VA Business Coaching Blog » increase website traffic

Top 5 Ways to Google Optimization for Websites (Part One)

Jeannine Clontz — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:38:22 +0000

Staying at the top of search engine results pages requires a website owner to continually improve page content. Unlike Bing and Yahoo who use HTML tag structures, Google separates affiliate pages and ad sites from domains that provide unique, relevant content. Because of Google’s stricter requirements and guidelines, website owners need to optimize pages to improve Google index rank.

Keywords and Phrases

Keywords and phrases are main content components of a website’s text. Google evaluates site content and places relevance factors on keyword phrases that correspond to popular search terms. If a website’s focus is on “car repair,” the keyword phrase should display in several places within the content. Focus on full phrases rather than one keyword. They are more specific and reduce the amount of competition for search engine rank. It’s important to avoid keyword overuse; unnatural text flow that inflates the frequency of the keywords. Google detects it and lowers the website’s index rank.

Title Tag

Coded within the title of each individual page, the title tag is displayed in the web browser’s title bar at the top of the user’s window. Used by Googlebot to determine page content although not the sole element used for rank calculations, it plays a major role in search engine optimization. Web page titles should be different for all pages across the domain. To reduce title duplication, dynamically create web page titles using unique introduction text and appending the website business name.

Next week, we’ll complete the process by looking at Anchor Text, Header Tags and Unique Content…stay tuned.

Jeannine Clontz, owner of Accurate Business Services, a VA practice, is an author, writer, speaker and VA Business Coach specializing in providing professional business coaching to established and start-up virtual assistants (VA’s). For her FREE audio CD “What’s Holding Back my Business Success?”, a 2-month trial in her Insider group coachingprogram, or 1-month trial of her coaching club visit: http://www.VAbizcoach.com; or contact her at: coach@VAbizcoach.com.

Top 5 Ways to Google Optimization for Websites (Part One) is a post from: VA Business Coaching Blog

State of the Virtual Assistance Industry

Jeannine Clontz — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:03:20 +0000

Join me for an interactive and FREE teleseminar where I’ll share what I believe is the current State of the Virtual Assistance Industry, what it means to you, and your business, and why I believe 2010 can be an exceptional year for VAs.

Date: Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

Time: 7:00 – 8:30 PM EASTERN

Registration is required go here to register: http://bit.ly/7yv2tb

Several days ago, I read an article online about the current state of small businesses and specific industries. While some larger corporations are anticipated to show growth in 2010, small businesses, and specifically badly hit industries in this recession, will not fare very well.

The statistics indicated that in 2009, 35% of small businesses went OUT OF BUSINESS. That’s more than a third of all small businesses. Whether you know it or not, it’s very scary to me because I know that small businesses are truly the backbone of our country.

People in the mortgage and real estate industries closed down at a rate of 40-45%, with associated industries (from the domino effect), such as appraisers, inspectors, home stagers, etc., staying within the formerly stated 35%.

It went on to say that this is a natural process where only the best of the best will remain because although money is still moving during the recession, there is less of it moving. They anticipate that one third (33%) of the remaining small businesses will also close their doors in 2010. Will your VA practice be one of them?

I believe this is a great time for us to come together as an industry and look at where we are going, how we fit into the current economic situation, and how we can be sure NOT to be among the 33% who will be out of business in 2010.

That’s why I am holding a FREE teleseminar in January to discuss the State of the Industry and open a discussion of how we might look at what we can do now that will ensure we continue to build strong businesses in 2010 and beyond.

Join me for this interactive and informative session on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 from 7:00 – 8:30 PM Eastern.

Don’t forget, although this is a FREE teleseminar, registration is required. Please register at: http://bit.ly/7yv2tb and additional links and dial-in information will be forwarded at a later date.

I look forward to speaking with you then.

State of the Virtual Assistance Industry is a post from: VA Business Coaching Blog

Ten Tips to Increase Website Traffic Without Any Expense

Jeannine Clontz — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:15:33 +0000

Several months ago, Katie Baird of Loose Ends (www.looseends.net) was my guest on the topic of Websites & Search Engine Optimization. Katie offered us a special price for her book, Web Development Guide for Entrepreneurs and Do-It-Yourselfers.

I took her up on her kind offer and found this eBook to be full of fabulous resources and ideas. Of course, it also made me realize I am NOT a Web Development DIY! However, there are several things I know to do regularly, to help increase my rankings at the major search engines.

Here are 10 simple ways to improve your search engine rankings with little to no expense (depending on whether or not you’re a do-it-yourselfer or have website support and maintenance done by a Virtual Assistant (VA), or in-house staffer/IT Support.). I hope you find them helpful.

Schedule regular updates/changes of information on your main website pages. This activity spiders out to search engines to let them know something’s happening at your site.
Add resources and links to other sites, even affiliate sites where you can make a second income stream would be helpful. It also brings attention to your site.
Update or add keywords and meta tags. Search your niche and see what pops up, ask your clients what words they might use in a search engine if they were looking for you. They may come up with words you hadn’t even thought of.
Add features such as a newsletter subscribe or survey questions. Rotating survey questions is a great way to bring visitors back again and again.
Use your website in your marketing pieces. Write articles that would be of interest to your clients and include the URL on the print or electronic marketing piece to drive more traffic to your site.
Create private areas of your website where clients can login and retrieve projects or files.
Add a blog, or connect to your site from your blog, to increase search engine rankings.
Find out what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be done manually and set a regular schedule each week, or several times a month to increase your rankings at major search engines.
If you get an article published, post a link to it somewhere on your website, or include your website URL in the article so that people will have easy access to your site.
Include your website URL on your letterhead, business cards, online directories, and anywhere else you can reasonably post it.

If you incorporate several of these tips into your regular website maintenance, you’re sure to see your numbers grow.

Ten Tips to Increase Website Traffic Without Any Expense is a post from: VA Business Coaching Blog