5 Real-Life Lessons in How to Get More Clients

6000 Potential Clients every month




SEO Basics




SEO Basics - Lesson 2 - The Title Tag






I'm six months pregnant and I did something recently I
should have done months ago - I had a prenatal massage.
Ahhh..... heaven. I've had this ongoing pain in my shoulder
(on the side I carry my 2-year-old daughter, go figure) and
it hurt to do pretty much everything. But you know, as a
mom, you just suck it up and do it anyway.










I finally broke down at my last OB appointment and asked if
I could get a massage for the pain. My doctor gave me the
thumbs up with the caveat to make sure the person I went to
worked with pregnant women.

So, off to Google I went to see what I could find. What
happened from there is a true lesson in how to get more
clients for your service-based business the easy way - by
making it easy for your clients to sign up!

Lesson #1: Do simple search engine optimization on your
website
Into Google's search field I typed "massage therapist for
pregnant women Hudson Valley New York" and you know what
happened? Exactly ONE listing came up. (Take note, all you
massage therapists in the tri-state area). Thankfully this
person had a lovely website that answered my initial
questions and a contact form where I could reach her via
email (my personal preference for communication) .

The lesson? Have a web presence, for sure. But don't stop
there. Be sure to use KEYWORDS in the copy of your text as
well as in the code behind your site (the meta-tags) so
your site comes up in the search results. Further digging
on my part would have given me more listings for massage
therapists, but why waste my time when exactly what I was
looking for came up instantly?

TIP: My massage therapist's site had the advantage of
having at least one of the keywords I used in my search in
the title of her website/company: "Hudson Valley." If you
work with clients 1:1 in your local area, consider adding
your location and the area in which you service clients to
your keywords.

Another positive for this site was the ability to contact
her, either via phone or email. Giving your prospects
choices on how they can reach you increases your
credibility and respects varying needs for contact.

Lesson #2: Quick Follow-Up
The massage therapist responded the same day by phone and
quickly answered the questions I had posed for her in my
initial contact email.

So, even though I had contacted her via email, she took the
initiative to call me, instead of emailing me back. This
showed me right away that she was a serious business
person, and that she was interested in obtaining me as a
client. The fact that she came to the call prepared to
answer my questions in a minimum amount of time was an
added plus.

I was sold and ready to book my appointment with her, but I
needed to juggle schedules with my family. She offered to
send me her availability for the next few weeks via email
and then I could contact her to book a session when it was
convenient for me.

Lesson #3: Quick Follow-Up II
She followed up right away as promised, but unfortunately
her email went into my spam folder. (I had given her my
personal email address, which is the AOL address I've had
since 1994, but since AOL filters 35% of all mail, I never
even knew it was there.)

One day after that, she called to make sure I'd received
her email. I emailed her back and said I hadn't (and then
later found it in my spam folder). She immediately resent
her email to both my personal and business email address,
and ta-da, there it was.

Do you see the theme of follow-up here? She didn't wait
around for me to make the next move. She picked up the
phone and left a quick message to check in. It was neither
salesy or pushy - it was gracious and courteous.

Lesson #4: Be Flexible (within reason)
Then the next stumbling block. With my schedule, I try to
make any outside appointments in the early evening or on
the weekends. She only had appointments available mid-day
during the week. I explained my situation and she
graciously offered to see me off-hours.

At this point, I was unhappily ready to move on to someone
else, but she came through by offering to see me at a time
that was much more convenient for me. Yes, that was great
customer service in general, but what was REALLY smart
about this was now that I've experienced her fabulous
service, I will be returning for more, AND I will figure
out how to do so during her normal business hours.

Lesson #5: Decrease No-Shows
The day before our appointment, she called to confirm our
appointment and to make certain that I had received the
directions she had emailed (another plus as I didn't have
to spend time figuring them out myself).

Confirming any appointments you have with clients is
essential to decreasing the number of no-shows you have.
People get busy and honestly forget, so confirming
appointments is an easy way to remind them and making sure
your slot doesn't go unfilled.

So...the overall lesson here is that if she hadn't been
easy to find and hadn't follow-up with me in such a precise
and consistent manner, I guarantee that I would still be
looking for someone and trying to figure out how to fit an
appointment into my schedule ~ or more likely, I would have
given up altogether. Instead, she made it super-simple for
me to say "yes, sign me up!" and I feel fabulous as a
result!

How can YOU follow-up with your potential clients so you
can get the same results?

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Sales without Search Engines

Imagine one day you flip on your PC, log on to the Internet and go to google.com. The browser alerts you and says that there is no website found at that address. No problem you think, as you head on over to Yahoo.com. Same thing. No website found at that url. Now something seems fishy, go to MSN.com because you know Microsoft will never run out of money, and their search engine will be up. Nope, instead you get another alert box telling you that there is no website found at that url.







Imagine that!

Yes, imagine an Internet world where no search engines exist, and anyone trying to make a living online selling a product or service has to be found.

Where would you start? Where would you list your site(s)? How would you get your site found by your potential customers?







This is the mentality you should always take when promoting your website. Sure, it'd be great to have top rankings in the search engines, and get all of that free targeted traffic coming to your site. But just as easily as you achieve that ranking, you could lose it overnight - with a simple filter change in the algorithm.

I'm sure you've heard of the "Florida" update that caused many site owners panic attacks as their previously highly ranked sites fell off the face of the Internet. They lost sales, traffic and dreams of Internet riches.

Why?

As I heard someone famous once say: "Don't place all your eggs in one basket" - yet too many website owners do. They are obsessed with a top ranking in Google instead of building a brand name people will recognize and trust. Top rankings in the search engines should be part of your Internet marketing strategy, but dedicate only a portion of your efforts to that. You should equally spend your time pursuing partnerships with other non-competitive sectors of the Internet.

I'm sure you've seen a web-ring. To refresh, they are a group of related sites that link to each other. Internet marketing is the same concept, but on a much grander showcase. You can advertise your site in the costly Pay-Per-Click Arena, and if you have the budget to do so, by all means, that is the quickest way to get found. But keeping in mind that search engines don't exist, what would you do to get the word out?

1. Press Releases - While they should be reserved for newsworthy purposes (new product/service, acquisition, attending Trade Show or Convention, etc.), they are a great way to get people to visit your site when they are looking for information relating to your product or service. It's also a great way to build your brand name and to become known as an authority of information in your field.

2.Directory Listings - Quite simply, this is the easiest way to get your site indexed by search engines. There are many free directories that you can get your site listed in, and there are many fee-based directories that are worth the price of adding your site. The added value is that since your site is listed categorically, it helps to re-enforce what your site offers, since it will be found with similar sites.

3.Articles - Expose your expertise! While article writing is not easy, it is an extremely valuable asset to your site. By writing, you are creating unique content found nowhere else and we all know how much search engines love that! It also gives you another way of explaining a product or service without coming off as a sales pitch. Another added benefit of writing articles is that it's a great way to naturally grow the size of your site in an organic way, and will in turn, make your site become a "hub" of relevant information in regards to your industry.

4.Newsletters - This should be your site's bread and butter. The people who have signed up for your newsletter already feel that your site was worth their time to give you their email address, so these people have already place some trust and value into what you have to say. The newsletter is where you can promote new products and services to interested users without risking any intrusiveness factors. This is the best place to make a sales pitch to your perspective readers!

5.Blogs/RSS Feeds - While to some people this is already old-hat, there are many users out there (think AOL users) who have no idea about how to customize the content they want to read. There are many areas to get your blog listed, and it gives an inside point-of-view into the inner workings of your company or personality, thus giving yet another way for a user to identify with you or your site.

I think it's safe to say that the search engines will always be around, but to focus entirely on them and ignoring the other resources could be a costly business mistake.

Just remember to keep your eye on the prize of online success, and customers coming from various outlets, not just the search engines.

-To your online success!

3 Steps to a Search Engine Compatible Site

Is your web site search engine compatible? Despite all the misinformation out there, it's very easy to design a web site that search engines will love. All you need to do is follow 3 simple steps:









1) Obey the Search Engine Guidelines







Nearly all search engines publish their own guidelines regarding the submission of sites, the type of sites they will accept and recommendations for optimized content.






Google recently updated their Webmaster Guidelines which cover the most common forms of deceptive or manipulative search engine behavior that they consider to be 'spam'. They also published SEO Guidelines – advice for webmasters to heed when choosing an SEO. Google was the first search engine to publicly acknowledge search engine optimizers in this fashion.










It's not just Google publishing anti-spam guidelines. You'll find them at the following search engine sites as well:

Yahoo terms of service
Yahoo guidelines on search engine spam (covering AltaVista and AllTheWeb as well)
Yahoo definitions of search engine spam (covering AltaVista and AllTheWeb as well)
Yahoo content guidelines
MSN Search webmaster guidelines
AltaVista terms of use (AltaVista is a Yahoo-owned company)
Ask.com terms of service and spam policy
Ask.com editorial guidelines

2) Don't Use Spammy Search Engine Tactics
Often, webmasters will use search engine spam techniques without even being aware that they are doing so. Or worse, web designers can - advertently or inadvertently - integrate techniques that could cause a site to be penalized in the site's rankings in one or more engines, without the site owner's knowledge of such penalties. The key to avoiding spamming the engines is research.
Keep track of the various search engine guidelines via the links above. Watch for any changes they make to these guidelines and tweak your site accordingly. Trawl the various webmaster and search engine forums regularly to ensure your site doesn't use any of the latest optimization methods that appear to be penalized. If you suspect your site has been penalized, remove the offending content, contact the engine concerned and ask to be reinstated.

Google actually encourage you to file a re-inclusion request via their Help Center and this post by Google staffer Matt Cutts outlines what should be included.

Alternatively, here is a sample email template you can use instead:


--------------------------------------------
Sample Re-inclusion Request Email

Dear [search engine name],

I am the owner of [your site URL].

I did not realize that participation in [spammy method] and
[spammy SEO name] programs could cause problems for my website. I was
assured that these techniques were search-engine-friendly by [your source for using spammy method].

I now understand that the practices used are not acceptable. I apologize for having allowed them to be placed on my website. I've removed the questionable pages and links from the site. I promise not to repeat such mistakes.

I am asking you to please consider reinstating my website,
[your site URL] into the [search engine name] Index.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]
------------------------------------------

To assist them to provide a high quality service, search engines encourage people to report search results they are dissatisfied with. If you spot some content spam or techniques that are clearly in breach of the search engine's public guidelines, you can report it using these links:

Google spam report or via search-quality@google.com

AllTheWeb relevancy problem report (AllTheWeb is a Yahoo-owned company)
AltaVista search results manipulation report (or via Yahoo's spam report)
Yahoo spam report
Ask.com spam report or via information@ask.com

3) Build Sites for Visitors Rather than Search Engines
The methodologies may have changed over the years, but the same principles have always applied to "good" or "white hat" SEO. Build sites for humans, not search engines. Make the site as user friendly as possible, avoid the bells and whistles and include high quality, relevant content.

Wherever possible, include text-based content and navigation menus with simple, descriptive, well-written copy designed to convert your visitors into customers. Include keywords and phrases your audience would logically type in to search engines to find sites like yours. Only link to sites that are relevant to your target audience and spend some time on usability, making sure all your forms and shopping carts work.

Remember that what pleases a visitor is almost always what pleases a search engine too.

How To Boost Your Website's Ranking

Unless you are already at the top of all the major searchengines for all your major keywords and keyword phrases, youshould see what you can do to boost your website's ranking. Thebest way to boost your website ranking is to use websitepromotion techniques which improve the on-page and off-pagefactors that search engines use when prioritizing websites.

The first step in any program designed to boost your websiteranking is to look at your actual web pages and see what youcan do to make them truly search engine friendly. This effortto make a web page search engine friendly is commonly known assearch engine optimization. Search engine optimization isbasically the process of organizing your web page in such a way that the main points of the page are crystal clear to both thesearch engine robots and to the human beings who willeventually read the pages.

If you have a web page that explains or offers "blue electronicwidgets" then these words should be put in the title tag, andagain in the description tag, and in the main headline of thepage. Certainly if the page is really about blue electronicwidgets then you will discuss the subject and mention thesewords a few more times in the text. You might also link toother pages on your site that have similar content, and youcould even name the file for that page asblueelectronicwidge ts.html . If you do all of these things then it is clear that this pageis truly about blue electronic widgets. This will be plain toany person who looks at the page and to the search engines
whenthey gather the data for your page.

By reorganizing your webpages so that they reflect and emphasize the actual message ofeach page, you will have taken the first step to boost yourwebsite's ranking in the search engines. Web Promotion Technique for Off-page Optimization In the highly competitive world of the Internet, you can't stopwith on-page optimization. If 100 sites all have the samecontent and similar optimization, then the only way to reachthe top and stand out as the most relevant page in thatcategory is to build up the amount of incoming links pointingto your website. Your link popularity is an off-page factorthat has a big role in determining your website's ranking. There are several ways to build incoming links, and you shoulduse the web promotion technique that is most appropriate foryou. For example, if you have time search around for directoriesdealing with your subject. In many cases you only have to fillout a form and add your site to the directory. Often you haveto exchange links.

One of the most widely used web promotion techniques nowadays is reciprocal linking. When engaging inreciprocal linking, remember that the quality of your links isjust as important as the quantity. Try to get links from high traffic and highly regarded sites in your field. Another way to build incoming links is to place your content onother websites with a link back to your site. Write articlesabout your field and submit it to the many content hungrywebmasters searching for such material. Always remember to puta link back to you site at the end of your articles. If you take the time to optimize your pages and then engage in a link building campaign, you will see an improvement in yourwebsite's ranking in the search engines. It won' t happen overnight, but eventually the best websites rise to the top of therankings.