marți, 30 noiembrie 2010

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog


10 Ways to Get More SEO Clients

Posted: 29 Nov 2010 12:45 PM PST

Posted by JoannaLord

I've been traveling for the past few weeks and talking to dozens of SEO consultants, and you know what they are all saying? They are at their max for clients. Yup, that's right...they can't take on new clients. They have TOO much work! This is good for all sorts of reasons. One, it shows we are in a good place during an economically difficult time, and two, there are people out there desperately seeking out your services, with nowhere to turn.

So how do you find these clients begging to pay you money? Here are ten ways to build your client base, and ultimately make sure the clients keep-a-coming...

10. Refer a client/affiliate programRefer customers
Setting up a referral or affiliate program can be something as simple as offering discounts on your prices to clients that refer new clients, or something as complicated as full blown affiliate programs with ongoing commissions for successful client signups.  I find too many consultants think of this as bothering a past client, but if you offer them a kickback for mentioning your good services to their friends that need them...it seems like such an obvious double win to me. So what are you doing to leverage your current client list for a bigger, better looking one?

9. Optimize your site/resume
This is one of those "oh snap" moments.  It's such a simple idea, but few of us are doing it. As SEOs we spend our days helping people rank their sites higher, and optimize for more conversions. Well uhmmm, what about your site? I know you are doing all the right stuff to make sure you rank #1 for "best SEO consultant in the universe" but what about when they actually land on your site? Is it easy for them to request more info? How about trust signals, testimonials, and other valuable information...is it doing it's job? Potential clients will naturally spy on you check out your website and resume. Do you know what they are going to find? Is it enough?

8.  Speak at events/hold site clinics
As we all know this industry operates, for the most part, virtually. However, when it comes to signing clients nothing can replace a potential client seeing you in person. Speaking at conferences can be a great way to reach a relevant audience and pitch yourself before having to pitch your services. You get to network, and possibly get links to help build your brand.  In addition to speaking, if you can finagle it, hold site clinics at conferences. The whole room gets to see you action, and your future clients get to see exactly how you will help them...once they sign with you. Can you say cha-ching?

Martin MacDonald Speaking at SEO PRO Training London 2010
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Martin MacDonald's excellent presentation at the London Pro Training likely earned him some new clients
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7. Guest blogging
As SEO's we know the value of guest blogging. Words like "visibility," "links," and "personal branding" come to mind. All of these make guest blogging the perfect way to funnel potential clients to your site and your services. Take this idea and think outside of the box. If you focus on SEO for your local area, where are local businesses reading information online? Get in there. If you do SEO for enterprise sites, where are those CMO's getting their information? Make sure your byline is landing in front of their SEO-deprived eyes.

6. Sponsor events/mixers
Instead of traveling by plane to go talk SEO, why not host a local meet-up for businesses to hear about how SEO can help them succeed. You can either go formal and have a panel talking local SEO, or you could have material they can take with them. These local mixers can help attract qualified leads and build your reputation as a local SEO expert. How do you get people to come? Give away free consultations, or pick up the bar tab for an hour. Never underestimate the power of an open bar.

SEOmoz's Meetup in Sofia, Bulgaria
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The SEOmoz meetup in Sofia, where we made tons of great new friends
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5. Create free tools
I can't take the credit for this idea, but I had to get it up on the list. Lots of great consultants and agencies have been doing this for years.  If you have free tools that people will love, offer them up as a way to drive traffic to your site. By offering SEO-related tools, you attract a relevant audience, collect information you can use to follow-up with, and leave people with a positive sentiment. People love free stuff! It's a great way to get people both comfortable, and acquainted with your personal brand.

 Virante's Free SEO Tools
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Virante's collection of free SEO tools brings them highly relevant traffic and industry credibility
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4. Email blast
Much like #9 you would think this approach would be obvious, but oftentimes us SEOs forget about some marketing basics. When you are looking to add to your client base why not email friends, family, past colleagues, etc. and let them know you are taking on new clients. Make sure you list out what you specialize in so they can easily pass the email onto people that might be interested. If you are really looking to get leads, add in a free consult or audit, and make the deal impossible to ignore. Personal referrals are incredibly powerful.

Email Blast
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Take note of that email address - it's a handy one to have :-)
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3. Publish case studies
I know you all just collectively rolled your eyes when you read this one, because you are right, case studies involve a lot of work. You have to nail down a thesis, put together a test, collect data, and then report the results in a digestible manner. Yuck. But you know what? Case studies are compelling for just that reason. They are a thorough example of just how effective your services can be for the person reading the case study. Potential clients want to read about a similar company and the success SEO brought them. If you couple that case study with a contact form they can fill out for more information, you are sitting pretty. Trust me.

Location 3 Media Local SEO PDF
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Location 3 Media's excellent Local SEO Guide is a great example
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2. Learn a niche
This may seem counterintuitive, because how can you open up the flood gates for more clients if you limit yourself to one niche, but people considering SEO want to see a consultant with relevant experience. Remember, SEO is still a bit confusing to most companies. They don't understand best practices, they still believe that this SEO-stuff is a bit magical. If you have a few past clients in one industry, why not build out that portfolio and market yourself as such. What is your niche? Sometimes by taking on any client, you actually cannibalize your chances of owning a type of client.

1. Get active in new forums
Did I just use the word "forum?" Yeah I did. I don't necessarily mean the forums of yesteryear (although a lot of those are still great places to network) instead I mean the new age forums. There are so many sites out there to help you establish yourself as an expert in a certain field. I mean sites like Quora, LinkedIn Answers, FormSpring and Facebook Questions.There are dozens of niche Q&A sites popping up. Don't underestimate the power of marketing yourself an SEO authority to these growing audiences.

Formspring.me
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Sharing your knowledge across the web can result in positive client karma
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So there you have it. Hopefully I've given you some great ideas to get started with. The key with all of this is to remember that you need to be marketing your services not just to people that get SEO, but go beyond that circle. Wander into the less Internet-savvy group, and help them understand the value of SEO. In doing so, you will help them see the value in you, and more importantly, in hiring you.

I'd love to hear your suggestions for things I may have forgotten. How have you all grown your client base?
 


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Michael Gray - Graywolf's SEO Blog

Michael Gray - Graywolf's SEO Blog


Website Auditor Review

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 07:37 AM PST

Post image for Website Auditor Review

Website Auditor is a piece of software from the SEO Power Suite line of tools. I’ve reviewed Rank Tracker and SEO Spyglass before (see Rank Tracker Review and SEO Spyglass Review). Website Auditor is piece of software that attempts to review certain aspects of your website and give your website an overall health check.

Again there are two obvious questions, and I’ll address those first. Not only is this a piece of software I use on a regular basis, but it’s one I have paid for.  I wasn’t comp’d or given a free version. Secondly, no I don’t think a piece of software can replace a human audit, but software can be used to gather data quickly and more efficiently than a human ever could, and that’s the role that I use Website Auditor to perform.

Like all of the SEO Power Suite software it’s easy to install (Windows or Mac) and get running. You just input the URL, specify a crawling depth, let it know which parameters you want it to get, set up any exclusions, and let it run.

Website Analyzer Screen Shots

Now, until you’ve run it a few times, I’d suggest leaving the options at the default setting. One that you may wish to be careful with is crawling depth. If you have a large website, set this number to a lower number. As I mentioned before crawling depth can be a powerful tool to help you figure out crawling problems (see how I diagnose and improve crawling problems). Once the initial crawl is done, it will come back to ask if you want to update the missing info. Again, let it do its thing.

Crawling Factors

Now while this software does have human emulation built in, if you selected certain factors like Google Page Rank it can trip up the Google Captcha flags. The software will prompt you for the info, but if you don’t enter it, it will time out and skip it. You can rerun it again just looking for the missing info. The company also offers a captcha breaking service. Depending on how many URLs you are analyzing and what parameters you selected, this can take up to a few hours to run. So again my advice is to have this software on a server, not your main computer.

To be honest I’m not a big fan of the default view. I find the nested tree structure a little hard to read.

nested view

I prefer the PageRank view. It’s just a lot easier to deal with IMHO.

Pagerank View

What I suggest is to create your own report with the information you want on it that you can export via clipboard.

Customize Factors

Additionally, as with all the SEO Power Suite Software, you can produce reports. Here’s a sample report from the software. Bear in mind that I stopped it midway so some of the data is missing. If you use the enterprise version you can also customize the report.

As I said, I don’t recommend running the program, spitting out a report, and moving on: you should look at the data and analyze it. A computer is good at gathering data, but it’s not good at being insightful or offering up expertise.

Website Auditor is piece of software I’ve paid for and have used for a few months. It has a few quirks as far as captcha information and display, but I find it helps. If you think you might like it, why not take advantage of the free download?

You might also want to check out my Rank Tracker Review and SEO Spyglass Review.

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  5. Glass Whiteboards - For a professional durable white board with no ghosting, streaking or marker stains, see my Glass Whiteboard Review
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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Website Auditor Review

Thanks to This Month’s Sponsors Nov 2010

Posted: 29 Nov 2010 08:36 AM PST

Post image for Thanks to This Month’s Sponsors Nov 2010

I’d like to say thanks to the people who sponsored the blog this month, without them there wouldn’t be regular posts here.

Text Link Ads – New customers can get $100 in free text links.

BOTW.org – Get a premier listing in the internet’s oldest directory.

Ezilon.com Regional Directory – Check to see if your website is listed!

Content Customs – Unique and high quality SEO writing services, providing webmasters with hundreds of SEO articles per week

Majestic SEO – To analyze back-links, MajesticSEO's data offers competitive link intelligence from the largest open link map in the world. The award winning technology gives you more information about back-links than you ever thought possible. Take a test drive now.

Interested in seeing your message here? There are banner and RSS advertising options available find out more information. Be sure to check out our new Sponsored post option.

Here’s a list of some other programs and products I reccomend

Thesis Theme for WordPress – Hands down the best theme on the market right now, read my Thesis Theme for WordPress Review.

Scribe SEO – Improve your blog posts with this easy to use built in tool, read my Scribe SEO Review.

KnowEm – Protect your brand, product or company name with a continually growing list of social media sites, read an Interview with Michael Streko.

TigerTech – Great Web Hosting service at a great price, read my Tiger Tech Review.

Angel Falls
Creative Commons License photo credit: Danila Medvedev

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Advertisers:

  1. Text Link Ads - New customers can get $100 in free text links.
  2. BOTW.org - Get a premier listing in the internet's oldest directory.
  3. Ezilon.com Regional Directory - Check to see if your website is listed!
  4. Directory Journal - List your website in our growing web directory today.
  5. Glass Whiteboards - For a professional durable white board with no ghosting, streaking or marker stains, see my Glass Whiteboard Review
  6. Need an SEO Audit for your website, look at my SEO Consulting Services
  7. KnowEm - Protect your brand, product or company name with a continually growing list of social media sites.
  8. Scribe SEO Review find out how to better optimize your wordpress posts.
  9. TigerTech - Great Web Hosting service at a great price.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Thanks to This Month’s Sponsors Nov 2010

Tuesday Talks: Secretary Chu on Clean Energy Economy

The White House Your Daily Snapshot for
Tuesday Nov. 30,  2010
 

Tuesday Talk with Secretary Chu  

Today at 1:15 p.m. EST Secretary of Energy Steven Chu will be answering your questions on the Administration's efforts to build a clean energy economy. Recently Secretary Chu delivered a speech calling on the United States to sharply accelerate innovations in clean energy -- citing China and other countries' recent advances in clean technology as a critical "Sputnik Moment" for the U.S.

Submit your questions and watch live.

Photo of the Day

Bo, the Obama family dog, is greeted by several of the President’s Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) achievers in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Nov. 29, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog.

President Obama on the Federal Pay Freeze: "Getting This Deficit Under Control is Going to Require Broad Sacrifice"
The President calls for bipartisan compromise and broad sacrifice to get our economy going and our deficit down.

Tightening Our Belts
President Obama proposes a two-year pay freeze for federal employees.

What's Going On With the DREAM Act?
Cecilia Munoz, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, answers your questions on the DREAM Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation designed to stop punishing innocent young people for the actions of their parents by giving them the chance to obtain legal status.

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

9:30 AM: The President and the Vice President receive the Presidential Daily Briefing

10:30 AM: The President and the Vice President meet with bipartisan Congressional leadership

12:20 PM: The President delivers a statement to the press WhiteHouse.gov/live

12:30 PM: The Vice President hosts a lunch meeting with Co-Chairs of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Erskine Bowles and Senator Alan Simpson

1:00 PM: Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs WhiteHouse.gov/live

1:15 PM: Tuesday Talk with Secretary Steven Chu WhiteHouse.gov/live

3:00 PM: The Vice President meets with Representative Darrell Issa

4:05 PM: The President meets with Nobel Laureates

4:30 PM: The President and the Vice President meet with Secretary of Defense Gates 

WhiteHouse.gov/live Indicates events that will be live streamed on WhiteHouse.gov/live.

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