AecUniverse Blog

Think about the people you help in your business. Where do they congregate, where can you find them? For instance, I work with small business owners who want to get more clients. A place this group frequently visits is bank offices to take care of financial transactions and to discuss specific issues with banking officers.

Every time I visit a bank I sit in the waiting area and read one of my brochures. When an officer is ready for me, I place my brochure on the table with all the other reading material. I figure I’m providing a service for the bank by providing materials for their customers for free. Sometimes I visit other banks and read my literature. If a banking officer approaches me, I simply tell him I�??m waiting on a friend. Then I leave my literature on the table.

So, think about where your prospects gather. Can you leave a card or brochure or sales sheet?

By the way, it is very easy to track your leads with this system. When you leave a brochure or card, always write a code or department number on them, and record that information. When you are contacted by someone, you can ask about the code and determine which location it came from. Obviously this assists you in determining which locations are producing results and which are not.

This method of marketing certainly shouldn’t be your only method of generating prospects. Clearly it will not produce large numbers of prospects. But it will produce results far beyond the small cost. I have gotten several calls over the years from this activity.

Consider out-of-the-ordinary places for your literature, anywhere your prospects might be. I guarantee you won�??t find your competitors there.

Larry Baltz runs a company called More Sales �?” More Profits. He works with small business owners who want to get more clients and sell more products and services. Larry is a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach and small business marketing expert. For his free report, �??Knock-Their-Socks-Off�?� Promotion and Marketing, go to http://www.moresales-moreprofits.com for your copy.

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Although the concept of SEO can be somewhat complex, there are a number of basic search engine optimization practices you should note before starting any SEO related activity. These basic principles are essential for any web page or website for which you are attempting to optimize. Keep in mind that these are just some of the fundamental SEO practices you should consider.

1. MetaTags

Metatags are simple lines of code at the top of your page (source code) that tell the search engines about your page. I recommend that you be sure to include the following meta tags: title (no more than 7 words and unique for each page), keywords, description, author, and robots tag. The robots tag instructs the search engines to read all or some of your website.

2. Create or update your sitemap

Developing a site map is a simple yet highly effective way of giving search engines the information they need to crawl your entire website. This ensures that the engine has an up-to-date record of your pages and content. The key to improving search engine results is making it easy for your website pages to be located and crawled. There is free software on the web (like www.xml-sitemaps.com) that helps you generate a sitemap. Once you create a sitemap for your website, submit to Google and Yahoo. Additionally, place a link to the site map on your home page.

3. Ensure that all navigation is in HTML

Too often I see navigation in the form of java script or images. Even though the navigation technically still works in this format, it�??s not optimized. The benefit of creating your navigation in HTML is that you consistently build internal links throughout your website by keeping the navigation constant and easily identified by search engines.

4. Check that all images include ALT text

Your image alt text is spidered by search engines. If you�??re not including your keywords in your alt text, your missing out on a huge opportunity for improved search engine result placement. Be sure to label your images appropriately and they may even show up as the number one result on Google. Additionally, Google has a database of images (Google Image Search) that indexes pictures as well.

5. Use Flash content sparingly

As mentioned earlier, content generated through java script or flash is a big no-no. Some webmasters like to use flash because of the presentation. It�??s okay to use sparingly, but only after your site has been properly optimized with basic SEO in mind.

6. Make sure that important page elements are HTML

Keep in mind when optimizing a web page crawlers are basically only looking at your source code. Anything you’ve put together using an image or other multimedia component is likely to be invisible to search engines. Therefore, the most important elements of your page, where the heart of your content is presented, should be presented in W3C optimized HTML source code.

7. Place keywords in your page content the right way

I�??m sure you�??ve heard the importance of placing the right keywords or keyword phrases in your content. To show the search engines that your article is focused on a particular keyword or keyword phrase, be sure to sprinkle it throughout the content. Additionally, include your keyword in headers and sub-heads. That is to say that your keyword should be contained in an h1, h2, or h3 tag.

Learning to optimize your website for search engines takes time and most of all, patience. Start with the basic principles I�??ve outline here and you�??re off to a good start. If you�??re new to SEO, or even a well seasoned veteran, begin by prioritizing which pages are most important for you to optimize. Sometimes people think that they need to optimize all their pages right away and the task becomes too overwhelming. Start small, begin with your primary and/or secondary pages, and go from there.

Michael Fleischner is an Marketing Expert with more than 12 years of marketing experience. He has appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. For additional Search Engine Optimization Specialist related articles visit MarketingScoop.com.

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