2010 Success: SEO, Social Media and More
We’ve all read the predictions for 2010, we’ve read recaps of 2009 ad nauseum, and we’ve read articles about resolutions and we’ve also probably spent time thinking about our goals for the year. I wanted to add my two cents and give you some advice for success in 2010.
1. Write your goals down. Without a specific record of your goals you are less likely to commit to the follow through and actually accomplish your goals.
2. Review your website now. Make sure it’s accurate, functioning well and current. You have very little time when someone lands on your site to entice them to delve deeper into your site. Make sure your site gives the impression you want. Make sure there is a clear and easy path for visitors to take to get to what you offer. The fewer clicks it takes for them to get there, the better. Test links, shopping cart buttons and everything. You should do this regularly but we all get busy and it falls by the wayside. Take the time now – start the new year right and don’t limit your success before you even get going.
3. Take action daily. There is so much you can do. Participate in Twitter, write a Blog post, write an article, send a mailing to your list. Join a discussion in a Forum. Make sure every day you do at least one thing that will create buzz and drive traffic to your site.
4. If you have a physical store or office, make sure you are listed in the local engines and directories
and make sure your listings are complete.
5. Get your site listed in the top of the search engines.
There is no disputing the importance of top search engine rankings and there is no excuse for continuing to ignore it. If you don’t have a budget to hire someone, learn what you can do yourself. Make this the year you finally take action and improve your search engine rankings.
6. Stop ignoring social media. It’s not going away. It’s only becoming more important.
a. Create a Facebook Fan Page.
b. Set up your Twitter account (including a custom background) and learn how to use Twitter to grow your business (you need a strategy for building your audience and writing tweets that get people to take action) – For more details see:
c. Start a Blog (make sure you understand what Blog platform is best & learn how to Blog successfully. For more details:
7. Check the load time of your site.
See where you can compress things and fix code to be sure your site loads quickly. This is becoming more important to the engines.
2010 is going to be a big year – with or without you there will be great successes online and lots of money made. So make sure you are prepared to claim your share.
Things are getting more competitive and things are changing quicker than ever before.
How can EcomBuffet help you?
For more information on how to succeed on Twitter, visit: (I’ve gotten amazing feedback on how helpful this course has been for people)
To request info on a killer Facebook Fan Page, email jennifer@ecombuffet.com and use “Facebook Fan Page” as the subject line. I can get you more information and a quote.
To request an SEO consultation to see where you stand and how you can benefit from SEO, email jennifer@ecombuffet.com – Please use the subject line “Consultation Request”
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Great article, especially for newcomers.
Many of my clients do not have a plan in mind when they first start out and this is one of the initial recommendations I make to them.
I would also suggest that a SEO checklist be created and maintained on a regular basis. SEO should be considered as a part of site maintenance, NOT a “set it and forget it” tool.
Great comments.
I continue to have problems implementing “taking action daily”. I guess that is why I continue to get calls to manage our CPC program, SEO activities, Contact management, etc.
I still have not found the formula for getting our blog site recognized. Not sure if we’re targeting the right community of interest, directories, blog layout, etc.
I would appreciate your comments relative these topics in the future.
Mark
Hey Jen:
All good suggestions.
I have completed MOST of them, have a few more than I’m complete.
Thanks!
Hello Jennifer,
As always, a very enjoyable and informative article, its so easy in this super fast paced world to get off track. Keeping up with new projects and your overall goals is a chore in its self. Thank goodness i have most of the recommendations done or started, now the hard part is keeping up with it.
Sincerely,
Thanks for this cool post. Anyway i found your blog on yahoo mail and find it very useful.
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful for me.
Mark – please email me your Blog URL and I’ll take a peak and give you some suggestions. Please put “re: your Blog post” or something like that in the subject line and I’ll look out for it so it doesn’t get lost in my spam folder or inbox.
Check the load time of your site and validate your code.
I have work in that.
The posts are extremely helpful for me
I have been trying to learn, besides the English language.
Jennifer,
I enjoy reading your messages, and have learned from them.
I have joined a link building subscription service, and would like your opinion on them.
Thanks
Lary
Larry – what link building service is it? In my experience most of them aren’t that great, but I would have to look at it to be sure.
-Jenn
Nice article, thank’s for this! Twitte quickstart is very useful.