Follow the 80/20 Rule with Your SEO Tactics
When you’re running an online business, you can have as many domain names as you want – but without a flood of targeted traffic, your profits will never take root and grow into a formidable powerhouse on the web.
That’s why so may companies – from small-time entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 corporations – call in the big guns to help them launch an ironclad Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy.
SEO helps your findability factor. That means whenever someone heads to Google to conduct a search for a certain word or phrase, you want your site to come up on page 1, preferably in the #1 spot.
That can be hard to achieve if you have some stiff competition in the marketplace. If it’s a word that gets little to no searches, then you can dominate the search engines with little effort.
To improve your SEO strategy, you need follow the 80/20 rule. For 80% of your strategy, focus on free efforts that will help boost your URL to the forefront of online search engines.
For the other 20%, foot the bill for some paid SEO strategies that can help your ranking and ultimately, your site’s profitability. Having a mix of the two is like creating the perfect storm of traffic to your website.
Start with free, ongoing SEO methods like building links to point to your domain. Register for a free account at Squidoo and build lenses with links directed to your website.
Register as an author on Ezine Articles and submit content with a Bio box that includes an anchor link back to your own domain as the expert authority on whatever niche you’re in.
Build free blogs on sites like WordPress and Blogger and hyperlink keywords and phrases that direct visitors to your primary websites. Having the keywords linked to your sites tells Google and other search engines that your site is “known for” those words and phrases.
For the 20% paid SEO tactics that you employ, go sparingly and stay within your budget. Using Google AdWords, but don’t set it up to fork over $100 a day if you can only afford $5.
Look into other paid advertising methods, like buying ad space on a website whose content complements your own domain subject matter. Test and track the conversion rate of your paid SEO efforts and make tweaks until they perform with a good return on your investment.
