Charlie Cook's MArketing for Success Insider's Club

Search Engines

How to Solve the Web Site Marketing Puzzle

By Charlie Cook   |   September 15, 2005

For most people marketing online can be a puzzle. The first step is to understand the pieces. Here’s a roadmap of the key elements.

1. Getting People to Your Site
– Search Engine Listings
– Pay-per-click ads
– PR
– Article Distribution
– Linking Strategy

Whether it’s the description that appears in the search engines, your google ad, or the blurb you include with your articles, you’ll need a killer marketing message that gets your prospects to stop what they are doing and click through to your web site. I explain exactly how to do this in the 15 Second Marketing guide.

2. Getting People to Read Your Web Copy
Once visitors arrive at your site you want them to instantly discover why they need your products or services then you want them to contact you or buy from you. I explain the web strategies and ideas that work to do this in Creating Web Sites that Sell .

3. Getting People to Buy Again and Again
Remember the first sale should be just the beginning. Once a site visitor has made a purchase quickly leverage their interest and convert them into regular buyers.
– Charlie Cook

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How To Get More Prospects to Stop By Your Web Site

By Charlie Cook   |   August 15, 2005

Why aren’t more people stopping by your web site, contacting you and buying from you?

Let’s take a look at the path your prospects follow.

1. They look for your site in the search engines, in the vast majority of cases in Google.

Is your site listed in the 10 or 20 spots so they can find it? If not can they find your Google Ad?

2. Once a prospect sees your listing in the search engines, the copy in your listing needs to instantly get them to stop searching and click on your link.

Try searching for your site in Google, Yahoo or MSN and take a look at the title and description that shows. Is it compelling? Do the few words that appear give prospects a reason to visit your site? If not then find out how to write a marketing message that motivates prospects to visit your site.

3. Once a prospect is at your site, is it a virtual funnel that grabs prospects attention and moves them to contact you or buy from you? If not take a look at the sequence of information on your site and organize it so it prompts prospects to take the action you want them to take. Find out how to funnel prospects to contact you and buy from you with Creating Web Sites that Sell. – Charlie Cook

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How to Select the Best Keywords for the Search Engines

By Charlie Cook   |   July 25, 2005

Now there is an alternative to using Overture’s keyword suggestion tool.

Keyword Discovery provides you with a list of the most frequent uses of the various uses of your keywords. – Charlie Cook

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Can I Rely On Search Engine Placement?

By Charlie Cook   |   May 11, 2005

“I have a client who is generating lots of business from the top placement of his listings under his keywords in the search engines. Is this a risky strategy or should he be looking at pay-per-click advertising?” – M. Anderson, KPMG

Given the vagaries of the search engine algorithms and the volatile nature of the search engine marketplace I’d advise your client to develop multiple ways to generate leads over the internet. He could be doing very well with his Google search engine placement this year, but if Microsoft has their way, they’ll be putting Google out of business and his search engine placements could be irrelevant.

Even if his current listings continue to do well, why not invest in pay-per-click advertising and generate 30% more leads and business? – Charlie Cook

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What’s the Most Common Search Engine Marketing Mistake?

By Charlie Cook   |   March 28, 2005

“How can I help the search engines find my site and avoid common search engine marketing mistakes? – Adam Brock

1. Start by creating a list of keyword phrases and the variations you think people will use in searching for your products and services.

2. Use the Overture keyword suggestion tool to organize these according to the frequency people actually search for them.

3. Use the keywords in this list when you write your web page copy and articles you distribute online.

Learn exactly how to write and code your web site to help the search engines give it a top ranking. – Charlie Cook

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Who Does Your Search Engine Positioning?

By Charlie Cook   |   March 9, 2005

“You must have someone really good doing your search engine positioning. I see your site appearing in the top 10-20 spots for lots of keywords on Google. Who does it for you?” – Kristie T.

It is true my site enjoys top 20 positioning for a lot of keyword phrases related to marketing. Phrases such as free marketing plans, marketing message, marketing blog, web site marketing plans, marketing coach, business marketing tools, etc.

This is a result of a simple system I developed that is you can learn with my internet marketing manual “Creating Web Sites that Sell“ and I’ve applied to my site myself. Of course the first step is having highly relevant content, that’s what the search engines are looking for. The second step is knowing what the search engines are looking for, that’s what you’ll find explained in Creating Web Sites that Sell. – Charlie Cook

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Why Isn’t My Web Site Coming Up in the Search Engines?

By Charlie Cook   |   February 28, 2005

“Can you tell me why my website isn’t coming up in the Google Search engine?” – Michelle Brown

The search engines, including Google, look for certain key elements on your web page when they spider it. If those pieces of information aren’t present or don’t include the proper text they won’t know how to categorize your site or will prioritize it incorrectly. How and where you use your keywords on your page is critcial to the success of your web site marketing.

Just because your site is relevant doesn’t mean Google will find it or put it at the top of the search findings. To help Google you need to use your keywords in specific places and with a certain number of times. Getting your site listed at the top of the seach engine can happen by accident but usually it requires very carefully planning your pages to ensure they help the search engines find them. I’ve detailed what you need to improve your internet marketing and put your site at the top of the search engines in Creating Web Sites that Sell. This comprehensive manual explains how to structure and write your web site to improve your website marketing plan and sell more with your web site. I also work one-on-one to provde select clients with web site marketing advice. – Charlie Cook

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How Can I Find Which Keywords People Use?

By Charlie Cook   |   February 16, 2005

“Where can I reverse look up the words people are using when they are looking for your products?” – Buck Buckingham

I use the Keyword Suggestion tool at Overture to get a rough idea of how many people have searched for a set of keywords in the last month and related keywords. Once you’ve identified the keywords people use in looking for your products or services you may want to use them in your elevator speech.- Charlie Cook

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My Biggest Search Engine Positioning Mistake

By Charlie Cook   |   February 8, 2005

It is in the past so I can admit it. I made a huge search engine positioning mistake that was a drag on my site traffic and it took me forever to figure it out. As the author of one of the first books on search engine positioning it was a little embarassing to say the least. Here’s the mistake I made and how to avoid it.

Originally my marketing site could be found at www.charliecook.net. This site benefited from some top search engine placements in Google and other popular search engines thanks to applying the few simple guidelines I detail in Creating Web Sites That Sell . Traffic from Google was growing steadily, that was until I made the following mistake.

About ten months ago I rebuilt my site and moved the content to the current location at www.marketingforsuccess.com Thanks to my strategy of using articles to attract prospects and my huge distribution list of online and offline editors who publish my articles, my website traffic continued to grow, but I noticed I couldn’t find my site in Google. Yikes, what was going on. Preiously I’d been in the top 10-30 spots for every one of my keywords.

During the last six months I’ve worked closely with a search engine postioning firm to try and fix this situation and get listed in Google again. After trying a variety of tactics which worked to boost my listings in every other search engine, we tried removing all the original pages from my www.charliecook.net site. I had left them up under the assumption that since they were originally well placed they’d continue to draw traffic which would be automatically forwarded to my new site. Big mistake!

It turns out that Google didn’t like having similar content pages on both my sites, even though the first had a permanent redirect on it to my current site. About a week ago I removed all the pages from my initial site, resubmitted it and my current site to Google. This week my site is back in the top 10-30 positions in Google for most of my keywords.

Lesson learned. If you create a second site for your content with a new url, after a month or so, delete the original and just have the domain forward to your new domain. Want to learn how to avoid more web marketing mistakes, check out Creating Web Sites That Sell – Charlie Cook

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How Can I Get My Blog To Be Noticed?

By Charlie Cook   |   January 21, 2005

“Hi Charlie! First off your info is great! By taking your suggestions I stumbled upon blogging as a marketing idea. I use blogger.com also. My blog is named Nashville Real Estate. Blogging is an excellent chance to establish yourself as an authority to create public confidence. How can I get my blog to be noticed more? Again thanks for all the great info!” – uminor

Here are a handful of tips for getting your blog noticed.

1. Include links to your blog on every page of your web site.

2. Mention a couple of your most recent blog posts in your ezine and a link.

3. Submit your blog to all the relevant blog directories.

4. Include your blog url on your business card.

5. Write articles in your area of expertise and include your blog link.

(Hey I should start doing that too.) – Charlie Cook

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