However, I’m thinking of going into SEO consulting for local small businesses, and decided to use my own business site as a test.  It’s been indexed by Google for a long time ( over 200 pages), last on March 6th, so fairly fresh.

I dug into the site tonight and discovered that my meta tags sucked!  Much like doing PPC, you want to stay away from an SEO tag that is too general, like “endurance” and “coach”.  No one looking for a triathlon coach in my hometown is going to go to google and type in “endurance”.  Amazing how much you learn in a year.

So I corrected the metatags and keywords.  I’m taking screenshots of before and after and I can then use this information in my presentations to local businesses.

My current goal is to rank #1 for two local search phrases, and if possible, show up in the Google Local Business Listings.

After fixing the meta tags, I dugg one of my articles to get the google bot back around sooner.  I am upgrading the underlying site structure (Joomla) in order ot further maximize the SEO of the site.   I’ll keep you updated.

But I’d like to take this one step further. I’m interested in who my readers are and I’m also intersted in increasing my subscriber base. You can be assured that I’ll continue to seed my RSS feed with information relevant to internet marketing, being an affiliate, building traffic to your site and getting the targeted visitors that you want.

I’d like to propose a free website review for anyone who subscribes to my RSS feed as a new reader over the next 2 weeks.

Here’s the twist…how will I know who the subscribers were? If the number of people claiming they subscribe more or less matches my feed count increase, then I guess everyone is a winner.

Keep in mind that i can’t review all the sites at once, but leave a comment below letting me know you’ve subscribed to my RSS feed (orange button, top right) or alternatively, to my email subscription (the next box down), along with your name and your website.

And if anyone knows a trick to figure out who the RSS subscribers are, please let me know! OK, the timer starts NOW. All new RSS or email subscribers between now and October 4th will receive a free Case Study featuring YOUR OWN blog! All I ask in return is a link from your blog back to your featured case study.

Sounds like a great deal to me!

Psst…(Please help spread the word by linking to this post!)

His recent post discussion whether or not he should SELL his blog has netted over 35 comments and his RSS feed has nearly 100 subscribers.

Intrigued at how a new blog (four months), a young author (25 I believe) and a novice marketer (by his own admission) attained such traffic I began a systemic review of his posts to see if I could summarize some of his keys to early success towards his goal.

Here are my current thoughts. Bryan, if you’re reading, feel free to comment!

1) He has a mission.

Bryan has a clearly stated goal for his blog with regular updates on how he is coming along. As I read his archives, intially with a clinical eye towards analysis, I found myself rooting for Bryan and his objectives. I looked forward to his traffic & income updates, and so did others.

2) He interacts.

Bryan has several posts in the first few weeks which indicate significant interaction with his blog readers in several different areas.

1. Others blogs (by commenting I presume)
2. His own email
3. His own commenting system

These may sound like 3 obvious sources of interaction, but I think we all get lazy with “outreach”, and assume that others will come to use. You have to give in order to get, some might say, but it seems to be working for Bryan.

3) He provides value added content

This post on 9 things to know when starting a blog is Bryan’s first true “Value Added” post. But by this time, his readers have gotten to know him, and he delivers on his promise of “101″ Education for New Bloggers.

Well, that doesn’t seem like a lot, but Bryan got off to a great start. Basically he has stuck with the above formula, and this past weekend, he was given an offer to sell his blog. Whether that offer has anything to do with his content is difficult to tell, it seems the “offerer” just wants the domain name.

Nevertheless, had he not set out on his journey, he’d have never encountered the person making an offer. Want to see what Bryan decides?

Then get over to his blog right now and check it out!

1. Jim creates a WordPress website, with a blog about concerns that Small Business Owners have, and of course, how he can help them. Here’s a great example about an entrepreneurial startup.
2. Jim notes that he’s started getting search engine hits on “etides”, an online tax payment system.
3. Jim creates a landing page for “etides”, and adds this to his AdSense ads as a landing page. This clever trick is a great way to get a search engine “ranking” in the first page of hits via AdWords advertising as opposed to hoping & waiting that his blog will actually be ranked in the top 10 on Google’s Search Engine. With his new landing page making judicious use of his keyword “e-tides”, he may in fact get there soon enough.

After discussing his “etides” hits with me, Jim created a great post that acts as his landing page. As a small business owner, wouldn’t you be reassured to read something like this? The fact that he understands the fear small business owners face and is able to communicate effectively develops trust between Jim & his clients.

I speak to many Small Business Owners who are consistently late on their state taxes. Many times, it is simply the cognitive friction and emotional turmoil of interfacing with the E-tides system that leads to the chronically missed payments.

The Padgett Business Services Blog is doing a lot of things right, and we could all take some lessons from him including:

• Unique and informative content
• Targeted towards his clients
• Easy to use interface
• Ample opportunity for interaction with his visitors

But the most important thing that Jim is doing right now, is analyzing his site, reviewing traffic, following leads, and creating responsive content to grab targeted leads for his business.

You can see his full landing page here, From Apprehension to Assurance

Naturally he is analytically inclined. I hired him not only because he has the patience to climb mountains of receipts and separate the important from unimportant, But also because he gets me a good (and ethical) refund on my taxes.

His inclination, however, is not just with dollar figures. He recently started a blog for his business services. How many clients can he service? Right now he’s a one man show. Twelve to twenty-four clients is probably a lot for him. So why does he need a blog for less than twenty clients?

Well, my accountant does more than just crunch numbers. He’s a “small business evangelist.” He works solely with small business owners who face unique and challenging situations compared to the corporate world. Impossibilities are overcome daily when you are a small business owner, and you can never have too much pertinant advice when it comes to managing business affairs.

“Is Every Dollar Pulling it’s Weight?”

In comes my accountant…

Jim writes articles that help small business owners make sure every dollar is working for them. His Articles re-frame common problems business owners face and offer solutions for solving them. He’s not just trying to win clients, he’s trying to evangelize to small business owners.

He describes a sense of peace that overcomes him when he has the opportunity to explain to a small business owner how to overcome payroll obstacles, how to face the IRS and how to save time & money when filing paperwork. By blogging, he reaches scores more people than his current clients.

The Ebb and Flow of “E-Tides”

Being the astute statistician that he is, he noticed that he was getting a lot of blog visits from Google searches on the word “etides”, which is an online sales tax payment system in his state. While he has only mentioned etides once or twice on his blog, it’s clear that people–likely small business owners in his state–are searching for information on the subject.

Instead of ignoring the hits and trying to force his blog in a different direction, he’s recognized this as an opportunity to reach even more people. a chance to make his blog #1 when a small business owner searches on information on “ETides”.

He told me tonight that he was going to write an article on ETides, make it a subpage of his “sales tax” section, and then create a new Ad Words ad, using his “ETides” page is the landing page for the Ad.

Brilliant!

He thought of it all himself, without any input from me or any internet marketing gurus.

Maybe it’s time for him to switch careers!

I suggest you take these action steps for your own blog:

1. If you haven’t already, sign up for Google Analytics to track information about hits to your blog, landing pages, exit pages and track campaign statistics.
2. Find out what search engine queries are resulting in hits to your blog.
3. If you haven’t already, create a dedicated article that is linked to from your homepage on these specific search queries.
4. Create a new AdWords campaign that uses the keywords in your article, and uses that article as your landing page.
5. Within that article, create cross-links within your own site to other related pages, especially if you can send someone to a sales page on your site.
6. Remove AdSense accounts from your article page so that navigation choices are limited to other pags within your site (don’t give the visitor an easy out)
7. Create a way, either on the article page or the sales page, to grab that visitors email address for your e-newsletter service. While the visitor is there, you want to capture their information so you can reach them instead of them finding you again.

By following the above steps, you will create:

• unique and useful content for your web visitors,
• increase targeted search engine hits to your site,
• increase your click through ratio of your Google AdWords, (and in turn increasing your quality score & lowering your click through price),

and most importantly,

• increase actual sales on your website of either your product or your service.

Here are some direct links to products and services that may help you with teh above action steps (some are affiliate sites…if you sign up through these links, I’ll make a little commission.)

Google AdWords -

Google AdSense –

Google Analytics – track visitors, campaigns, ads, search engine keywords and more on your website
AWeber - Email list service with auto-responder follow up messages – great way to convert more sales to your visitors. 30 day free trial.
WordPress – Open source (free) blogging software. Free hosting available on word press.
LunarPages – Great hosting services with auto-installation of word press,

Do you have any brilliant implementations of what to do with your search engine hits? If so, let’s hear them!