Very simply … do you make it a point to say “thank you” to a customer who has purchased your products or hired you to provide your services? Are you aware these two powerful little words can make the difference between your customers coming back to you, or quite possibly never returning again? Everybody likes to feel appreciated, and more importantly our ears like to hear appreciative words, too!

I don’t know about you, but I make it a point to thank my clients all the time. I thank them for their promptness in getting requested material or information to me; I thank them when they refer a potential new client to me; I thank them for lots of things! I mean it sincerely when I say it, and they know I mean it sincerely, too.

But really … I am amazed at how often people forget to say ‘thank you’. Not just in business situations, but as it pertains to all things in life. I think this is a shame, quite honestly.

Anyway, do NOT underestimate the power of a well meant ‘thank you’ either verbalized, or sent in a note or email to your clients and customers. A “Thank you! I appreciate your [business - referral - etc.]!” is sometimes all you need to say. And make a point to NOT tack on a sales pitch. A pitch of one sort or another will drastically dilute the purpose of your ‘thank you’.

You might be pleasantly surprised at the customer loyalty you maintain, and the repeat business you just might generate, all because you consciously make the effort to let everyone you deal with know that their continued business with you matters and that their business dealings with you are NEVER being taken for granted. 

I have learned over the years that it is indeed important to watch what you think. Or to say it another way, don’t be negative … remain positive!

No matter what trials or tribulations may befall us, there really is a direct correlation to the outcome of these trials based on whether or not we’ve remained negative or positive. As hard as it may seem, we do need to guard our thoughts, and keep reminding ourselves to stay positive!

Without trying to have this post and subsequent ones be specifically tied in to a certain religious belief (what I believe may not be at all what you believe), and I do understand what some of us call “God” others refer to as the “Higher Power” or similar … I will say that whatever we believe, that this Supreme Being does hear us, and does guide us, and does answer our prayers.

So, even in business, no matter what may come our way, especially if it is a challenge or very trying time … or even huge disappointment … we must remain optimistic and positive in our mind-thoughts!

Amazing things can happen to us if we just make this simple-to-do attitude adjustment.

I know this sounds rather “basic” … to many it may. But I never cease to be amazed at the number of people in this world who do not carry positive attitudes around with them!

OK … that is all I wanted to say. I really felt like someone reading my blog needed to read these very simple, yet easy to implement, words of inspiration today.

There are many misconceptions in the online marketing world when it comes to SEO. However, let me first say that those of us in the know - professional SEO consultants and also website owners who have first hand experience as to the value traffic-wise of having their site optimized - laugh at the thought that SEO just doesn’t matter much in the big scheme of things.

As example, I have heard or read the following:

• Optimizing your site isn’t worth the time or effort - it makes no difference to your rankings one way or the other.
• SEO is no big deal to do - write good content and you’ll be fine - that’s what “search engine optimization” means.
• All you need to rank highly is to put your keyword phrase in the page’s headline - that’s it!
• “Stuff” (over use) the keywords in your content and you’ll rank highly in no time.
• “Stuff” in lots of keyword phrases into the keyword meta tag, especially single word keywords that come close to what your content is about and the spiders will rank you highly.
• Just run a PPC campaign - that’ll bring scads of people into your site - forget organic search.
• The list of SEO misconceptions truly goes on and on …

In my personal experience, these misconceptions usually result from either of these two reasons:
1)   tired tactics that didn’t make it past the late 1990’s, but are still floating around the internet in articles, forums and such; or worse yet
2)   the many so-called SEO “experts” out there that have no right to even utter that term, yet somehow have a following of people who actually pay attention to them.

I don’t know how some of these “gurus” keep the loyal following they do. Maybe it is because some of their tactics do cause marginal SEO ranking success, thusly people keep listening. Sigh …

And then there are the site owners who totally scoff at the need to optimize their sites. Somehow, someway they are able to achieve high rankings. I can tell you that in this scenario, in almost all cases I’ve had experience with, the website’s niche is so tight that there is little competition. And, since the truth still lies in the fact that approximately 90% of ALL websites lack even proper, solid basic optimization … well the less poorly optimized site rises to the top.

Now, if these folks were in medium-to-highly competitive niches … well then I will bet you $1.00 they’d be moaning and crying and wondering “why oh why do my organic rankings stink??” 

So, I will argue that SEO is alive and well and is in great need for EVERY website out there. We are coming into 2009. Competition online is growing, and growing at a fierce rate! It’s NOT decreasing. You have to implement every ethical method you can get your hands on to get ahead, and stay ahead, of your competition. Don’t kid yourself!

Yes, the truth of the matter is you DO need to either know, at the very least, how to properly optimize your webpages and tags, and monitor your rankings yourself … OR … you can hire a professional to do it for you!

Yes … it does take a lot of hard and dedicated work, and often the need to invest some money, to make one’s online business succeed. If potential customers cannot find you when they search in Google, Yahoo! or MSN for your products or services, then just how do you think you will succeed online?

And yes … you could ignore optimization of your content, and rely solely on PPC (pay per click) advertising campaigns, but guess what? You need a solid knowledge of SEO and just as importantly, you must understand the ins and outs of PPC guidelines in order to not end up throwing your money down the drain with lots of non-targeted, not-really-interested ad clickers!

For more information on the basics of PPC how-tos and why optimization is truly important for a successful campaign, please refer to my article: PPC Campaigns - Is Your Website ‘SEO Ready’?

So yes everyone, it is vital to pay attention to optimizing every aspect of your website that you can either do yourself, or that you can afford to have an SEO professional do for you. You will stand a much, much better chance of making it online, if you strive to get your website optimized properly. You cannot ignore the need for SEO.

The only good thing about so many people holding on to so many SEO misconceptions, is that for the rest of us … it makes that much more room for us to rise to the top of the rankings! 

I am very fairly and competitively priced for my SEO services, and my clients continue to have excellent results and come back for more website and/or SEO improvements year after year as they see and reap the benefits of their online marketing success due in part to their great organic search engine rankings.

Do you have SEO questions? Or is it time to really get your website positioned to be more profitable in 2009? Then it would be my pleasure to speak with you about your website and SEO concerns. I offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation. You’d be surprised what I am able to determine about your site from a quick look-over. And I am happy to share what I discover with you. Don’t hesitate to contact me.

I’ve recently become involved with a number of new clients who have been attempting Google PPC campaigns to attract more traffic to their sites, but have absolutely no idea about what really needs to be put in place before a PPC campaign should be attempted. Why, they don’t even have a clue about issues such as how Google determines the ‘click’ prices. This is like jumping into deep water, but not knowing how to swim. Bad idea, you know?

However, in defense of my clients, there are thousands (probably more like hundreds of thousands) of people doing the same thing … people who are eager to have more targeted traffic come to their sites in the hope of selling more of their products or services. I understand this. I am not trying to put shame on anyone.

Some Facts You Need To Be Aware Of Before You Even Utter The Term ‘PPC’

Are you aware you will pay MORE, yes I said MORE for each click your PPC ad receives if you are not well versed in PPC advertising basics. Here are just a few of a myriad of issues that affect the cost per click. Believe me, the Google bots take all on-page factors and even your ads into consideration before they figure out what you’ll be charged for each PPC click.

• You should have a unique landing page.  Simply explained, that is a page you have written and optimized specifically for the ad. It should provide everything and more that the person who clikced on your ad would hope to find.
• You need to do detailed keyword research  in order to understand what keyword phrases people are really typing into the search engines to try and find your product or services. What you may think searchers are typing into the search box often is not even remotely close to reality.
• You need to know keyword trends.  That’s right! Believe it or not, depending upon your marketing niche, keyword phrases that searchers are using can change from month to month, as but one example. If you don’t know the search trends, you may be missing out on a broader base of people who are searching for what you have to offer.

  Or worse yet … you may be bidding on terms that are very competivie, thusly will have higher cost per click prices, yet you might be better off going for terms that have less competition and will COST YOU LESS.

• The quality of your SEO efforts in writing your ads will also be taken into consideration. Proper keyword use is also very essential for the relevancy of what the prospect is looking for.

You also need to know about “LSI” - latent semantic indexing. LSI allows Google to determine what a page is about outside of specifically matching search query text. Here’s a good article (that isn’t overwhelmingly technical) that covers the basics for those of you interested: Google Semantically Related Words & Latent Semantic Indexing Technology I recommend you become very familiar with LSI if you are going to manage your PPC campaign yourself.

The bottom line here is this: PPC advertising is NOT for amateurs.  You need to either do a lot of homework to educate yourself on the ins and outs of being successful so as not to pay more for each click than you need to … or hire a professional PPC campaign manager.

I can’t believe my eyes when I come across keyword meta tags that have been recently “optimized” using an out-dated and totally wrong method! Meaning … I find a keyword stuffed tag! And even worse, stuffed with one word terms that will NEVER EVER do any good ranking-wise for the site!

Incredulously, many of the sites where I see these extremely amateurish stuffed tags have supposedly been optimized by a “knowledgeable SEO specialist”. Come on people … this is the year 2008! Stuffing keywords is a thing of the ancient past! So is using more than eight keyword phrases! These techniques are loooooooong gone! 

After 1998, when Lycos dropped its ranking recognition of the keyword meta tag, and then in 2000 when AltaVista and Inktomi stopped paying attention to it, there was really little if any reason for people to optimize this tag. (Google never did pay any attention to it.)  Spammers had defeated its once useful purpose via fraudulent keyword stuffing.

The spammers inserted keywords that had nothing to do with the on-page content, thusly the terms “keyword tag stuffing” and “keyword tag spamming” became know as black-hat techniques.

To show you a real example of what is a very wrong, and very poor use of a keyword meta tag, here is a website that was recently tweaked for improved navigation and other issues, including (supposedly) optimization of all the Title and meta tags that had previously been ignored. I have knoweldge of this site, as this is an individual who choose not to hire me for my services. Obviously her loss … not mine!

OK … I have removed a few terms to provide anonymity to the site owner, but take a look at this meta tag - and no, I am not making this up:

‹META name=”keywords” content=”ND, naturopathic, naturopathic medicine, emedicine, natural medicine, hormone replacement, alternative medicine, ND, complementary medicine, CAM, supplements, [name of state] naturopathic doctors, healing, health, healthy, healthier, natural supplements, [abbreviation of state], phone, consults, consulation, NMD, consultation, Weil, homeopathy, homeopathic medicine, cholesterol, heart disease, prevention, men’s health, botanical, Xymogen, detox, oil, vitamin, prostate, women’s health, menopause, bio-identical, mind-body, skin, dysbiosis, probiotic, inflammation, progesterone, GI, Alzheimer’s, dementia, Huperzine, osteoporosis, nature, anti-aging, estrogen, testosterone, counseling, Caribbean, speaker, fatigue, [another state-nonrelated to this person's business], [yet another state-nonrelated to this person's business], [another country-nonrelated to this person's business], neurotransmitters, targeted amino acid therapy, depression, anxiety, non-drug, insomnia, [11 names of cities located near the place of business], free-lance, writer”›

Oh my goodness! 81 keywords and/or keyword phrases! And even if the search engines gave a lot of ranking value to the keyword meta tag, almost all of these terms would NEVER EVER EVER do anything to help get this website a higher ranking for those terms.

Why? Well … just how competitive do you think the terms “oil” or “consults” are?? But more importantly, how general and non-targeted to the site’s niche are these terms? I’ll tell you … TOTALLY too general and TOTALLY non-targeted!

Are you new to the concept of keywords?? No problem! Learn the difference between using one word versus multi-word phrases in my post: Keywords Explained: What’s A Keyword? A Keyword Phrase?

I’ll stop ranting here. Let me show you a general example of what this person’s so-called-seo-expert should have done with this tag:

‹META name=”keywords” content=”Naturopathic medicine, naturopathic doctor, alternative medicine, [name of practioner], [name of city & state]“›

Though I’ve done zero research into the terms I’ve used in this example, I do believe you get the idea that the keyword phrase terms ARE more targeted and related to a specific niche.

But hold on! I know you’re saying “then why Claudia, if you’re telling us the keyword meta tag no longer matters to the search engines … why are you telling us to optimize it? That doesn’t really make any sense!” I agree, but it is a common held belief amongst knowledgeable SEO experts that there is still a good reason to optimize the tag, and we do so for our clients. The reason is that Yahoo! and MSN do give a tiny bit of ranking weight to this tag (Google still ignores it). So, even though you may read elsewhere to just ignore this tag altogether, my professional advice is don’t. We never know if one day, this meta tag may prove to add a bit more weight to organic ranking positions.

When you are optimizing your web page’s keyword meta tag remember this: use 5 to 8 targeted, specifc terms relating to what your site and that particular web page’s content is about.

This is all you need to do to properly optimize the keyword meta tag. It’s that simple.