Don't ignore ALT tags/image attributes. These tags are the ones associated with images on your pages. and they carry a good deal of weight especially if the image is used as a link. The ALT text counts the same as anchor text in a text-based link.
Today's tip is brought to us by Karon Thackston
A number of methods are needed to bring traffic to your website. There is no such thing as a “One Trick Pony” when it comes to Internet Marketing. So don’t trust the company that gets your ranks high then leaves it chance to go on to the next client. Good SEO is only as good as the time and effort that is put into it. Ultimately, it’s not just about SEO it’s about taking all the appropriate actions to generate leads.
Remember, you do not only want more traffic, but you want traffic that will be composed of only potential leads. Otherwise, you are wasting time, not to mention money. However, designing your process toward the right market niche will help you increase traffic and begin to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
It all begins with deciding on the strategy for increasing traffic to your site. While most online business owners will use a variety of methods rather than just one, it is important to choose one primary solution, at least at first. Also remember to be flexible with your strategy and keep an open mind. Try one method of targeting traffic, work it for about a month, evaluate, and then make any necessary
Finally, use your competition to your advantage. For example, if you decide to use communities and forums as a means of generating targeted traffic, you do not want to trash talk them, feel frustrated, or even get into a competition. Instead, use the competition to showcase the products or services you have to sell, which will make you appear more professional and strong to people who are paying attention.
This is a great article about keeping a good reputation in an economic down turn. “Keep A Positive Brand Image during a Recession” by Wayne Hurlbert. This article was actually written in 2008, but the content is very appropriate and timely, check it out.
- During an economic downturn, a good brand reputation could be a matter of your company survival. When times are hard, people prefer to do business with others whom they know and trust, even more than when the economy is strong. What people think of your brand and its promise are essential to that trust.
When money is in short supply, your customers become more reluctant to spend their limited cash. As a result, they will be much more careful about who receives their business. In the Great Depression of the 1930's, people were so short of cash, they often were dependent on credit at certain stores. That hard earned trust was considered a two way arrangement. In return for the credit during cash shortages, customer loyalty was nurtured that continued even when the economy improved.
Depression survivors were very loyal to certain businesses and reliable products that delivered on their brand promise. There was no margin for error, as a bad brand represented a major cash loss. It became a commonplace for those who lived through the Great Depression, to retain loyalty for their entire lives, to brands that kept their word on quality and reliability.
It's not enough to expand marketing efforts and to increase advertising and sales staff to gain market share. Those activities are important in recessions to retain and expand your company's customer list. At the same time, it's crucial that your products and services meet the promises made in those marketing materials. A customer, who feels as if their needs were ignored, or taken for granted, will take their potential for long term loyalty to your competitors. Your brand promise must be kept, or your customers will disappear. As in the Great Depression, that perceived loyalty remains a two way street.
Modern customers may revive that long term brand support even outside of a recession. A promise kept on brand performance can still build lifetime loyalty, as well as creating customer evangelists who will spread the word about your products and services. Brand loyalty becomes even more crucial to business survival when money is tight. As a result of an economic slowdown, wise business owners and managers would be well served to ensure that all their brand promises were kept, and also improved upon for success.
With slower economic conditions, loyalty to proven brand winners will be the order of the day. It's vital to your business success that your brand delivers on its word. When the economy rebounds, your superior products and services will win a loyal customer base for life.
To become a great boss or business owner you need to take the time to breathe and reflect on what you want from your business. The importance of reaching outside the box to gain business is essential and easier than ever with the Internet, but effective principles must be in place. There is probably more advice available on how to be an effective business owner than on almost any other subject. Such as:
These are timeless classics. Respectfully, the authors do not attempt to create any modern theory or expound on any particular business or market trend. There are just simply based on observation of effective people. None the less they are still important guidelines
Basically these books, especially Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” are summed up as follows:
Habit 1: Be proactive.
Change starts from within. Most people react to external forces. To lead effectively, you have to overcome that natural tendency.
Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind.
You cannot lead unless you know where you want to get to.
Habit 3: Put first things first.
This is similar to what Drucker recommends. You need to have a very clear view of what is important, so that you know what to spend time on. Note that this often means leaving your comfort zone by acting on tasks that you don't naturally like or feel competent in performing.
Habit 4: Think win/win.
Seek agreement and relationships that are mutually beneficial. In cases in which a win/win deal cannot be achieved, accept that agreeing on "no deal" may be the best alternative. In developing an organizational culture, be sure to reward win/win behavior among employees, and avoid inadvertently rewarding win/lose behavior.
Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
First seek to understand the other person, and only then try to be understood. Stephen Covey presents this habit as the most important principle of inter-personal relations. Effective listening is not simply echoing what the other person has said through the lens of your own experience. Rather, it is putting you in the mindset of the other person, listening empathetically for both feeling and meaning.
Habit 6: Synergize.
Through trustful communication, find ways to leverage individual differences to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Through mutual trust and understanding, people can often solve conflicts and find better solutions than would have been obtained through either person's own solution.
Habit 7: Sharpen the saw.
Take time out from production to build production capacity through personal renewal of the physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual dimensions. Maintain a balance among these dimensions.
Obviously, there is more to becoming a great boss or business owner, but by taking the time to breathe and reflect on what you want form your business the leadership will come.
Today’s market place is ever changing and becoming tougher for “rock and mortar” businesses. To keep your business and even gain business in this economy one needs to focus efforts online. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a term coined around 1997, according to Industry analyst Danny Sullivan. It was used when Site owners started to recognize the value of having their sites highly ranked and visible in search engine results, creating an opportunity for SEO practitioners. Now it has become a must in any online marketing campaign.
So, think clearly, make the best of every tool you have and your business will do fine.
