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
Most Burning Question:
Where’s are the best places to post an event to maximize attendance?
I’m planning an event that will benefit a ton of people. I’m needing help figuring out where to post it.What are your ideas and thoughts about places and venues to promote this? Thanks!
You probably won’t like my answer, but it comes from doing things the hard way before I got smart and learned better.
~ Bill Glazer GKIC
Here is the secret in a nutshell…
If you want to successfully get people to your event, promote it to your own list of prospects. OR, second to that, partner with people who have BIG lists and have them endorse you and your event to their list.
I have in the past busted my fanny to help people promoted events that did not have a list. It is brutally hard work.
I won’t take on any seminar marketing unless they have a big list to promote it to. I don’t care how much money they wave at me. The headaches aren’t worth it.
If you want to do workshops and seminars, build a list of hot prospects who have in interest in what you do. Build it to be at least 10 times the size of the event you want to have. (100 times larger or higher is better)
Give them good content, establish that you are the expert in your niche, build a relationship with them so they trust and believe you.
Months out start to tease them by sharing about your event giving them ‘behind the scenes’ stories. This builds anticipation and can be fun for both you and your readers.
Then start pitching the event with an early sign up discount. (Note: even if it is a free event, you still have to sell it, because FREE = no value until you show them there is a value).
Keep mixing in stories about the behind the scenes work to keep them excited so even if they registered, they will attend.
Other Tips:
Don’t just rely on Internet Marketing. Send a post card, fax, letter, etc. Conversion on the same marketing pieces used offline vs online is as much as 5x higher.
Use video so they get to know you and the other people involved in the event. Video allows people to feel connected to you. Email is much more sterile, hard to build a bond unless you are a great writer.
Take Away Action:
I’m guessing you don’t have your own list, so if I were you I would figure out everyone who does have a list of people who would enjoy/benefit from this event and work a JV deal to have them promote the event to their list.
One more thing… one of the other answers mentioned blogs. This can work for you if the person blogging has:
- Readers who fit the profile of your ideal prospect
- A large readership
- A good relationship with the readers
Certain bloggers have quite a bit of respect and authority with their readers, so if they say “you should go to X event” the readers will respond.
Most Burning Question:
I have a question… we are told to use keywords (hypnosis)!! in headers in content etc. What I am confused about is that at the same time we are told that because of the number of hypnosis sites (already ranked on first page with those keywords)we need other keywords to be distinguished and noticed. Then should we be using hypnosis on every page?????
From what you write, it sounds like you are trying to Optimize your site for Search Engine placement. Otherwise known as SEO.
I’ll explain about keywords in a minute, but let me get this very important point across.
SEO is a moving target. There are people who spend all their waking hours trying to get listed on the front page of ‘organic’ search results.
Google (owns about 70% of the search market) changes their rules all the time to keep people from ‘gaming’ the search engines and using ‘black hat’ techniques to get listed on the front page.
Every time they do it changes the game and who is listed on top.
So here is the key learning for today…
If it’s important to you, pay someone who knows what they are doing. Really good keyword research involves hours of time and you need to know just what it is you are looking for.
It’s not just the number of searches per month. You need to know how to evaluate if you a have snowball’s chance of getting ranked high for the keyword.
This means you need to know how to evaluate the competition for that keyword AND what tools to use to get data you can trust.
This kind of market research is a skill all it’s own.
Now, some important things to know about keywords, web pages, and search results.
1. It is generally better to work with keyword phrases than single keywords.
Trying to get ranked for a word like golf, car, pets, hypnosis is a complete waste of time. If you want to be ranked highly for words like that… just buy the website that is already ranked. It’s the most effective strategy and likely the less expensive one over time.
Cal Banyan recently did this when he bought Hypnosis.org
2. On any web page you can only get ranked for one keyword phrase, possibly two.
Search engines look at context, not just keywords. They can tell when you are ‘word spamming’ to get ranked. Real content has semantically related words and is linked to related content.
One topic per web page, one keyword phrase.
On a website you could get ranked for only a handful of topics and they would need to be tightly related.
Lesson: It’s like I teach in how to position yourself… what do you want to be known for?
3. As a small business, your best hope lies with ‘long tail’ keyword phrases.
Instead of hypnosis, you should try to get ranked for “san mateo hypnotist”
Instead of stop smoking, you should try to get ranked for “stop smoking delray beach Florida”
There are two reasons to do this, first the competition for those phrases is much lower, second people who type in 3 or more words are usually looking to BUY. People who type in one word are looking for information, a different part of the buying process.
This is how I got my blog ranked #1 in Google and Yahoo. I picked specific long tail phrases and worked at putting articles on my blog with those phrases. And I used a blogging tool highly SEO optimized so all the work was done automatically for me. It took me about 4 months to get on the front page and 6 months to get to #1.
4. It is good to do basic SEO to every web page on your site (once you know what you want to optimize for). But again you can PAY someone who knows what they are doing. You should NOT be doing this yourself.
Here is a list of basics:
* Primary objective should be accomplished from the homepage
* Keyword in title (unique for each page, include keywords)
* Keyword in h1 on each page
* Keyword in text
* Optimize URL architecture (www.website.com/birds/eagle instead of www.website.com/allanimals/?type=bird&species=eagle). Use 301 redirects if you rename pages
* Information architecture – as few clicks as possible
* On relevant images include keywords in alt tags in filenames
* No-follow appropriate links
For those of you who can’t resist tinkering, or want to know how to direct your web monkey to do it for you… download a copy of the SEO web developer’s cheat sheet.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-web-developers-seo-cheat-sheet
Or if you are really masochistic and want to try to do it yourself… here is a link to the SEO beginner’s checklist.
5. You can BUY traffic much faster than you can ever hope to get a top ranking in Google
by using Google’s adwords advertising system.
In less than 15 minutes you can create an ad with adwords and have it on the front page of Google. You can target ANY keyword phrase you want, and then send the traffic to any web page on your site.
[Note: I'll be teaching a course in how to use Adwords at the National Guild of Hypnotists 2008 Convention]
