|
|
Search Engine Optimization Our retail site, CactusCanyon.com, has become more successful in the past two year than I had ever dreamed possible. 99% of our sales come from organic search engine traffic. Over 85% comes from just Google and Yahoo. SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is the most important skill I taught myself when first building the site. Although by any standards our site is a success, do I think it is doing the best it could be? Absolutely not! You see, my SEO knowledge was very limited early on. I knew only the very basics when I started putting the site together. Since then I have learned much more about SEO and have gone back and changed a few things to help its rankings. However, (and this is important!) there are some basic mistakes I made early on with the structure and the site’s layout which I simply can’t go back and fix. Yes, I could do a complete redesign. I may do this at some point, but the work involved is daunting. I simply can’t tell you how important it is that you have a very good working knowledge of search engine optimization BEFORE YOU START WORK ON YOUR SITE or before it gets too big to easily go back and fix. There is no other piece of advice I have to offer which is more important than this. My book offers a general overview of all the Internet marketing principles you’ll need to succeed with your own site. However, it is NOT a detailed study of SEO. By far, the best education on SEO I’ve received is from reading Dan Borlan’s SEO book, Search Engine Success. My Review on Dan Borlan’s SEO Book: Dan has put together an 83 page eBook explaining the principles of SEO in a detail I have not seen anywhere else. Knowing how important SEO is, I have purchased many books on SEO over the past few years. Nothing compares to Dan’s book! Dan starts with a detailed analysis of keyword usage. And I do mean DETAILED! Creating content without this understanding of keyword choice and usage will result in less effective pages and lower search engine placement. Period! The book’s explanation on optimized site structure was the most eye-opening for me. Remember, this area is the HARDEST to go back and fix if you don’t do it right the first time! I only wish I had read Dan's book BEFORE I started our Cactus Canyon site! Next, Dan details internal and external linking strategies, the concept of landing and theme pages, the method and importance of site maps, correct usage of headers, titles, meta tags. Dan offers a wealth of information every Internet marketer simply has to know in order to be successful. Lastly, Dan goes above and beyond what’s expected when he adds a whole list of complimentary methods of driving traffic to your site. He teaches how to ramp up traffic by combining SEO techniques with blogging, RSS feeds, social bookmarking, press releases, and more. I am one of Dan’s affiliates, but as most of you know I do NOT promote products unless I own them myself and find them useful. As I said above, I have purchased quite a few SEO books over the past few years. However, I have not purchased another SEO book since owning Dan’s, and don’t see a need to. Oh, and don't let me forget to mention this! Dan Borlan heads Mike Filsaime's SEO efforts! Yes, that is THE Mike Filsaime!
|
|
Weber Internet Marketing |
|
