TOP Three Strategies For Success With The Search Engines

July 13, 2008

How To Get More FREE Traffic.

If I had a nickel for every email I received from a customer asking how to get better results from the search engines, I’d have… well, I’d have a WHOLE lot of nickels!!

In fact, it seems I’m constantly being grilled about the latest, greatest strategies for driving the MAXIMUM number of FREE visitors to your site.

But honestly, I’m really glad so many of you are paying attention to the search engines…

… because you’re SEVEN TIMES more likely to get a visitor through the organic (free) search engines than through a pay-per-click ad!

You can’t afford NOT to spend as much time as possible improving your site’s overall search engine performance.

With that in mind, here are my TOP THREE recommendations for improving your free traffic using the search engines…

Search Results Strategy #1: Speak your visitors’ language

No, I don’t mean English, Spanish, or Russian!

When I say you should speak your visitors’ language, I mean you should use the exact words and phrases they use to search for your products or services!

I can’t TELL you how many times I see people building their sites around the words THEY themselves use to describe what they’re selling, even going so far as to optimize their sites using the name of the product!

Why is that a problem?

Well, let’s say you sell the "GutterClear 3000," a tool that comes in pretty handy to clean out all the gunk in your gutters without ever having to get up on a ladder.

Now, let’s say there are thousands of people out there looking for a really cool tool for hands-free (and ladder-free) gutter cleaning.

Do you think they’re all going to sit down in front of Google and type "GutterClear 3000"?

Not likely, right? Chances are, they’re going to describe what they’re trying to accomplish, or what problem they’re trying to solve ("gutter cleaning tool," "clean gutters without ladder," etc).

So even though you’ve got the #1 spot on Google for "GutterClear 3000," the product remains unsold, because nobody is using that word to find it!

And please, never assume. Use a good keyword research tool, like Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery, to be sure you’ve identified the EXACT words your potential customers are using to find you!

Search Results Strategy #2: Make sure your pages are search engine friendly

Once you’ve done your keyword research, and understand how your customers are searching for you, you can use that information to create a site that will appeal to the search engine spiders, which, in turn, will improve your rankings.

The higher your site appears on the results page, the GREATER the chances that people will click on it!

So be sure you use your keywords in your:

Title tag — This is the title of your site that usually appears in the actual search engine results. Search engine spiders often look at the title tag FIRST to understand what your site is about.
That makes the title tag one of the best ways to appeal to both potential visitors and search engines at the same time!
Headline and subhead — By including your main keywords in your headline and subheads, and wrapping them in <h> tags, you’ll be tipping off the search engines that the site’s content reflects what’s in the heads and subheads, which is an SEO plus.
At the same time, by displaying your best keywords in the headline and subheads, your visitors will see that they’ve come to the right place the second they land on your page… and be more likely to stick around.
Salescopy — Because the search engines "crawl" your site looking for information about how to categorize your site, and also check to see how relevant your copy is, you want to make sure you include your keywords in the site’s copy.
But don’t get carried away! Search engines can tell when you’re cramming your site full of words JUST to get better rankings, and will penalize you for it… and you want to be sure your site actually makes sense to your visitors!
Meta tags — Your description meta tag normally contains the "blurb" that appears with the link to your site on the search results.
Your keyword meta tag contains your strongest keywords relevant to each page.

Neither of these, on their own, will be enough to improve your site’s rankings, but when done properly, they help give the search engines a more accurate ’snapshot’ of what your site is about.
Image (alt) tags — Search engines can’t "read" images, but they can read the text that you use to describe the images.
This descriptive text, called an "alt" tag, is one more way to add multiple strong keywords to your site, again increasing your overall chances of being categorized for that particular term.

Another way to use your keywords is in the way you ORGANIZE the pages in your site.

Make sure that all of the information or products on a page are related or relevant. The LAST thing you want to do is confuse the search engine spiders with a mish mash of words on any given page that don’t make any sense together.

At this point, it’s pretty clear that it’s the WORDS on your site that give you the overall competitive edge when it comes to your search engine rankings, so resist the urge to "fancy" sites by using Flash, tons of graphics, or other unnecessary elements.

The more clearly you spell out what your site is about by using your keywords, the better your chances of raising to the TOP of the results page!

Search Engine Strategy #3: Keep your site up-to-date

Like death and taxes, it’s INEVITABLE that your site optimization will change… and what’s working today may not get you ANY results three months from now.

That’s because, over time, people, markets, search trends, and even keywords change…

… so it’s crucial that you constantly monitor your top keywords, and make changes to your site as necessary, in order to maintain your dominant position in the search results.

You should be setting aside time every WEEK to make sure that you’re still optimized for the best keywords!

And if you CAN’T seem to find the time each week to do this, then consider hiring someone to help. Trust me: it’s an investment that should MORE than pay for itself with increased traffic and sales!

By following these three strategies for maximizing your search engine traffic, you’ll not only improve your search engine rankings, you’ll be able to send more qualified traffic to your site.

To your success,

Derek Gehl

P.S. There’s MORE to them than I’m able to cover in this brief newsletter…

… so this month we’ll be releasing the SEO Whiteboard Series videos, that Kevin Carr from imc{search} has put together to help you with your SEO efforts.

Here’s the first in the 10 part series… SEO Antics. Stay tuned for the rest of the series.

Written by Derek Gehl · Filed Under Featured

Comments

53 Responses to “TOP Three Strategies For Success With The Search Engines”

Max Nunn on July 14th, 2008 8:27 am

Very good insight!
Ryan Rawson on July 15th, 2008 12:03 am

I love IMC! thank you, I have gone from nothing to creeping my way up the ladder to the 4th position on yahoo, within a couple months.
Ken Ca|houn on July 15th, 2008 6:24 am

Excellent search engine “no-nos” to share with webmasters; you’re correct in all of them, so it’s important for people to avoid the antics you’ve outlined in your video.

It can be a challenge for new marketers to do seo right, as they may be reading outdated seo information and sites, and think they should buy software that promises one-click placement etc, when that doesn’t work. It’s all about relevance and organic, not forced/incorrect seo - thanks!

-k
Jane on July 15th, 2008 6:55 am

Thanks Derek. I always pay attention to what you have to say…and you do such a good job of laying it all out very clearly. I look forward to the next videos in this series.
Bob from Attract-a-Profitable-Home-Business.com on July 15th, 2008 7:01 am

Thanks Derek - The piece of info that resonates with me is to stay on top of your keywords in older pages. They may have been popular when you wrote the page, but not so popular (or possibly too saturated by other higher ranking websites) NOW!
John on July 15th, 2008 7:02 am

Does Search Engine Synchranization address the issue of number of pages? Do one-page sites rank lower than multiple page — here’s my favorite formula, pack as much into the landing page as possible with video and slideshow, form and copy like on http://AdExtenders.com — wonder what Goigle response is to those?
joe cavaggioni on July 15th, 2008 7:02 am

Thanks derek your info is always fresh and up to date. Foward to success
Jan Brown on July 15th, 2008 7:31 am

Derek: I have been following your advice for a while now and am thrilled with how sound it is and what it has done for me and my business. I am grateful to you for sharing your knowledge.

Many Thanks,
Jan
Debra on July 15th, 2008 8:35 am

Thanks, pure gold. I’ve been trashing those emails and now I feel pretty good about it. Keep the ideas flowing, please.
Tad Modrzynski on July 15th, 2008 8:55 am

After months of ‘learning’ and getting inundated with information that is not bad but also not comprehensive enough I finally ‘plunged’ into Derek’s OMS series. This approach is understandable to me; easy, yet, clear enough for a ‘newbee’ like me to actually get started and build my own List. I will add my website when I actually add some content. It’s my 2nd day at this after all.
Tad
Dane on July 15th, 2008 9:26 am

Great information! Alot of new people starting out definitely wouldn’t know this!
I get bombarded by these schemes on a regular basis!

Time, patience and hard work make for great websites and great ranking!
Steve on July 15th, 2008 9:39 am

Great info Derek. You are dead right that you need to keep on top of this. Your keywords will change over time as the market and web trends change but also there is another reason why you keep on top of you SEO. As you spend more time on your IM you will increase your knowledge and improve your skills. So it makes sense to revisit your SEO as you can always improve it. It’s crucial in my opinion to always be learning and developing yourself and applying your knowledge and skills.

Steve
Tony on July 15th, 2008 12:12 pm

Hi Derek your information on SEO has been a great help I been doing quite well with my squidoo lens, and your throughts and ideas are great so until next time and of course is about having patience. http://www.squidoo.com/successfulwithforextrading
John Dalton on July 15th, 2008 2:25 pm

Derek, I like the way you get right to the point about what is not really necessary

or helpful to do, in order to get search engin recognition.

Thanks

John Dalton, Candlesource.net
KalvinJ on July 15th, 2008 6:05 pm

Derek, You have thought me lot of valueable info on the Net.
I use all of your Tips and tricks.
Thank you
Kalvinj
www.cashbox.ws
Mori on July 15th, 2008 7:20 pm

Very straighforward talk.Unfortunately,tips like this are overwhelmed by commercial nonsense.I wonder if i could have the opportunity to find and listen to you if I wasnt subscribed for Dereck newsletter.So subscribing to professional newsletters does help take to a clear source
Sheryl on July 15th, 2008 11:21 pm

Derek, I always look forward to your newsletter and find the information is invaluable. My website is improving daily, but I know that it does take time and effort to do the SEO properly. You have reinforced that I am on the right path to SEO. Thanks and keep the tips coming…..
Peter R. Sherman on July 17th, 2008 9:06 am

Thanks Derek. Another useful post. I just hope that people will implement these easy tips and not just read the post and then don’t do anything.
Robert on July 18th, 2008 3:27 am

Hi Derek,

You’re completely right stressing these simple yet the MOST important things!

A few things that could be interesting to other fellow marketers here:

1) image alt tags - as Derek says - are very important. For one of my content sites I’m getting the second highest traffic from images.google.com –> and a very good idea is to name all the graphics on your webpages after the keywords you optimize that page for. Even if it’s a small bullet point image etc. –> Google doesn’t know what it is and the more content you can possibly get indexed under your keywords the better!

2) as Derek says - blogs are BRILLIANT! - Google picks up every post instantly! I’m doing it for sheer curiosity every time I publish a blog post and do a Google Blog search ritht after using the keyword the blog post was optimized for. And guess what? I’ts always there and in the top results!

Thanks Derek, your “Insider Secrets” is always on my desk!
Mutumba Faisal on July 18th, 2008 10:49 pm

Thanks Derek,

Am new to SEO, but am going to try out the tips,hope they work for my African Art and Crafts web shop.

Impressed,and if you ever drop by in Kampala,Uganda, will introduce you to the girls this,thanks mate.

Mutumba

Uganda,Africa

http://www.mutumba-crafts.com
JD Reilly on July 19th, 2008 5:39 am

We all want everything on remote, tv, dvd, seo, etc. This is good up-to-date information that should be used for strategic internet marketing, no matter what niche you may be in. Thank you for the sound advice and explanation. All internet marketers, especially the “gurus,” should be so forthright. Great work, guys!
Mark on July 19th, 2008 6:29 am

Derek,

Well written article, however the may be other things that are involved in getting high positions. Using CSS will help the spiders crawl your site much easier because these types of pages place the site content further up the page in a much more organized fashion. Also, site structure should be only 3 levels deep otherwise the spiders won’t index your other optimized pages very high either. (Don’t look at my site it is a mess! I am currently doing a make-over.) Anyway, great article!

God Bless,

Mark
Miguelo on July 19th, 2008 7:02 am

Hello Derek,

You’re really one of a kind! Going back and knowing the basic in getting traffic really a must to learn and be refresh. I’m nothing against social marketing strategy and honestly getting traffic from social marketing is one of the great traffic tactic ever discover to get long lasting and huge traffic.

Thanks for the refresh.
Milly on July 19th, 2008 7:06 am

Very nice! This explains a lot of things I did not understand. I’m new to this newletter, but am looking forward to enjoying a lot of learning I would not have found so easily without it. Thank-You.
Philip Kebbell on July 19th, 2008 8:00 am

I Derek and Kevin,

Really good information helping us unravel the “mysteries” of S.E.O. I hope you will explain how a site gets better natural ranking over the competition marketing similar products, where they may also be using good S.E.O strategies.

Keep up the good work

Philip
small business coaching on July 19th, 2008 10:21 am

Derek,

I salute your focus on building strong relationships with potential customers so that they learn to trust you. This is excellent both for us, as your customers, and for you too.

I love this article - to the point, helpful and incredibly useful. I shall be joining your affiliate programme to promote it via my small business growth blog.

Thanks,

Lee
Donovan on July 19th, 2008 12:05 pm

Derek
I am Impressed with your video IMC did such a good job of laying it all out very clearly.
Thanks
Donovan
Jose Nunes on July 19th, 2008 2:28 pm

Hello Derek,

You’re really one of a kind! Going back and knowing the basic in getting traffic really a must to learn and be refresh. I’m nothing against social marketing strategy and honestly getting traffic from social marketing is one of the great traffic tactic ever discover to get long lasting and huge traffic.
Derek, You have thought me lot of valuable info on the Net.
I use all of your Tips and tricks.
Thanks
http://www.rchelistips.jmlpub.com
Sussan on July 19th, 2008 4:07 pm

Hi Derek
Sorry I was not able to take your 5 day course in Melbourne, however will catch up with you sometime.
I am a retired newbee and have purchased or been given a few of the programs where everything is automated. It would be fine (i suppose) if I could understand how to use them. Most of them are beyond my comprehension.
so it makes me feel better that it is not a good idea to use them, phew!
Enjoyed your video by Kevin and what a lot of sense he is saying (to me anyway).
I too have enjoyed receiving your emails, keep on Derek
Sussan
PS. what is a Meta tag? not quite got a handle on that.
Mike on July 20th, 2008 2:28 am

Hi Derek,
All good info. It’s amazing how many folks are using these techniques and can’t work out what went wrong.
The message above from Sussan is another good example, read the P.S. This is a fairly fundamental point and highlights how people simply leap into this ‘how to get rich’ thing without learning enough of the basics.
If nothing else, I suppose it shows that the ‘get rich quick’ merchants have their marketing sussed!
Ami | Marketing Tips For Beginners on July 20th, 2008 4:47 am

Totally agree with you. Search engine optimization, despite all the flak it gets is the way to go.
I find on my sites that traffic from the search engines converts better than from referal sites.

http://www.affiliatemarketingintro.com
Rosali Golden on July 20th, 2008 2:31 pm

Great information.

Rosalin golden
list building & network marketing exprt
http://www.4enhancementonline.info/homebasedbusiness/index.html
Rosie Black on July 20th, 2008 4:43 pm

hello my name is Rosie Black , i would like for you to take a look at my web site to see how can you help me get started with this on line store please
Dave Stapleton on July 20th, 2008 6:23 pm

Thanks for keeping your video short and to the point. I love you guys. You make it seem so simple.

Dave
Sunday School Lessons -Brad on July 21st, 2008 5:32 am

Once again, got to say the information is among the best if not the best available. You consistently break down concepts and technical terms to a level where they can be grasped. There is so much credibility here. No sales hype, just telling us how the correct way to do thins are and what to stay away from. The videos are priceless -they don’t talk down to you- they hit you right where your level of understanding is. Thanks so much! Over the last couple years you have stayed consistent in your approach to instruct, encourage and guide. With all the other junk out there, this is refreshing
Kevin on July 21st, 2008 8:02 am

Thanks for the info. Tons of quality. Couple this with your the Protege Bootcamp DVD’s and I’m nearly off & running- Many, many thanks!
Barbara Little on July 21st, 2008 8:24 am

I wuld like to generate some money online without a big start up fee. I’m broke, 72 and living off social security.
basant on July 21st, 2008 7:36 pm

very useful to me
thanks
internet business opportunity mlm on July 22nd, 2008 10:29 am

These tips are what we actually do in the SEO. Aside from those abovementioned link building, directory submission, forum and blog postings are anothr tool to increase your website’s visibility on the internet
Adam Onvids on July 22nd, 2008 11:16 pm

Your Search Result Strategy #1 is one that I find most challenging to get across to web owners and online friends.
Perhaps it is their own inexperience with using Google search for their own purposes.
It’s important to get into the mindset, and step into the shoes, of the people who may be looking for what you have to offer.
Thanks for that excellent tip. Cheers, Ads
widjaksana on July 23rd, 2008 3:58 pm

Thank’s for your information, it is very useful.
Jason on July 24th, 2008 12:11 am

Anything to help me improve the marketing of my automated home business franchise opportunity, the better!

Thanks & Aloha!

http://www.ExitMatrix.com

Automated business for serious entrepreneurs & beach bums. Great business franchise opportunity alternative - incredible leverage and cashflow. Exit the Matrix of your job with an automated internet home business!
Keir on July 27th, 2008 8:31 am

Great information. My problem is using to many key words in my
sales copy. I’m working on a blog for independent musicians, artist and
unknown designers.
The blog will contain tips and resources for both groups. My blogs keyword
optimization is very important to its success. I’ll will continue to keep track of the updates to this blog. Maybe I’ll write a small article on keyword optimization
and link back to the your article.

Great information keep up the good work.
Shah on July 27th, 2008 7:52 pm

Great article DEREK.

Check out my customize Bebiz page

www.personal-internet-coach.com
Kandi Aurora on July 29th, 2008 5:39 am

Hi Derek
Thank you ever so much for your kind e-mails. I did not have money to buy sophisiticated web designing programs, so I taught myself how to program in 3 weeks & bought the least expensive program & made it work. I have put up some sites - - AND - thanks to you & IMC I have gone from 5,000 way up the ladder. I have prayed & worked hard all these years. Finally I am seeing my dreams take shape. I look forward to purchasing one of your programs in the near future. I need to drive traffic to our sites.
Kandi
http://www.AstroWishes.com
and
http://www.GettingWorkersComp.com
Md Yakub Chowdhury on July 29th, 2008 6:21 am

thanks for very good tips on search engine optimization seo . i really liked it. I am a SEO outsource freelancer in Bangladesh. my knowledge on seo is refreshed by your tips. thanks again.
Mona on July 29th, 2008 7:50 am

Hi Derek,

I m soo excited. After applying yr tips to my webstore http://www.wealthinspiredbooks.com/ today I saw it at No. 4 on the 1st page! Yes it took a lttle bit of time, couple weeks, but it works!

To everyone who reads this post, please do chk out my webstore http://www.wealthinspiredbooks.com/ You may also try a yahoo search for it and see what I mean. Hopefully my ranking maintains at this fantastic spot.

Thank u so much Derek & wish me luck!

http://www.wealthinspiredbooks.com/
…inspiring wealth into your life
db on July 29th, 2008 9:36 am

A helping hand is necessary when climbing any mountain. Thank you for the lift.
Jesus Moreno on July 29th, 2008 12:19 pm

Derek:

No doubt about that one of the best ways to get targeted traffic is the organic search results. Maybe the best. Yet, it’s not easy at all. That’s why post like this one olf you result very useful. Thank you.

Jesus
Rajesh on July 30th, 2008 12:01 am

Time should be devoted to above three strategies. No need to take any other short-cut or long-cut
professional seo on August 2nd, 2008 1:38 am

That was an excellent tips. Great success in search engine is based on your hardwork , patience and dedication on the things you do.
Dr. Andrew on August 4th, 2008 3:13 pm

Seems like all very solid info to a newbie. Sorry I missed the video. Is there a way to access it?
Many thanks

Hi Dr. Andrew,

You’ll find the series here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/InternetMarketingIMC

Enjoy
Your IMC Team
Margaret Heaps on August 9th, 2008 11:34 am

I love to hear and watch your instructional videos, but there is something yet to
be desired in videos, technical, or course, but I can rarely get throug a video without it stopping in the middle and refusing to give me any more information.
Anyway, what I got out of #1 Video is great, telling me all the no no’s. I hear them.
Thank you, Derek.