We will continue to keep you updated of our activity over the coming months and keep providing our no nonsense guides to SEO and online marketing right here in the blog.

Have a great 2012!

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So for all those who have only the capability or desire to spend just 10 minutes a day on SEO tasks (and I know there are plenty out there!) here is a list of 10 minute tasks you can do that will have you reaping the benefits for months and even years to come.

Write a short blog post and post it to your blog. The post could be an industry update rewritten from another source or a simple post with links to interesting articles related to your blog or website.

Create a list of blogs relevant to your niche and find a new one each day to add to it. Ultimately you want to be very active within this blogging community but at first just preparing a list and keeping an eye on the movers and shakers within it is enough.

Leave a comment on a blog post that is relevant to your niche. By getting involved in the blogosphere you will build up your reputation as a thought leader in your industry and attract more visitors to your own site or blog.

Submit a link to dmoz- You never know, it might get accepted.

Post a link to a blog post you have commented on to facebook and/or linkedin and/or twitter.

Post a link to a blog post you have commented on to Digg and/or Delicious and/or any other social bookmarking site.

Follow 10 people on twitter who are involved in your niche.

Send emails to the top bloggers in your industry asking if you can guest post – ok so this one might be a long shot but it’s worth mentioning. Sometimes bloggers love the idea of getting free posts. Generally though you need to already be an established voice within your industry for your offer to be accepted.

Gaining links is still the best way to gain traffic and visibility in the search engines. The way to gain these links has changed somewhat however over the years – link directories are out and social media is in. Social media is also a very efficient way of gaining links because one article or tweet can keep bringing in the traffic for years. When you have only 10 minutes a day to dedicate to online marketing and SEO, these bite sized tasks are the most effective way to spend it.

If you want to go even further with your online marketing efforts but aren’t sure on where to start, contact us for some no nonsense advice.

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Ignoring URLs

The URL is a crucial part of SEO. The root domain should be as short as possible and be easily remembered by visitors. The URLs on every page of the a site or blog should be search engine friendly and ideally contain the main keyword of the page. For example a page about seo copywriting would ideally have the URL “domain.com/seo-copywriting. A keyword in the URL is far more effective than a keyword in the text in terms of SEO.

Keyword Stuffing Meta Tags

As we saw in the last blog post, meta information is important to onsite SEO, but it needs to be used wisely. Keyword stuffing will get you nowhere, in fact it will turn off potential visitors and annoy the search engines. Make sure the meta tags are optimised but don’t overstuff them.

Spamming Backlinks

Quality is far more effective than quantity when it comes to backlinks. If your site suddenly receives hundreds of low quality backlinks (perhaps from link directories) in a short space of time, your site could be dropped from the rankings. The search engines do not like this practice and will punish you severely for doing it.

Spamming Blogs and Forums

This follows on from the point above. Spamming blogs and forums is very bad practice indeed. It severely annoys other members of the forums and those genuine readers of blogs. Blog and forum commenting is a useful social media marketing strategy however the comments must be relevant and must contribute to the conversation. Any “great post, thanks” comments are just not on, mkay?

Ignoring the Page Title

Time and time again I see websites where the page title has not a single keyword in it. The page title is probably the most important part of onsite SEO. Don’t make the mistake of overstuffing it but adding one or two main keywords is an absolute must. If you ignore this your site hasn’t much of a chance against the competition.

If you would like to receive a free onsite SEO review, contact us here at AshaMoon. We also provide SEO copywriting services and a range of other professional SEO services.

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Effective Keywords

You should always start with keywords, but they must be effective keywords. Nothing too vague, nothing too broad and not too many either. An ideal number of keywords to target per website page is three – one primary keyword and two secondary. If you would like to learn how to do effective keyword research make sure you check out my previous post on the subject.

Optimised Content

All content on a website must be optimised. To write good SEO content you need to aim for a keyword density of 2.7%. You should also make sure the keywords are used throughout the text rather than bunched together in one place. If possible use the keywords at the start of sentences rather than at the end. Content should be easy to read too. That means the font should be a reasonable size with plenty of spaces between paragraphs.

Optimised Page Title

This is a crucial part of onsite SEO. The page title is the title that appears in the tab at the top of the website. It also appears as the title on search engines results. This title must contain your keywords for the page.

Optimised Meta Description

The meta description goes behind the scenes. It appears in the results page of the search engines. It should be quite salesy in order to capture attention and should contain the relevant keywords.

Optimised Main Heading (H1)

Website text should always be broken down with headings and sub headings both to make it easier for visitors to read and also for the search engines. A big, bold heading that contains your keywords will cause the search engine spiders to rank your site more highly for those terms.

Optimised Secondary Headings (H2)

Your keywords should be used in headings throughout the website text for the same reasons as those stated above.

Optimised URL

The main keyword or key phrase of your page should be included in the URL to further improve your SEO efforts.

Meta Keywords

The meta keywords aren’t actually hugely influential in terms of SEO, but it can’t hurt to add them so go for it. These sit behind the scenes are can only be seen by viewing the source code.

If you make sure that each of these items is included on every page of your website you will have ensured the site has a solid SEO basis. From here you can continue your SEO efforts with some link building and social media marketing.

Talk to a member of staff here at AshaMoon if you would like assistance with your onsite SEO or need any SEO copywriting services.

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Speaker Debra Mastaler president of Alliance-Link, said, “The best link building tool is a kick-ass copywriter.” She went on to say that content marketing is the “No. 1 important thing to do” for link building.

Google have been saying this for a while too. Whenever Google are asked what strategies to use to increase the number of inbound links to a site they reply :

“Create unique and compelling content on your site and the web in general.”

Who are we all to argue with the experts!? If you would like to benefit from a kick ass copywriter then feel free to contact us here at AshaMoon. We know just how to write the kind of compelling and informative content needed to gain a website more visitors and links.

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AOS Heating are a gas central heating and boiler company based in Hertfordshire in the UK. They needed some blog style type posts on current topics within the heating industry so we provided a good selection for them to use over the course of a few months. Another new project was with an innovative health care company, Kosmodisk who sell a range of products to reduce back pain. We provided a long series of articles about both the products and the symptoms and problems they are designed to treat.

We were also thrilled to launch KavaKavaInfo.com earlier this month. We have been working for a long time on this project because it was not just the content that we were responsible for, but the creation of the website itself. We are really excited about our new venture into website creation and look forward to many other similar projects down the line.

As well as all these new projects we continued to work with a large number of existing clients providing business blogging, web copywriting and plenty of content marketing too.

If you want to find out any more about our SEO copywriting services or other professional SEO services, get in touch! 

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I did see some success with freelancing websites. I did win various jobs and some of them were reasonably lucrative. Elance was where I focused by attention and every day I would spend time going through the job boards and applying for projects that looked appealing. It was hard though. The competition was very tough and the whole process was incredibly time consuming. The sites themselves take a considerable project fee too.

I am certainly glad however that I had this experience. It was a fantastic way to cut my teeth on a few projects and it helped show me exactly what buyers / clients are looking for. It was because of freelancer websites that my SEO copywriting and other professional SEO services started to take shape.

Nowadays I use other methods to find new clients (a future post) however I do still believe freelancing websites are a good way if you are just starting out, or if you are considering the dive into self employment but feeling unsure. They are also a good way to generate some side income on top of a regular 9 – 5 job. I saw a lot of rejection at first on Elance and it wasn’t until I had a small epiphany that my luck started to change.

At first I was submitting proposals for projects without actually explaining how I would complete the project at hand. I’d provide my credentials, my previous experience and my skill set – all important information for the buyer of course, but that is where my proposal would end. I didn’t provide any deliverables and I didn’t provide a time frame for completion. In fact other than a cursory mention of the project to show I’d read the description, the project itself didn’t feature in my proposal at all.

Once I realised I needed a more direct approach and my proposals needed to be focused around the steps I would take to complete the work, things started to improve. To make the proposal process more streamlined and efficient I created a flexible proposal template and would delete / add information as appropriate. I have decided to attach it here so that others can benefit.

I hope you find this flexible proposal template useful. It can be adapted or altered as you see fit and of course it will need tailoring to each individual project you apply for. Don’t forget to add a summary of your previous experience, skill set and other relevant information as you why you’d be perfect for the role – but just don’t base the entire proposal around this information.

Let me know how you get on!

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It wasn’t easy. There have been all sorts of mistakes and errors made along the way. To prevent other people from making the same mistakes as I did I thought I would pass on the lessons I’ve learnt. Simple, straightforward advice.

Lesson 1: Define Your Deliverables

I have to credit Christine O’Kelly for this lesson because it is inspired by her succinct description of this topic in her ebook!

Whilst I am an advocate for just diving straight in at the deep end when it comes to starting a business, it is very important that you take just a brief pause to define your deliverables. Although this may sound like a yawnfest, in fact it is one of the most exciting parts of starting your own business and it will ensure you don’t come unstuck further down the line. I did not do this at the start and did become unstuck down the line!

It is easy to fall into the trap of believing you have deliverables when in fact you have nothing of the sort. Unless you have an itemised checklist sitting in front of you that can be used by your client to assess whether or not the work has been carried out as promised, you cannot claim to have defined your deliverables. I am going to lead you to this outcome, an itemised checklist of deliverables.

Let’s look at some examples of deliverables that may be appropriate:

If you have decided that you are highly organised and would thrive in the position of a Virtual Assistant, then you may well have a set of deliverables that looks something like this:

• Ongoing task list that is updated daily and sent to client

• Weekly phone call with client to discuss progress and future projects

• Detailed timesheet with time spent on individual activities sent monthly

If you feel that your previous copywriting experience will stand you in good stead as an seo copywriter then you may come up with deliverables such as:

• Content with x% keyword density

• Proofreading carried out by independent editor

• Cover sheet with titles, keywords and density sent along with articles

• x number of articles sent per week

Those who are keen to work as freelance recruitment consultants may choose deliverables similar to:

• Fully edited CV / resume

• Weekly phone call with client to discuss progress

• x number of job applications made on behalf of client per week

• x number of interview training sessions delivered

By doing this you will unconsciously be defining what value you can bring to your clients and laying the foundations for your new business. The clear guidelines that your deliverables create mean that both you and your client will be on the same page right from the start. They will know what they are getting from you, and you will know exactly what is expected of you. Being aware of the value you bring and how this sets you apart from your competitors will make clients more confident in hiring you and even attract more clients to you in the first place. So many people overlook this step on the path to a new business that you will already be a step ahead of the rest.

Don’t do what I did at first – cruise over to competitor sites, copy down their services and pass them off as your deliverables! It is always better to examine your strengths and come up with a unique and innovative set of deliverables that no one else is offering.

There are a series of questions that I used (thanks Christine!) to help me define my deliverables and it is important that you ask yourselves these too.

I think it is a good idea to have a copy of these questions and your answers to them as well as the deliverables themselves in front of you at all times. It can help you focus in times of confusion or difficulty and can be a valuable motivational tool as well. That is why I have created a downloadable checklist with the questions that need answering at the top and space for the deliverables underneath. Once you have filled it in, stick it up over your computer or by the phone – somewhere you will be able to see it easily when you want to.

Challenge:

Download the checklist and begin answering the questions. Come up with at least 4 deliverables that you can confidently offer to your clients (this number can be higher or lower). When you are happy with the deliverables you have created, print out the checklist and display it somewhere prominent.

I guarantee that doing this will get you off on the right foot with your exciting new business venture.

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If you are new to this blog, you may want to check out Part 1 of this series “How to do truly effective keyword research”. In the first post of the series I explained how to come up with an initial list of keywords that relate to your business and have reasonable search volumes. Now I will show you how to narrow your list and judge the competition for each one to help you decide which keywords are little gems and which should be discarded. If you are up to speed with part 1, let’s begin with part 2.

At this stage you could have a list of keywords as long as your arm on your “Keyword Research Template” (you can download this for free in part 1). Don’t panic. I am now going to show you how to narrow the list.

The first step is to work out which terms are conversion focused. For example, the term “virtual assistant” could be being searched for any number of reasons, whereas “hire a virtual assistant” can really only mean one thing – there is a potential customer out there lurking!

ACTION PLAN A:

• Go through your list and mark any keywords within the list that are actionable (into column F)
• Click the button on column F and “sort descending” so all your actionable terms are together at the top
• For now, the other keywords you found can be ignored but not deleted.

At this point things get even more exciting! This is the part where you start to check out the competition and it couldn’t be simpler.

When you search on google, a little figure underneath the search box pops up “1-10 of about….” which represents the number of pages google thinks are relevant in some way to your search term. If you include the phrase “allintitle:” before you search for something, google only displays the sites that include the exact search phrase in their title tag. This is an excellent way of judging what other sites are chasing that particular keyword or search phrase and therefore how competitive it is.

ACTION PLAN B:

• Enter the actionable terms you’ve found one by one into google.com with “allintitle:” preceding the phrase (don’t include speech marks and leave space between allintitle: and your keyword).
• Copy the number of results found into column E on your Keyword Research Template

If you are targeting an audience in a specific country like the UK or Australia then you may want to carry out this step using google.co.uk or google.com.au respectively rather than google.com. If your website is aimed at a global or US audience then stick to google.com.

Once you have this data it is time to pick out the very final keywords you want.

Action Plan C: 

• Look for keywords that have a decent enough search volume (could be anything from 300 onwards) but are combined with a low competitor figure too.
• Make a note in column G of your Keyword Research Template if you want to use this keyword for your website.

Your final list of keywords will be a potent mix of actionable terms with good search volumes but low competition. Believe me when I say that is a winning combination.

Good luck, leave a comment if you have any questions or need anything clarifying.

If this all seems a little daunting we’d be happy to carry out the work for you here at AshaMoon. Our keyword research service takes the hard work out of it and simply places a list of winning keywords straight into your hands!

We also offer onsite SEO to ensure the keywords are placed effectively onto your website and a range of other professional SEO services such as link building, content marketing and social media marketing services. Contact us for further information.

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Whenever I talk to a new client I always emphasize the importance of good keyword research. Any website needs a solid keyword foundation otherwise any future SEO attempt is likely to be futile.

One of the mistakes made over and over again however is choosing keywords that are simply too broad. I can tell you right now that the chances of my little ‘ol site popping up when the term “search engine optimisation” is pumped into google are going to be slim, no matter how much time and effort I spend trying to get there. Likewise a company selling watches is unlikely to rank highly for the term “watch” of “watches”. The terms are too broad and the competition is too fierce. Furthermore these terms aren’t even particularly useful. I would far rather be found on the search term “SEO consultant wanted” than on something like “SEO” – one of these terms is likely to find me a new client, the other term could be related to anything at all.

Both the imaginary watch website and I need to target much narrower search terms. Although internet users start off with broad terms, they don’t often end there – I expect you have experienced this yourself when searching for information on the web.

The first place to start when carrying out keyword research is to open a text document and write down 10 keywords that you think relate to your business and would be good to appear on the first page of google for.

Although it’s important to use common sense, there are some things to consider when coming up with this list:

• As I’ve mentioned, very broad terms aren’t always that useful. For example, a virtual assistant may be tempted to write down “virtual assistant” not realizing the upward battle this is likely to be. Instead, terms like “hire a virtual assistant” or “virtual assistant needed” are likely to have far less competition and therefore be much easier terms to dominate. These are good examples of very targeted keywords.

• Avoid industry jargon if you are selling to the general public as they won’t be searching for these terms. The general public or those who are new to the industry are likely to be using basic terms and phrases so avoid complicated industry specific terms.

With your starting list in hand you are ready to start expanding it with the help of the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and my handy “Keyword Research Template”.

Step 1

Enter your 10 keywords into column A of the Keyword Research Template

Step 2

Open the Google keyword tool

How to use the Google keyword Tool

Step 3

Enter your 10 words / phrases into the “words or phrases (one per line)” box

Step 4

In the “advanced filters and options box” select the country you are particularly wanting to target. If working for a US based client I select US. If working with an Australian client I choose Australia. If doing research for myself I choose UK. I always leave the language setting on its default “English.”

Step 5

Next select some filters. I usually choose “local monthly searches” greater than 1000, “global monthly searches” greater than 1000, and “competition” low and medium. This gives me fewer results and makes the whole process more manageable.

Step 6

Type in the characters and click search

Step 7

On the “match type” situated on left of screen select “exact”. The other two options widen the search data and are best avoided. Click search again.

Step 8

The easiest way to extract this date is to download it. Press “download” “all” (or the select keywords you want first). Choose the format you need – I always choose “CSV” and then click download.

Step 9

Open the spreadsheet once it has downloaded and delete the “competition” column (B).

Step 10

Copy and paste the rest of the columns into the corresponding columns on your Keyword Research Template (columns B,C and D.)

Now that you have this raw data in front of you, it is time to find out which of the keywords are good ones to choose. It may be tempting to just choose the top few with highest numbers of search volumes but this could be a mistake. You have to know which of the keywords have a low competition so that you can be confident you can rank well for these terms.

My next blog post will provide this very information. Don’t miss out on Part 2 of this series “How to do Truly Effective Keyword Research.”

If you would like us here at AshaMoon to do your keyword research for you, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We also offer SEO copywriting, onsite SEO and a range of other professional SEO services. Browse our site to find out about our link building services and social media marketing services or contact a member of the team.

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