SEO
101: How I Got My Website Found
I
have spent literally 100's of hours researching how to get my
website onto the first page of search engines. What I have found
is that there are no big SEO secrets to search engines and website
rankings. The SEO companies charging hundreds and thousands of
dollars are ripping people off big time by outsourcing the time
consuming jobs of website promotion and link building to workers
overseas making just a few dollars per hour. Let me tell you that
SEO is fairly simple once you get a few things figured out, but
very time consuming! By the way, for those of you who are
wondering, SEO stands
for Search Engine Optimization.
Justin and I started our first online store selling lake products
in the spring of 2007. When we started out, we had absolutely no
online experience whatsoever. However, our motto has always been:
If someone else can do something, SO CAN WE! Our store www.hbpondmanagement.com
(and our knowledge of the internet) has grown by leaps and bounds
every month since then! For those interested: I am going to
explain a few of the things we are doing to promote our website,
raise our search engine standings, get people to our website, and
make sure they come back!
Keyword rich content integrated throughout the pages of my website
was an absolute must. In the beginning I was always wondering why
my website would not come up under Google search terms like HERMAN
BROTHERS POND MANAGEMENT, ILLINOIS POND MANAGEMENT, or ILLINOIS
GUIDED FISHING? Then one day researching I figured out that I
simply did not have those words in the text of my website! Search
engines can’t read minds, they need the text! Now, I go through
my entire website about every month and look for places I can
nonchalantly insert necessary keywords. Think about what you want
your website to come up for in search engines and make sure those
words are in the text of your website! Just yesterday I realized I
did not have the word AQUATIC written
anywhere on my website. How could I expect my website to come up
when someone typed in aquatic herbicide, if I don't have the word
aquatic anywhere in my text?
I have also learned that another important step to gaining website
traffic is to make sure that I always have content on my site that
will bring someone back once they do find it. Why would someone
want to visit my site regularly if it was always just the same
boring information about what products and services I provide? I
update my site regularly with fishing reports, articles, photos,
and videos to keep people coming back regularly. I also am
constantly adding new products. Website advertisers typically are
looking for the number of unique first time visitors to a website
in a months time; but for my website I am looking to bring clients
and potential clients back on a regular basis. I want repeat
visitors to be thinking about me and my products as often as
possible!
Another key SEO tool is the power of writing and publishing
keyword rich articles on my website. This lets my clients get to
know me and my knowledge of fish, gives fresh content for them to
come back to my website for, and also often times that is how
someone initially finds my website using search engines. My
articles are typically full of my keywords for the search engines
to pick up on. I also publish all of the articles that other
people have written about me and my business. I make sure to put
my contact information and website link in my articles. That is
important because now quite a few other websites and online
magazines are using my articles on their websites! Having my
content all over the internet brings quite a bit of direct traffic
and backlinks to my website.
Justin and I published our first video on YouTube in October of
2008. It didn't take us very long to figure out the power of
YouTube videos! Just type HAND FEEDING SMALLMOUTH into Google!
7 of the first 10 Google listings are of our video we made while
scuba diving! Tons of other websites are linking up to it almost
daily, and people are coming to our website to look for other
videos and also just to find out who we are and what we do! What
we found out is that YouTube is actually connected to Google, and
the keywords we use in our titles and descriptions come up on
Google's first page in just a matter of days! We are now in the
process of making YouTube videos for all of our products and
fishing trips! If you're not convinced, just type in PORCUPINE FISH
ATTRACTOR. My YouTube video comes up on the first page of Google
before my website does. Lastly, type in VERTEX WINTER AERATION; I
just added that video 5 days ago, and it is the very first listing
on Google!
Another aspect of SEO that we just learned is that Google is also
connected to Blogger. We started a blog called
thediaryofalakenerd.blogspot.com to document all of our fishing
trips with photos, videos, and stories. Originally we were going
to use it as a monthly fishing report linked to our guided fishing
page, but again we found out pretty fast that Google picks up on
my blog titles and posts faster and better than my actual website. We are still
using the blog to post our fishing pics, videos, and stories; but
we are now also using it for SEO by strategically making posts
about our products, articles, and press releases.
Linkbuilding is a very important aspect of SEO. During our first
year, our website was completely standing alone. We did not start
showing up in search engines until we started linking up to other
websites. Now we have thousands of other websites, directories,
forums, social networks, and blogs all with links pointing to us.
The more links our website has pointing to it, the higher it will
rank with search engines. Also links pointing towards our website
send traffic directly to our site! Here are some steps we took to
get linked on other websites:
1. Exchanged links with friends, distributors, blogs, etc.
2. Did quite a few things worthy of making the local newspapers
and media. Oftentimes they posted our link in their online
articles.
3. Manually submitted our website to 100's of the search engines
and website directories (this took tons of time, but paid off big
time!)
4. Joined industry related forums and posted our photos, videos,
articles, advice, and website links when given the chance.
5. Joined social networks and made good comments on other peoples
stuff (especially the popular blogs)
6. Submitted our articles and press releases to websites that are
looking for content. I always made sure our articles had our
contact info and website link in them. (this could be a full time
job, but gets serious results!)
We are constantly finding new ways to get people to our online
store, and once we get a customer, we don't lose them! We take
pride in the fact that many of our online customers are repeat
customers. We package and ship all of our orders in our free time,
usually the very first thing we do every morning when we get to
our office. UPS comes and picks up our packages every afternoon at
3 pm. In 2008, Justin and I processed 736 online orders for lake
products and supplies in our spare time and the average ticket was
$305.
There it is, these are the steps that we took and are constantly
taking to get our website listed on the first page of search
engines for all of our keywords. We now currently rank higher in
search engines than most all of our competitors (the big
companies) that have been around for a long time. For the first
half of 2008, we did not even show up hardly at all on search
engines. In 2009, its a whole new ballgame!
Also if you happen to know anyone with a pond or a lake, send them
our way: www.hbpondmanagement.com.
We now have a massive inventory of the very best lake products and
pond supplies!
For
more information:
Herman
Brothers Pond Management
8913
N Prairie Point
Peoria, IL, 61615
309-303-5691
www.hbpondmanagement.com
thediaryofalakenerd.blogspot.com
