Search Engine Optimization: How to Help Prospects Find You On The Internet
August 13, 2008 2:43 PM
Getting prospects to find you in the search engines doesn't have to be a very difficult and time consuming process.
Search Engine Experts make it seem difficult so they can justify the large fees they charge their clients to optimize their websites for the search engines.
However, there are some simple strategies you can apply to get prospects finding you in the search engines and you don't need an expert to help you use them.
Use of Keywords
The first step towards getting listed in the search engines is to do some keyword research.
Keyword research is the process of identifying key words and phrases that your prospect would type into a search engine when looking for information on a specific topic.
There are a number of different types of keywords.
For instance, lots of people search for the names of the top network marketing companies.
If you are looking to generate a list of prospects with network marketing experience, some of the best keywords you can focus on are keywords related to network marketing company names. You can find a number of company names just by doing a search for "list of network marketing companies."
You can also focus your efforts on some generic terms related to the industry. Terms like "network marketing", "MLM", "direct sales", "multi-level marketing", "lead generation" and so on focus on general terms that any network marketing distributor or prospect might search for.
You want to include a mix of short terms as well as long terms. You stand a greater chance of getting listed for longer terms than you do for short terms. However, you also stand a greater chance at picking up terms you didn't think of by including short terms in your research as well.
Creating Valuable Content
Once you have done your research, the next step is to create website content. You need to create content so that it can get listed in the search engines.
Some people try to trick the search engines and create content just for the sake of getting listed. These strategies may work for a short period of time, but are more likely not to work at all or get you banned.
Instead of just creating content for contents sake you want to create content that people actually are going to want to read and get some value out of.
Remember your goal isn't to simply create content to get a search engine listing. Your goal is to create content that results in prospects becoming leads as part of your marketing funnel.
Search Engine Friendly Places to Post Your Content
There are a number of places to put your content that will help you get listed in the search engines.
One of the best is posting content to a blog.
Search engines like blogs because of their dynamic nature. Content posted to a blog, all things being equal, will get a higher search engine listing than content posted to a regular web page.
Another great place to create content that gets listed in the search engines is an article directory. Article directories are websites dedicated to archiving a number of different articles about various topics.
Since these websites are rich with content, they tend to get high listings in the search engines. By leveraging the power of article directory websites you can get your content listed in the search engines faster than you could on your own.
YouTube is also a great place to post content. Obviously, the content is going to be in the form of a video that you create instead of text.
YouTube videos get high search engine results, especially on Google, since Google owns the company. By creating videos you get double benefit because they get listed on both Google and YouTube.
The Call to Action
Once you have created content, the final step to using it to generate prospects for your network marketing business is to include some type of call to action.
Include in the content an offer for a free or very low priced resource that your prospects can take advantage of. This will get prospects to visit your website and sign up, thus allowing them to become a part of your marketing funnel.
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