Having your entire team understand how they can play a role in your SEO can pay huge dividends with extra links and content for your business

5 Ecommerce Tips You Can Implement Today

1. Google Alerts: Google Alerts is a free service that sends email alerts anytime a keyword of your choosing is indexed by Google including blogs, news, and organic results.  You can use this tool in two ways.  First, you can track any reference of your company online so you know what people are saying about you.  Second, you can track major keywords that your team is working on so you will know anytime Google has indexed that keyword with reference to your website.
2. Keyword Research: Many companies don’t spend the time doing keyword research to discover all of the different keyword phrases people are using to search for your respected business.  For every major keyword relevant to your business there are at least a thousand different keyword phrases using your major keyword that people are typing into search engines right now.
3. Security: As your website grows so does your need for added security.  Do you know why Apple computers have so few viruses, because 98% of people use PCs.  Hackers go where the action is.  When you are effective with your SEO then you will become a target for hackers, so keeping up to date with all security protocols becomes vital.  Even Twitter was hacked and broke down for a few hours just a week ago.
4. Coordinate: Does your entire team know what pages on your site your SEO team is focusing on and what keywords.  Many important factors that will enhance your rankings can come from other parts of your team who can get high quality links from the relationships they are creating.  For example, your sales team understanding that links are important can work out adding a link to your website from a new vendor which can have tremendous power, and a link like that an SEO expert has no access to.
5. Promotion: Add features to your website that allow for you to easy change out promotions and upcoming events.  Many websites have static header graphics and right/ left side borders.  By making certain key areas editable for promotions you can promote specific sales instantly throughout your website including holiday specials as the season grows near.

Websites don’t have to be expensive to be effective.  They just have to be set up correctly from the beginning.

Top 10 Web Design Tips for Small Business

1. Domain name: chose an obvious domain name that is either you company’s name or keywords that represent what you are selling.
2. Hosting: don’t take your hosting for granted.  Poor hosting companies can have your site crash and not have the tech support to get it back up.  I personally use GoDaddy.com Hosting Plans for everything now as I haven’t had any issues and they have good customer service.
3. HMTL vs. Flash: flash looks cool though it gets annoying once you have been on the site more than once.  Also, flash doesn’t get indexed by searched engines.  You want to make your professional website in html.
4. 8 Grade Level: You have to make it obvious to what you are selling and who your target audience is.  If your visitors have to guess you will lose most of them.
5. Warm and fuzzies: That is what I call them.  Make it easy to find your credentials and biographies of who you are.  You want to build trust with your audience.  Certifications, associations, and other outside agencies like the Better Business Bureau support your online trust factor.
6. Testimonials: showcase testimonials from clients or customers.  You can also let customers comment on their orders through automatic services.
7. Photos: don’t clutter your website.  You graphics and photos to break up the text though don’t over do it.
8. Navigation: search engines index text navigations only.  Also, as most computers are wider than taller having your navigation horizontal makes it easier to fit in every person’s monitor.
9. Keywords: you want to do research on keywords people are searching for your business.  It is important to understand your audience more than you just deciding what keywords they should be searching for.
10. Measure: put analytic software on your website so you can measure everything from traffic sources to what they do once on your website.

The down side is that press releases on the major sites like Pr.com or Prweb.com have serious expenses to releasing your press release.  Without well written and a clear plan for your press release you can go broke with no results from poor press releases.  Listed below are three tips you can do to write better press releases and unleash the power of news that virually sprends online.

3 Tips to Better Press Releases

1. Newsworthy: whether your press release is newsworthy or not is where the rubber meets the road.  Before you submit your press release take time to determine what is truly newsworthy for your company.  One secret you can do to make it more interesting is to tie it to issues or topics that are getting a lot of attention.  As long as, it is a true tie in you can piggyback topics that are virually spreading.
2. Formatting: all press release sites have a certain format for releasing their press releases.  Follow their format completely using every field the way it is meant to.  You are not going to get any good traction by attempting to overly stuff the press release with keywords or stories of how great your company is.
3. Services: the more expense and better press release sites have staff to work with you.  Use these services.  They can direct you to bring out the most important aspect of your press release and lose added text you don’t need.

The two advantages of article marketing are it is free exposure.  Most article directory sites are free for you to upload your article.  If you right a compelling article people can pick it up and place on their site.  The second is adding credibility to your company or website that you are an expert.  A highly viewed article supports your ability to build online trust with your consumer.

Top 5 Tips for Successful Article Marketing

1. Solid content: your article has to be a well written article full of useful information on the subject.  Keep in mind the article has to be good enough for other person to want to place in their website.
2. No Selling: most article directories will boot your article if it is just a sales pitch for your company or your products.  The selling piece is a well written article on your subject matter.
3. Be Specific: broad topics don’t work as they don’t offer and real information.  Very specific topics that explain or give unknown information for your average consumer are very effective.
4. Unbiased: people can see through an article that sings the praises of your genre.  Right from an unbiased point of view and offer both sides if applicable.
5. Headlines: people read headlines.  They are how most people decide if they are going to give your article even a seconds look.  Take time to right keyword specific and attention grabbing headlines for your articles.

Top 10 Ecommerce Tips

1. Invest part of your budget into more fun and easy shopping experiences.  Fun doesn’t have to cost much money and can separate you from your competition.
2. Use the analytics tools to better segment your visitors to create more direct and localized marketing messages.
3. Add product videos and other media you might have on your products.
4. Remove any annoying banners that flash or force people to listen to them over and over.
5. Add video demonstrations of your products or services in action.
6. Add rewards program or some source of community.  You want to create an audience for your website.
7. The dollar has gained strength making foreign orders more viable.  Also, USPS offers cost effective shipping methods over seas.
8. Increase local traffic through localized search engine marketing.
9. Offer prizes and rewards in your newsletters to past customers who write reviews and add you to their social sites.
10. Plan your next 6 months of newsletters.  You can increase conversions with a email campaign plan than just sending out specials you might have going on.