How to Use On-Page Search Engine Optimization To Get More Traffic To Your Resume Business Website

One of the most frequently asked questions I get from resume writers is, "How do I get more prospects to visit my resume business website?" (This is also known as "website traffic.")

An important part of the overall search engine optimization process is what is known as "on-page search engine optimization." Basically, this is just making sure that you're labeling your website content in a way that the search engines will find useful so that they can direct folks who are looking for what you provide (interview-winning resumes!) to your site.

Having your on-page SEO done well isn’t necessarily going to help you achieve the #1 position for the type of searches your prospective resume clients are making. However, if you don’t have your pages well optimized, chances are you won’t rank at all.

Taking some time to label your pages and content properly is an all-important prerequisite to getting your website ranked on the front page of your preferred search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.). If you don’t have your on page SEO done properly, chances are you won’t be found on the first, or even second or third pages of the search.

The primary reason you want to do on-page SEO is so that Google can accurately tell what your page is about. A poorly optimized page will seem like it’s about "everything." A well optimized page, on the other hand, will tell Google exactly what the page is about, so Google can give you strong rankings for your chosen keyword(s).

Here’s how to optimize your resume business website page for search engines. For the purposes of demonstration, we’ll be using the “All in One SEO” plugin for WordPress for a number of these steps.

Step 1: The Title Tag
The title tag is the most important tag in all of your SEO efforts. It’s what Google places the most weight on when they’re trying to determine what your site is about.

Your title should have as much of your keyword towards the front of the tag as possible.

Different pages on your site should have different title tags. Do not have the same title tag throughout your entire website. If you do, you waste each individual page’s potential to rank for unique keywords.

For example, below is a setup for how your WordPress pages and posts might look like. You can configure your system to by default put post’s title first, then the blog’s name second, rather than the other way around.




Step 2: Meta Description
Your meta description tag doesn’t actually help you rank higher. Instead, what it does is tell Google what to display beneath your search listing. This can help you get a lot more clicks from Google by writing the “right thing” to hook your audience in. 

Each page on your site can have a different meta description. You definitely want to write the meta description for your home page and the popular pages on your site yourself. For the pages on your site that aren’t too popular, Google will just take an excerpt from your website and use that as your meta description. 

Step 3: Meta Keywords
Your meta keywords tags tell Google what keywords you think your site is relevant for. It doesn’t bear much weight as far as helping you rank goes, but it can really help Google figure out what your site is about. It takes just a minute to do them and is good SEO practice in general.


 

(Yes, you definitely can come up with a better description for your site -- and be sure to include your keywords!)

Step 4: URL Structure
Generally, you want your URL to contain your keywords as much as possible. You never want to use just your post ID or the date as your URL. You should also avoid cryptic URLs that contain data that no human being can read.

If you want to use just your post title as your URL for example, this is how you’d do it in the WordPress “Permalinks” settings.



Step 5: Image Alt Tags
Optimizing your alt tags plays a much larger part on SEO than a lot of people think. It won’t single-handedly help you improve your search engine ranking, but it is an important factor for your on-page SEO.

Give the images on your site good alt tags. Make sure the filenames are meaningful and make sure that your alt tags are descriptive. If you have purely navigational images on your site, such as white space or button backgrounds, name them numbers (111.jpg) rather than a text-based keyword.

In WordPress, you can change the alt tag of images by going to that image’s preferences.

Step 6: Noindex Non-Content Pages
You should "noindex" your non-content pages. Your affiliate pages, your category pages, your archives, and so on should all be "noindexed." This is particularly true if those pages contain duplicate content. On most blogs, category and archive pages are mostly duplicate content, so you definitely want to noindex those pages.

Step 7: Internal Linking
Internal linking is one of the most crucial factors you can do to improve your SEO.

Make sure you have links going from all your content pages to other pages on your site. Embed these links within your actual content, or within links on the site or bottom of the article.

Things like “You May Like” boxes or “Related Posts” boxes are all good choices.

Step 8: Have a Robots.txt
A robots.txt file just tells search engines where to go and where not to go. This is a good way to disallow search engine spiders from going where they’re not supposed to.

This can help you keep the areas you don’t want from ranking out of the search engines. For example, you probably don’t want the paid areas of your site (like a members-only section) indexed and shown in the Google search engines.

Step 9: Low Ad-to-Content Ratio
One factor that’s become more prominent since the Google Panda and Panda 2.0 updates is the ad-to-content ratio on your website. As the name suggests, the idea is to avoid stuffing your site with ads.

Google knows that great websites tend to only have a few ads on their pages. On the other hand, people who focus too much on milking their visitors for as much cash as possible tend to produce lower quality content.

So, therefore, pages with more ads tend to rank lower. Of course, you do need to make money – just limit your ads to one or two per page, rather than including ads all over the place. 

Step 10: Regular, Fresh, High Quality Content
Finally, it all comes down to content and content quality. Google is looking to promote websites with high quality content.

Produce fresh content as often as possible. The more fresh content you have, the higher your chances of ranking. Blogging is a great way to add new content -- but also consider articles, videos, and audio links as ways to share content. (Check out "Using Content to Capture New Career Clients" for more on this topic.)

These are the most important on page factors to pay attention to in search engine optimization. Get your on page optimization right before you try and topple your competition.

If you found this information helpful, check out "Website Traffic Secrets for Resume Writers."

Or this post by Vayu Media.

Why Resume Writers Should Consider Guest Blogging

On last month's BeAResumeWriter.com teleseminar, "Using Content to Capture New Career Clients," I talked about the idea of "Write where the people are."

In looking at my blog statistics today, I've had more than 74,000 pageviews on my blog since I started it … but many of the resume writers I talk to who have blogs have much less traffic. If your blog doesn't get much traffic (visitors to your blog), it can feel like you're shouting in the woods. No one is listening. The concept of guest blogging is taking that message to the streets -- specifically, the corner of a really big city. Go to where the people are, and share your message.

One way to do that is through guest blogging. There are several advantages to guest blogging -- as I mentioned, it's a great way to drive traffic to your blog or website. It's also a good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactic. Finally, it can also help strengthen your brand as a resume writer.

Guest Blogging Helps Position You as an Expert
Not all guest blogging opportunities are created equal. While my general feeling is that you should consider any and all guest blogging offers, some opportunities will prove more fruitful than others (in terms of visibility and traffic). Others might not have a large volume of blog visitors, but can help boost your credibility.

You also need to consider the quality of the target blog. Here’s why: presumably you’re going to put a bit of work into writing a top-quality blog post. You’re going to focus on providing value and benefit to the blog's readers. If that post is then placed on a blog that doesn’t have a good reputation -- or a blog that really doesn’t fit your target market -- then you may be doing yourself a disservice.

Instead, work hard to earn guest blogging opportunities for top rated blogs that fit your niche. You’ll be able to reach people who are actually interested in your information and build your brand. Aim for quality over quantity.

Consistency Is Key
While your guest post content will differ based on the purpose and mission of the blog, it’s also important for your voice and style to remain consistent. Part of building a strong brand as a resume writer is helping your readers recognize you immediately. Your voice and writing style can help make your brand memorable. It boosts awareness.

For example, if you have a no-holds-barred style that likes to stir the pot and create controversy, that same style should remain consistent -- regardless of where you’re blogging. The look and feel of your blog post will ideally remain consistent, too. If you regularly include text boxes with side notes on your own blog, then include them in your guest posts too. Be consistent.

Don’t Just Stop at Posting
Once you have published a guest post on a notable site, start marketing the heck out of it. Link to it on your social networking sites (Facebook business page, Twitter, LinkedIn -- even Pinterest!). Send a snippet and a link to it in your email newsletter. Share a link to it on your own blog too.

Guest blogging can be fun and it can certainly be an effective tool to drive traffic to your resume writing business website. However, the strongest reason to pursue guest blogging opportunities may be to build your brand.

If you want to learn more about content marketing (including using blogging to build your resume writing business), check out the "Using Content to Capture New Career Clients" teleseminar recording.

Social Media Sites Can Improve Your Website SEO

Photo used under Creative Commons from Victor1558

Yesterday, I offered a free special report for resume writers on using Pinterest ("Resume Writers' Guide to Pinterest"). Pinterest is just one of the social media sites (along with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, among others) that can drive traffic to your resume website and/or blog.

It's no secret that search engine rankings are important -- many prospective resume clients start their search for a resume writer online.

Search engine optimization is necessary if you want to achieve any useful ranking that can impact your resume business in a positive way. It can take months and even as long as a year or more for websites to achieve the coveted spot on the first page (or even the first spot!) on a search engine. To speed up that process, you can take a look at social media to increase your visibility.

Google is now considering social media stats in their overall algorithm for website rankings. The good news is that many of us use social media anyway, so turning it for business won't be a stretch. You can use your knowledge and the keywords from your website to help you attract other social media members who are in your target market.

Here are a few tips to help you utilize social media to improve your SEO efforts.

• Join the social networks that matter -- There are several social media sites but the ones most used are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Establish personal (if you haven't already) and business profiles on each of these sites. Within your profiles, incorporate the target keywords that you use on your site to attract visitors.

• Utilize every area of these sites -- Link updates on your website to posts that you make on these sites. Uploading a video to YouTube? Use keywords in the description and add a link to your site. "Like" pages that are similar to your niche market. 

• Join sites relevant to your target audience -- This is an old one but a good one. For instance, when you sign up for community forums (like a Group on LinkedIn), become an active member. Two-word comments, or posting to promote your site, can be viewed as spamming. You will gain more traffic from other members and influence in the community if you genuinely participate. 

• Follow other relevant blogs -- Make comments, offer to guest blog for influential bloggers in your niche (for example, if you are a resume writer who works with CFO candidates, find bloggers who write about business-to-business financial topics), and offer useful information.

The more engaging that you are on social media sites, the more you will rise to the top on the lists of others who also patronize those sites. This can elevate your status and increase traffic to your website. Also, communicating with your target market here can offer valuable insight for prospective clients, increasing your status as an expert for them when it comes time for them to conduct their job search.

Is Your Search Optimization Strategy Working?

You may have heard a lot about SEO. (I've written about it before a couple times on this blog.) It stands for "search engine optimization" and is important to the algorithms that can put your resume writing website at the top of the search results page on Google or Bing or leave you at the bottom. Here are some ways to measure if your efforts are getting noticed.

You first need a basic understanding of SEO. When people search the Internet, they use keywords or phrases to find what they are looking for amongst the hundreds of thousands of web pages that have been created. If you've ever looked in the upper left-hand corner of your search engine results, often certain words return millions of results. For example, this search for "Resume Writer" on Google returned 3.8 million results. Yikes!

No one bothers to go through all of those. They rarely look beyond the first or second page. So that is where you want your web pages, content, videos, and blog to appear, in order to be found by those who are looking. (And here's another trick: Don't try to rank nationally for "Resume Writer" -- instead, try to rank for "Resume Writer (Your Area of Expertise or Geographic Area)" -- i.e., "Resume Writer Baltimore" or "Resume Writer Elementary School Teacher.")

You have to do some work first. SEO is not an exact science. But, you can use keyword programs (for free) to help you find out which have the highest amount of competition and which are underused. From there, the trial and error begins. Some recommend using one keyword per web page to see which ones are drawing the most traffic for you. Also be sure that your website is registered with the major search engines.

Some Ways to Measure SEO Success:

• Backlinks. These are the external links that link back to your website from other places. You can create backlinks by using the resource box when submitting content to article directories, bio boxes when guest blogging, as well as signature lines on forums and places like that. (You can also get a backlink by becoming a member of BeAResumeWriter.com -- there are two member directories on the site -- one for free members, and one for paid members -- that can provide a backlink with high authority.)

• Traffic metrics. How many unique visitors do you have compared to returning visitors? What you want are unique visitors because these are new faces that are being drawn in by your marketing strategies. You can also look at revenue generated against visitors at any given time. You can find out your traffic by using Google Analytics. This free program gives you lots of information to calculate your SEO success. Test your keywords for at least three months to get an accurate picture of whether or not they're working.

What you ultimately want is for people to buy from you. You want that conversion from casual visitor to customer. It is essential that you include a call to action on your website pages that will compel the reader to make that conversion. You can track this metric as well.

Help your prospective resume clients find you online by maximizing your efforts at "Search Engine Optimization Success."

Get More Traffic to Your Resume Website with Links

After publishing an article about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies in the Fall 2011 issue of Resume Writers' Digest, I've been getting more questions from resume writers about how to get traffic to their resume website.

First, a caveat. You're not Amazon.com. You don't need 10,000 visitors to your website each week. If you need 3-5 new clients a week, you probably only need 100-200 qualified visitors to your site weekly. If you can get 10-20% of them contacting you (10-20 calls or emails a week), you can convert a quarter of those into clients.

So keep in mind that those "traffic fuel" or "traffic explosion" courses aren't necessarily a good investment of your time or money. They're geared at driving tens of thousands of visitors ... and can be costly, or contain potentially questionable tactics.

However, a link-building strategy can be a good way to generate visitors to your site ... and, depending on the links, they can be highly qualified prospects. (Even better!)

Getting other websites to link to yours is perhaps the best way to increase the amount of traffic you receive over time. Not only will you gain more traffic when people click on those links and come to your site, but as more websites link to yours the ranking of your website will improve on Google and other search engines (which will lead to additional traffic).

First off, see what sites are already linking to yours. You can check this with Bing Webmaster Tools.

You can also do a quick search on Google for link:www.yourdomain.com.

Keep in mind that Google syndicates its search results, so you'll also see links for sites that use Google results (i.e., AOL, Alexa, etc.)

It's important to recognize that proper link building takes time -- but this shouldn't scare you away from the process. In fact, it should probably be viewed as a positive. Rather than disrupt your other business tasks by requiring you to focus exclusively on building links for a day or week or more, proper link building will require you to dedicate a small amount of time to the process on a regular basis. Ten minutes a week is sufficient.

The first step is to identify where you want to build your links to. Do you want to build traffic to the home page of a your resume business website, to different articles (or a blog) within your website, or to some other online presence -- might be your Facebook page, your Google+ profile, or even your LinkedIn profile.

One of the best ways to build links is organically. To do this you need to become active on other websites that relate to your business. Identify the blogs and community websites that have active discussions and to which you can substantively contribute. When you're commenting or making other contributions, avoid the temptation to promote your resume business or resume writing services directly -- a "soft sell" approach is usually more effective in the long run. Just being available to answer job seeker questions is a good idea.

Whatever your strategy, make sure your links go to a page that exists (and will exist into the future) on your website. This is important because if you change the way that you structure your website, the URLs or web addresses for your existing pages might change. The last thing you want to happen is for someone to click on a link to an article on your site, and instead get a "File Not Found" error. Chances are they won't make the effort to try to find that article by searching your site -- they'll simply leave your website.

If you do restructure any of your websites, or switch to a new blogging platform, then make sure that you have redirects in place so that old links will be forwarded to the new location automatically.

Also make it easy for your readers to share links to your website by ensuring that each page of your website has appropriate "Share," "+1" "Like" and/or "Retweet" buttons for Facebook, Google+, and Twitter (and any other sharing buttons for other social networks).

Finally, you can also generate links by writing articles for sites like ezinearticles.com and including a link to your website or blog in the "resource box" at the end of the article.

Note: Do NOT even consider services that offer to sell you dozens, or even hundreds or thousands, of new links to your website. Many times these links will come from spam websites or spam blogs that will generate very little (if any) quality traffic. Plus, it won't take long for Google and the other search engines to recognize the "spammy" nature of these link farms, so there is a distinct possibility that your web site ranking will actually be punished if you are listed on too many sites. Buying links is a no-no.

But by taking just a few minutes each week to post on websites, commenting on blogs, and writing and posting unique article content, you'll be able to grow a nice stable of links to point to your website.

Using Your Blog to Get Better Search Engine Ranking

Many resume writers have a blog (Julie Walraven, Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, Barbara Safani, to name a few) -- but not all resume writers understand how to optimize their blogs to get better rankings in search engines like Google and Bing.

Blogging is a free marketing tool that many don't take advantage of. Using it can help you to achieve higher search engine rankings for your website.

Think of it as the difference between formal and informal meetings with clients. On your website, you are providing essential information about your resume writing services -- what you can do for those who need your services. You give them what they need in a well-written format. They can find your "store" with links to purchase a resume package, for example, and opt-in pages for newsletters and mailing lists.

With a blog, you can let your hair down, so to speak. A blog allows you to post information for your readers and customers. Then, they can provide feedback to you in the form of comments on your posts. You can discover vital suggestions from customers that can enhance your business. (I get comments from resume writers seeking specific resources to support their business development on this blog, and on my job seeker's blog, I get questions from prospective clients.) Blogs have appeal to many and they are also followed by people who like what you have to say but who have not even visited your website -- yet.

So, use your blog to its fullest potential. Here are some ways to achieve better rankings for your resume business website.

* Write optimized posts -- More than likely, you are changing your content on your blog more often than you are on your website. While you are refreshing the website content, you don't need to do so as often to keep interest. However, readers of blogs are more voracious and need fresh news more regularly. By sprinkling the keywords you are trying to promote throughout your entries, spiders can crawl and rank your entries high on search result pages.

* Include links to your website -- Each post is ranked and given its own URL. This is a new opportunity to mention a link (outright or with anchor text) that leads back to your website. For those who only follow your blog, they can now find you in another capacity on your website. This increases your traffic. (Plus, it provides a link to your website, which gives it "authority" in the eyes of the search engines. Bonus!!)

* Use an RSS feed -- People can follow your blog easier and still use links in posts to find your website. Increasing the number of blog subscribers also increases website traffic.

* Submit your RSS feed to a directory -- This can also help to increase your search engine rankings of your blog, which is good news for your website. One example is FeedBurner, but there are many others you can also use. (I use Feedburner for this blog.)

Blogs are free and quick to set up. You can start with a site that has its own templates (I use Blogger!) and then further customize them for your needs. Without spending a cent, you have created another channel to divert traffic to your website though one-way links. Increase your search engine rankings faster with a blog.

Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers: Part 5

This is the fifth and final post in a series of posts on "Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers." Previous posts in the series addressed the What and Why of SEO, Keyword Research, SEO Basics, and Setting Up Google Places. These posts are excerpted from the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook."

This post is all about "Google Places Best Practices."

Since you now have your business claimed and verified on Google Places, we can look at some techniques to make sure you use your listing properly. First off, Google Places isn’t really a service you “use” per se. It isn’t like Facebook Places in that regards. When I say “use,” I really mean how you should set it up to get the most advantage from the search engines. Essentially these best practices are steps to take to ensure your listing shows up above other businesses.

Google Places ranking depends on a number of items, including (but not limited to):

1.        Claiming Your Business — I will assume you did this in the last step, but if you didn’t, here is a good incentive to do it. Claiming your business is one way to raise it in the Google rankings. Generally speaking, claimed businesses show up before unclaimed ones.

2.        Choose City Center Locations — If your resume writing business has multiple locations (for example, a home office and a business office), list the one that is closest to the heart of the city. While it might be impossible for you to control, Google does lend weight to a businesses proximity to the city center.

3.        Categorize Properly — You can choose a number of categories for your business, and I suggest using as many categories as possible. The catch is they have to be legitimate categories. Don’t reach too far for categories, because if they aren’t related to your business, Google could penalize you by ranking your site lower in Places.

4.        Fill Out Your Profile — Fill out as much info in the profile as you can. Include payment types, hours, and other information — like parking, for example. Google definitely prefers profiles to be more filled out, because it means more value for their users.

5.        Add Images — Google gives you 10 spots for images, and I suggest using every spot. This will not only make your business listing look better, it will contribute to the “fullness” of your profile. You should have your business logo and your photo, at a minimum. You might also have a photo of the outside of your office (if you work from a commercial location). You can also include logos for professional organization affiliations (PARW, NRWA, CMA, CDI logos, for example) as well as for résumé certifications (ACRW, CPRW, NCRW, CRW, etc.).

6.        Reviews — People can review your business right on Google Places, so encourage some of your favorite customers to write you a review. It will look great on your profile, and help your listing show up at the top. Google Places also looks at review sites on the web. If applicable, make sure your business is reviewed on sites like Yelp.

Google Places is only gaining in popularity. Tapping into it today and optimizing your listing with the tips above will ensure your business has a prominent place on it.

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You can download the entire five-part series as a special report excerpt. It's just one small part of the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook." Purchase the 42-page special report for just $14 and receive two bonus special reports for free: "How to Add a Facebook 'Like' Box on Any Page" and "How to Use Facebook Ads In Your Resume Writing Business."

Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers: Part 4

This is the fourth in a series of five posts on "Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers." 

The first post in the series addressed the What and Why of SEO. The second was about Keyword Research. Yesterday's post covered SEO Basics. The fifth and final part is tomorrow's post on Google Places Best Practices. These posts are excerpted from the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook."

Today's post is about Setting Up Google Places.

Another step towards dominating Google locally is making sure you are represented on Google Places and have claimed your business.

Google Places is NOT Facebook Places — it isn’t the same thing at all. Have you ever done a search on Google and a map pops up with businesses plotted on it? This is Google Places in action. Many people don’t realize that you can claim your business and control the information Google shares in this manner.

 In this step we will look at how to sign up and add/claim your business.

First you have to visit Google Places.

1.      Sign in with your Google Account — If you don’t have a Google account, sign up for one now. Google has a number of free tools that are must-haves for individuals who want to market their businesses online. Google Places is just one of these.

2.      Check Out Some Information — Once you have entered your Google ID, you will be taken to a new page. On the left hand side is an “Add a Business” button — but before you click that, you can learn a little more about Google Places from some of the links and videos on the right side of page. When you feel comfortable moving on...

3.      Click Add a New Business — You will be taken to a page where it will ask for your country and business’s main phone number. This is to find out if a listing already exists. If it does, you will be taken to a page where you can click “edit” and you can fill out more information. If it doesn’t, you will be taken to a form to fill out to add your business. Fill out as much info as possible in either scenario and click “Submit.”

4.       Verify — Once you click submit, you will have to verify your Google Places listing. You can do this three different ways: via a phone call to your listed business number, a text to your listed cell phone number, or a postcard to your listed business address. The phone call and text will be instant, but you will have to wait 2-3 weeks for the postcard. Sometimes the phone verification won’t work with some phone systems, so you will be forced to go with text or postcard. Either way you do it, you will receive a code, and once you enter that, your listing will be live.

Now, you have either claimed or created your business profile on Google Places. You have taken another step towards building a great online presence. 

Tomorrow's blog post is about Google Places Best Practices.

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This blog post is just one small part of the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook." Purchase the 42-page special report for just $14 and receive two bonus special reports for free: "How to Add a Facebook 'Like' Box on Any Page" and "How to Use Facebook Ads In Your Resume Writing Business."

Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers: Part 3

This is the third in a series of five posts on "Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers." 

The first post in the series addressed the What and Why of SEO. Yesterday's blog post was about Keyword Research. The final two posts will address Setting Up Google Places and Google Places Best Practices. These posts are excerpted from the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook."

Today's post is about SEO Basics.

While breaking down SEO completely would be a book on its own (I actually purchased a 330-page eBook on this subject once!), I will go over some basics. if you have built your website using WordPress, you could do some of the on-page steps yourself. If you went with an HTML design, you might have to get your web designer to make a couple of changes. The changes will be quick though, so it shouldn’t take too much time.

Search Engine Optimization can be broken into two main categories: On-page and Off-page.

On-Page: On-Page means exactly what it says. These are the steps you take on your actual site or blog to make it more friendly to the search engines. While there are many things to consider, some great first steps include:

•  Title Tags: You might have to get your web designer to fix these for you if you use a traditional HTML website. These are simply the titles of each page and are the first thing Google sees when it finds a new page. The “title” in this case is what is displayed ABOVE the address bar in your Internet browser. It is at the very top of the browser. On Google.com, “Google” is the page title.

If you are familiar with HTML code, this is usually accomplished with the tags near the top of the code. If you are savvy enough, you can change them yourself — just remove what is in between them and paste in one of your keywords. In WordPress, you can handle this even easier through uses of plugins like All-in-One SEO.

Each page of your site should have a different title tag. Make it one of the keywords that you created in the previous step. In some smaller towns, this is all you will need to do to get to the first page of Google for localized terms. If you use WordPress, you can access Permalinks through the Settings and create a custom structure like: /%postname%/. 

This will make the title tag of every post you create to be the same as the Post Title. So just name your blog posts with keywords and you will automatically have keyword rich title tags. Another point for WordPress.

•  Content — You want to mention your keywords in your content, but not too much. You don’t want your content to seem low quality and unnaturally stuffed with keywords. Remember, your web content should be written for your visitors, not the search engines. Good quality content that naturally mentions your keywords will engage people, make them more likely to share your site. It will also seem more natural to Google.

•  Navigation — You should have proper navigation on your site. You want it to be both logical and working. Broken links on your site are a big “no-no.” A broken link in your navigation is especially glaring. You want Google to be to easily find your whole site with no broken links. This includes linking to other parts of your own site.

•  Sitemap — This step is more important for WordPress based websites, because a sitemap is needed more for a dynamic site. A sitemap is basically a list of your website pages. Search engines like Google will use it to discover your entire site. It is more important for websites that are updated with new pages often (i.e. WordPress blog). In WordPress you can easily add a sitemap to your site with a plugin like “Google XML Sitemaps.”

•  Privacy Policy — This is a tip that came from the Canadian headquarters of Google itself. The complex algorithm that Google uses to rank websites does give a bonus to sites that have a privacy policy. Just get your web designer to add a link in your footer — titled Privacy Policy — that links to a basic privacy policy for your website. If you use WordPress, just use a plugin like “Easy Privacy Policy.”

SEO is a major area of study online, and there are a lot of other steps you can take, but the above ones are a great on-page start to any campaign. Since ranking for localized keywords is easier in general, these steps should suffice for most resume writing businesses.

Off-Page — In many people’s eyes, off-page optimization is where you should spend most of your time. I personally disagree, though. I think consistent high quality on-page content (aka blog posts) is the most important step. That said, off-page optimization is still very important and probably more important than every on-page step besides content creation.

When it comes down to a basic level, off-page optimization is really about one thing — getting backlinks. Backlinks are simply links on other sites that point towards your site. Google values these highly, and it is one of the major ranking factors.

When you are starting a backlinking campaign, there are a couple of terms you need to know:

Anchor Text: The anchor text is the actual text that makes up the link. When you see a link that says “Click Here,” then click here is the anchor text. Links that have your keywords as the anchor text are more valuable. An anchor text that reads, “Click here to contact an Omaha resume writer” is more valuable.

Page Rank: Google gives pages a rank from 0-10. This rank isn’t quite as important as some people make it out to be, but it is still a good guide. The higher the page rank of a website, the more valuable the link on it is. (You will sometimes see this referred to as the “PR” value — or page rank value.)

NoFollow/Dofollow: Two different kind of links. If a link is nofollow, it means that Google doesn’t pass on the power of the link to your site. There is some argument on this though. I don’t think someone should ignore a potential backlink because it is nofollow. It contributes to a natural backlinking profile, and can still drive traffic. (You can do a search for “nofollow/dofollow” on Google to find out more about this.)

These are some of the basic terms you will come across when you are looking for backlinks or learning more about them. There are a lot of blog posts out there about backlinking, as well as free guides, etc.

Tomorrow's blog post is about Setting Up Google Places.

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This blog post is just one small part of the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook." Purchase the 42-page special report for just $14 and receive two bonus special reports for free: "How to Add a Facebook 'Like' Box on Any Page" and "How to Use Facebook Ads In Your Resume Writing Business."

Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers: Part 2

This is the second in a series of five posts on "Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers." Yesterday's post addressed the What and Why of SEO. Future posts will address SEO Basics, Setting Up Google Places, and Google Places Best Practices. These posts are excerpted from the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook."

Today's post is about Keyword Research.

Keywords are the words or terms that people use to search in Google. If you do a search for “Cheap Flights” on Google, then the keyword is: cheap flight.

Keyword brainstorming and research is an important first step in any Local SEO plan. These general steps will get you off to a good start.

• Brainstorm — Sit down and make a list of every keyword term that someone would search for to find your resume writing business. Don’t worry about local terms right now — just think of what people would search in any part of the world to find a service like yours.

Write down as many terms as possible. Think of a wide variety of terms, all the way from one-word terms (short-tail) to 3+-word terms (long-tail). I would also ask friends and family for their input. This will give you an outside perspective from an everyday person.

If you get stuck thinking about terms, you can get some help from Google itself. Just take one of the keyword terms you thought of and enter it into the Google Keyword Tool. This will give you a list of related terms and their estimated search numbers. Keep in mind we will localize these terms, so the amount of searches will not be directly applicable — but it still gives you an idea of what keywords are searched more often.

Spend a good chunk of time on this, and try to get a list of 30-50 keyword terms.

• Consolidate — Go through this list and take out your five most-desired keywords. You can use personal preference, a hunch, the search results from Google Keyword Tool, and common sense. Until you actually test your terms, you won’t know much about them. So take these five terms and write them down on their own. Keep your other keywords handy though! These will be the five you will start with, but eventually through the power of blogging, you will be ranking for all of the terms.

• Localize — Now that you have your list of five terms, simply localize them. Add your location (town or city, maybe the state/province if you are in a city with common name). If your resume writing services are in demand in a number of towns, then add the other towns in front of the keyword as well. For example...

City One + Keyword One

City One + Keyword Two

City Two + Keyword One

City Two + Keyword Two

Etc...

So each new town you use will be another five local keyword terms. Once you have localized your keywords, you will now have a list of local keyword terms that you can begin ranking for. While this is a basic form of keyword research, it is leagues ahead of most of the online marketing that local businesses do.

Tomorrow's blog post is about SEO Basics.

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This blog post is just one small part of the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook." Purchase the 42-page special report for just $14 and receive two bonus special reports for free: "How to Add a Facebook 'Like' Box on Any Page" and "How to Use Facebook Ads In Your Resume Writing Business."

Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers: Part I

This is the first in a series of five posts on "Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Resume Writers."

This post addresses the What and Why of SEO. Future posts will address Keyword Research, SEO Basics, Setting Up Google Places, and Google Places Best Practices. These posts are excerpted from the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook."

SEO means Search Engine Optimization. In basic terms, SEO is the process of making your website more relevant to the major search engines. Increasing your relevancy will mean that your site shows up higher in their search rankings. Due to its overwhelming market share, Google is usually the search engine you will optimize for.

Local SEO is optimizing your website to rank highly for local based search terms (keywords). Instead of just ranking for a general keyword like “Resumes” (don't use the accent marks when using "resumes" online), you would try to rank for “Omaha Resumes” or “Omaha Resume Writer” (remember: no accent marks).

SEO optimization is becoming an increasingly popular technique, especially by businesses in mid-sized and small cities. There are certain advantages when optimizing for localized search terms:

•  Easier To Rank — It is generally easier to rank for a local search term because it is less competitive. You can rank near or at the top of Google for these terms with much less work. For a real-life example, I worked with a business in a town of ~30,000 and was able to get them to the top of Google for a number of localized search terms in a matter of days.

•  More Targeted — When people are searching locally, they are more often to be ready to buy. It also makes sure that the people finding your site are local and can actually use your services. If you rank for “resumes,” people all over the world will find your site, but if you localize that search term you will be targeting people who are searching from your area. I have found that resume clients often start their search locally first. If they find someone competent that they feel comfortable with, they often stop searching.

With the explosions of mobile Internet, finding businesses through search engines will only get more popular. At one time, every business wanted to be in the Yellow Pages. Well, the day of the search engine is here and you want to rank for these local terms. With less competition you can rank quicker and with less effort. You will be tapping into a perpetual funnel of local-based web searches.

When you have a website, you want it to rank near the top of the search rankings for localized searches.

Tomorrow's blog post is about Keyword Searches.

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This blog post is just one small part of the "Resume Writers Online Marketing Guidebook." Purchase the 42-page special report for just $14 and receive two bonus special reports for free: "How to Add a Facebook 'Like' Box on Any Page" and "How to Use Facebook Ads In Your Resume Writing Business."

Are You SEO Ready?

Are you one of the resume writers who considers advertising in the Yellow Pages so "last century"? Do you get most of your new resume clients online? Is your website ready to be a primary source of new business for you? Is it optimized to meet the needs of the search engines that drive the majority of visits to websites like yours?

If you're like me, you wonder how you can get your website to show up on search engines so you can keep attracting new clients. And how you can get more traffic using paid listing services -- but ensure that you're spending your money wisely. Nowadays, you're not just competing with other resume writers in your area, you're competing with writers around the world for clients. Are you ready?

This is one of those topics where we, as resume writers, are going to need to learn some new tricks if we're going to still be selling our resume writing services into the next decade ... so we might as well invest 90 minutes to learn the strategies that will keep our phones ringing (and e-mail boxes full!) for the future.

Kathy Sweeney, NCRW, CPRW, CEIC, CCM, is presenting a webinar tomorrow (Thursday, July 31) at 3 p.m. EDT that you should attend if you want to learn how to maximize the Internet as a source of new clients. If your website is producing the kind of traffic that has your phone ringing off the hook, by all means spend tomorrow serving those clients. But if your appointment book is less-than-full, invest the $39 and attend Kathy's webinar. (Even if you can't make the live session, you can receive the webinar recording and materials after the session -- but if you're a Mac user like me, you'll want to attend live -- see the technical note below).

In the webinar, you'll learn how search engines find your website, effective keyword selection, the importance of meta page titles and meta tag descriptions, the difference between "natural listings" and "paid listings" (and the different types of paid listings), how to submit your website to directories (many of them for free!), how to negotiate relevant reciprocal links, and much more.

Register for the seminar HERE.

The 90-minute webinar is just $39. If you're not able to attend the "live" webinar, Kathy will be recording the audio and the actual "on-screen" presentation of the webinar. So even if you can't make it on Thursday, you will still receive the recording, video, and materials at the conclusion of the source. (See the special note below for MAC users.)

About webinars:
Attending a webinar is not much different than attending a teleseminar. But instead of just using your phone, you use your computer to follow along. You must be at your computer and on your phone at the same time. You will need to be able to "view" the webinar
on your computer.

System requirements:
* PC-based attendees: You'll need Windows 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server or Vista. To view the recorded video from the webinar, you must have Windows Media Player, Version 9 or higher.
* MAC folks (like me!) you'll need MAC OS X 10.3.9 Panther (or newer) to see the webinar. Although Kathy will be recording the video and audio, if you're a Mac-based resume writer, Kathy suggests you attend
the live webinar, as you will not be able to view the webinar video afterwards unless you have access to a PC (or run your Mac dual platform, my husband tells me. *smile*)

If the link doesn't work, visit the Resume Writers Resource website and click on "Teleseminars and Webinars."

Note: When you sign up for the webinar, you will be sent an "invitation" to register for the webinar. You must use the link Kathy will send you and "register" for the webinar or you will not be able to participate.