SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION (sounds technical right? )

Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, refers to the optimization of your website with the aim of getting it ranked higher in the search engines, like Google and Yahoo.

You’ll notice that whenever you do a search in Google, you’ll be given 2 types of results….

1.)  Organic results

2.) Sponsored Results (paid advertisements)

Let’s start with the Organic results.  These are the results that Google has chosen to display based on how relevant they seem to be for the keyword in question.

Google has done a pretty good job at giving users what they want, and this is why they’ve become a multi billion dollar corporation in less than 2 decades; quite an acheivement (on the side, it just goes to show that if your business can efficintly give your market what they want, and do it better than the competition, then you can become very rich in a short amount fo time).

The way that Google judges relevance is based on many different factors, and many of which only Google knows about.  But as a general rule, it’s all about keywords and incoming links.

Let me explain.  Firstly, if your websites content is all about a specific topic, then the keywords for that topic are likely to be scattered throughout your websites pages- this is referred to as keyword density.  If you’ve got a keyword density of 4%, then for every 100 words of content, that particular keyword is mentioned on 4 separate occassions.

So that’s step one.  If you want your website (or blog) to rank well for a particular keyword(s), like ‘home business opportunity’ then make sure that your amin focus of discussion is based around that keyword (but always write your content with human users in mind first, not Googles search bots).

The other main way that search engines determine relevance is based on incoming links, or the amount of websites that link to your site.  How important those websites that link to you are is also a massive factor.  For example, if Sydney Morning Heralds website www.smh.com.au were to link to Home Business Builders, then that would really boost my rankings in the search engines- because it’s a trusted source.  Whereas if I were to create a new blog and put a link in it to Home Business Builders, it probably wouldn’t have that much impact.  What’s also important with these incoming links, is the text used for the link….

For example, not so long ago you could do a search for the keyword “miserable failure” and no kidding, George Bush would come up.  This was actually a clever prank, done by a group on college students  for some fun.  Basically, what they did is they all linked to this one particular site on George Bush, and in the text part of the link, that looks like this, they wrote ‘Miserable Failure.”  Googles’ spiders, or search bots then determined that the George Bush page must be very relevant for the keywords ‘Miserable Failure.”  With enough incoming links, it quickly rose to the top of the organic search results.

But usually it’s not a good idea to try and trick Google like this, especially if your business relies heavily on the internet- they could make things difficult for you.

Every time someone does a search for a particular keyword, such as ‘home business,’ the search engine will search through all the websites it knows about (hundreds of millions) and find those most relevant for that particular keyword.   In the case of the search for ‘Home Business,’ Google will return 469,000,000 results in 0.18 seconds flat!  If you can get your website displayed on that first page in the organic results (organic results are those that Google has deemed as relevant- whereas the sponsored results on the right hand side of the page and in the very top 2 or 3 entries are paid advertisements) then you won’t have to worry too much about getting leads anymore…you’ll get more than you can handle.

The downside is that it’s extremely competitive.

Learning SEO takes time- don’t expect to master it overnight.  The trick is to consistently learn a little more each day about any form of internet marketing.  Remember, the more you know, the more value you’ll be able to offer to potential business partners.

Leads are the lifeblood of this business- and you’re ability to generate them will play a big part in determining how successful you’re going to be.

Finding Your Own Niche, And Dominating It.
One thing I’ve learnt from marketing is that unless you get specific and run targeted campaigns, you’re business will never really reach it’s full potential. If you try and target everyone, you’ll likely end up appealing to know one.

Let me explain.

Imagine that you were standing on a busy street handing out flyers for your home business to anyone who walked by. If you picked the right street at a busy time (like when everyone is finishing work and going home) then you might get a lot of traffic and hand out a lot of flyers.

But in all likelihood, you probably wouldn’t find too many potential business partners…
And it’s because you haven’t identified your target market. Ideally, you want to put your business opportunity right in front of people who are actively looking for what you offer. You don’t want to be trying to promote your opportunity to the masses and trying to build a brand….that’s how big slow corporations do it, and much of the time they’ll spend money on advertising that isn’t their own, but the shareholders….

First, identify your own target market…and the best way to do this? Look in the mirror! Seriously, you are the ideal type of person that you want to market to. For one, you understand you better than anyone else- you speak the language, so to speak.

For example, if you’re a stay- at- home mum, you understand what its like to look after young kids. You can identify with other mums out there in a way that someone like myself (a young guy in his twenties) never could.

And who do people buy from usually? People like themselves- people they like, know and trust. Have you ever had the experience of meeting someone, and after talking to them for 10 or 15 minutes, you felt like you had known them for years? They most likely were like you- you could identify with them and where they were coming from. You thought in similar ways.

Any sales professional who knows their business will tell you that before you sell your product or service, you must first sell yourself. If people don’t like you, or don’t identify with you, then they probably won’t buy from you, no matter how good your product or service is.

The easiest people to identify with are others who have similar backgrounds to us. When I say background, I mean many different aspects….like education, previous work experience, family, hobbies, etc.

And it’s these people that you want to target with your marketing campaigns- you’ll have a big advantage over anyone who tried to market to your crowd who’s from a different crowd.

Let’s take a look at some examples.

Say you’re a full time stay- at- home mum. You have several young children under 5, and you’re life revolves around looking after them. You would like another source of income, and would like to work, but you’re day is very fragmented; you are only free to work a few hours here and there.

As you can probably tell, I’m having a hard time trying to identify with the typical life of this market, because I have a very different life experience. I don’t have children of my own (yet), so it’s hard for me to really understand what it’s like.

But if this is your daily life experience, then you’ll have a big advantage marketing to this market.

Let’s take a look at another example;

Say you’re background has been in the mines. You’re used to making a six figure income, and you work on a fly- in fly- out basis…two weeks on, one week off. You were recently laid off due to the economic crisis, and you got started with Home Business Builders because you had to replace your income fast…

A good target market for you would be other recently laid off workers in the mining industry- there are lots (in my local area a major mine just closed, and over 400 people lost their jobs).
So first off, you’d want to find out where your market is…for example, you might place some ads on Google that are displayed on several keywords that revolve around the phrase “mining jobs.”

Hopefully you get where I’m coming from here….it’s very important to really narrow down who your target market is. And the more you know about your target market, the better.

A lot of the top internet marketers understand this, and many will actually have the people who are subscribed to their lists fill out a survey (often in exchange for something of value) that asks questions to help identify the most common frustrations, problems, worries, etc.

Then they can build a product that fits that need exactly- they can write copy on their landing pages that speaks directly to that market, and addresses their biggest problems and how that product can offer the solution.

And that’s the trick to calling potential business partners…before you even go into telling them about Home Business Builders and LifePath, you want to first establish rapport with that person. And the easiest way to do this is to ask the right questions and just listen.

In today’s society, very rarely do we listen properly to know another… I know I’ve been guilty of it many times. Often in a conversation we find ourselves waiting for our turn to speak, rather than focusing entirely on what the other person is saying.

But if you can truly listen to what the other person is saying, quiet your own thoughts, and allow that person to open up to you, then they can’t help but be drawn to you. It’s rare to be listened to like that. By listening, you show that you care.

An amateur salesman will try and talk someone into wanting what he offers, regardless of whether they need it or not….but the professional salesman will focus first on whether there’s a sale to be made in the first place. And if there is, he’ll carry out the sales process.