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You’ve undoubtedly heard the saying “He who fails to plan plans to fail.” That’s certainly the case when it comes to SEO. If you don’t have a solid strategy, you’re never going to get the rankings you want.

When developing an SEO strategy for your website, here are 5 different things you need to look at first.

1. Your target audience – A lot of people think that developing an SEO strategy means just using a keyword research tool, generating a list of relevant keywords, and targeting them. That’s it. But that’s not the case. See, you have to start by considering your target audience. Who are you trying to reach? What type of content is best for getting their attention? What are their needs? Once you know these things, you can get a better idea for the type of content you need to produce and the keywords you’ll want to focus on.

2. Your current search engine presence – Take a moment to assess your current situation. What’s your search engine presence like right now? Are you totally invisible in Google? Are you maybe ranking decently for a handful of search phrases? Is your website optimized at all? Do you even know which keywords you should be targeting? No two people reading this will be in the exact same situation. You have to look at all of the details of your specific situation, so you can figure out what you need to do moving forward. Set small, realistic goals in the beginning, and take your SEO campaign one step at a time.

3. Your competition – It’s important to have a good understanding of the competitive landscape before you go full speed ahead with your SEO strategy. You need to see what the competition is up to. Are any of your competitors ranking particularly well? Which keywords have the most competition? Are there any overlooked keywords that you think you can grab top rankings for quickly and get good traffic from? Where are your competitors getting their backlinks from? Do any of them have online reputation management issues? These are just some of the things to consider when performing a competitive analysis for SEO strategy development.

4. Your on-page SEO – How is the on-page SEO on your website right now? Is the content on your website built around the right keywords? Do you have good, keyword-rich URL structure and title tags? How is the interlinking on your website? Do you have a sitemap? Is your website crawlable for the search engines (e.g. clean code, not Flash-based). Make a list of all the things that can be improved on your website, and start implementing these changes so you can have a well-optimized site that’s likelier to get good search engine rankings.

5. Your backlinks — The more sites that link to you, the more important your website becomes in the eyes of the search engines. If you don’t have a good number of links from trusted websites, your search rankings are going to suffer. The good news is there are many easy ways to build links back to your website. From guest posting on other blogs to promoting your own link-worthy content, the possibilities are limitless.

What are some other key components of an effective SEO strategy? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

The times they are changing. If you’ve been keeping up with SEO news over the past year, you know that Google released an algorithm update that’s been dubbed the Panda update. The purpose of Google Panda was to put an emphasis on quality over quantity, as it relates to the content on your website and the back links you have from other websites.

Google Panda has served to reduce the rankings of low quality content farms, like article directories, press release directories, low-quality blogs, etc. This way, websites couldn’t any longer artificially boost their search engine rankings by getting thousands of low quality links from these types of websites.
This begs the question: How should you approach link building in the Google Panda era? Here are some tips to help you out.

Steer clear of low quality content farms — In the past, you probably got a lot of your back links from article directories and press release distribution websites. While those websites aren’t totally dead, most of them are on their way out. If you still want to use article and press release marketing, at least be more selective in which sites you publish your content on.

Look out for spammy-looking, ad-heavy websites — You are who you hang around with. If your back links are mostly from spammy, ad-driven websites, it will reflect poorly on your website in the eyes of Google. Do your best to avoid publishing your content on these types of sites.

Skip the blog commenting and forum blasting — Blog commenting and forum blasting used to be moderately effective for earning more links pointing to your website, but now, it’s a total waste of time. And even worse, it could cause you to look like a spammer to Google.

Guest blog on trusted blogs in your niche — Guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to build links. You publish original, quality posts as a guest author on other blogs in your niche, and traditionally, you’re allowed to include a couple of links back to your website in your author bio. Pitch other bloggers in your field to see if they’ll let you submit a guest post to their blog.

Focus on creating link-worthy content for your website — You’ll get the most juice for your squeeze by creating content on your website that other people naturally want to link to. Think of the type of stuff that hits the front page of Digg or gets a lot of ReTweets. That’s the type of viral content you need to strive to publish.

How have you changed your link building strategy in the Google Panda era? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

Last week, I talked about how SEO is meaningless if your website isn’t getting conversions. I mentioned that one of the most important things you can do to get more conversions is to have a strong call to action. Today, I want to offer you tips for creating better call to actions, helping you get more sales, sign-ups and customers.

Know the purpose of the page — Each page on your website needs to have a clear purpose. Some pages may be designed to get the customer to inquire for more information about your products or services; others may try to close the sale right there on the spot. Know the purpose of the page, and craft your call to action accordingly.

Put a call to action on every page — Every page on your website needs to have a call to action. You never know how people are going to arrive on your website or what path they’ll take once they’re there. By placing a strong call to action on each page of your website, you make certain that visitors are being driven to conversion no matter where they are, giving them fewer options for leaving your website without taking action.

Place a call to action above the fold — Web users spend 80% of their browsing time looking at information above the fold of the page (the part of the page that displays without scrolling down). That’s why it’s so important that you put your call to action above the fold, so that visitors see it the moment they land on your page.

Make your call to actions more visually appealing — Add a little pop to your call to action by transforming it from basic text into a graphic. You can make your call to action a button, a banner, a contact form, or anything else that will stand out and grab the visitor’s attention.

Use words that create a sense of urgency — You’ve seen those infomercials where they encourage viewers to call within the next few minutes to take advantage of a special offer. There’s a reason for this. Smart marketers understand that customers won’t take action unless you make them feel like they need to take action now. If your call to action doesn’t create a sense of urgency, the customer will put it off until tomorrow…or the day after that…or never. Use words like today, now, or limited time only to encourage customers to take action now.

Include a call to action in every screen view — By repeating your call to action once every screen view, you ensure that no matter where the visitor is on the page, they’re being encouraged to take action. This is especially important for long pages with lots of copy and graphics.

What’s your best tip for creating a call to action that gets results? Share it by leaving a comment below.

Although survival rates for small business enterprises have significantly improved over the years, there is still a 50/50 chance for failure in the first five years.

There are some common mistakes made by small business owners that if avoided, or rectified early on, can dramatically raise the chance for survival.

1. Inadequate Market Research – A great idea, product or service falls flat if there is no demand for it in the marketplace. Repeatedly segmenting and targeting the market is essential to developing a marketing and sales strategy. You don’t want to end up trying to sell ice cubes to Eskimos.

2. Inadequate Planning – This is probably the most significant mistake in why small businesses fail. Planning begins with a business plan. If there is no business plan – STOP! Seek whatever help you need and get one written. Then – FOLLOW IT! A business plan is the vehicle from which a business is run and prospers.

3. Inadequate Capital or Self-Financed – Money is the be all and end all of small business survival. This is where the business plan’s comprehensive budget and realistic forecasting comes into play. It’s simple math… 0 money for the business = 0 business.

There is a saying, “A lawyer who defends himself has a fool for a client.” This translates as well to
owners who finance their own small business. Self-financing can prove disastrous for owner and business alike.

4. Inadequate Marketing Plan – A classic Dolly Parton-ism applies here, “If you don’t blow your own horn, how will they know you’re coming.” Marketing is the horn that brings a product to the marketplace. It involves advertising, public relations, communications, collateral materials and a website presence. Marketing is a “must-have” for business survival.

5. Inadequate Financial Management – There are so many potential problems, this area begs being handled by a full or part-time professional. Key tips include; stick to the budget like it’s etched in stone, build a financial safety net by investing profits back into the company for 5 yrs., budget a salary for the owner and set aside sufficient funds for tax obligations and contingencies.

6. Inadequate Understanding of Strengths and Weaknesses – A small business enterprise is a reflection of its owner. Building upon strengths and shoring up weaknesses with full or part time staff helps balance the needs of the business, resulting in higher levels of performance and productivity.

7. Inadequate Expertise – Otherwise known as the “I can do it all” syndrome. Further to understanding the needs of the company, budgeting for experts such as accountants, attorneys, marketers, web designers, etc. on an “as needed” basis is vitally important.

8. Inadequate Adaptability – Adaptability is a 21st Century survival skill for all business enterprises, large or small. Technology changes, trends shift, the economy fluctuates – survival depends on the ability of the entire company to be flexible enough to respond to volatility.

9. Fear of Failure – Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. However, blessed are the risk takers for they shall reap the profits. Consider hiring a coach, establishing a board of advisors or invite adjunct mentors to provide additional support.

10. Rapid Growth – While it is anathema for a company to turn down revenue opportunities, rapid growth can sink a small business if it is not prepared to meet the demand. Under these circumstances, being the tortoise, by pacing sustainable growth wins the race.

Take a look at each of the mistakes and make sure that you don’t fall into these traps.

I hate to break it to you, but the online audience doesn’t trust you. If you’re trying to get new customers through your website, building website credibility is the key to your online success. Online shoppers are skeptical by nature, and for good reason. They don’t know who you are, and the internet is full of fly-by-night companies and scams. Below are some tips on how to check website credibility trustworthiness.

What can you do to earn their trust and website credibility? Here are 7 of the top ways you can build credibility through your website and earn that sale.

1. Include quality real testimonials on websites — Customers don’t trust you, but they do trust their peers. So, when other customers rave about how great your services are, people will take notice. Feature testimonials on your website, and make sure the testimonials include at least a photo of the person each is from (video is better, but not always easy to get).

2. Offer a money-back guarantee — One of your customer’s biggest fears is that he’s going to lose money by doing business with you. By offering a money-back guarantee on your products, you put his mind at ease, letting him know there’s a way out if he’s unsatisfied with the purchase.This eliminates the risk, and helps ease the customer toward making the purchase.

3. Highlight your experience with an About Us page — Too many companies overlook the importance of their About page. They view it as an afterthought or a throwaway page. The truth is the About page is actually very important for building trust with customers. Not only does it let them get to know you better, but it’s also a good way to highlight your experience and present your company as established and reputable.

4. Post your contact information on every page — Customers need to know that you’re easy to get in touch with. They want the reassurance that if something goes wrong with their purchase they’ll be able to get in contact with you for resolution. Be easy to contact, and post your contact information on each web page of your website.

5. Share your expertise on your blog — People trust experts, and they feel comfortable doing business with them. Use your blog to position yourself as an authority in your field. Share your knowledge and show customers that you know your stuff better than anyone else in your industry.

6. Have a professional web design — First impressions are everything, and if your website has a cheap, spammy-looking design, you’re going to scare off a lot of potential customers. The truth is people do judge based on looks, so it’s important that your website design for your business need to look professional.

7. Double-check your copy for typos and errors—If your website is littered with misspellings, poor grammar, and other mistakes, no one is going to take you seriously.