There’s a large number of companies that provide ways for your website to rank highly in search results. As I’ve mentioned before, many of them are run by dedicated, highly experienced technicians who deliver what they promise, albeit at a price. There are also snake-oil salesmen who will deliver a high ranking for search terms that are only typed in once every few days (usually by you, to check if your site is still number one). What if you didn’t need to be “number one in Google”? What if your customers all came to your site in another way? Could it be possible? Well, of course it is. Why not liberate yourself from the “Search Engine Optimisation Industry”? Here are some ways to do just that –

• You’re reading this, aren’t you? If you have a regular, useful ezine, people will use the links to visit your website from time to time.
• Have a feature on your site that asks visitors to register what they need, and alert them when you can supply it
• Make sure you mention your website at every opportunity
• Encourage other website owners to link to you (but no tacky “link farming”,please)
• Set up an affiliate programme

You can think of more. Drop me a line if you have any that you’d like to share. Join the revolution! Liberate your site from the search engines
 

By Alan Stevens, Founder of www.mediacoach.co.uk

When you say online connections, immediately you think of myspace, facebook, bebo etc, but this time I’m not talking about social media, I’m talking about websites….it’s back to basics.  

With every client you work with, partnership you create, stakeholders you engage with, you should look to create a relationship which can be turned into a future business opportunity.  All you need to do is ask if you can exchange links and a paragraph of text to represent your business on each others website. This exchange could be purely on a voluntary basis or if you want to take it a step further you could use an affiliate programme, where you give the referrer a % of income created. 

The paragraph about your business needs to be short and sweet, capturing people’s attention so they want to find out more. The paragraph could be in the form of a testimonial or a description of services, followed by your weblink.  This exchange will not only be a great promotional opportunity for both of you, but it also boost your reputation in terms of who you work with, and it will also boost your rankings on search engines such as google. Overall it will have a positive impact on your marketing and PR strategy.
Measuring the impact of your website referrals is easy; you just need to use online measuring tools such as Google analytics.
One great example of this relationship is where www.stridingout.co.uk has worked with www.beunpackaged.com. Unpackaged was one of Striding Out’s participants on Big Leap Competition, and our recent promotion of the competition led to a press feature on the www.treehugger.com website. The feature directed people to Cath’s website, which in turn referred people to our site from a weblink on the Be Unpackaged website.  

So every month reflect on who you’ve worked with and see how you can reinforce your online connection with them. The positive impact will not only strengthen your existing business relationships but also your new ones, as referrals from trusted sources are always best.

Best Wishes

Heather

Founder and Business Coach www.stridingout.co.uk