In talking with prospects, new clients and even just random people at business events I hear some common misconceptions on search engine optimization. I thought I would give you the top three and also let you know just a bit on why they are false and not part of true search engine optimization.

1. Keyword Meta Tags
This is still the biggest one out there. Once upon a time, many years ago, keyword meta tags mattered. Then people started “stuffing” their website meta tags with hundreds of terms, not just 4 or 5 that were true. This caused Google and the others to say “forget it”… our results are now off from these abused meta tags. Nowadays it is good to still have meta tags on each page with 4 to 6 terms (my recommendation) that are actually on the page, but the search engines barely weigh this as a factor, and some just ignore them entirely. Also keep in mind that keyword meta tags and the meta tag description (this matters more) are two different items. The Fact: While keyword meta tags are not the “rankings gold” people think they are, it is a good idea to include proper use of them in your basic page optimization.

2. “My company is the biggest and the best … better than those guys”
I get a lot of people that want to pull up a Google search on their most popular keyword search in their line of work and then they start telling me how the guys ranked #1, #2, #3 and so on are not as good as them, haven’t been around as long, haven’t won the awards they have and so on. Please make note, currently Google only cares about your online reputation. How many credible and trustworthy sites are linking to you, how valuable your content is, and how search engine friendly and properly structured it is. Yahoo is not going to walk into your office and compare your conference room to your competitors and rank one higher than the other based on this. The Fact: While many offline things make your business a success, they just do not directly matter in search rankings. Focus on making sure your web design is properly structured, has valuable keyword rich content and obtains links to your site from trustworthy websites. Getting links to your site, known as link building is the hardest part of SEO and rightfully so. Try watching this video from SEOmoz on trustworthy websites to understand valuable links better. Of course a link from CNN.com beats out a link from the five spot.

3. Search Engine Submission
Yes, you can tell the search engines your website is out there, but they don’t have to care. Search engines work by crawling the web from link to link and thats how they arrive at your site, provided you have a link or two somewhere on the web to you. The engines prefer to focus their energy on sites and pages that others show are worthy of linking to. If you still think this is a tactic to give you an edge, just spend a day submitting your website to the engines over and over again … and watch nothing happen. The Fact: Search engines are built on “crawling” the web from link to link. They believe the best of the web is linked, from top down to the bottom. Thousands of websites are launched daily, the search engines prefer to focus and learn about the ones that other sites are saying have value … by linking to them. Again, concentrate on link building.

Well I hope if you had any love and hope for these three items to improve your search engine rankings you have now broken up with them and started trying to date the facts. Subscribe to this blog and you’ll get plenty more posts covering the facts of search engine optimization and what you should understand and execute on proper web design structure, content (it is king) and link building. In the end, proper search engine optimization is a process, not a bunch of gimmicks or tricks.

Jumping online to search out some info this morning, the Google home page (see screen shot below) made me aware of something I haven’t heard anything about. I found out about Earth Hour.

Google’s Summary: On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.

Now I’m not overly connected in the news world, but in reading the USA Today daily (hard copy and feeds), the Minneapolis Star Tribune daily, watching television news and browsing a few of the national and international news websites, I had heard/read/seen NOTHING about this.

Running into this on Google gave me two thoughts:

1. How did I miss this in other news sources? Did they just not promote it?
(I have seen 50+ stories, tv segments and posts on Britney Spears on HIMYM)

2. Just how much reach does Google have for promotion and information delivery like this?
(Answer: A LOT!)

Something that other media outlets didn’t reach me with came to me from a website that I search for information on. But this time it was flipped a bit and they gave me information without me searching for it. What could this exposure do for other initiatives or causes? If Google featured an organization, event, non-profit or cause daily … or even weekly, just imagine the exposure level it could bring for them. If they went as far as changing the visuals like the black screen for Earth Hour … wow, they basically made me investigate Earth Hour just to learn why they went black. Thats powerful.

Just a few things to think about, and another angle to think about on Google’s future. With the traffic and audience they have, they can make a big deal out of whatever they want. Thanks to them making a big deal out of earth hour, my house will be dark from 8pm to 9pm central tonight up here in Minnesota.

Here are some valuable email marketing tips and links to other great blog posts on email marketing for those of you still wondering if you should do it. The biggest tip of all … do it. The features, benefits and low cost of email marketing make it one of the most valuable marketing strategies for many companies. The tips below are aimed at pushing you off the fence and getting you started today.

Email Marketing Tip #1
Understand how important it is. The consumer is giving you permission to market to them. “Yes I want to hear from you” and “I want to do more business with you” are fabulous statements. Signing up to receive email from your company is saying just that.

Email Marketing Tip #2
Start collecting email addresses today. You’ve probably seen graphs or numbers on what your savings account would look like if you started saving at age 16 (makes you want to slap yourself), the same is with building an email list. Simple accumulation of just 15 email addresses a month for the past 3 years would have you at over 500 addresses on your list. Any business can do this and a few simple list building strategies can get you to 5 or 10 times this number.

Email Marketing Tip #3
Any company, organization or service can put out valuable e-letters. Not just value in the form of a major discount on price, but value in product or service education, use tips and more. Take the time to make a list of possible content ideas and make two columns. One for money saving discounts or special offers and another for value added information or education. In many cases a great email campaign will include one of each of those in each send.

If my tips for why you should start email marketing today have somehow left you unconvinced, take a few more minutes and read from others:

• 10 tips for your first email campaign from Digital Web Magazine
• 7 long term marketing strategies on a budget (#5) from Small Fuel Marketing
• Start building an email list from Mike Alvero
• Email marketing for e-commerce from Website Werx

Feel free to share your email marketing “ah-ha” moment, additional tips or success stories with us.

Getting more business from more sources is something most of us are always trying to do. Business networking is a powerful avenue to grow your sphere, refer business to other fabulous professionals, gain contact with new potential clients and learn from other successful business people.

As a relatively new venture (we do have the benefit of being tied in with an existing company of 13 years), networking is a great way for Five Technology to get our name into new business circles. In today’s small business world there are many options for networking both online and offline (there are even combos/hybrids). Below I’ll outline what I’m doing to network my business and grow the Five Technology brand.

Online Business Networking

• I’m business blogging … I’ve blogged for 3 years, have helped others set-up blogs for their business and I’ve made some great “blogging friendships” that have given me insight, knowledge and connections. There are lots of blogging network widgets to help.
• Professional networking websites. I utilize LinkedIn and Facebook mostly. There are scores of others.
• Participating and commenting in niche forums, industry websites and blogs.
  

Offline Business Networking

• I speak/present to other business groups on web design, SEO and other Internet marketing.
• I attend local and national industry conferences like SES and High Rankings.
• BNI. I’m part of a newly formed BNI group in Rogers. We have 22 members that meet weekly and growing as we launch our group. It’s a great mix of professionals from the area that are helping build each others business. Here are some photos from this week’s meeting.

Combo Business Networking: Online & Offline

• MeetUp.com: The Biz Blogger Meetup Group started by Caroline Melberg, another local web and blog pro, started this group that already has 30 members with just it’s second meeting slated for April 7th (feel free to attend). Meetup.com offers networking and communication tools on the website to connect members and help organize the meeting/events. I just joined but there are already others in the group I have met before, helped launched their blogs and interacted with online. Meetup helps facilitate both online and offline networking, a great combo.

Do you have more to add to this or networking strategies that have helped your business? Please share!

Many of the small business owners and managers I talk with in the past few months are looking to apply more focus to their website and how they can better serve customers online. Most have had a website for at least a few years, some have had success with it as a lead generation tool and others admit they just created something to get it “out there” and have given it little attention. The theme with almost all of them is that with the economy getting tighter, they want to spend their money on efficiency and client retention tools, that means investing in their website. For many of them, web development to add further features to their website is the answer.

Efficiency is a good call and is something we all strive for. Take a look at your business process and start to brainstorm on what activities you could move to your website to ease the workload on your staff or yourself. Some of these website features might include:

• Service or support requests and follow-up notes (we offer web support online)
• Past quotes: easily store, search, review and compare quotes (both client and admin)
• Process tracking: what step is the order or service at, where is a shipment?

Keeping your current and valuable customers happy is a top priority. Everyone knows the cost to acquire a client is much higher then the cost to keep one. Almost any business can find ways to make interacting with clients easier and more beneficial to the client. A few online communication and website functionalities to help keep your clients are:

• Use email newsletters to stay in front of them or send special offers
• Allow online ordering, e-commerce or service request features
• Create the ability for clients to submit suggestions or take surveys (be smart: reward your survey takers!)

These were just a few ideas to get you thinking on what functionalities and capabilities you can develop for your website to increase efficiency and customer retention. All of these functions above can be created to operate in a username and password environment. Your customers can log-in to special sections giving you the ability to personalize their experience and them confidence in your dedication to great service.