At its heart, SEO (search engine optimisation) is simple. The basics of SEO haven’t really changed since Google first started dominating the way people search the internet: make each page relevant to the topic it’s about; keep to just one topic per page; get some proof that it’s a worthy page by getting links pointing back to it.
Of course, like everything that’s outwardly simple, there are a lot of small details that need to be right.
Which is where SEO training comes in.
WordPress is the most popular way to design websites. That’s for a number of reasons: it’s well supported, the main program is free and it’s extremely flexible.
The fact that it’s free software does worry some people but there are lots of reasons why that shouldn’t be something to worry about. Including the fact that the “wisdom of crowds” comes into play keeping the code as secure as possible. Whereas with computer operating systems, we’re at the mercy of companies like Microsoft and Apple to keep on top of those kind of issues.
The problem with free software – or indeed almost any software nowadays – is that we tend to assume that we should be able to work it immediately.
To an extent that’s true with WordPress.
Website speed matters.
Especially since connection speeds vary depending on how people are viewing your site. Mobile phone browsing is usually a lot slower than using a desk based computer.
And Google takes account of speed as one of its ranking factors.
Sure, website pages are bigger than they were when the internet started to get going and near enough everyone was using dial up modems to browse the web. Then image and page sizes were even more important.
But it’s easy to get blasé and think that website load speeds don’t matter any more.
They definitely do!
A lot of people I speak to tell me something along the lines of “I’ve been trying to make money online with internet marketing for 5 years but have not been successful”.
That’s by no means unusual.
There’s a steep learning curve with internet marketing, even though it appears deceptively simple when you first look at it.
And, to an extent, it is simple.
But there are too many shiny pennies in the way – and they have a habit of distracting us.
There are three main ways to get more business:
This video goes into more detail:
Once people have signed up on your squeeze page, here’s something you can do with them before they get to the download page.
You’ll probably know from experience that there’s no standard “thing” to do with people once they’ve signed up to your autoresponder list.
If you’ve decided to use a double opt-in procedure then there’s a good chance you’ll show a screen that’s supplied by your autoresponder company that reminds people they’ll have to confirm their email address.
If you’ve used a single opt-in procedure then the standard procedure is to take them to a page of your choice.
Most internet marketers write emails, usually to their lists.
That probably applies to you – you’ve built up a list of subscribers and you send them emails.
Likely most of those emails are written ahead of time and get sent out at pre-determined intervals by your autoresponder service.
But precisely who are you writing to?
If you don’t know the answer to that question, you’re missing a trick and a lot of sales.
Countdown timers are an easy way to add urgency to a page.
The clock is ticking and it has no hesitation in letting you know that.
You’ve probably seen them on sales pages or replays of webinars – often letting you know that the offer will disappear or increase in price once the time reaches zero.
[ujicountdown id=”Test” expire=”2014/04/25 00:00″]
That one is the best (free!) countdown timer I’ve found for WordPress.
Internet connections are getting faster but does your website’s speed need to improve?
After all, we’re not on dialup modems any more.
But the answer to the question of whether or not website speed still matters is a resounding “yes”.
Bounce rates tell you how many people only looked at one page on your site and then left it, maybe never to return.
But is that good or bad?
Well, as usual on the internet, the answer is “it depends”.