Fantastic Friday: Increase Targeted Website Traffic

I am currently enrolled in Cricket's search engine optimization classes online because Lynn did. And I always do everthing Lynn does. She's awesome. I'm on lesson 4.5.

This whole process has been eye opening. Over 400 pages of our custom furniture website have been indexed by google. We get about 130 hits per day. Most orders are placed via telephone, not online. But, since we do not have a brick and mortar store, we know they find out about our furniture online. We do a good amount of business and make a decent living. I'd like to do a phenomenal amount of business and make an awesome living. Thus, the search engine optimization classes.

Cricket's Lesson 4.5, Increase Targeted Website Traffic, leads with: "Imagine for a moment here that my business involves country style decorations for the home. I am currently working on optimizing a page which includes various wall decorations."

Hmmm... we make custom furniture, but we mostly make American Country style custom furniture. So, this lesson hits home in a unique way.

Cricket advises to pick one niche, and focus on that niche for the duration of the classes. I picked wood tv stands because we happen to make some nice ones, like this 56 inch Girtz Plasma TV Stand:

So be like me and do what Lynn does... take Cricket's Search Engine Optimization classes to learn to increase traffic! Then come back here and tell us what you think!

Search Engines & Robots

Do you think the Jetson's had any idea what search engines, spiders and robots had in common?

For WAHMS, we aren't just moms, wives and business owners, we're inventors, designers, crafts"man" (I'm not so politically correct!), assembly workers, accountants, receptionists, customer service reps, sales reps, etc etc. We are also computer geeks! I know more than I want to know about my computer and software and updating my web site. We often spend more time on our computer, than on actually running our business. Let me clarify, we are RUNNING OUR BUSINESS when we are updating our web sites, but I'd rather be designing!

I am not a really good computer geekand I can't believe I understand what I do! OK, Peggy, let's get to the point!

For the past few days I have spent HOURS on updating Key Words, Meta tags, descriptions on my web site, comfycozy.com. It's a daunting, time consuming task. All with the goal of increasing the rankings on Search Engines and landing on page one, so that when you look for a personalized pillowcase for Christmas, that Comfy Cozy is going to be the first web site on that page!

We all want to use whatever tricks we can to achieve #1 rankings on Google & Yahoo searches. Sometimes the tricks are doing us any good. I wanted to share something I learned about what is called a "robots follow" tag. Two web sites, highrankings.com and seoconsultants.com say that the robots follow tags and revisit-after tags are not going to increase your search engine rankings, don't effect when the spiders stop by and who created them. I was totally bummed! Now I have to go find another trick that will make me think I've got one up on my competition LOL! Check out the web sites for more information. Now, I'm going to do some REAL work - paying taxes...but that's another post for another day!

Marketing during a slow economy

Recently, I joined up with the Ladies Who Launch and Martha Stewart's Dreamers Into Doers.
I'm hoping that I can learn how to launch Comfy Cozy into a new level!
I'm just starting to take some time to check out the sites and read the emails. I found this one to be of particular interest and wanted to share it here:


Q: What's the best way to market my product in a slowing economy? I have limited resources and can see that people are already reigning in their spending.

A: The market is in a tailspin at the moment, but I caution buying into every market report you hear. Plenty of businesses are still thriving, and some products won't even feel the effects of recession. Big ticket, non luxury items will be the first to feel those hits, but most small businesses, if they're strategic, can maneuver through this storm.

Here are some tips:

1. Don't buy the hype. The media will always have an angle, and markets always have highs and lows. There is a general psychology behind news headlines that tend to put people into a panic. The key is not to let yourself get worked up about these headlines. They change daily and weekly, and although it's good to know what's going on in your sector, do not become a slave to what the pundits say. Plenty of businesses survive (and thrive) in down markets. Change your thinking (even meditation can help keep you grounded through rough spots!), and the results will follow.

2. Assess what has the biggest effect on your bottom line and outsource the rest. I know an event planner who makes sure that he pares down his staff to essential personnel in tough times. He creates freelance/consulting relationships with anyone who is not totally necessary every single day. In this way, he is able to maintain a very small staff of four while running a multimillion-dollar business. He also makes his lunch every day, brews coffee at home instead of buying it at Starbucks, and, instead of organizing pricier lunch meetings, meets clients for breakfast or tea, or has people come straight to his office.

3. Use viral marketing strategies to promote and grow business. Blogging is free. Putting Search Engine Optimization techniques in place is often free, and publishing articles that support your product is a use of resources but no cost to you. Look for websites that might need content, and put your writing skills to work! Make sure your URL is in your byline to drive traffic to your site and provide ongoing content wherever you can. This establishes credibility but also creates links all over the web for your product. Good luck!

Text by Amy Swift, Editor in Chief of Ladies Who Launch