Thoughts on Marketing…

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important – we all know that.

I’ve been talking to you for a long time about things you can do to increase the SEO on your site. Things like adding alt tags to all your images and creating unique, keyword rich title tags for each of your web pages.

But all along there’s been something I couldn’t tell you because I didn’t know a way around it that was both simple and legal.

You may have read that part of your Google ranking comes from having links back to your site from other relevant sites. You’ve probably read plenty about it, because there’s a lot of confusion about it and Google never gives away secrets.

Many webmasters have resorted to buying links – but if Google figures out what they’re doing, they could lose their search engine placement entirely. Just be vaporized. So, that’s not safe – and it is expensive.

One way to get those links AND increase your personal reputation as an expert in your field is to leave comments on blogs. Of course you leave your URL along with the comment. The problem for many is finding blogs that are relevant to your site so that Google will count them as relevant links.

If you’re a dog groomer and you leave comments on a gardening site, the link probably won’t count for much.  You need to find blogs that are not only relevant, but say something that calls for a comment. And that can take time.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t leave a comment on the gardening site, by the way – the whole idea is sharing ideas and if gardening is your hobby you probably have something to add to the conversation. Besides, people who write blogs love you when you leave comments – it makes them feel less lonely.

But back to SEO -

I’ve gone searching and found things like blogs that hadn’t been updated in a year, blogs that made no sense whatsoever, and blogs that had no place for comments. It can be pretty time consuming.

Well, my friend George Tallibas from Napa posted a “find” on Active Rain tonight that will solve that problem – it’s a fast way to find highly rated blogs.

Rather than explain what he explained, I’ll give you the link… Here’s George.

Remember – If you’re a member of Active Rain, be sure to log in before you go there – otherwise your comment won’t show your URL.

If you’re a real estate agent and not a member of Active Rain, take the time to join. Agents like George give lots and lots of good advice – and they’re people you should listen to. George says he’s as busy as ever this year – or busier. And not too many agents can say that.

Here’s to prosperity,

Marte