Before you start writing your next blog post or creating any other type of content, take a minute to think about how someone would search for the specific information you plan to add.  What words or phrases would YOU use in your favorite search engine search box to research your subject? What words would your friends and family who don’t know as much about that subject use?

Make each post or page about ONE subject best described by a specific two to three word phrase

These words and phrases are called keywords or keyword phrases. While some appear to advocate targeting one KEYWORD which I would not agree with, it appears he actually means one PHRASE and that is exactly what I do recommend. Targeting one word, especially if it is a common or very competitive word, is not going to be nearly as effective as targeting a two or three word phrase.

Here are some examples:

• If you sell gifts online create individual pages to target specific phrases like groomsmen gifts, Father’s Day gifts, corporate gifts and engraved gifts instead of just “gifts”
• Wedding vendors should target wedding planning, wedding planner, wedding planners and planning a wedding or OKC Wedding Planner or Tennessee Wedding flowers or Sacramento Wedding DJ – Use your niche or location instead of the single, too general word “wedding”
• If you offer services in a specific geographic area, instead of “mechanic” target Dallas mechanic, mobile mechanic Dallas and Dallas car repair
• If you sell Gazebos only in Texas, while you might target “gazebo” you’ll have more success using Texas Gazebos, Gazebos Waco, Gazebos TX and TX Gazebos – This business had a Web site with pages that targeted locations and specific types of gazebos and even misspelled versions of the word gazebo until their friend talked them into letting him build them this far less effective site and lost all those pages and search listings. They aren’t the first nor will they be the last business owner I know who could have used our post What Not to Do With Your Existing Site When You Upgrade or Remodel.

The more individual pages you create that each target a specific phrase the more likely your site will be found in organic search. This is not something that you can do overnight. While there are automated ways to create these pages if you have advanced skills, anyone can create quality content over time.

Decide on the appropriate keyword phrase before you start writing and only use one keyword phrase for each page. You may have to use your imagination to create unique content especially where you wish to be found in many locations. It usually is not necessary to use the names of every town; in places where most people shop in a major city they will often automatically search in the closest larger city.

USE YOUR KEYWORD PHRASE:

• As the name of the page – [Example: the name of this page is select-keywords]
• As the title on the page – be sure to use a Title tag – some believe the first three words are the most important so in this post “Select Keywords” appears first. [Avoid using these special characters in titles: & % * @ "(quote marks)]
• Name images using Alt Image Tags
• Throughout the content include each variation and inflected form of the words and phrases: plural and singular, past and present tense when applicable.
• In the Keyword meta tag field
• In the Description meta tag field
• In header tags. You may notice that the additional resources titles in this blog use H4 and are specific to the links found in them
• Keywords closer to the top of the page and in bold or italics are considered slightly more important

WordPress, WordPress plugins like All-in-one-SEO, and advanced themes like Thesis either provide fields for the above information or automatically handle many of the above tags for you. If you have specific questions ask in the comments and I can provide additional details specific to your circumstances. Be sure to be as specific as you can and include what CMS, blogging platform or type of program you are using so if I don’t have the answer someone else can provide it.

While you want to target your specific phrase, consider also using variations of those key words within your page content. You may choose to target these other forms in specific pages later, but it won’t hurt to mention them in your current content.

USE THESE KEYWORD VARIATIONS:

• Singular and plural: gift, gifts /car, cars
• Inflected form of the words and phrases: engrave, engraved, engraving, engravable
• Past and present when applicable
• Synonyms are usually best targeted with separate pages (car, vehicle, automobile, auto)

TARGETING PHRASES:

It is imperative that you clearly understand what keywords to use and which are too broad or too specific. In Evaluating AdWords accounts I regularly saw businesses targeting words that would NEVER work. You can not expect to rank for words that are too generic and not included in a phrase with your target product or service. You don’t want to buy that traffic and you are highly unlikely to rank for it in organic search.

It is very countries, states, major cities, or any word that applies to hundreds or even thousands of products. For example, Good Millwork would not be able to rank for the word “wood” but certainly should target wood shutters, wood baseboards, wood moldings, wood cabinet moldings, etc.  They are unlikely to rank for mahogany but should certainly target mahogany moldings.

They should never target the word “crown” but the phrase crown moldings is so important to them that they definitely want to target all the variations: crown molding (singular), crown moulding (alternate spelling), crown mouldings (plural of alternate spelling).

They should (and do) also couple crown molding with other words like red oak crown molding or maple crown molding while not targeting “red” or “oak” or “maple” for the same reason they can’t rank for the words “wood” or “crown”. I hope you’re getting the idea.

They can also target more specific wood phrases like Fire Resistant Wood or reclaimed Cypress wood. Apply these examples to your own products and services. If this is not crystal clear do ask questions in the comments. For every person courageous enough to ask there are dozens more who have the same question.

Incorporate your selected keywords and phrases into what you write and your posts and pages will be much more concise and targeted and receive more search engine traffic

Proper selection and use of keyword phrases is one of the most basic and important concepts to understand when using the Internet to grow your business. Apply these basics to your content to grow your business.

KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS

• WordStream – Free online tool that allows you to easily copy your lists
• Free version of WordTracker
• Google Keyword Tool

I recommend using the WordStream tool linked above to generate lists and then saving them in a keyword searchable program like Tomboy Notes. As you write posts be sure to cover each of your most important phrases. I paste the URLs of the posts targeting each phrase next to the keywords. This is especially important if you have many similar keyword phrases or write about many similar products.

RESOURCES ON USING KEYWORD PHRASES:

• NEW: MarketingTechBlog: Ten Rules of Keyword Usage for Search Engine Optimization
• SEO Tips for Niche Marketers
• Keywords Maximize Your Title’s Effectiveness
• How to Create and Use Powerful Blog Titles
• SEO Keywords Tips and Tricks; What, Where and Why
• Stalking Lee Odden’s Title Tags
• Using Alt Tags to Drive More Traffic

The odds are 100% guaranteed that you have not done all there is to do to grow your business. We can say that with confidence because it is completely and totally impossible. There is always something else you can do to improve your site, increase your conversions, create more relationships, and raise your visibility – ALWAYS.

Success is not a destination; it is a never-ending process of growing your business.

This post is to give you a general idea of various concepts and areas of improvement. While all of these topics have some overlap, individual ideas can be listed in order of priority:

1. Web Design – When someone lands on any page of your site is it INSTANTLY obvious what you are offering? If it isn’t many will bounce immediately and never return. Fix this first by adding a slogan aka USP just under or to the right of your logo. Make sure your slogan answers the question why should they buy from you.
2. Are you driving your visitors away by making them register before they can shop or comment? Do you answer all the questions your visitors are likely to have (but rarely ask) on your site? Can they easily find what they want from products to shipping costs? Remove these obstacles or your success will always be limited. [NOTE: Guy Kawasaki agrees with me as he includes this point FIRST in his Top Ten Stupid Ways to Hinder Market Adoption which is featured when you click his Best Posts of the Past. I highly recommend reading this post - and his sites.]
3. Usability – If your visitors can not easily find what they’re seeking and figure out how to use your site they will simply go to another site that makes more sense to them. Be sure you have a quality search function and an easy to use shopping cart that doesn’t have intermittent issues rejecting valid sales.
4. Conversion Rates – If your existing traffic is not converting you need to figure out why. Increasing Conversion Rates is Vastly More Important Than More Traffic.
5. Are you maintaining relationships with your existing visitors? Focus on this next. The easiest sales to close are to people who are already happy with your service.
6. If your existing site IS converting and usable NOW you can focus on driving more visitors. This can include methods such as using link building, listing on Local Search (even if you have an Internet only business), social networking, advertising, and article submission.
7. Now that you’ve started covering all the basics consider using Web Analytics and Split Testing to further tune up your site.

Each of the above concepts can include far more strategies than we’ll cover now. Our intent is to ensure you have the big picture view of what is necessary for a successful online business. This includes understanding why they buy:

People buy when they are confident they have all the information required to make a purchase. Most are afraid of “making a mistake”. The easier you make it for buyers to make a decision the faster and more will buy from you.

One way to enhance your site’s ability to do this immediately is to use Free Hosted Live Chat. Place it prominently on your site with an icon a little larger than aesthetically optimum. Have someone FRIENDLY and KNOWLEDGEABLE available as much as possible.

Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth recommendations. Make it easy for people to leave reviews of your business, products and services both on your site and on major sites that have review functions.

GrowMap exists to assist you in understanding how to grow your own business. We are asking for your input. Do you understand the posts? Do you have more questions? There are NO dumb questions. For every person who asks there are probably a hundred who didn’t but wondered the same thing. Do ask. Ask anonymously if you wish, but do ask. Simply leave a comment in any post.

Over at ProBlogger there is an exceptional discussion on whether to recommend SiteBuildIt as the best way to build a Web site. Since I’ve actually seen and tried out their system while assisting a friend in building a site there I wanted to share some insights and recommend you check out the great comments that other Site Build It users have shared.

One thing to understand is that Site Build It is NOT simply a way to create a Web site or Web pages. There are many of those that are far faster – and some easier – to use. Simply building Web pages is not really what Site Build It is all about. It goes far beyond that and anyone considering Site Build It as a platform for building an online business needs to understand that.

The difference between the Site Build It system and any other method of creating a Web site is the research it forces you to do to ensure that:

• There is a demand for what you intend to build – or to find niches that will generate a demand
• That your site is search engine friendly so that your visitors will find you
• That the site is usable

While those things sound simple they are extraordinarily complex. Few people who build sites – even those who do it for a living – have adequate experience with all three of those concepts. If you don’t cover all the bases, you’re going to be leaving business on the table. If you don’t understand any of them adequately, you may build an online business that never makes any money.

That is the bottom line: the Site Build It system forces you to build a business that will make money online. Other ways of building Web sites do not. There are many comments in the ProBlogger discussion from people who are building sites with Site Built It and other platforms.

The most telling is from Kathi whose site is How to Make Resumes – Learn How to Do Resumes Correctly wrote:

“I am an SBI owner, having built 6 of my own sites using this platform. I also have a number of other non-SBI sites that I built using straight HTML, Wordpress and Blogger. None but the SBI sites are making any significant amount of money.

And that’s despite thinking I’m using all of my SBI knowledge to build those other sites. There’s something special about how SBI sites succeed.”

That pretty much sums it up. If you want a turn-key system that teaches you Site Build It could be what you need. It is one of three platforms that I can strongly recommend. The other two are WordPress and Volusion Store Systems. Both of these can be very successful and both have similar learning curves to Site Build It.

No matter what platform you use, to make money requires understanding generating visitors, being found by the search engines (SEO), and Web site usability. You either have to learn it or hire someone who already knows it. Just be wary of hiring those who THINK they do, but don’t.

Let’s take a humorous look at a serious subject. How you write – especially if you’re a business – is important because your readers will make assumptions based on your style. Some will even refuse to read what you write or decide against doing business with you over tiny typos or grammatical errors.

I wonder how many realize what their spell checker does not catch? The title of this post is from one of the many humorous spell checker poems written about spell check programs. Ode to a Spell Checker is another.  Whoever composed these went to great lengths to poke fun at spell checking programs, but they do make the holes in the use of such tools painfully obvious.

My inspiration for this post was a funny look at Gross Writing Errors. Although the author uses humor the comments indicate that this subject strikes a nerve with many. I hope readers take this post in the spirit it is intended – and note the suggestions offered.

Are you spelling challenged? Grammatically lost? Or maybe you’re like the author who wrote: “I learned about grammar in grade school and I really wasn’t planning ahead – at least not for my writing career. I didn’t really pay attention to sentence structure and I thought a dangling participle was something obscene. If I only knew the benefits I would reap if I paid attention in 4 th grade. It wasn’t until I took the placement tests for college that I had to admit I was grammatically challenged.”

Now you have a business need or simply love to write and wish you had paid attention. You have several options, so just pick the one that you prefer:

• If you recognize errors when you see them, use the Internet to verify the correct usage or spelling
• Hire someone else to write for you – usually called ghostwriters or copywriters
• Hire a proofreader

Before you hire anyone be sure to read samples of their work. (If you aren’t qualified ask someone you know who is.) Many companies – especially those offshore whose employees are not native users of the language you write in – are not experts at grammar or spelling either. Many will write with more errors than you!

Few write flawlessly. No doubt there are errors in my writing because I can only correct those I recognize. There will be few spelling errors because I loved to read as a child and way back when most books and newspapers were written in proper English. When you read a lot things just “look funny” when they’re not spelled correctly or the grammar is poor.

There is one tip when hiring copywriters or any consultant that seems to hold true.  Large businesses will prefer large agencies and small businesses will get along better with individual consultants or collaborative partnerships. They will have similar working styles and decision-making timeframes.

Writing styles vary enormously, so even if you are not qualified to judge the spelling or grammar of a writer do be sure to read their sample works. There are at least four styles and each fits only the readers intended:

• Over-the-top sales styles often used in long one-page sales letter Web sites – Example of a typical long sales letter – these are commonly used because in testing they do work
• Corporate-speak: Examples: Software IBM
• Straight-forward news style writing similar to what you read in this blog
• Friendly, down-home writing as though the readership were all friends and family

There are newer styles aimed at audiences that don’t include me, so this is not intended to be an all-inclusive list – only a warning that you will not be pleased if you hire a writer with the wrong style. Always ask for a sample related to the project you have in mind.

One more thing: if you simply love writing and are creative just write. Don’t worry about the spelling or the grammar or anything else while you’re writing. Get it all down first while the ideas are flowing. The spelling and grammar can be corrected later.

WRITING REFERENCES:

• Article Writing Mistakes to Avoid
• Ten Proofreading Tips
• The Seven Qualities of Highly Successful Web Writing

COPYWRITERS:

• Ghostwriting Services
• PersuasiveAdCopy – sales specific copywriting
• Susan Landry, Copywriter
• Writers for Hire Inc. – small collaborative group based in Houston, Tx specializing exclusively in writing
• Writing Wisely