In my last column we had a quick look at some tips and tricks you can use to build your brand, and we touched on a few topics involving looking at your brand from your customers perspective. What did you find? Did you Google your company name or service?
If you didn’t, then let’s do a quick case study. In Google, type a few keywords your customers would most likely use to find your services or product. What did you find? At the top of the results page you might have seen a ‘Sponsored Links’ section, which you can purchase direct from Google Adwords.
Then you found a couple of websites which either had the name of the service in their url for example: www.your-service.co.za or a page named in their service. Finally, you saw a couple of image thumbnails suggested by Google and possibly you also saw some YouTube videos.
Now you don’t have to be an SEO-guru to use this information to your advantage. In fact, you don’t even have to be a web developer! Firstly; identify what your customers are looking for. In other words, list the keywords you think they would most likely use to look for your product.
List as many as you can, but be as concise as possible. For example; Mobile Bar hire Randburg, Catering Sandton etc. It is good to list the area, because I am sure when you look for a service, you are most likely interested in the companies who are close by.
Keywords and advertising
Then! Log onto www.gumtree.co.za, create an account and then post a free advert – but the key here is to use the keyword string as the heading for the advert. So our advert would be: Mobile bar hire Randburg. In the body you are welcome to write as much or as little as needed, but be sure to repeat the keywords you used in the heading in the body as well.
Don’t forget to include a link back to your website, your e-mail and most importantly; your telephone number. Don’t expect your customers to want to click on the link to find your contact details. They need your service quickly and are most likely interested in either sending you an e-mail or calling you directly.
Finally, go into your pictures on your computer, select an image that you would like to use for your advert. And here’s the key; rename the image: Mobile Bar hire Randburg. Upload it to your advert on gumtree and Voila! You have done your first official free search engine optimization for beginners.
Fundamentals first
Although extremely basic, the fundamentals of this process are as simple and almost as effective. You can also use Gumtree to post jobs which (did you know?) filter through Linked In search results? In other words, if you post a vacancy or opportunity, it also appears in job searches in Linked in!
Your hotfrog account is also highly effective and free. Once you have created your page (remember – try name the pages and product listings utilizing the keywords we mentioned earlier. The company name can be included in the body of the advert, but please keep your posts as ‘keyword specific’ as possible, and remember to repeat those keywords in the body of your text as well to increase its optimization.
In closing, all you need to do now is spend 5 minutes a day posting adverts on Gumtree or listing services on hotfrog – repeating your keywords as often as possible. Next month we are going to look at images and YouTube video’s – so be sure to visit my page again. May your business succeed beyond your wildest dreams!