I mean with this one thing you can be #7, #12, #16 and still get the most traffic from a particular search phrase.

How?

By having the best search engine ad.

Your Secret SEO Copywriting Weapon (hint: it’s not keyword optimization)

What would you say if I told you you can dominate the search engine results without being #1? or even #2 or #5? That once you reach a certain level, you can ‘steal’ traffic from the big guns with this copywriting secret weapon?

I think you would flip out, right? I mean who doesn’t want a secret hack for more traffic? I do, I do!

Okay, enough with the suspense… here’s my trick:

Focus on your search engine LISTING.

What do I mean by listing? I mean this thing:

Why focus on the listing? Think of the listing like an actual ad for your page or post. Which it is!

The whole goal of this little guy is to get someone to CLICK and come over to your website.

Why does this matter? Because the more clicks you get on your search engine listing, the more traffic you get to your website — which means more leads and more customers for your business.

Think about it: when you’re reading a magazine you flip through a TON of ads, but which ones do you stop and read? The ones that STAND OUT.

Make your search engine listing stand out.

How?

#1 – Your Headline

This is that title tag bit. If you’re on WordPress, you can use your SEO plugin to edit this (I recommend Yoast’s SEO plugin if you don’t already have one).

YES, it should be optimized for the keyword phrase you’re shooting for for this page or post, BUT think beyond that.

First, google the phrase you’re optimizing for (like “email list building”)

and take a look at the listings:

NOW, think of a title that’s still a good fit for the searcher’s question BUT at the same time stands out from the crowd of search engine listings. If I like the sound of your post over the same generic titles I see in numbers 1-5, you’ve got my click.

(Just make sure it’s still a relevant description of your post if you want that traffic to stick)

In the screenshots shown here, you can see Vertical Response is simply putting the search phrase itself in its title. Not so enticing, right? Whereas Social Triggers starts off with “List Building 101:…” and even Copyblogger uses something closer to “How to Build a First-Class Email List in 30 Days.” Not too shabby.

Sell me on your search result!

#2 – Your Search Engine Listing Ad Copy

AKA the meta description. You know, that little blurb that shows up below your hyperlink result.

Back in the wild wild west days of SEO, you could stuff this bad boy full of just the keywords you were trying to rank for and be #1. Nowadays, Google will slap you for that (which the rest of us actual web searchers will thank them for).

So instead, we write for humans.

But THINK of the possibilities here. Normally, these descriptions are pretty boring or spammy:

(yuck.)

When you write an actual ad for your services or business, you jazz it up, no? Why not do the same thing here? We’re begging for clicks here people, let’s make it interesting.

(now that sounds way more like a real company with an actual value proposition)

Stretch your copywriting skills. SELL me on your page or post, dammit! My click is valuable!

Bonus points: yes, use the keyword phrase. As of the writing of this post, Google could still be seen bolding the phrase in your meta description if it matched the searcher’s keywords. Bolding = higher click-throughs.

#3 – Make It Personal

Did you know this ONE move can improve your click-throughs by150%?

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY PERCENT.

Yep, you heard me.

Google Authorship is one of the latest trends in the SEO algorithm game BUT it can also mean making a huge difference in how your listing stands out.

Just take a look at these:

Which one stands out more to you? (even without my blue arrow)

Yep. Exactly.

Setting this up caaaaaan be a little tricky, but once you have it set, you should start to see your picture show up for each of your blog posts in a matter of weeks (though of course, with Google, there are no real promises).

Neil Patel has the step-by-step guide on how you do it.

Warning: it can be a little tricky. But try, try again!

Will Google Authorship be around forever? When it comes to the Google, we can’t ever make promises but it does look like an SEO trend that here’s to stay for quite awhile anyway, so why not take advantage of it!

Get to it – have at those higher click-through rates!

Over to You

Have you ever thought about your search engine listing like an advertisement? What sort of tricks have you used to increase click-throughs? Did you find this article helpful? Let me know in the comments!

Grab Your Free Copy of the 3 Most Common Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make here. The post The SEO Secret to Dominating the Search Results (without being #1) appeared first on Liz Lockard Marketing Consulting.

Title tags are one of the most important pieces of the on-site SEO puzzle. It’s your way of telling Google what that blue hyperlink headline should say when your page or post comes us as a result in a search.

Check it out for yourself below:

Have you ever tried to edit your title tags in WordPress? Did you find it to be easy? Do you edit your title tags in another way? Let me know in the comments!

Grab Your Free Copy of the 3 Most Common Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make here. The post How to Edit Your Title Tag in WordPress appeared first on Liz Lockard Marketing Consulting.

It’s hard to get people to sign up just for your ‘newsletter’ anymore unless you show TREMENDOUS value, so a lot of small businesses find success with an extra offer. (you can check out mine here)

I’ve talked about tips for creating your own opt-in offer and I’ve shared my favorite opt-in forms before on this blog, but in this post, I want to share with you my favorite actual offers I’ve found around the web. The kind that make you go ‘oooooooo gotta have it’ – the ones you can’t NOT give up your email address for.

Let’s take a look.

#1 – The Think Traffic Toolkit Opt-In Offer

This one is MEGA. I gave up my email address in less than 8 seconds when I first came across Corbett’s toolkit. And then I spent the next 2 hours consuming his insanely useful content.

Grab it here.

What made me grab this one: Look at those headlines – those are driiiiiiiiipping with tantalizing, quantifiable solutions to things that you desperately want for your own site, especially if you’ve come across Think Traffic.

#2 – Itty Biz Courses

Itty Biz has free marketing courses for various niches they serve: marketing for touchy-feely service providers, for bloggers, coaches and consultants, and for designers and other ‘artsy fartsy’ types.

They come by email and by the end you’re jumping at the chance for more from Naomi and Dave at Itty Biz.

Grab them here.

What made me grab this one: Um, free course. For me. In MY industry. Who’s not going to grab that?

#3 – I Will Teach You To Be Rich Opt-In

Ramit Sethi has always been an expert on making smarter money choices and earning more, but is quickly becoming the go-to resource for behavior change, beyond just the financial bit. He offers his visitors a few choices that reflect his various focuses on the blog – from a free chapter of his book to free podcasts on how to grow your network or how to find your first idea (one of the main objections he found prospective Earn1K students who didn’t buy the program had)

Grab them here.

What made me grab this one: I’ve been on Ramit’s list for awhile now, but I’m pretty sure I’ve given him my email address MULTIPLE times for the incentives he regularly puts out there. They all promise RESULTS.

#4 – Nomadic Matt’s Exclusive Deals

Nomadic Matt is THE resource for pushing yourself to take adventures and book trips you’d never thought you’d take and to just flat out travel more on a real person’s budget.

As a wannabe-nomadic matt myself, I follow a lot of Matt’s stuff and jumped at the chance to get in on the deals Matt himself uses to travel the world.

Grab them here.

What made me grab this one: Deals! Exclusive! Insider-only specials. Draw me a velvet rope and I want to jump over it. Done and done.

What about you?

Do you have a favorite opt-in offer? Are you using one on your site? Leave me a link in the comments!

Grab Your Free Copy of the 3 Most Common Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make here. The post My Favorite Opt-In Offers appeared first on Liz Lockard Marketing Consulting.

This is a follow-up piece to the hugely popular first installment, Ask the Experts: Where Do You Find Your Customers Online?

I couldn’t fit everyone I admire around the web into the first post, so I was psyched to get the chance to come back for a round two of asking some of my favorite entrepreneurs where they find their customers online.

Where do you find your customers online?

1 – Jenny Shih

“Technically, I don’t find my customers, they find me! And to make it easy for them to find me, I first focus on doing great work with my current clients. Then, I find ways to go out into the world and do more great work. I blog and engage in social media. I give away great free resources on my site. I guest post and do other things to grow my list. In all of those ways, and by showing up and being of service, perfect customers come my way.”

I wanted to know more, so I asked Jenny a follow-up, what has been her biggest surprise success or biggest surprise failure in helping your customers find her?

“The thing that has surprised me the most about helping my target customers find me is the power of a great online reputation. And by great online reputation I don’t mean you have to be rich and famous. Instead, the people who show up with a good attitude and help people who ask for it quickly become known as helpful, insightful, and caring – and those qualities attract clients faster than anything.

I try to spend 5-10 minutes a day on Facebook answering questions about business, life, or anything else. That small, but powerful and targeted presence has brought me a ton of clients and subscribers and turned many into raving fans.”

Jenny is the girl to go to if you’re looking to work less but earn more in your business. She is the systems queen and really walks her talk.

Why ask Jenny? Jenny is booked solid with clients, new clients can’t start working with her before 3 months out according to her current services page. Oh and she also grew her list from 0 to 1,000 in just 6 months.

2 – Laura Roeder

“Our customers find us – we spread great content and the customers follow. That means we’re very active on social media sharing not only our own original content but anything and everything that our customers would find interesting. We look beyond social media to help solve all of the frustrations that our customers are going through every day.”

As the founder of LKR Social Media, Laura works to help small businesses stop wasting time on social media and start using it to actually generate business for themselves. She’s also the creator of Creating Fame – a premium program all about how to stop the feast & famine business cycle by getting business famous.

Why ask Laura? Laura is a social media powerhouse. LKR Social Media has over 24,000 fans on Facebook and @lkr has over 23,000 on Twitter. You can find Laura at www.lkrsocialmedia.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lkrsocialmedia.

3 – Tara Gentile

“My customers generally come through relationships, even online. I work hard to build relationships with people who align with my point of view and values set. Those people link to my writing, recommend my books, allow me to guest post, and send along personal referrals. Those relationships have delivered more qualified and exciting clients than any other source.”

Again, I wanted to know, “What’s been your biggest surprise success or biggest surprise failure in trying to build relationships online?”

“My biggest surprise success has been just how often genuinely “targeting” people who are interesting has resulted in really productive relationships. My relationship building process is very slow, often starting on Twitter or Facebook, and very casual. But over & over again, the people who I’m interested befriending have become clients and then referred multiple clients to me, as well as created value for my business in countless other ways.”

Tara is synonymous with the New Economy, she coaches entrepreneurs on how to have more impact with less hustle. Her latest endeavor is the Art of Growth.

Why ask Tara? Besides being a best-selling author and regularly speaking at sold-out live events, Tara has a tremendous online following – including over 7,000 on Twitter at the time of this post. You can find Tara at www.taragentile.com or on Twitter as @taragentile.

4 – Chris Guillebeau

“I don’t find my customers online; they find me. It’s much easier that way.

”

Given Chris’ fun but somewhat cryptic response, I asked a follow-up, “What’s been your biggest surprise success or failure in helping your customers find you online?”

“That’s the thing – I don’t necessarily try to help them find me. I mean, I use social media, I try to be available, etc. But mostly I try to be helpful. In the long-run, that strategy is more successful than any other.”

Chris challenges the world to think about a different way to do things – in life and in business. His tribe has been following him on his epic journey to visit every country by the time he’s 35 – a task he’s just about to complete. His latest creation on the topic of unconventional living is the $100 Startup – a book that challenges your notion of what it actually takes to start a business and live the life you’ve always to live.

Why ask Chris? Chris has a humongous following. His annual conference, The World Domination Summit, sells out in mere hours. Besides being a best-selling author, Chris has a huge online presence – with over 53,000 fans on Facebook and over 104,000 followers on Twitter. You can find Chris at www.chrisguillebeau.com or on Twitter as @chrisguillebeau.

5 – Erika Lyremark

“Where do I find my customers online? Actually, my killer app is to create raving fans OFFLINE. I built my business by pouring my heart and soul into Free 15-Minute Business Whippings conducted on the (gasp!) phone, in personal conversation with my prospects… where I not only solved their most pressing problems, but had them upgrading to my paid program.

Using this and other high-touch referral methods, EVERY course of mine sold out and I made 6 figures my first 6 months in business for myself.”

Erika Lyremark is the creator and mastermind of Daily Whip and author of Think Like a Stripper: Business Lessons to Up Your Confidence, Attract More Clients & Rule Your Market. If your business needs whipping into shape, Erika is your girl.

Why ask Erika? She’s sold out every one of her courses. EVERY course.

You can find Erika at the www.dailywhip.com or on Twitter as @dailywhip.

6 – Anne Samoilov

“I find them everywhere really.  The 3 top places I find customers online – excluding my own site – LKRsocialmedia.com, Facebook, and directly to my site – either from my my mailing list or from Google.”

I asked Anne the same follow-up, what’s been her biggest surprise or biggest failure in trying to find customers online?

“Customers most often always come as a result of me personally connecting with them – directly by email, asking a question that catches their eye on Facebook or even writing a blog post that clicks with them personally.  It’s always about the personal, individual connection…”

Anne lives and breathes launches. She’s the creator of Fearless Launching – a course for entrepreneurs that need a little push to launch and who want to launch their own way.

Why ask Anne? She’s been the powerhouse get-it-done gal behind a lot of big online names. On Twitter, she’s amassed over 3,000 followers.

You can find Anne at www.annesamoilov.com or on Twitter as @annesamoilov.

7 – Nathalie Lussier

“I find my customers through a number of different marketing channels: social media, search media, and word of mouth. At the end of the day, I use email marketing to nurture relationships with new prospective customers, and I just make sure to create an amazing experience for them.

When it comes to creating content that attracts my ideal customers, I like to think that I’m great at putting myself in their shoes and figuring out what they are looking for.”

Nathalie is a digital strategist who helps small businesses get the techy stuff online. Before her current business, she started online out as the Raw Foods Witch, a business that still earns her a regular payday every month.

Why ask Nathalie? Nathalie’s 1-on-1 consulting is sold out – as in you-can’t-get-it-even-if-you-wanted-to. She also has quite the following online, including over 6,400 on Twitter.

You can find Nathalie at www.nathalielussier.com or on Twitter at @nathalielussier.

Your Turn

What about you? Where do you find your customers online? Have you tried any of the strategies outlined by the experts in this post? Let me know in the comments!

Not sure what’s working? Make sure you have Google Analytics set up for your site. After a few tweaks you can get it to tell you exactly where the *quality* traffic is coming from – the kind that gets you more leads and more customers. If you want help with that, check out Google Analytics: The Missing Manual.

Grab Your Free Copy of the 3 Most Common Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make here. The post Ask the Experts: Where do you find your customers online? [Part 2] appeared first on Liz Lockard Marketing Consulting.

In this free webinar, I’ll be sharing EXACTLY how to answer these questions
with Google Analytics.

Thursday, March 21
1pm EST

You’ll also receive my raved-about weekly marketing newsletter, End the Client Chase. Unsubscribe anytime.

Grab Your Free Copy of the 3 Most Common Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make here. The post Free Webinar: Google Analytics Demystified appeared first on Liz Lockard Marketing Consulting.

Ever since, I’ve wanted to create THE resource to refer to when looking to install Google Analytics – for every platform small businesses use to create their websites.

At long last – here it is.

How to Install Google Analytics on Every and Any Website Platform

(A Step-by-Step Guide for the Small Business Owner)

Do things change? Always. But so will this resource Don’t see the platform you’re currently using? Leave a comment and I’ll update this post with some directions.

Okay, without further ado…

How to Install Google Analytics on WordPress (.org)

I highly recommend this plugin http://yoast.com/wordpress/google-analytics/. Why? It puts Google Analytics in the right spot in your website’s code, and makes some of the more advanced Google Analytics tracking capabilities super easy (like blocking internal traffic).

OS Training has a nice screenshot walkthrough of the process here: http://www.ostraining.com/blog/wordpress/google-analytics-for-wordpress/ (PS – yep, these are the same guys I recommend for WordPress training)

Note: sometimes I have trouble with the “authenticating with Google” process. If you run into this problem, you can check the “Manually enter your UA code” checkbox below the blue button and just enter the code Google Analytics gives you when you set up your account.

Things to watch out for: have you already set up Google Analytics for your site? Check the general settings for your theme or other plugins (like other Google Analytics plugins and some SEO plugins) to see if you’ve already added it. If you already have, simply delete the code you entered or uninstall the plugin (but immediately install the Yoast one).

Having your code installed twice on your site can lead to wonky and misleading data. Yuck!

How to Install Google Analytics on WordPress (.com)

Ah, you can’t. At least not yet. 

But if you’re serious about your business, I highly recommend upgrading to the self-hosted version (.org). Here’s some advice from ProBlogger on how to do that: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/01/03/how-to-move-from-wordpresscom-to-wordpressorg/

How to Install Google Analytics on Tumblr

This post talks about how to add any custom code you like to your Tumblr blog: http://howtophil.com/post/21917338426/some-of-you-might-be-struggling-with-how-to-add

How to specifically install Google Analytics on your Tumblr blog? Just copy the entire code snippet Google Analytics gives you after you sign up (no, you don’t have to know what any of it means!) and paste it before the ending head tag. What’s that? It looks like this:

There’s usually some stuff in between them, but this is what the opening and closing head tags look like on their own.

How to Install Google Analytics on Joomla

Analytics for Joomla has you covered with this plugin for Google Analytics: http://www.analyticsforjoomla.com/google-analytics-plugin/features.

The page even includes general instructions for installing plugins so you can use the same process to install their Google Analytics one: http://www.analyticsforjoomla.com/other-news/how-to-install-a-plugin-in-joomla-16

How to Install Google Analytics on Squarespace

You should only need your UA code here (the one Google Analytics gives you after you sign up for an account) – Squarespace integrates with Google Analytics. Check out this article: http://help.squarespace.com/customer/portal/articles/612261-using-google-analytics-with-squarespace-6

How to Install Google Analytics on Weebly

This article walks you through where to copy and paste the code http://kb.weebly.com/google-analytics.html. The code in the second picture is *not* Google Analytics code – don’t be thrown because your code looks different! You’re still copying and pasting it in the same spot.

Also – the article says it doesn’t matter if you put your code in the header or footer section – it *does* matter – put it in the header.

How to Install Google Analytics on Shopify

Shopify makes it pretty simple to install Google Analytics on your Shopify site – complete with screenshots They even take you through the process of enabling the ecommerce capabilities of your Google Analytics account: http://wiki.shopify.com/How_to_enable_Google_Analytics

How to Install Google Analytics on Big Commerce

Big Commerce has a screenshot tutorial for you as well for installing Google Analytics on your Big Commerce site: http://support.bigcommerce.com/questions/930/How+do+I+setup+Google+Analytics+in+my+BigCommerce+Store%3F

It even includes how-to for signing up for your Google Analytics account. Some of the screenshots are a little outdated, but the “Adding the Code to your Store” section should still be valid.

How to Install Google Analytics on Blogger

Are you using Blogger or Blogspot for your website? Blogs by Heather has you covered in this post: http://www.blogsbyheather.com/2012/04/how-to-install-google-analytics-on-blog.html%20

What next? Don’t forget to add the extra tweaks I outline in this post.

Over to You

Did you find this useful? Have a platform you’d like to see on this list? A good resource for installing Google Analytics that I’ve missed here? Let me know in the comments!

Grab Your Free Copy of the 3 Most Common Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make here. The post The Last Google Analytics Installation Guide You’ll Ever Need: How to Install Google Analytics on Any and Every Website appeared first on Liz Lockard Marketing Consulting.

What is Twitter Brilliance?

Twitter Brilliance is a self-paced DIY training course for how to use Twitter for the biggest impact on your business, along with lifetime membership to the private Facebook mentoring group. It’s broken up into 3 modules, along with a Tech Mastery area and bonus materials. Oh, and monthly calls. Pretty crazy, huh?

Who is Twitter Brilliance for?

I asked Alicia to answer this one in detail for you:

Who is Twitter Brilliance for?

Freelancers, solopreneurs and very small businesses. Whether it’s all completely new or Twitter’s been sucking away your time for years – there’s lots of learning inside Twitter Brilliance.

If you use Twitter to market your business or services but haven’t achieved results (by that I’m talking great website traffic, leads, business opportunities and sales), and you are ready to

-understand how Twitter can grow your business quickly, and have fun doing it -learn more than the Twitter basics and technical how-tos (but you get that too!) -learn the tactics and strategies I used to get profitable almost immediately -take a planned and focused approach with your Twitter marketing. Scattergun no more! -speak up when you need help – we have monthly live calls and The Clubhouse Facebook group for all members Then you’ll love it.

Who’s it not for?

-If you’re looking for a get rich quick, 1000 followers a day kind of experience. This isn’t for you. -If you’re not prepared to get your hands dirty: take action and apply this learning to your business, Twitter Brilliance won’t help you. -If you want to use Twitter just for fun (you would still learn a lot but if you’ve got that much time on your hands you can probably figure it out for yourself!)

Features and Benefits

Here’s a list of some of my favorite features of Alicia’s course:

• How to sell on Twitter without feeling like a sleaze — I think this is one of the most valuable topics Alicia covers in the entire course and she’s masterful at it.
• The Tech Mastery area complete with video walk-throughs of how to use everything. (And of course, this includes my walk-through of how to use Google Analytics to measure the impact of your Twitter marketing)
• The private Facebook group — this group is 80+ members and counting. I’ve been a member of a few private networking groups on Facebook and have to save that this piece is invaluable – giving you a head start to growing your business on the web.

Here’s an insider look at the Twitter Brilliance members area, thanks to Alicia for letting me show this to you guys:

Final Thoughts

Twitter Brilliance is a great program for small businesses who are looking to stop wasting time on Twitter and start using it as a lead-generating and sales-driving machine. But only if you’re ready. If you’re ready to get serious about Twitter in particular, check out Alicia’s program. I know when I’m looking at programs like this, I’m always concerned they’re going to cover stuff I already know. Alicia’s gone ahead and kind of taken that concern off the table by letting you basically test-drive the program with her 30-day money back guarantee. Though honestly, once you get inside and get access to the private mentoring group and the monthly calls, I can’t see anyone wanting their money back. That value is crazy good. Bonus: Alicia is from the UK so all your Twitter modules are narrated in one of the best accents possible to listen to

Free Copy!

Alicia was kind enough to offer 1 FREE copy for me to give away to you guys. To enter to win a free copy, all you have to do is check out the Twitter Brilliance Sales Page and answer this one simple question in a comment on this post: What do you think about the course and how would you use it? Here are the rules:

• Enter your comment about Twitter Brilliance before the end of the day, Tuesday, February 26th. (Update: The contest is now over – thanks to everyone who took the time to enter!)
• Good, thoughtful comments get the most consideration. I only want to give this away to someone who will really use it and really want it.
• On Wednesday, February 27th, I will pick the winner and contact them via email
• The winner will get 1 free copy and I will then update this post with the winner’s name (Update: Laura’s thoughtful comment below won her a copy! Congrats!)

If you *know* you want in and you go ahead and purchase the program but end up winning the contest, I will personally refund you the cost of the course. Even if this product isn’t for you, I recommend that you at least follow Alicia on Twitter to see how she does it. I follow her myself and have benefited from loads of just her free content and advice. So comment away!

Grab Your Free Copy of the 3 Most Common Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make here. The post Twitter Brilliance Review: How to Get More Leads and More Sales from Twitter appeared first on Liz Lockard Marketing Consulting.

photo credit: theanthonyryan via photopin cc

We’ve all heard rumors about social media’s impact on SEO and how it can supposedly make your website rank higher.

But WHICH social media? and what should you do about it? what can you about it?

The truth is that most social media platforms mark any of the links you share on them with “nofollow.” What does that mean? It means those links don’t pass any SEO authority to your website like a “normal” followed link from most other websites.

So what can you do? Why bother?

I’ve often had the same questions – as things change quickly in the world of SEO! So I pulled together this guide to give you the step-by-step guide to optimizing your social media marketing for SEO, platform by platform.

1 – Facebook for SEO

We don’t follow the same SEO rules we do on our own website for Facebook. (For instance, it doesn’t matter at all what the name of the file is when you upload a photo to Facebook unlike on your own website)

So what do we focus on?

Facebook Page Name

This is going to act as the “Title” of your Facebook Page in the search results (that blue hyperlinked part).

So what should you name your page?

• Avoid keyword stuffing as that’s just going to come off as spammy and hurt your organic growth on Facebook when real users are turned off by the spammy name of your page.
• Brand name. Facebook is a great tool for owning your brand name in the search results. Including your company/brand name in your Facebook page name is an excellent idea.
• But really, what about keywords? If your company name doesn’t accurately describe what you do, feel free to include a few words in a natural way that might better describe your company in the Facebook page name.
  • For example, the name of my page is “Liz Lockard Marketing Consulting” as opposed to just “Liz Lockard.” I’m still striving for owning my own name in the search results, but the addition of “marketing consulting” helps as I interact as my page around Facebook — other people viewing the name of my page have a better idea of what I do.

Okay, but what if I already have a page and I’ve named it something terrible?

If you have under 200 likes still, you might be in luck: http://www.facebook.com/help/271607792873806

(Just over 200? Try getting a few of your friends to “unlike” your page for a day while you try to change your name)

If you’re way over 200, don’t worry about it but DO keep your eye out for the odd chance Facebook gives you an opportunity to change it.

Facebook Page URL

The only other major SEO factor for your Facebook page is the actual URL you choose for your page. You know, one of those that doesn’t have a messy number at the end of it. (Mine is www.facebook.com/lizlockardmarketingconsulting)

How do you do it? When can you do it?

• Prerequisite: Your page must have 25 like first. Need more likes? Try these ideas.
• Visit http://www.facebook.com/username to change your name. Careful: Facebook usually only lets you change it once, if at all, once it’s set. Choose carefully.

How do you choose carefully?

• Use the same guidelines for your Facebook page name – think about owning your brand/company name and possibly some non-spammy keywords.

Okay, but what’s spammy?

• Spammy: “Jewelry by Kate – Jewelry, Jewelry, Jewelry, Bracelets, Bracelets, Necklaces, Earrings, Rings, Jewelry Gifts”
• Non-spammy: “Jewelry by Kate”

Other Elements?

About

Some people have said the about section of your Facebook page served as a meta description for your page in the search results (meaning it would be that little text blurb under your blue hyperlink) – recently, I’ve actually seen Google serve a recent comment on your page by someone else as the description (as seen in the above screenshot).

Individual Facebook Posts

Although unclear how often these individual Facebook posts would actually show up on the first page of search results, the first 160 characters or so of your post does show as a meta description. Even more important – the first 18 show up as your title. However, I don’t foresee most individual Facebook posts ranking very high in general.

Local

One thing that does have an impact on your ability to rank locally is adding a phone number and location to your Facebook page — IF your business has a physical location. Local search unfortunately favors those with a physical location at the moment – however, feel free to fill your location data out anyway as Google’s algorithm may get smarter with local and start recognizing things like that a plumber doesn’t necessarily need a physical office to be the best closest solution for someone searching for a local plumber.

Looking for more local search tips? Check out this post.

(One item outstanding: Facebook’s new graph search. As it goes mainstream, there might be a whole host of more comprehensive advice for Facebook & SEO)

2 – SEO for Twitter

There have been multiple suggestions that the number of tweets your website or blog post gets can affect its ranking.

Source: Branded3

Other recent moves for Twitter & SEO include Twitter creating a public profile directory, and making moves to be better crawled by Google.

So what does this mean for you? What can you do to get more SEO power out of your Twitter use?

Twitter Name

This is your URL for your Twitter account. You have 15 characters at your disposal. Follow the same advice as you did for Facebook – try to capture your brand name, if possible, in those 15 characters. This step will help you dominate the search results for your brand/company name. (Mine is https://twitter.com/lizlockard)

The good news is you can change your username at anytime – without losing any followers. The step-by-step from Twitter: https://support.twitter.com/articles/14609-how-to-change-your-username

Twitter Bio

Besides the fact that Twitter recently created a public directory of users, your Twitter bio will serve as the meta description for your Twitter profile in the search results. Another reason to use relevant keywords that describe what you do/who you are is that a number of people looking to grow relationships via Twitter are using Twitter’s search function or tools like Followerwonk to find relevant partners. Using relevant words over cutesy descriptions ups your ability to be found.

You can see Amy uses the following keywords in her bio “social media strategist” “trainer” and “facebook marketing”

Getting More Tweets

There’s no magic pill for getting more Tweets on Twitter. But what CAN you do to help yourself?

1. Using the platform to build relationships and use it well. Don’t know where to start or struggling to get a real following? Check out Alicia Cowan’s Twitter Brilliance program (affiliate link).
2. Remember to actually SHARE your blog posts on Twitter. And more than just one tweet. Don’t spam your followers, but using a tool like Followerwonk can let you know when people are online – and show you how just one tweet of your blog post can easily get lost in the Twitter stream. Tweet it more than once.
3. Make it EASY for people to share your website/blog. Add a Tweet button or other social sharing plugins.
4. Have a networking crew or mastermind group? Ask them to Tweet for you on posts you’re *really* trying to get traction on.

3 – Google+ for SEO

Sad to say, you simply just cannot ignore Google+ anymore. Google very obviously gives preference to its own social network in its search results and if your content isn’t being shared on that network, you’re missing out.

What to do?

• Claim your Google+ profile if you haven’t already. (These steps might help)
• Build up your following. Easy ways to do that? Ask your existing mailing list, Facebook fans, and Twitter followers to join you. Every few weeks, ask again.
• Overwhelmed by needing to post on so many networks? Your bare minimum should be to use a tool like Hootsuite to schedule the same posts you’d be sharing on Twitter or Facebook on to Google+ as well.

A little something extra with Google Authorship

One MAJOR impact Google+ has on search results is the ability to add your profile picture next to the search results for ANY article you write around the web. Yep, ANY. If you don’t have a profile, you can’t have your picture added to the search result.

Does this affect SEO? Not in rankings per se, but click-throughs? You bet (by upwards of 150%)

Don’t have Google Authorship set up for your site yet? Check out this step-by-step from Neil Patel.

4 – Pinterest Optimization

Pinterest follows the same rules as the rest of the social networks – nofollowed links. However, Pinterest pins and boards very easily show up at the top of search results. If your pin or board is dominating the search results, it increases the chances someone may click through to your site via Pinterest.

How can you up your chances of your pinning appearing at the top of the search results? A few simple ways:

• Avoid cutesy board names. Use actual keyword names. Keep it non-spammy and put the keyword you’re targeting closer to the beginning of the board name. Example? My Google Analytics Tips board: http://pinterest.com/thelizlockard/google-analytics-tips/
• Always add a description to your pin.
• Always add a link to your pins – doesn’t affect SEO but does affect the number of click-throughs possible for your site.

I’m not a Pinterest expert, but Melanie Duncan knows what she’s talking about. Check her out for more tips.

5 – LinkedIn Optimization

LinkedIn is another nofollow example. You’re not going to get your own website higher in the search results from optimizing your LinkedIn profile, but you may just dominate the LinkedIn results and get more click-throughs there.

Your URL

Your “title tag” for your LinkedIn result is simply your name, which you don’t really want to alter and doesn’t require any specific action. However, you can and should claim your URL.

Watch Alicia Cowan walk you through how to claim your LinkedIn vanity URL in this video:

Mine is http://www.linkedin.com/in/lizlockard.

Your Headline, Description, Resume

Here’s where you’re mostly optimizing to be found via LinkedIn’s search function. Keywords in your headline, followed by your description and the rest of your resume are going to have the biggest impact.

Get the how-to from LKR Social Media here.

What else?

One of the simplest things you can do on any of these social networks is make sure to have a link back to your actual site on the profile. Does this help your SEO? Not in particular, because it’s a nofollow link, but it will increase the likelihood that someone finds your actual website from that social media profile.

What do you think?

Have anything you’d add to this list? Anything missing? Did you find this guide helpful? Feel free to Tweet this post if you’ve found it helpful.

“Check out this Ultimate Guide to Social Media Optimization for SEO from @lizlockard http://bit.ly/Vc32je” Click here to tweet this.

Grab Your Free Copy of the 3 Most Common Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make here. The post The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Optimization for SEO appeared first on Liz Lockard Marketing Consulting.

I’ve outlined the steps to creating your first infographic below – in an infographic!

Perfect for whether you want to design it yourself or get some outside help.

What about you?

Have you created an infographic? Have a favorite one? Have any steps you’d add to the process? Let me know or share a link in the comments!

Grab Your Free Copy of the 3 Most Common Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make here. The post How to Create Your First Infographic appeared first on Liz Lockard Marketing Consulting.

This is a guest post from Barbara Austin.

Ah January… a time for fresh beginnings and taking care of those pesky little business tasks that you’ve been putting off.

Time to ditch that instant-website service that costs you a hefty monthly fee and still doesn’t do everything you need it to. To give your blog a professional home, with your own domain name. To have an awesome website where your business can thrive online!

If you’ve heard all the raves, you know that WordPress is an excellent platform for building your small business website or blog.

It’s the best of both worlds, really… We design folks love it because we can create awesome websites for our clients, with all the important features they need, such as blogs and shopping carts.

Small business people like you love it because it puts you in greater control, able to add new features and functions on a whim, and update the content anytime you need to.

[Note from Liz: Barbara is referring to WordPress.org, a very different thing than a WordPress.com site. To put it simply, .org gives you a LOT more control and is a much better fit if you're using your site to run a business. Okay, back to Barbara ]

But all that control can be overwhelming, especially if you’re trying to setup your WordPress site and you run into problems. You know that feeling, when your initial excitement has given way to a sinking feeling, like “Oh-my-gosh, I don’t have a clue how to do this! Help!”?

So what should you do? Breathe some fresh air, grab a cup of tea (or your favorite soothing beverage), and let me walk you through the three most essential steps you need to take to get your website up and running on WordPress – with as few hiccups as possible.

1. Got Support?

Before you do anything else, set yourself up with a super-duper web host that offers excellent customer service and technical support. Not only does it come in handy for emergencies (“Help, my website has crashed!”), but you can call on them for other things too, like if you’re having trouble installing WordPress.

I’ve taken advantage of Bluehost’s phone support many times, and I’m always grateful for their super-nice, fluent-English-speaking, uber-helpful customer service reps.

2. Prepare!

Gather everything you need, before you make the transition. If you’re moving your website from another platform, such as Xanga or BigCommerce, check out this WordPress help article on how to import your existing content.

If the website service you’re switching from isn’t listed there, you may need to save all your images, web copy, and other content to your computer, and when the time comes, add it to your new WordPress site manually (or hire a pro to port your existing web pages over).

In any case, it’s a good idea to lay out your game plan ahead of time – sort of like gathering all your cookie- or cake-baking ingredients before you ever fire up the blender or warm up the oven. It’s just good practice!

3. Choose Wisely.

After you’ve set up WordPress, probably the first thing you’ll want to do is find a theme (a theme is a collection of code, images, and other instructions that dictate your website’s appearance and some of its’ basic functions).

My advice? You can save yourself a lot of time and trouble down the road, by selecting one that actually fits your business’ needs, rather than taking the first one that looks good.

Use WPhub.com to search and compare different themes, based on the criteria that are most important to you.

And if you want an extremely versatile theme that can be used for lots of different business or blog types, I personally use (and love) Thesis, and Headway is another that I highly recommend.

Whichever way you spin it, SUPPORT + PLANNING are your keys to making a seamless transition to WordPress. With those things in place, all that’s left is to JUST DO IT!

What about you?

Have you made the move to WordPress? Run into a roadblock or problem during the process, that if you had known about ahead of time, you could have avoided? Share your questions + tips + experiences with us in the comments!

About the Author

Barbara Austin is the Chief Design Officer of Sweet Dreamz Design.

Her passion lies in helping small businesses connect visually with their customers, using intuitive branding, print, and web design skills to express the heart and soul of the company in a way that words alone cannot.

Grab Your Free Copy of the 3 Most Common Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make here. The post 3 Essential Steps for a Smooth Transition to WordPress appeared first on Liz Lockard Marketing Consulting.