I had a great conversation with a client last night that lasted until 10 PM. I usually don’t schedule meetings that late (or like them) but in this situation I had no other choice. It turns out that it ended up being a good meeting that involved a lot of listening. It got me thinking about the way we listen to our clients.
Often times we (Internet marketing/SEO folks) talk with smart, capable business owners who don’t understand what we do, and we end up doing all the talking, and get use to doing all the talking. Sometimes we do so much talking we don’t take the time to listen to what our clients are saying, or what they really need from us. I know I have been guilty of this in the past!
SEO
clients, SEO
Talking with a client the other day, I was asked how to write a blog post that is efficient from an SEO prospective, yet is still worthy of a read from her customers; here is the answer. I have written about this before elsewhere, but figured I might as well post it here too.
Blogging Tip List:
- First of all, hopefully you are writing something that is interesting and relates to your reader. Every now and then I post something that might just be funny, or not really related to the theme of any certain blog I’m writing on, but in most cases if you are in the industry of money management and your traffic visiting your site is hitting it via words related to money management, than by all means write about that topic instead of what you had for breakfast this morning.
Blogging, SEO
Blogging, SEO
A friend of mine who is just starting out (Internet business) was asking me the other day about 301 redirects, www’s vs non-www’s in domain and the .htaccess file and how it all relates to what I do and SEO etc. Because of that, I wanted to post it here on this blog. I have posted this information in other places before, but wanted it here for any of the Dream Systems Media readers to have access to it.
For anyone who is serious about search engine optimization knowing about 301 redirects is a MUST. I searched and searched all over for the “bottom line-tell me how to do it” examples of the 301 redirects and found the information confusing.
What you need to know, and NOTHING more!
First: The code to get your non www’s always redirecting to the www’s is as follows:
Here’s the code:
SEO
301 redir, 301 redirects, htaccess file
The Biggest Catch of the Day
This most recent weekend I had the chance to go ice fishing with a group of friends. We went to Fish Lake in Central Utah and it was great experience, considering it was my first time out on the ice. I have been fishing on many occasions in the past, as it has been a hobby of mine since I was young, but have never been ice fishing. While reeling in the biggest catch of the day (as you can see from the picture the fishing this round wasn’t great), I started thinking that often times business owners are looking to catch the big one, but in the process forget the many existing clients that have kept them going back to the lakes, and often times kept “food on the table”. I thought about this on several occasions throughout the morning, and on the drive home, and it has inspired me to post today on what SEOs need to do to provide good customer service to their clients, thus keeping them as clients.
Business, Entrepreneur, SEO
customer service, SEO
This is just something I had on my mind today and finally decided to take some time to put it down on paper! I love what I do for a living, but every once in a while I get asked a question that makes me take a step back and say (to myself of course) WTF?
I get asked silly questions all the time, or at least what I feel are silly questions. I wanted to see if other SEOs out there had stupid/silly/funny questions that they have been asked (and were willing to share) so I went to Twitter (of course) for a little research and asked the question -
What was the toughtest/stupidest/silliest SEO related question you have ever been asked?
Sample of Silly SEO Questions
SEO
seo questions, silly seo questions, tough seo questions, Twitter
This holiday season a lot of etailers are counting on seeing huge traffic and revenue via shopping networks such as shopping.com, shopzilla.com, smarter.com, and the like. The problem is that most small businesses don’t have a clue how to really use these networks to sell their products, and have even less ability at getting their listings ranking highly compared to the power users that have own “shopping network concierge” on speed dial (that’s right, spend enough money with any specific network and you’ll find yourself upgraded really soon with a personal concierge), not to mention that most small businesses have significantly less budget dedicated to shopping network PPC costs.
SEO
SEO, Shopping Networks
Everyday I am hit with a ton of questions related to Internet Marketing, and every once in a while I get one I like and feel like answering in a post, and today this question from Jennifer, is the winner:
I am brand new to Internet business, how would I know which terms or keywords I should be going after?
Old Skool
Does anyone reading this remember the keyword suggestion tool from Overture? Bonus points too if you
Kicking it Old Skool - Pac Man Style With Keyword Research
remember the name of Overture before it was Overture! Even more bonus points who took them over? heh, just wondering, remember I am kicking it old skool with this post. If you are still relying on that tool, or that is the last tool you ever used, then you need some help.
SEO
keyword, keyword analysis, keyword research, keyword research and analysis, keyword suggestion tool
I was talking to a client today about how we would help them with their SEO. I explained that there are two parts to SEO; 1. onsite SEO and 2. offsite SEO. This didn’t make any sense to him so I opened his site and started showing him some of the elements of onsite SEO…starting with the Title and Meta data.
Learn basic Title Tag and Meta Data Info Here
This whole idea was foreign to him so I covered it for him and then taught him the value of it along with offsite SEO and he was basically sold on what we are doing to help and excited about the marketing they are now going to be offering.
This lead to me think that there might be many of you out there with similar questions so I decided to answer the question he gave me…”what is a title and meta description”. Below is my take on how these elements fit into your overall SEO plan and a brief overview of what each should be.
SEO
meta description, meta keywords, SEO, title tag
