Free SEO Tips To Enable You Generate More Business From Your Website.

February 24th, 2010 | by BillEgan |

There are so many resources for free seo tips on the internet – if you have done any research at all you will know that the quality of these varies widely.

So how can you go about finding worthwhile information that will work for your business and deliver meaningful results within a realistic timeframe?

Having done loads of research with Google, I have come to the conclusion that what you need is a roadmap containing the most important actions that will yield results matching your business profile.

The profile should categorise your business based on your available budget, and what your goals are.

The Business Profiling Process:

You will need to answer the following profiling questions about your business:

What are the business goals for your website?
- To provide basic sales information and directing visitors to your offline store or office
- To support customers
- To attract and engage with new prospects
- To sell products or services
What best describes your websites?
- A brochure site with your company contact details
- A knowledge or learning resource for your target market
- An e-commerce website
What geographic market are you targeting?
Have you defined what you mean by a sales lead?
What budget do you have for generating sales leads and driving relevant traffic to your site?
Do you know the keywords that will work best for you?
How many qualified sales leads come from visitors to your website each month? (Typically these will be online enquiries or phone calls)
How much competition exists for your chosen keywords?
What volume of searching is done in your geographic area for your chosen keywords?
How well is your website optimised for these keywords?

Depending on the answers you give you should be in a position to classify your business into one of the following categories:

Low Potential for Online Business Generation:
1. Typically such a basic website will have little or no marketing budget but may have an aspiration to attract prospective new customers.
2. It will have lots of competition with low barriers to entry for competitors or in a highly competitive mature online market.
Medium Potential for Online Business Generation:
1. This category describes a business that has a limited marketing budget but has the potential to attract prospective new customers for one of the following reasons:
  1. In a local area, with a retail presence. For example this could be a retail business in a sector that historically has had lots of competitors who advertise in the Yellow Pages or other local classified or trade publications
  2. Lots of searches made in your geographic market for relevant keywords
  3. A unique selling proposition with medium competition and a reasonable volume of search traffic for relevant keywords

High Potential for Online Business Generation:
1. This category describes typically describes a company with a reasonable marketing budget that fits one or more of the following profile characteristics:
  1. Major business volume potential (High traffic with medium competition for selected keywords) with medium competition and a short sales cycle
  2. Medium business volume potential (Medium traffic with medium keyword competition) involving a longer sales cycle
  3. And requiring face-to-face engagement with prospects
  4. Or needing to build your reputation and trust with your prospects before they are likely to buy online.

So What Next?

The next step is to focus sharply on the activities most likely to deliver quick wins and give you a high return on investment.

These activities will form an activity plan or roadmap that will vary depending on the business profile that you best fit.

Roadmap for a Low Potential Business:

In this case for a minimum expenditure you could take the following actions:

Identify a set of 10 keywords
Carry out a website audit for these keywords.
If you wish to invest the time, learn how to do seo – just the basic online seo techniques will do to start.
Start fixing the top 10 seo issues that stop you being visible online
Or ask your web designer or webmaster if they are interested in learning how to do this work.
Download and read this free seo book if you plan a DIY approach to seo.

“A Website Owners Guide to Generating More Business on the Internet”

Otherwise select a proven seo service provider. Here are some tips on how to avoid having a bad experience and advice on what questions to ask.

Roadmap for a Medium Potential Business:

In this case for a medium investment outlay you could take the following actions:

Do the keyword research and website audit as above.
Implement an onsite campaign to make changes to the website to optimise for the chosen keywords.
You are in a business where people will be searching locally for your product or services you should implement a campaign to ensure your company appears on a local search map with Google’s local business centre to quickly outrank your local competition. Typical businesses that this could deliver quick wins for are:
- Retail Shops and consumer products and services (Florists, restaurants, fast food outlets, electrical goods, hotels and guest houses)
- Trades people (plumbers, builders, electricians)
- Professionals (architects, accountants, solicitors, dentists, doctors)
Depending on the budget you could also consider investing in some of the following activities:
- Publish a blog. Read this to find out why you need one and also if you are seriously considering a blog, learn how to avoid failure.
- Engage in social media marketing:
  - Get active on Linked in if you are a B2B company
  - Consider setting up a Twitter account and a Facebook page if you can regularly publish deals and special offers

Roadmap for a High Potential Business:

First Implement the relevant steps as for a Medium Potential business and then look at implementing the following activities

A blog is a must if you plan to engage in social media marketing

Why a Blog?

Simple because it is by far the best way to engage people on social networks. Read this post to learn about how online buying behaviour is changing the sales cycle and how to implement an online sales lead generation campaign.