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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)| Website Traffic Analysis
___ in under 3 hours learn what the heck this is all about! __
I can tell you with knowledge comes the power to transform not just your website but the way you think about your website as it relates to the service you provide. It takes time, a lot of thinking about who you are (and aren't), and learning about your clients behavior on the web. I hope to infect you with my enthusiasm and optimism for what is possible. May people find YOU next time they're on Google (or Yahoo, or MSN...) and looking for what you offer!
Exciting update: I just have to share how exciting it's been lately to devote more energy to The First Dance website. I've added not just more content, but added Google Analytics to every page and rearranged the layout of my site. I've made my header not-image based, so search engines can read it more easily, and I've rearranged what I have on my "Side nav" which is the lefthand side of all my pages. It's what you'll learn as "the call to action" on every page. In one short month I've added 1,000 new visitors to my website than the prior month from, get this: 500 NEW phrases from search engines. That's right - adding more content, a few more pages, laying everything out in a way that is search engine friendly, resulted in 500 NEW "phrases" that people have entered to find me. I've also increased the TIME on my site by a full minute. Imagine that - someone does a simple query in Google, finds your website, and engages just not just with the page they "land on" but then keeps reading! Those are new people you are engaging that you wouldn't be finding in any other way.
Common myths: "I don't want to do this, can I just give these CD's to my webmaster or hire you?"
My response: SEO is 95% about YOUR expertise, YOUR knowledge of your audience, and YOUR content. Unless your webmaster is your clone, you really should listen to the CD's, then give them to your webmaster so together you can tackle the project.
My time is limited and I've learned the hard way that unless you take the trainings, we won't be talking on the same playing field and we'll both get very frustrated. I designed my classes so I don't HAVE to be a consultant. My goal is you can start to RUN with the knowledge. Once you've taken the classes, I'm working on a 1-2 hour consulting package where I will review your web traffic (this is like a diagnostic test on your car), let you know what I see, suggest changes, and then answer your specific questions. If this is of interest, contact me after you've listened to the trainings.
Common myths: "I don't have a website yet, but when it's done, I'll contact you."
My response: No!!!! Most webmasters do not know anything about search engine optimization. It's a completely different skillset, a very different level of involvement of the website (webmasters are awesome at design, layout, making things look professional, creating fancy tools). Search engine work is learning how to rearrange your website to make it "search engine friendly" and about making EVERY page of your website have a purpose and call to action. It's also about throwing as much content as you can, unique content, "branded" to what you offer, "selling yourself" on every page, and watching your web traffic - these are not things webmasters generally do.
This means if you don't have a website yet - LEARN NOW so you design a search engine friendly website from the start. I spent *hours* and hours rearranging my websites. I would have a very different looking First Dance website if I knew more about search engines when we paid our webmaster good money for the design.
Common myth: "My [son, daughter, webmaster, IT guy] is really tech saavy. I bet s/he already knows how to do this, so I don't need these trainings."
My response: I'm not tech saavy but I know how to optimize. Again, being "techy" is like saying someone is good with people. Are they good with people as brain surgeons, as comforting flight attendants, as counselors, as parents, or as public speakers? Technology is a vast, huge world. "Techy" doesn't mean that you know anything about websites, anything about optimizing, and especially it doesn't mean you know anything about YOUR content expertise (which is vital to getting optimized.)
There is so much information out there on Search Engine optimization and a LOT OF SCAMS. I get them all the time, in the mail, in my email. I can read them and know exactly what they're doing - and it's always a scam. The reality is to optimize takes *TIME* and is not something you can just throw $20/month and outsource to someone else. Or, it isn't a scam but you're just paying for Google ads - paying for each "click" to your website AND guess what - paying for that company to administer the clicks for you. Paying for Google and Yahoo ads is a very viable way "around" actually showing up in the normal results of a search engine, but for most of us it will destroy our bank account faster than you can say "stop!" It is also not nearly as effective as showing up in the main area - the place people trust as "the best resources" for their question.
Your options, as were mine, are very limited for those of us who aren't going to make thousands off our website to justify the cost of a consultant.
- Hire a consultant for $60-$200 per hour, for a 6-8 month long project
- Get a book or two, spend hours trying to absorb it, trying to figure out what matters and what is less important (this is the route I took and had to trust my gut on what was not worth the time and effortt do!)
- Poke around the web, trying to piece together fact from fiction in "SEO" message boards
There should be another option. A simple, one hour, really solid basics from the perspective that you are not attempting to make money on your website but you are trying to attract people in need of what you provide. You aren't technical and you have a passion for the service you provide. So why should you buy my CD's? Why is learning everything you need to know, in under 3 hours, worth the money?
- You are connected to my industries (marriage education, marriage therapy, wedding planning) and want advice and my experience in these areas
- You want someone who doesn't talk technical. Computers aren't your thing and you want to learn ways to improve your site even if you aren't a webmaster (you WILL need to make website changes but with the information you learn you will be able to provide the information written out for a webmaster to make the changes.)
- You don't have the time to take 99% of the classes out there (I'm packing as much as I can in one hour...well, 1 hour for the intro, 80 minutes for the nuts and bolts, and 30 minutes for the web traffic)
- You don't have the budget for expensive classes - travel, time away from work, especially considering you may never recoup those costs by simply improving your website
- You want the real good summary of things to do - not the ever changing latest schemes on ways to improve your website that may leave you feeling like you're chasing the wind rather than spending your time wisely to better your professionalism and service to your clients'
Buy the CD's now!
Website Training |
Price |
|---|---|
Intro to SEO:
*Success to me is taking the intro and you chose NOT to optimize or you have a full understanding of the work involved and then dive in!* |
$40 |
Nuts and Bolts
|
$60 |
Website Analytics - stand alone class! even if you do not "optimize", knowing your web traffic, what it means and what it is telling you is very important if you've bothered spending the money to build a website and maintain it!
|
$60 |
Elizabeth Doherty Thomas
Full-time mom
Business Manager, Marriage Friendly Therapists
My mission is to empower and encourage you to show the world what you have to offer in a way that is friendly to search engines and to your customer. In sharing my passion for how search engines work you will see how the improvements you can make to your website actually encourage you to be in relationship with others, not an island, and to offer as much of yourself as possible to the customer you are wanting to serve.