Get started now with these action steps and hints!

The opportunity to acquire more customers and earn more revenue via effective SEO and internet marketing is vast. But, where does one start? There are a number of things that you can do immediately that can make a huge difference in your online visibility and your offline success. Here are a few suggestions to get you started (you can implement these on your own or let us help you).

1. Consider how a customer is searching for you. What words or phrases are they looking up in the phone book or typing into a search engine to find your type of store or service? Detemine what your Top 3 to 5 words or phrases are. These are your “keywords.”
2. Use those keywords on your website and in your domain name, if possible (but don’t overuse them). Most importantly, you want to use those keywords in couple of strategic spots. Most notably in your websites Title tags, <TITLE>, and in your tier 1 Heading Tags, <H1>.
3. Make sure that you control what the search engines like Google display when summarizing your business in their search listings. Do this by always embedding a short, strategically written 15 to 25 word overview of your business using a description tag, <DESCRIPTION>
4. Make sure that you submit your business in the respective Google, Yahoo and Bing business directories. Make sure that you fill out your profile completely and that you follow the registration and validation steps exactly.
5. Try to get backlinks (other sites with links back to yours) from complimentary businesses, authority sites or social sites. Your “off-page” strategy to get your business noticed is just as important as what you to on your own site.

HINT: Never, ever pay someone thousands of dollars to optimize your site. If someone quotes you anything above $2000, then run for the hills!

HINT: Never, ever pay thousands of dollars for business directory listings. If someone quotes you more than a few hundred dollars, then run for the hills! Again.

HINT: Your website should not be the focal point of your internet marketing discussion. A website is just a fancy, electronic business card for most companies. Having one (even if it is one of the best) doesn’t do any good unless you use it the right way. A good website that is fully optimized is only 25% of the equation. If you stop the conversation at just the website, you have probably paid to much and only received a fraction of the vale.