I am not sure that buying someone else’s domain or website is cheaper. Maybe that is not actually what you meant. Hypnosis.org cost $70,000 I think. That is out of reach for people.

THINKING LIKE A BUSINESS OWNER

Yes that is true, not everyone has $70,000. But as a Business Strategy, if you wanted the number one spot for a keyword and you knew you could instantly monetize the traffic to make $100,000/year… I’ll be you could find a way to borrow the $70k.

This is actually an entirely different level of thinking in business. You are in effect buying the traffic upfront.

Now, the real reason I use Hypnosis.org as an example was to show the for very generic words like golf, travel, coffee, hypnosis it is VERY DIFFICULT to get highly ranked. So it is smarter to just buy the traffic at one of the top positions (assuming you have a way to monetize it).

GO FOR THE LOW HANGING FRUIT FIRST

And I also pointed out that it IS POSSIBLE to get ranked for keyword phrases like “San Francisco hypnosis” and “hypnosis pain relief san francisco”

Example (traffic counts from Google)

Hypnosis – 32877 daily searches 17,900,000 competing sites

San Francisco Hypnosis – 16 daily searches 1,130 competing sites

So for SF Hypnosis, there are approx 500 searches a month. If I could get 20% of those to my website (100 / month) and convert 2% of those into clients (avg value of client $1000) then this is worth

If I wanted to, I could be on the front page of Google for San Francisco Hypnosis in about 1-6 months.

But it would involve more than just SEO optimization. I would use Social Media, Social Bookmarking, Article Marketing, Blogging, and Online Press Releases.

Fact is, there is no way I’ll make the front page of Google for “hypnosis” because I’m competing against sites like Wikipedia and Ask.com. Plus these people are just looking for information, they are not ready to buy.

(Note: I could be on the front page of Google today for both of them today using Adwords.)

KEYWORDS CAN INDICATE BUYERS

Another important thing to understand is the words people search on indicate where they are in the buying cycle. A rule of thumb is, 3 or more keywords means they are looking to buy.

Example:

Hypnosis
Hypnosis CD’s
Hypnosis CD’s Stop Smoking

People who search on hypnosis could be looking for anything related to hypnosis from a wikipedia entry to where to take a class. And you really don’t have anyway of knowing.

But someone looking for hypnosis stop smoking CD’s… pretty good chance they are looking to buy. This is why it’s important to choose your keywords wisely when thinking about your webpages and SEO.

I know you say Hypnotists shouldn’t do SEO. Is it still good for hypnotists to learn how to make their page have the basic elements to get good organic search engine placement?

Excellent question. And I realize I wasn’t clear on this with my last post (Keywords and SEO for Hypnosis Websites part I)

KNOW SEO BASICS

I’m not saying be ignorant of SEO. As a business owner it is yet one more thing you need to understand at least at a meta-level.

And if you write articles it is smart to know how to use keywords in the title (the headline), the body, for images, and link tags. It’s smart Internet marketing.

YOU ARE A HYPNOTIST NOT AN SEO EXPERT

My advice is this: You don’t need to know the technical issues of SEO because they change constantly. Learn the basics so you can use it when you write CONTENT, and so you can speak with web developers, but do NOT spend hours of time on it.

Here’s why:

80% of people who search on a term click on results on the first page of search (10 total results)

17% click on the second page of results

3% click on page three or lower

So the cold hard reality is, only the front page of search really matters. And it is VERY DIFFICULT to get on the first page, even for long tail keywords unless you really know what you are doing and bust your ass for a period of time to get there.

This is something you can OUTSOURCE.

MOST EFFECTIVE USE OF YOUR TIME

But, if you put that same energy into:

• Writing press releases and faxing them to local media
• Speaking at targeted gatherings in your local area
• Write articles to ATTRACT clients to you and submit them to local media and online article sites
• Build a list of local addresses and sent out a monthly newsletter
• Find local businesses that serve the same clientèle and did a JV deal with them
• Learned how to approach doctors, hospitals, and dentists and set up client referrals

As a hypnotist, you would get much more business FASTER, than you could mucking around learning all there is to know about SEO and tinkering with your website.

USE ADWORDS INSTEAD

Plus, if you learn how to use Google Adwords, you can quickly have an ad on the front page of search for any keyword you wish to use. And Google Ads can be set to show only in the local metro area which makes them extremely cost effective for local business.

If you are going to invest your time into getting on the front page, use Adwords and you can be there today. Literally 20 minutes from when you open the account.

Two good books on adwords you can get at Amazon.com are

“Adwords for Dummies” by Howie Jacobson
“Ultimate Guide To Google Adwords” by Perry Marshall

YOUR TIME IS MOST MOST PRECIOUS ASSET

Gary Halbert had a philosophy which I have realized all highly successful business people have. He said

He pointed out that most unsuccessful people have the philosophy I will spend as much time as possible to save money. He said, “you can always make more money, but the time is gone forever”

Takeaway Points:

• SEO is constantly changing but there are some basics that do not change
• Learn enough to know what you need, pay a professional to do it for you
• Focus your time on what makes you the most income

Useful Resources:

How to write keyword optimized articles:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2003253_keyword-optimized-article.html