Business Blogging Tips

I stumbled on this interesting blog - Business Blogging Tips - which had an interesting link to the book - Meatball Sundae - Is Your Marketing Out of Sync?

While the book looks interesting this comment on the blog says a lot about the purpose and usefulness of SEO:

We tell clients this all the time. MOST print advertising, including the YELLOW PAGES, is a waste of money these days. Would you rather spend $1000 on ad that is gone in month? Or spend $1000 online, where that ad can live on indefinitely?

Seth also comments on the speed of SEO - "

"My position is that the clients are the problem, not the consultants. That's because they want shortcuts, not hard work. The best SEO is great content. Don't do that and you don't get much."

The Web 2.0 has powerful tools to help someone be found online. But it takes time. It does not happen overnight, usually. You have to build the temple....and then they will come! It's like planting seeds in the garden. It takes time for the seeds to fully grow and develop.

I think the comment about print advertising says it all as does the comment about content. It reinforces the comments we have made before:

• Start a blog - one post a week means 52 pages of new content in a year
• Take the best content on your blog and integrate into your website
• Add a page of things to do on your website
• Employ someone to edit the content if necessary. Having a professional edit your content is extremely helpful to pick up typos, errors and come up with good unique content.
  
• Employ someone to help with SEO.

All these things are possible and we can assist you with any of these things through our various partners. Do feel free to contact me for a no obligation assessment of your tourism marketing needs.

Why do yellow pages and other big sites always rank well?

SEO Tip.
Ever noticed that when doing a search for your own website or business name, that if you spend money on advertising in the yellow pages, or in any online business directory's, that the listing to your business name always shows up on their website before your website in a search.

You would think that if it's your business, you would rank the best... unfortunately this is not so.

I'll always talk about Google, since thats the grand-daddy of all searches.

Google has a way of ranking a web page it sees as more important than another page on the same subject, it's called PR or Page Rank, and although the exact way it is worked out is top secret, it is obvious, that the more links you have to your website, from other website that have this PR, the better your PR will be, and the better your PR is, the higher you rank.

Why doesn't your website rank First
Places like yellow pages, will often say, that if they link to your website, you must put a link button on the front page of your website,(the best page for a link to another website) to verify you are listed in their directory.

Sounds fair enough huh, the thing is, is that many directory's like yellow pages, have special code written into the links from their website out to your site, so Google doesn't see it as a link it's called a no-follow link.
People can still click on it, and it will take them to your site, the link just means nothing in search engines, as showing your site as popular.

Now consider that these big directory's have thousands even 10 of thousands of places listed, just like yours, and each place is sending a link to that directory site, and the directory site aren't returning the favor with a link back, so Google sees this directory site as being very popular, and give it a higher PR. And in turn your site will drop lower in the search engines, so you are paying them to make your ranking worse.

What can be done
As an SEO I find the oddest thing of all, is many businesses pay a lot of money to be listed in the yellow pages, or udb or other directory's, right along with all their competitors, yet when i suggest a link campaign, finding and swapping links with other people in the same line of business, my clients often get all defensive, and say they don't want to link to their competitors.

Think about it though, you have a lovely restored villa, and your rental villa and you rent out the rooms for $750 a night, and again you live in Timbuktu, you pay to be in the yellow pages say $2500 to be in the printed book and online with other accommodation places right in your own town for 1 year.
And your website will rank lower in search engines because of that ad you paid for.

Yet a good SEO, will organize to set up link exchanges with other places just like your's, that are situated worldwide, no completion there. If someone wants a villa in Timbuktu, they are hardly going to decide they like the look of the of this villa in New Zealand better. If someone is looking for a villa in Timbuktu, then they want to visit Timbuktu, Not New Zealand.

If the SEO does their job well, your website will start to ranking highly in say google.
for things like luxury villa in Timbuktu, villa near Timbuktu, and many many other relevant search phrases.

The other website you have swapped links with in other parts of the world will be doing well for searches with luxury accommodation, luxury villa, in searches that are local to their area, so it's a win win situation. Sounds so easy huh.

Well unfortunately not everyone has seen this blog, and few understand this concept, and in the past links have always looked so ugly on a website, that this very simple idea doesn't work.
Things are changing, and I intend to lead the way. No ugly banners, know wordy ad's, just a nice neat, well positioned links page, to the accommodations like yours.

Solutions we'll be offering.
Once we have finished building the main part of the New Rainbow Tourism website, website (around the end of Oct 07) and after seeing so many badly built and sadly optimized accommodation website, we(Canz Design Ltd) have decided to get together with Mark, and offer his members and interested people from the tourist accommodation sector various package deals, which will include a professionally designed website, that will have all the important information where it should be, basic, intermediate or advanced SEO package, with a secure payment booking system already integrated. And a few other goodies.

You or someone you know will get complete accommodation website package.

These packages will have a written guarantee's by me, Lynny, the head of SEO, that if your site isn't ranking on the 1st page of Google, within a year, that you will receive free SEO worth double the value of your initial SEO package within the next year.

There will be heaps of other features and benefits, so Rainbow Tourism, who already offer their a unique service of a secure booking service, to members in their directory, and have a listing directory that does have proper links back to sites that want their website listed, will soon be offering their members yet more services of a professional looking, well SEO'ed, website as well.

No other directory to my knowledge has ever offered such a service, it truly is unique.

Cheers Lynny
NZ's best SEO