Like we talked about earlier, word-of-mouth marketing is tops for spreading the word about a microbusiness. We could spend money on advertising and hope for a return, but it’s more cash flow friendly to get new business referrals from delighted customers, and then pay them a commission for the done deal.
The same apples to online businesses: build the business by providing referral bonuses, whether informally or with an affiliate/commission program. Brick-and-mortar or on the Web, the value in word-of-mouth is how it affordably and effectively extends our message to customers that are beyond our reach.
But online, there’s a way to reach people outside of these typical one or two degrees of separation…
Search Engines: Our Silent Partners
Our blogs and websites have silent, not-so-secret partners that offline businesses lack: search engines. Google, Yahoo!, and MSN will deliver potential customers/subscribers to our websites day in and day out, from get up ’til go to bed, without requiring a penny of payback.
Search engine “bots” regularly scan and scope our sites for content, and the search engines themselves will share our message with the rest of the world—but we have to meet them halfway. Specifically, we must make sure our content is accessible, readable, and optimized for what we want the search engines to find.
Search Engine Optimization, a.k.a. SEO is
The process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” search results for targeted keywords.
Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it “ranks”, the more searchers will visit that site.
My SEO Experience
Contrary to what I often read, in my experience, search engines won’t deliver a stream of visitors just because a website has regularly updated content and loads of incoming links.
In fact, a website that hasn’t been updated in over a year with few incoming links can survive almost entirely on search engine traffic if it’s been optimized. Compare these two sites:
Doodlefinder.com is my directory of specialty dog breeders:
- The site is over 3 years old
- The content has not been updated in 13 months
- Since it’s launch, I have syndicated only one article and posted once to a forum
- According to Yahoo!, there are less than 40 incoming links
- It doesn’t get any love from Twitter, Facebook, or other social media
- I paid close attention to making the content Google friendly
- Summary: Minimal effort on content, much effort on SEO
BigBrightBulb.com is my blog for microbusiness ideas and advice:
- The blog is almost five months old
- I publish new articles three or four times each week
- Readers contribute their comments daily
- I have syndicated only one article, but I post to other blogs and forums daily
- According to Yahoo!, there are over 1000 incoming links
- I interact daily on social media with a branded username
- I have put minimal effort into making the content Google friendly
- Summary: Continuous effort on content, little effort on SEO
Putting aside the very different target markets, you might think there is a big difference in the volume of site visitors between these two websites. I sure did. And there is a big difference.
According to Google Analytics for the past 30 days, Doodlefinder.com has significantly more new and unique visitors, and twice as many pages viewed per visit. Another big difference: 90% of Doodlefinder’s traffic comes from search engines, while BigBrightBulb only gets 14% of its traffic from there.
Were you expecting the website with the new, regularly updated content to draw more traffic from the search engines? I sure was. Instead, it appears that my small investment in basic SEO is still paying off two years later, even though I haven’t updated the content.
On the other hand, BigBrightBulb requires daily maintenance across media, yet draws fewer visitors. Notably, its traffic can drop dramatically on days I haven’t posted a new article and/or participated in Twitter. Aside from the occasional boost from StumbleUpon, this blog’s visibility—and therefore survival—depends almost entirely on daily attention.
So What’s So Great About SEO?
SEO is great because:
- It doesn’t require a continuous outlay of cash like advertising
- It doesn’t require a paid commission like a standard referral
- It doesn’t require a continuous time investment like social media
- The results can supplement, or even surpass, our other traffic building efforts
- There are plenty of free and affordable resources
As with many things, your mileage may vary, but for me there’s no question that SEO does it’s job to bring in new site visitors. Now the question is:
How well will SEO work for you?
My SEO Power Tools
Here’s what I’m using to improve BigBrightBulb’s chances to appear prominently in Google. Give some or all of these a try and see if SEO will make a difference for your blog or website:
SEO School: How to Become an SEO Ninja
Focused on the needs of microbusinesses and written for non-techies. Includes real-world examples with the big picture on how web traffic works. Learn how to make friends with Google, implement simple SEO tactics, and avoid behaving like a spammer. Great information with potty mouth language and good-hearted humor, only $39.
Creating a Google-friendly site
How to rank well on Google, straight from the source. Clear, detailed SEO guidelines and directions written for semi-techies to high-techies. Includes a wide range of tips, from making useful 404 pages to moving your site.
All in One SEO Pack
Plugin for WordPress users only. Simplifies SEO basics like page titles, page descriptions, and keywords. Instructions and screenshot examples provided. Notably, allows us to tweak items for individual posts, which is not something WordPress can do on its own.
Et tu? Do you need more traffic to your website? If so, what are you doing about it?
Photo credit: iStockPhoto
