1-Minute SEO Check For Your Website or Blog
Getting to page 1 of Google takes months of consistent and thought-out steps. Sound overwhelming?
There are many things you could do daily to increase your SEO, and some take more effort than others. Start by taking ONE step today.
Here is a simple one you can do today: check the Title of your website.
This sounds almost too simple, yet many sites (including my own after it was redesigned!) have no title or use a default title that does not tell Google very much about the content of the site.
WHY
If your website was a book, the tag of your home page would be the title on the cover. And that’s the first piece of information search engines review when they decide how to categorize your site.
WHAT
Using my site as an example, “Lana Goldenberg” is fine for a title, but it doesn’t include my keywords!
I am changing it to “Lana Goldenberg: SEO Consultant, Small Business Consultant and Marketing Speaker.”
I was going to make it more fun and use phrases like “online visibility guru” or “small business marketing diva,” but according to my personal SEO advisor, aka the Google AdWords tool, 40,500 people a month search for “SEO Consultant” and only 880 type in “online visibility.”
So I let the numbers tell my story and go with the perhaps boring but well-accepted phrase “SEO Consultant.”
HOW
If you are not sure what the title of your home page is, a quick low-tech way to check is to search for it in Google.
In the search results, the first line (the part that’s hyperlinked) will contain your title. To update your title, ask your webmaster, or, if your site is in WordPress, go to the Settings Menu, and select Site Title.
3 Quick Ideas to Boost Your LinkedIn Profile
I am honored to have my tips included in a Patch.com article about LinkedIn. It’s not every day I get mentioned in the same article as President Obama!
Today I want to share 3 quick ideas for boosting your LinkedIn profile. Each of these takes about a minute to implement, so you really have no excuse to put it off.
As a bonus, I will share how LinkedIn helped me get featured in this article.
1) Optimize your headline. If you do nothing else, take a minute now and click “Edit” on your LinkedIn profile. The first area you are able to edit is called your Professional “Headline.” This is your 120 character elevator pitch! Don’t forget to include your search keywords here!
2) Post an update: LinkedIn now has a status update field, which means you can use it the way you use Facebook or Twitter – to communicate in real time what you are working on, or to ask a question. Not sure what to say? Check out my 5 Non-Salesy Social Media Post Ideas.
3) Write a recommendation for a colleague, employee, or vendor you’ve worked with. Having recommendations in your profile increases your LinkedIn visibility. By proactively writing a recommendation for someone, you are improving your karma and the chances that you will receive a shout out in return.
BONUS: in August I was visiting family in San Jose, CA. Before my trip, I used one of my LinkedIn Groups to find a women’s networking event in the Bay Area. At the event, I met an editor from Patch.com, who was covering the event. When I got home, I of course, found Rachel on LinkedIn and connected with her. A few weeks later, she called me when she needed a resource for a story on LinkedIn in light of President Obama’s Town Hall.
Now that I’ve mentioned LinkedIn a dozen times in one short blog post…you know what to do, right? For your bonus tip, go find a professional group on LinkedIn that matches your interest. Your strategic connections and future clients are just a few clicks away!
Do you have a LinkedIn success story? Leave me a comment – I’d love to hear it!
5 “Non-Salesy” Ideas For Social Media Posts
Are you tired of talking about yourself?
Promoting your business is an important reason to use social media, but your readers and followers probably don’t want to hear Buy! Buy! Buy! from you every day. Continue reading
Promoting Yourself Without The Ewww Factor
Are you ready to be the face of your business?
I’ve discovered that many business owners find self-promotion distasteful or even shameful.
And guess what, I can relate! I used to dread sending one too many email newsletters, posting one too many tweets, or making that extra follow up call to the client. I didn’t want to be a pest, annoying, or blowing my own horn. I would promote 10 third-party events or special offers before I would write something about my own business.
I even made up a story about my brand: my brand was above it all: cold calling, sales letters, loud colors on my website.
This worked for a short while, until a client said: why didn’t I know you offered this new service? And a colleague asked why she didn’t know I had a workshop coming up - she would have loved to register if she knew about it a week earlier!
That’s when I realized that not promoting myself enough was a disservice to my clients, current as well as future. Continue reading
Google Places Reviews: Where Did They Go?
If your business has a physical address, coming up as a dot on the Google map is HUGE!
And if you have a Google Places listing, as of this week, some of the reviews associated with that listing may be gone.
What happened? Google ate them!
Continue reading
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