Did you know you could use your blog to easily increase and climb up the search engine results?

Disclaimer: This will not work for you if your blog is hosted on a 3rd party host such as blogspot.com, blogger.com, typepad.com, wordpress.com, or any other FREE blogging host.

Here is a bit of background on this subject.

Did you know that if Google.com does not find many relevant websites that contain the keyword phrase that a user is looking for, they will just start adding results that Google thinks may be relevant to the search results? Most of the time they really are not even close to what the user is searching for. If you EVER see anything like this, it’s clear that there are very little to no websites out there that are targeting those keywords.

Let me give you a live example, because I suck at explaining concepts…

A few days ago, and I do mean Days, I was not even close to being ranked for the keywords “Gobo Design Houston.”  In fact the top spots were for very non related websites. There was one gobo design company in Houston and the rest were either from California, Gobo Manufacturers (not designers), and well wedding DJ’s from other cities and states.

What that means is that there either were very little to none actual websites that Google could show to people looking for a GOBO Designer in Houston or some poorly optimized websites of gobo designers.

I wrote a short article entitled, “Gobo Designs in Houston” and Viola!!!  My Website is Ranked #3 & #4 for the keywords “Gobo Design Houston” Not only That, I received a couple of  unrequested links to my website with the same keywords, a Digg and they are ranked #1, #2 &#10 for those keywords.

So Where I was not even ranked before, I now  own 5 of the 10 positions on the front page of the search engine results. It took actually a few minutes to an Hour for my website to be ranked so high with those keywords…

WHY?

As stated before…

1. Lack of competition
2. lack of websites targeting those words
3. lack of knowledge from business owners who are targeting those keywords.

What’s in it for me?

More business! More income! More Clients! More people going through my sales funnel and not only needing gobo design, but possibly even a DJ or a Photo Booth!

This is a great example of bloggin for the sole purpose of increasing Traffic to your website.  Additionally, be sure to track your traffic to see where it comes from and how you can use this one idea to increase traffic by capturing related terms to this search keyword.

There you have it, now go out and try it for yourself, be sure to use the google keyword analytics tool as discussed on the post on how to “Grow Your Wedding Traffic, One Simple Technique to Try” to gather ideas for keywords you may want to target.

Give it a try!!

Happy Bloggin!

–
|o| Simply Frank |o|
Bloggin Wedding DJ

Keywords

Keywords… Sounds simple enough, but most people still don’t understand what they are and how they relate to the success of a website.

First, I want to define the word, Keywords.

In corpus linguistics a keyword is a word which occurs in a text more often than we would expect to occur by chance alone. Keywords are calculated by carrying out a statistical test (e.g., loglinear) which compares the word frequencies in a text against their expected frequencies derived in a much larger corpus, which acts as a reference for general language use. Source: Keywords: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyword_(linguistics)

Thanks to the Wikipedia, we can get a good understanding of the definition of the word itself, and that is ‘key.’

But that’s just one definition, and although a good one, we need to get more depth and precision to the word, so let’ see what Dictionary.com has to say

key⋅word

[kee-wurd]

1. a word that serves as a key, as to the meaning of another word, a sentence, passage, or the like: Search the database for the keyword “Ireland.”
2. a word used to encipher or decipher a cryptogram, as a pattern for a transposition procedure or the basis for a complex substitution
3. a significant or memorable word or term in the title, abstract, or text of an item being indexed, used as the index entry.

Ok, these deal more with databases and titles and gives us a better depth that we can work with.

From the standpoint of a website, keywords have 2 distinct uses that most people don’t understand when they design their web site, or more importantly the text on the web pages.

1. Use keywords to attract the attention of a Bride.

   There are 3 ways to use keywords when writing your website for a bride.

   a. Use keywords to highlight important benefits of your service.

   Have you heard the phrase,’ sell benefits, not features?’ Your website should be full of benefits that your service brings to brides. It’s a good idea to highlight them, bold them, or put it in all caps when you want to emphasize your benefits.  The best practice for this is to have a list of benefits, and highlight the actual benefit. For example, if one of your benefits is that you want to promise a stress free wedding reception, your wedding keywords would look like this: Our 10 years of experience allow us to bring you a stress free wedding reception. That way, when the bride scans your text, she can immediately see the words stress free and her eyes will be drawn to that sentence. She has not choice but to go back and read the entire sentence or entire paragraph.

   b. Use keywords to get the brides to take action.

   When a bride is on your web site, you want them to take some kind of action. So why not use your keywords to tell them what you want them to do? It is a general understanding that ‘PEOPLE NEED TO BE TOLD WHAT TO DO!‘ Even if it’s common sense to you that you, that is not to say that it’s common sense to your readers.  When you place a form on your website, as suggested on my post about converting bridal show leads into customers, or your phone number, it’s not automatic your visitors expects you to call them or fill out your form. You really have to use keywords to tell them what you want them to do. If you add the keywords, call us today, fill out our simple contact form, send us your information so that we can contact you, call for pricing information, call or fill out the form to check for availability; you will see a huge spike in the number of people who will either call you or send you their contact information. This is by far, one of the most important calls to action you need to put in your website (and you should have it many times, not just once; but not too many times)!

   c. Use keywords to make a strong point.

   You want to emphasize and set yourself apart from your competition. When you do that, it should be bolded or it should stand out on it’s own… Especially if you are a one of a kind business or if you want to stress how your services have been recognized around the area by the media or by any other means. This will add a bit more of curiosity and trust to the reader’s mind!

2. Use keywords to attract the attention of the Search engines.

   You first want to write for the brides, then go back and edit it by adding keywords that you want to be found for. Let’s say for example, my website,  Elegante Entertainment, I want to rank for the words Wedding DJ and Houston. Those are my main keywords that I want the search engines to associate with my website. I try to use those words as often as I can and make them fit as natural as I can into sentences. It’s pretty challenging, but it’s well worth the time.

   What you should understand is this: A search engine wants to give relevant results to the person using the search engine (Eg. Google.com). When you search for the keyword ‘doctor’, you don’t want to get results about a wedding dj… you want to get nothing but results that have the words doctor in them. Pretty common sense, right? So when you write your page, the only way a search engine, or a group of computers, can tell that you are a Wedding DJ, or a Wedding Photographer, or a Wedding Coordinator located in houston is to include the actual words, Wedding DJ in Houston.

   You want to include the keywords in your Title, Your Meta Tags, and strategically, throughout your entire web page. This is what is known as Keyword Density (Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page. In the context of search engine optimization keyword density can be used as a factor in determining whether a web page is relevant to a specified keyword or keyword phrase. -Wikipedia).

   It would be a great idea to also bold these words or to make them a heading (using the <h1> tag) and working them into the keywords that you previously bolded for your brides to read.  Let’s look at our previous example, Our 10 years of experience allow us to bring you a stress free wedding reception. You can add the words “in houston” for greater search engine density. It may look and read a little odd, but you would be surprised how easily your readers can forgive you for it or make up acceptable conclusions in their head about why you did it.

If you understand the best way to use keywords on your website, you will not only be able to use kewords to lead your bride into booking your service, but you will also fuel the search engines with a great site that they can present to future potential brides.

Happy Bloggin!
–
|o| Simply Frank |o|

I’ve attended some luncheons ( like the Perfect Wedding Guide’s Luncheons in Houston and NACE Wedding Trends Luncheon also here in Houston) and networking meetings lately and always the question comes up… How do you  rank so well on the search engines. Do you pay someone to do that? no. Are you paying per click? no. So how do you do it??? I wish there was a simple answer I could give, but there isn’t. If I say SEO, then I would have to explain what SEO stands for, which is not the most exciting topic, I guess. But it ends up being the what the conversation turns into.

I am considering putting together a workshop for the Houston wedding vendors that may be interested, but I have to make it a limited amount, like 20 or 40. That’s pretty hard considering that the Houston Bridal Extravaganza claims to have over 600 vendors at their show!!! That’s not counting the ones who cannot make it to the show.

I’ve gone and recapped what are the steps that I took in getting into the search engines and then making sure I rank high for the search engine terms that I am going after. As well as WHAT to do with the traffic once it is on your website…

Most people think that; “Oh well, I have a website already, I’m done with my online marketing…” In reality, building a website is the very first step of your online marketing life…

Next you have to drive traffic, after you drive traffic you must compel them to contact you, after they contact you, you have to have a selling system and after they are sold, you must put them into a different category so that they don’t continue to receive your sales material.

This is what is called in the online marketing world as an funnel system. And the sole purpose of your funnel system is to try to get as many potential customers to the top of your funnel and get them to go through it completely.

It’s a funnel because you may start with, let’s just say 100, and in the end you will end up with 3, which in marketing a 3% conversion ratio is really, really good.

So if you are not getting a lot of online prospects, then guess what, you have to make sure more people can find your website or that you can send more people to your website so that the number of people that convert is much greater!

Which makes sense. Let’s continue to assume that your website is converting 3% of your total visitors.

If you send 100 people to your website and you are converting at 3% then you only get 3 clients.
If you send 200 people to your website and you are converting at 3%, well you now have 6 clients.

So that means that the more potential customers that come across your website, the more clients you will have. Agreed? Good.

So how do you get more potential customers to your webstie?

Well, some ways may be to include your website on your business cards and fliers and pass out a whoooooole lot of them to a whooooole lot of people.

Sound expensive? Yes but there may (or may not depending on whether or not they are well classified potential customers, simply handing out business cards to just anyone will do you no good) be a good Return on Investment (ROI) and in the end it may be worth it. But one thing is for sure, you have to spend a lot of money upfront.

Another option would be to put your website on all your magazine advertisements and other forms of media that you may advertise in. Again, it involves spending money up front and again could be very expensive. Most magazines start their rates at over one thousand dollars for a 1/4 or 1/8th of a page. $1,000 Dollars!!!! Yikes.

I am not saying that passing out business cards, fliers, or even advertising in magazines is bad… It’s actually a good thing…

but….

What if there was a way that you could advertise absolutely for free and you would have to pay NOOOO ONE!!?? EVER!!??

Sounds like a dream? an unreachable dream?

That’s what I thought back in 2004 when I first set my eyes in being at the top of the search engines.

Guess what, it’s not impossible, it’s not a dream…

It’s easily achievable by anyone that wants it bad enough…

For the last 5 years I’ve enjoyed the traffic that Google.com, Yahoo.com, and MSN.com send me for free.

All I had to do was learn a few steps, repeat them a few times, and viola, 5 years later, I’m still at the top of the search engines…

Feel free to see for yourselves…

(Website Name is www.fhpentertainment.com)

1. DJ in Houston #2 Position in Google Results
2. Houston Wedding DJ #1 Position in Google Results
3. Bilingual DJ in Houston #1 Position in Google Results
4. Wedding DJ in Houston #2 Position in Google Results

Now there are Hundreds of Search Engine Keywords that I have targeted. The above are just a few so you can get an idea of what you should be using as your keywords. And realize that I only used Google for 2 reasons: 1. It is the hardest one to rank for and 2. EVERYONE uses Google (Ok, not everyone just 70% of the US as of June 2008).

So again, maybe I’ll have a Workshop or Seminar in June sometime, but I really would be interested in knowing how to rank well for your targeted keywords.

Please let me know by submitting your name and your email address on the upper right hand side of this page… Right where it says… “Subscribe to our Newsletter”

And then you must confirm your subscription,  just to make sure someone else did not submit your address for you.

As you can judge by reading this blog, writing does not have to be your strongest point…

P.S. feel free to leave a comment below in addition to submitting your contact information above.

Very few is done to educate wedding vendors how to properly run their blogs. It’s exciting news to hear that there will be an upcoming bloggin Bootcamp here in Houston. If you want to learn the correct way to run a blog, this might be an event worth checking out. $150 is not a lot compared the the benefits you WILL receive once you properly run your blog. As stated in my previous Post, My blog currently brings in over $100 a month by doing NOTHING, just sitting there and hosting Links for other advertisers. And that’s beside the amount of business that is brought to my website as a result of a properly run Blog!  Most, I would say over 80%, of the people who already have a blog are doing it incorrectly, losing out on a huge opportunity that is the internet, and missing out on a lot of money and business because their blog is not run correctly.

So, there could be nothing but great benefits from attending any form of training on how to properly Blog!

You already know why you should blog.  We’ll show you how.

Blogging Bootcamp :: Houston
presented by Liene Stevens of Blue Orchid Designs and The Smart Planner™

Who: Any wedding professional who wants to effectively leverage online media to grow their business
When: Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Time: 9 am – 4 pm
Where: For Your Memories at the Lofts of Post Oak
Cost: $150 per person

Since the launch of the Blue Orchid Blog in 2006, it has grown to include over 3000 unique daily visitors and is partially to credit for the launch of two new Blue Orchid Designs offices on the East Coast.  In the Blogging Bootcamp, Liene will share specific strategies and techniques she has personally used to grow the Blue Orchid Designs blog to where it is today.

This workshop is open to all wedding professionals, not just wedding planners.  Space is limited and will be filled on a first come, first served basis so reserve your spot now!  Laptops are optional and lunch will be provided.

Topics covered will include:
*How to discover and leverage your blogging voice
*How to maximize your blogging ROI
*How to develop killer content – consistently
*How to set short term and long term goals for your blog
*How to effectively analyze your stats and blog traffic
*How to increase your readership and keep them coming back for more
*Specific strategies and techniques to use your blog to improve your main website’s SEO or “findability” on Google
*How to promote your brand through your blog’s design and content
*Maintaining professional boundaries while still being personable
*And more!

The Blogging Bootcamp will not be a class on blogging philosophy.  You already know that blogging is a good idea.  We’ll be showing you how to do it so that it is worth your time. No topic will be off the table, and any questions you may have will be fair game.

This event would not be possible without the generous support of Beginnings Wedding and Event Planning and For Your Memories Wedding Consulting.

Questions? Please send an email to workshops{at}thesmartplanner.com.

The fine print: Payment must be made in full prior to the event and is non-refundable.  Payment may be made via credit card or PayPal at the Eventbrite website.  Lunch will be provided and is included in the cost of the event.  Space is limited and will be filled on a first come, first served basis. In the event that the workshop is cancelled due to not meeting minimum registration requirements, a full refund will be issued to each registrant via PayPal.  Prices and terms are subject to change.

Every Post I write has specific objective, whether it’s to inform, to teach, or to prove something to work, I write to create something useful for my readers.

Most people still don’t trust blogs as a form of marketing, or think it’s not worth the time and effort, or whatever excuse they’ve made up in order not to jump into bloggin’. So this post is for those of you…

In my Houston DJ website, I recently published an article promoting the upcoming Houston Bridal Extravaganza Show, the main objective is, of course, to inform my readers and to make them aware of the show and how successful it can be to attend. I think all brides will find it useful, so I promoted it because I believe in it. The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) objective is, of course to rank high for the words Houston Bridal Extravaganza Show, on the search engines and have the brides click on my link and get some free publicity that way.

This can be referred to as white hat SEO, since I am not doing anything illegal or anything that goes against any ethics. I am simply using the power of my blog to put my website in front of where I think the brides will go, by providing valuable information to them… as a result Google.com awards me with a very high ranking for my website.

Want Proof?

Google (without quotes): “Houston Bridal Extravagazna Show”, “Bridal Extravaganza Show”, or “Houston Bridal Extravaganza” and see the results for yourselves. Also notice how you will get different results for each set of keywords.

If you notice, my DJ in Houston Website, FHPEntertainment.com shows up in the top of the search results (in cases over huge corporate websites like the Houston Chronicle: See Picture above), and that’s only because of the length of time that I’ve been bloggin’ consistently. Again, the hardest part is getting started.

So, this is just one of the perks of consistent bloggin’, building up great content for both the search engines and the readers.

Oh, and of course the end results is, more visiting my website, seeing my name and face, and of course getting to trust me because I’m everywhere.

Happy Bloggin!

–
DJ Francisco
Bloggin DJ in Houston