Nate Burgoyne's Online Internet Marketing Blog » Search Engine Optimization

Getting hammered with SEO solicitations too?

Nate Burgoyne — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:42:18 +0000

Are you getting hammered with SEO solicitations too? You’re not alone. Business owners are contacting me in a panic, “Nate, Nate . . . I got this email saying that I’m not on page 1 of Google and that I should be. What should I do?” Relax, you’re not alone. They’re even soliciting my SEO company, which is somewhat humorous to me. What does that tell me? There’s a software that’s spam emailing companies around the world. However, they’ve got a pretty good sales email and there are some cool things we can learn from their efforts. Here are three of them:

You can create your market.
Email is a powerful marketing tool.
Your competition can create business for you.

Would I trust my personal SEO to a stranger? No way. But c’mon Nate, you try everything to see if it works. Well, not this time. And, why not? A huge percentage of my business is picking up the pieces after SEO has been done wrong. One prospective client came to me and said, “We got SEO done and we’re nowhere to be found online. Can you help?” After having a closer look at the attempt to search engine optimize the site, I found the problem. What was it? Whoever optimized the site thought it would be “tricky” to put keywords with black text on a black background to hide the words and boost seo with hidden text. While that may have worked in 1985, it got this particular company severely penalized by Google. I went though page after page trying to find them in the search engines and could not find them anywhere. What can be done to fix the problem? The SEO needs to be fixed, then the website needs to be altered, and then the endless process of resubmitting the site to Google for reconsideration, which may or may not prove successful. Rarely would I ever recommend starting over, but for this particular case, that was the recommendation.

Want a huge SEO tip? Add fresh content to your website weekly or daily if possible.

Are you sure you’re ready for page 1 of Google?

Nate Burgoyne — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 01:28:01 +0000

If you’re a normal entrepreneurial minded business owner, you occasionally lie awake at night staring up at the ceiling fantasizing about what it would be like for your business to show up on the first page of Google. “Ahh…,” you think, ”All my problems will be solved,” you think to yourself.

The truth is, a first page listing on Google might not change your business one bit. “Woah! Nate! What are you talking about? Getting people on page one is part of your business, right?”

Yes, it is. However, many businesses aren’t ready to be on page one of Google for a number of reasons. Why? First of all, how many websites show up on the first page of Google or any other search engine? About 10. What makes you think that just because you’re on the first page, they are going to click on your company? When you search for something on the internet do you open every single one of the of the top 10 results for what you were searching for? No, of course not. You scan the results for the one that looks most relevant to you.

If you are in the top 10 results did you know you can control what text shows up in the search results to represent your business? You can, by editing the “Title” and “Description” meta tags of your website. What if you put a call to action in your title or description? Would that increase the number of people that click through to YOUR website? You bet your biffy it would.

For more great tips and discussion about “Are you ready for page 1 of Google?”, listen to www.internetpowerradio.com tomorrow, Friday, at 10am Hawaii, 1 pm Pacific. You can listen to the show streaming online or by calling in on your phone. See you then.

Are you wasting your online marketing money?

Nate Burgoyne — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 21:36:41 +0000

I just finished up another Internet Power Radio show about “keywords’? What does that have to do with wasting online marketing money? What if you had a candle making business and just pumped thousands of dollars into an online marketing campaign around the phrase “homemade candles” only to find out later that nobody is searching for that phrase, and that actually everyone is searching for “home made candles”? That’d be a major bummer. Learn how you can permanently avoid that mistake by listening to the reply of today’s Internet Power Radio at www.internetpowerradio.com. Who do you know that’s planning on marketing their business online? Do them a favor and send them to the replay. It’s up for today only, then it’s gone from the public forever!

Zero to Page One of Google in Six Days

Nate Burgoyne — Tue, 17 May 2011 19:19:34 +0000

Last week, Thursday, I woke up and the mad scientist in me demanded an experiment. So, I decided to see how quickly I could go from zero to Page One of Google of a website for local search terms. I mean, I was ready to start at absolutely zero…no domain name…nothing. After some mental discussion with myself about what industry I wanted to get build this site for, I decided on electricians. Everyone needs and electrician. Seriously, I could prune my trees if I really had to. I could paint walls if I really had to. I could pour some Drano down the sink if I really had to. But, electrical work…no way. Hold a gun to my head and tell me to wire a house, and I’d be seriously challenged. So, I went with electrician industry. I decided to go for search engine rank for the town that is the surf capital of the world, Haleiwa, on the North Shore of the island of Oahu, HI that is the home to many electricians.

Well, according to WhoIs.net I registered the domain name on May 12, 2011. After registering the domain name, I built a search engine optimized website. I did some Search Engine Optimization magic on the site and when I checked it today, May 17, 2011 the site had page one placement for tons of targeted search phrases including: electrician haleiwa, haleiwa electrician, commercial electrician haleiwa, residential electrician haleiwa, haleiwa residential electrician, haleiwa commercial electrician, house wiring haleiwa, circuit breaker haleiwa, exhaust fans haleiwa, track lighting haleiwa, accent lighting haleiwa, light switches haleiwa, electrician north shore oahu, north shore oahu electrician, north shore oahu residential electrician, north shore oahu commercial electrician, commercial electrician north shore oahu, residential electrician north shore oahu.

If you were an electrician and your website showed up on page one of Google, and even page 1, number 1 for about half of those phrases, what difference would that make in your business?

Now, I’m not an electrician so I have no use for the website. Do you know of an electrician that would like more phone calls? Have them email info@integrityonlinemarketing.com about the Haleiwa electrician website for information about how they can own the site.

Got a website, you’d like additional exposure for online? Email info@integrityonlinemarketing.com.
Want to learn how to effectively market your business online? Free training at www.internetpowerradio.com.

Oh, and if you do need a residential or commercial electrician in Haleiwa, be sure to check in with Dave Hancock at Paumalu Electric, he’s the guy I personally call when I need an electrician. His number is (808) 638-9054.

Don’t be fooled, “SEO comes with it.”

Nate Burgoyne — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 21:42:50 +0000

Have you been fooled by SEO marketing? I am going to spill the beans on deceptive advertising by some web designers and do-it-yourself website companies. What beans am I spilling? Search engine optimization beans.

I was meeting with a prospective marketing client a few weeks ago who wanted to discuss search engine optimizing their existing website to work their way up to the top of Google.

We met for an hour or so to discuss strategy for achieving a higher placement in Google. Well, to make a long story short, I received an email about a week later thanking me for my time and telling me that they are going to rebuild their site with a do-it-yourself service and that “SEO comes with it.” SCREEEEECH….CRASH!

SEO comes with it? What does that mean?

Out of curiosity, I checked it out. “SEO comes with it,” in this case meant that you can edit the title of the website, the text of the website, and the tags and description for the website if you want.

The illusion is that if you build a website that comes with SEO, that the website will be optimized for you. Wrong! That’s like selling someone a car with no oil, no gas, no brake fluid, no transmission fluid, no coolant, and no battery, then advertising that it “comes with an engine.” There are some mechanical parts under the hood, but that car is going nowhere.

So, the new car owner spends the next 6-12 months beating their head against the steering wheel trying to figure out why this car that “comes with an engine” isn’t going anywhere.

Search engine optimization is a series of strategies used to help boost a website’s placement in the search engines, and it’s only as good as the marketer implementing those strategies. All search engine optimization is definitely not created equal. In fact, if done wrong, Google will penalize your website and kick you down even further.

To my prospective client’s credit, they did say that their SEO “will need a tune up after we are done.” So, they’re on the right track. However, I went ahead and looked at the code of several websites built using the do-it-yourself system. What did I find? About 9 out of ten had ZERO search engine optimization done and 1 had a weak attempt at search engine optimizing the site.

So when you read something like this on a DIY website builder sales page, “Optimized for the best SEO and results ranking,” which I just quoted from the Features section of a popular website builder, don’t believe the hype.

Want a pair of second eyes to look at you website SEO, visit my company site at www.integrityonlinemarketing.com and mention this post when calling or contacting us.

Global Reach from a Small Town in the Pacific

Nate Burgoyne — Sat, 29 May 2010 16:00:14 +0000

If Al Gore was really the actual guy invented the internet, I am long over due for sending him a fruit basket! Here I am in my home office on the island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that is further from a main continent than any other island chain the world conducting business at a global level. And, you can do the same.

When it comes to marketing online, Google, Yahoo!, Bing, AOL, and others don’t care where you business is, how many employees you have, what your tax return was last year, or what you wear to “the office”, which for many businesses is little more than a leisurely stroll past the refrigerator for a cold drink then on to a laptop at the kitchen table. The job of the search engines is to deliver relevant information to those searching for it.

The real online marketing magic happens when you learn how to make your business the source of information that people are searching for.

Let’s go through a real life example. Suppose you have a small boutique in Hawaii on the North Shore of the island of Oahu that sells a variety of products. Where would you start marketing online? Well, first of all, with some research you learn that every month there are about 1,000 people around the world searching online for the exact phrase “gifts of Hawaii”. Next, you make some changes to your website so that it comes up at the top of Google when people search for “gifts of Hawaii”. Then, if your website is built to sell, you’ve tapped into a steady stream of customers.

This is a perfect example because the average business owner would not think that “gifts of Hawaii” is what people are actually searching for. Well, they are. And when that little Hawaiian boutique owner’s business starts showing up on the Google search engine when people search for “gifts of Hawaii”, the sales are poised to go up.

And for all those Hawaiian boutique owners that read my blog, “You’re welcome”. Happy marketing!

Will Your Website Get The Luck of the Draw?

Nate Burgoyne — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:57:25 +0000

Wondering if you’re website will win the luck of the draw? Well, it’s inevitable that when a website becomes popular and successful, that someone is going to say, “They’re so lucky,” as if to imply that thousands of visitors all gathered together in a big room, pulled a website address out of a hat, and decided to visit that site every day for the rest of their lives and buy things from it.

Most website owners would like to think that’s the way it works. They play their website like the lottery. . . throw some money in, get a site, and hope the world falls in love with it making the owner insanely rich.

If that’s how you’re going to play the game, save your money for Las Vegas. You probably have a better chance of winning there than online.

Successful websites that generate leads and make money for the owner are planned out meticulously and strategically positioned for success. I know what you’re thinking. . . how?

Well, I used to buy run down houses, renovate, them and resell them. My mentor taught me the secret trick to fix anything. He would say, “How you do you fix a leaking roof? It’s easy! Write a check.” ”How do you fix a broken foundation? It’s easy. Write a check!” ”How you to get rid of scary mold? It’s easy! Write a check.”

When he used to say things like that, I would think to myself, “Oh man, I can’t keep writing checks for stuff like that.” But the truth was I had to, and it was was well worth it. I was running a business, and my job was to run the business, not to try and fix the leaking toilets. And the truth is, paying to get things done was always a fraction of what I though it would actually cost.

What’s my point you ask? We’re not fixing houses.

The point is, when you take your business online, treat it like a business and get the right people working on your team. If not, while you’re trying to figure out how to get a video to show up on your website, your wise competitor has already hired the right guy to do it for him, and he can now spend his time where it matters most, helping his customers and filling orders.

Your Website Shouldn’t Cost You Anything!

Nate Burgoyne — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:39:04 +0000

“How much does a website cost?” This is an interesting question that always leaves me puzzled. In my opinion, your website shouldn’t cost you anything; it should be a money making-asset. The problem is, most small businesses hire “some web guy” in Wheatfield, Indiana that knows nothing about online marketing. And then, not surprisingly, the website doesn’t do the job it’s supposed to do: #1 Be Seen and #2 Make Money.

So, the thought quickly permeates the entrepreneur and small business world that websites cost SO much money. Well, if your website isn’t making you sales, it could actually be costing you much more than you even paid to get it built in the first place. The real question is, “How much money is your website costing you?”

Let’s look at a fictitious scenario that may be all too real for some of you. You may never look at your own website the same way again. Read at your own risk.

Kip the Carpet Cleaner – Kip owns a new small carpet cleaning business. In fact, he bought the best carpet cleaning equipment there was to offer. At first he operated off of word of mouth referrals and did a darn good job. However, after he had cleaned all of his friends and family’s carpets, his well of business leads was almost dried up. So, he decided to look into getting website. His brother-in-law once built a little website for his son’s karate team, and said he’d do it for him cheap. Cheap is what Kip wanted. After all a good businessman gets things cheap right? So, he pays his brother-in-law a couple hundred bucks, and gets his website . . . 4 months later. While he was waiting for his site, Kip had to get a part-time job at the grocery store to make ends meet. Hey, that’s okay, we have to do what we can while we’re building our businesses, right? When he finally got the site, it was nothing special, and looked like those free ones you get with some hosting plans. In fact, it might have been just that, but Kip couldn’t tell, but he paid for it. Well, when Kip got his website, nothing changed. The site was boring, it wasn’t search engine optimized so nobody ever found his business online, and those who he gave his business card to, with his web address on it, went to his website and quickly left, not impressed by his online business-front. Kip kept working at the grocery store and still has some nice carpet cleaning machines out in his shed.

Randy the Rug Magician – Randy also started a carpet cleaning business. Although his equipment wasn’t best money could buy, it was good enough for the average carpet, and he would respectfully decline jobs that he knew he couldn’t handle. Randy had decided to invest his money into a marketing plan that included a professional website that cost him 4x what Kip paid for his. Randy’s plan was to focus on marketing so that he could get a steady stream of customers that would help him pay for the top of the line equipment he desired. So, while Kip was waiting on his brother-in-law to do his website for 4 months, Randy got his professional website in 2 weeks, and started marketing it online immediately. His website was professional, search engine optimized, and built to convert visitors into customers. In fact, when you went online to Google.com and searched for “AnyTownUsa carpet cleaning”, his website came up on the first page of the results. When potential customers went browsing for the right company, Randy’s professional website told his clients that he really knew his stuff and would do a great job. The result, Randy had steady flow of business from his investment in a quality website that was search engine optimized and built to convert visitors into buyers. He quickly was able to upgrade his carpet cleaning machines, and then franchised his operation to neighboring towns.

What does, Kip’s website cost him? Well, it cost him his business.
What does Randy’s website cost him? Absolutely nothing. It’s a money-making lead-generating asset.

What is your website costing you?

Ready to make a change? I can help. Visit my company website here.

► Attention Business Owners and Entrepreneurs! Workshop Jan 27 – “Double-Barreled Online Marketing Tactics for 2010!”

Nate Burgoyne — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:42:25 +0000

Whether you realize it or not, the 2010 marketing showdown between you and your competition has already begun; both you and your competition have decided to make 2010 the year when things are going to change.

Are you committed to coming out on top? What will make the difference for your business in 2010? The economy? Wrong! A bail-out bill? No! The FED printing more money? No! The answer is YOU!

In this workshop, web designer and online marketing specialist, Nate Burgoyne is going to blast through the fluff with a “double-barreled marketing shotgun” and show you what really works!

More info and pre-workshop download at http://www.nateburgoyne.com/double-barreled .

Space is Limited. First come, first serve.

Workshop is at the Hawaii Women’s Business Center in Honolulu. http://www.hwbc.org

Got pre-workshop questions, email Nate at nate@nateburgoyne.com or connect through LinkedIn. You are also welcome to comment on this thread.

Nate Burgoyne ( http://www.nateburgoyne.com ) is a web designer and online marketing specialist. He is president of Integrity Online Marketing (http://www.integrityonlinemarketing.com)

Looking for Your Feedback About My New Honolulu Web Design Company Website!

Nate Burgoyne — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:50:38 +0000

Aloha friends! Wow, it’s been a while since my last blog post, and for good reason. About 10 minutes ago, I launched the website for my Honolulu web design, seo, and internet marketing company, Integrity Online Marketing. It is one of the most search engine aggressive websites I have ever built. I’ll be tracking traffic and search engine rank for my targeted keywords. . . and of course I’ll keep you all posted on my progress. Did I do anything different that what I teach my students and do for my clients? No. However, given the competitive nature of my business, I had to give it an extra dosage of keyword research and SEO. Next, it’s time to launch the marketing campaign to start driving traffic. Here’s the website: www.integrityonlinemarketing.com. If you can spare a minute, some feedback would me great. You can leave feedback in the comments of this blog. I’m pretty thick skinned, so give it to me straight my friends. Aloha and happy marketing!