Internet Marketing Newsletter

Edition 14 , November 2012

DIY SEO Issue Full of Gifts Merry Christmas To You! We only have a few weeks to go until Christmas and the Australian summer holidays, so we decided to pack this newsletter full of gifts for you. Firstly, we have a long article on do-it-yourself SEO. It includes many tips, tricks and free tools to improve your current website rankings and get more exposure online. We have also put together a gift voucher to the tune of $150 for all our past and current clients, and loyal newsletter readers. These vouchers are fully transferrable, if you know someone who would benefit from an one-on-one consultation or website audit.

We wish you a happy and safe New Year, – our next Newsletter will be coming out in February. All the best,

Janna Jungclaus And the Eminent Online Marketing Team

5 Things You Can Do To Start Your Own SEO Today SEO has some simple core basics that business owners and digital marketers can learn themselves if they are interested. These basics can pack a punch in non-competitive markets, and if you enjoy learning new things, applying these techniques to your website will really get you going. Here are our five main tips of how to get some DIY SEO results. For the best results, follow the tips in the order they are listed in. Start with some free/basic keyword research As we often mention in our articles and newsletters, keyword research is one of the most important aspects of SEO. It is the first thing any SEO strategy will review, because it determines what you want to rank for, and what kind of people you will attract to your website. A great way to start is the free Google AdWords Tool. It gives you an overview of how many local and global searches there are for your keyword and how high the competition is. You can access the Google Keyword Tool at www.googleeasysearch.com Set up your Google Places listing As we discussed in a recent newsletter and mainly online articles, creating your free Google Places listings is one of the cheapest and quickest way to appear on Google’s front page.

Google Places is a free service, aimed at delivering geographically relevant results for searchers, and giving business owners access to tools that help them promote their business online. When you set up your Google Places listing, you should pay particular attention to your address, the content of your listing and customer reviews.

Business address Of course your address is important for customers to find you and for the listing to be displayed to potential customers in your area. In addition, Google Places will draw on content from other directories, such as TrueLocal.com.au based on the same address listing.

Content of your listing The content of your listing is important, as it shows what kinds of products and services you provide. Firstly, be selective when you choose your category and the keywords for your business - these are the things your ideal customers are searching for. In the listing itself you can also add pictures and videos in addition to your business description. Customer reviews A really innovative feature of these listings is the review function. Having reviews on your Google Places listings, will improve the rankings of your Places listing, and will also entice more people to click through to your listing, as you show more social credibility than those businesses who don’t have any listings. Set up your Analytics account Setting up your analytics account is a great way to track where you’re at and help you improve your future review and optimisation process. Analytics account show you how many people come to your website, where they came from and what keywords they used, and even what content they are looking at when they get to your website. As a result you can see what interests people most, and you can give them even more content that is relevant to them. There are many analytics tools available on the market. Google Analytics is a free service, which is based online and can be installed on your website in a few minutes. You can find Google Analytics at http://www.google.com/analytics/ Write SEO content SEO content is what gets your website “beefed up” and it’s a great way to increase your website rankings. The more great content you have, the better you will rank – whether you focus on SEO or not. Why? Because people love good content. When your content is valuable to someone, they will pass it on to their colleagues and friends, as a result increasing your business exposure, and also your website rankings, naturally. For more information on what makes your content SEO friendly, read the article below. Bookmark And Share Your Website If your website is relevant and valuable for your target audience, it will naturally get increased exposure through recommendations, social sharing and bookmarking.

However, there are many additional benefits to bookmarking your content when it is first published. It will help your content get indexed quickly, which means

that it will be considered in the search results even shortly after it was first published. Moreover, any time your website gets shared or bookmarked, you build additional links that are valuable for SEO, and increase your exposure to your potential target audience. Here are some websites where you can post a link to your content:

• http://www.facebook.com • http://www.twitter.com • http://plus.google.com • http://www.digg.com • http://www.delicious.com

DIY SEO: Writing SEO Content Many of our clients have asked how they can better create SEO-friendly content and whether there is something they can do for their website to contribute to SEO. And the answer is: Yes! If you’re a regular newsletter reader, you already know that there are several areas that contribute to your website rankings: content, page structure, sitemap, backlinks, ratings and reviews, etc. The previous article has already given you some ideas of how to improve the general SEO of your website, this article focuses on SEO content. There are a few ground rules that apply to your website content. The content should be

• Unique • Well-written • Frequently updated

Most importantly, it is essential to remember that any content is created for people. It should be highly relevant to your target audience and give them extraordinary value. We all know that attention spans are short, and you should make sure that your content is the one that people look for. There are many different types of content that can contribute to your SEO. There are blog posts, normal websites, pdf brochures or checklists, online videos, podcasts, press releases or RSS feeds. As long as you are giving valuable information to your target audience, it doesn’t matter which format you content is in. You can decide to specialise in one type of content, such as videos or articles, or you can decide to mix it up.

Whatever medium you choose to deliver your content, here are some general guidelines to ensure your content is optimized for search engines. Metadata Your metadata is the information that describes your content. For example information about your website, your video or podcast. This includes the title of your piece, descriptions and keywords. To optimize your metadata, ensure the following:

• Use your desired keyword in the title of your piece • Use your desired keyword in the category or tag of your content • Use your desired keyword in the description, if possible toward the beginning of the

sentence. Your description should not be longer than the official guidelines. For example, Google likes to read descriptions less than 160 characters. Your description should also include a call to action.

Content These particular guidelines apply mainly to written content. For other content (such as videos or podcasts) the metadata is even more important, as the search engines can’t read the actual file. For written content:

• Include your desired keyword in heading (h1 tag) • Where possible also include keyword in a subheading (h2 or h3 tag) • Include your main keyword in approximately 2 percent of the article (2-4 mentions for a

200 word article). • Emphasise the keyword in the text by bolding, underlining or italicising once or twice

throughout the article. • Include the main keyword in the first and last sentence where possible. • Include related keywords where it is appropriate for the reader.

Pictures Again, these particular guidelines apply to picture content. For written content see the guidelines above, for video or audio content, pay additional attention to optimising your metadata content and reviewing and sharing your content through social networking sites. For image content

• Add an alt tag with the keyword to your image. • Include the keyword in the description of the image. • If possible add a subtitle to the picture that increases the readers interest. People are

drawn to read the subtitle of pictures.

• Where possible build 1-2 links to each image with the keyword in the anchor text. That will increase the chance of the image to rank in the Google Image search.

Once again, keep in mind that the most important aspect of your content is how valuable it is to your target audience. The more value you give them, the more likely and willing they will be to share your content and therefore increase your exposure to a broader target market.

Gift Voucher

Thank your for being a loyal newsletter subscriber and valued customer of Eminent Online Marketing. Our business wouldn’t be where it is today without you – our customers. As a thank you we would like to give you a gift voucher this year. It is a gift voucher for either an SEO analysis, or a competitor analysis, or a 1on 1 consultation. If your SEO and online marketing strategy is already fully set-up, the voucher is transferrable to friends, family, clients or colleagues.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Thank you for being one of our valued clients in 2011. It has been an interesting year for Eminent Online Marketing – our team has grown, our client base has grown and we’re in all around good shape for 2012. It is our hope that we can continue to provide value to you and your business, through our products, services and of course our newsletter. We wish you and your families a wonderful Christmas and a successful and happy new year.

Yours, Janna Jungclaus And the Eminent Online Marketing Team http://www.eminentonlinemarketing.com.au janna@eminentonlinemarketing.com.au Ph: 02 8580 4836