4 Top Reasons Why SEO May Be A Waste of Money

So a lot of small business owners, in fact 99% of them have a web page.  Of these owners many of them pay a clearing house or some agency for SEO (search engine optimization) to ensure that their page ends up on page 1 of a Google search.  Often though when I ask owners about this they have no idea of what is being done for this.

My opinion is that this can be a frivolous expense because most of these owners are not utilizing the the power of social media.  In fact, most of these owners either:

• don’t have a social media page
• only have 1 type of page
• don’t know anything about their page
• only posted < 10 things to it.

The image above depicts how Google ranks you in a search.  You obviously want to be the yellow or red face.  Getting their requires many links though.  The problem with a lot of SEO is it is based on random or even blind keyword entries and it is expensive.  With social media you open up the infinite possibilities of back links (connecting your content to someone else’s page for visibility). 

ALL OF THIS IS FREE!!!

Regularly posting to social media establishes you as an expert and can get you an audience you never thought you had.

91% of data usage on smart phones is used on social media

That’s huge! Take a business like a pet store.  Whenever someone comes in to play with a dog or to purchase one you should snap a picture (have releases ready if they are ify about it).  Upload the picture to Facebook or Pinterest.  If they are on FaceBook they will be tagged in the photo and notified.  This gives you a link to their page, a possible friend request, and maybe a Like (more likes mean more rotation in someone’s news feed which also results in a higher search rank).  That is a potential gold mine of free marketing!

Don’t forget about Google +.  Since Google has the largest market share of searches they also give preference to their profile pages.  If you don’t have one then make one.  It will be a great way for people to find more about you after they discover you on Google Places.

In short,

WAKE UP!!!!!

I used to only deal with people face to face and didn’t use social media for myself, but I have had success with helping others implement it.  It’s a necessity in business and much less of a financial strain than a lot of SEO promises.

 

I hope these tips help your business grow!

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3 Major Revenue Generators Businesses Overlook

Business is slow. Business is slow. Business is slow………………………..

I constantly hear this from business owners.

Next I ask, “what are you doing about it?” Typical response is, “I’m online”, but that is very vague. These businesses I talk to say having a website is being online….

WRONG!

Having a website can actually be a waste of money at times. You can have the most glorious website ever and be paying at upwards of $2000 a month for it, but have no traffic. You need to be proactive about marketing . I myself used to solely use my in person interactions with people for my consulting, but I have since been on line as I would always help them grow their presence. I figured I might as well put my knowledge to work for me (it’s hot in Las Vegas and being in 110 degree heat kind of sucks……)

The internet is very organic now. Social media populates the internet a lot in various platforms. There are typically 3 main things I recommend to businesses that are not “hip” as to what to do

1. Facebook religiously. If you have a store or office of some sort, put a lot of pictures of it online. Promotions, items you carry, silly pictures, whatever. These are the things that generate the most Likes online. If you didn’t know, the Likes serve almost as an imbedded ad in someone’s page and moves you up on the list of searches compared to a similar business with no Likes. Every one that Likes you will see your page show up in their news feed. FREE SUBLIMINAL MARKETING!!! Don’t forget to be a friend to people though. Respond to their comments and give helpful tips to people. Don’t just be a salesman all the time.

2. Twitter a little more than Facebooking (funny verb). Twitter provides a great short commercial. The shelf life of a tweet can be very short, but if you tailor it properly and set up some sort of automatic posting of it (Buffer, HootSuite, etc) then you’re likely to generate some sales. Remember, 91% of the internet used on smartphones is used socializing. Grab some of that market, FOR FREE!!

3. The new guy Google+ is very important. If you hadn’t noticed, you can’t leave anonymous reviews on Google anymore. You have to have a Google account. On the flip side, businesses need to have a Google account to give people a place to effectively see who they are. You’d be surprised how many people have an unclaimed business on Google. CLAIM IT!! It’s a representation of you. If someone wants to leave you a positive review, they might not do it if your page has no photos or info about you. Have some pride and own your page. Again, IT’S FREE MARKETING! Put up pictures here as well and products you carry.

Since the web is organic, don’t forget to link all of these platforms together. All of these things grant you exposure. The more exposure you have, the more customers you have. It’s been that way since men sold furs in village squares! There are still other places to go (YouTube, Pinterest, FourSquare, etc), but I deem these ones the most important for any consumer based business.

Don’t kill yourself doing all of this manually. Get some kind of software to help you automate this for God’s sake.

PS – I hope these tips help you to not be slow!

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