found without spending money for search engine placement. I've never had excess money laying around to throw at an SEO expert. If I offend any, so be it.

The best results can be obtained through writing relevant content and publishing it all over the Web. Yes, it helps to be strategic with using keywords and keyword phrases.

You want organic search results - the kind that come because you write a lot of content about what your readers are searching for.

If you want to learn more about getting found online for your business, find out more at www.actandattract.com and join us for our 4-week mentoring program starting July 1, 2008. The price tag goes up every 2 days so don't delay. (I know, that's really mean!... but some people take forever to make up their minds, so we want to help them decide!)

Comments

[Debra Dalgleish]

Your onlinemarketingchallenge link is missing a .com

[Kathleen Gage]

You are so right Patsi. It's all about planning out what you will write about. Many people randomly post information on the Internet and wonder why article writing and blogging don't work for them.

The more systemized one's approach, the better off.

[Heather Lloyd-Martin]

Hi,

Great post on the importance of content. I am a SEO expert (don't worry - I wasn't offended!) and I completely agree - many sites could solve (or help) their ranking problems if they created more content. White papers, FAQs, articles are search engine gold. Plus, readers like them, too - to the point where the additional content can help encourage conversions. Even catalog sites can benefit from being what I call "hybrid sites" - where the main goal is selling a product, but the site also as a wealth of great content other than product descriptions.

(I do have to say, however, that SEO experts *do* have their place. Sometimes, a site is too technically challenged to position well. And many times, companies have no idea how to start, implement or maintain a SEO campaign. Content can solve a lot of positioning ills - but not all of them.)

If I may recommend one keyword research tool - Keyword Discovery is the one many of my colleagues use. It is subscription-based, but worth every penny.

And, for folks who are searching for more information about how to write content for search engines, may I humbly suggest my blog - SEOcopywriting.com. :)

Thanks. Great site!
Heather

[SOHO Prospecting]

I totally agree that the content is one of the most important tools when it comes to search engine friendly websites.
But it's important to emphasize that it has to be exclusive content, otherwise Google may ban your website.

[affordable webdesign]

Its true dear.I agree with your points.I am expecting more from you.I will be back soon to read your upcoming post.

[SEO LA]

must used keywords on article that matched on the content you make to target your websites target page.waiting for you next post.

ann torres

[anonymous]

Great post on the importance of content. I completely agree - many sites could solve their ranking problems if they created more content..

[seo san Diego]

The original purpose for breadcrumbs was for their navigational attributes, but research shows that breadcrumbs are beneficial not only because they provide the alternate form of navigation, but also because they improve search engine rankings. Category, sub-category, and product names are normally filled with keywords. Because they are links and all-relating, we are using more keywords on the page. In addition, we are more closely linking the store’s pages together, making it easier for the search engines to index.

-faith-