I've been rather scarce recently! I'm in the middle of a major medical problem and have been away (again) for the last four weeks for treatment.

I leave again tomorrow for a follow up but hope to be back on track by the end of the week.
In the interim - please keep your heads down and keep on going! whatever happens don't stop working on your business!
Mike

Top Home-based Business: Why You Need to SEO Your Website

You‘ve just joined an affiliate marketing programme, and as a part of the deal you have a brand new website. If you’re new to the idea, you might then be inclined to sit back and wait for the visitors to roll in. Surprise! Nothing happens, so what do you do now? SEO means: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZE and we discuss how to get started on this process.

If we go back to the internet, and understand how it operates, we will understand why we have to do something more to get visitors to your site. The principles are actually quite simple, and if you understand how the system works, you’ll have a clearer understanding of what you need to do.

The internet is based on a system that links people who are looking for information with others who can provide the required information. If you are looking for information about improving your golf-swing, you would go to one of the internet search engines, and type in something like:

“How do I fix my golf swing?” What you have just done is to enter the KEYWORDS which will be used to locate a website about golf and which will provide tips on how to improve your swing. The search engines send spiders to crawl golfing websites until they find a selection of sites which may have the information you need.

The principle is quite simple, and we don’t need to be too involved in the technology involved. If you have a website about golf, and you offer tips to improve a golf swing, your website must be sprinkled with a selection of keywords which a potential visitor might type in to his computer.

The next trick is to select the best keywords for your purpose. Because of the countless websites about golf on the internet, the trick is to achieve a balance between the most visited keywords, used by the sites on page one of the search engine, and less visited keywords, which will get you onto a reasonably accessible listing. The competition to get near to page one is fierce. There are about half a million results for this inquiry, listed in just one of the search engines. Your chances of beating them to page one are very slim indeed!

There is some very clever (free) software available to help you find the right balance. If you type in something like: Free keyword software, you’ll have plenty of options to look at. You’ll be assisted to find some appropriate keywords, and to strike a balance between the most visited words (which aren’t available to you yet) and those that will serve your purpose, to get your site listed on something better than page 200 000!

Having selected your keywords you’ll need to load them into strategic positions in your website. This can be quite technical, and if you are not that technically inclined, it might be a good investment to pay someone to do it for you.

How to get Visitors to Stay a Little Longer at Your Website

As you work steadily towards getting your top home-based business on track, one aspect to be considered very carefully is how to persuade visitors to your site to stay a little longer – rather than glance, click and move on!

The first essential point to clarify is who your visitor is and what he/she is looking for. Remember that the internet is all about INFORMATION. Your visitor is looking for information about home business, and has been taken to your site by the search-engine as a result of the key-words that you have carefully selected and placed in your landing page.

There are numerous articles available which discuss key-word strategies, but having done the right thing, you need to persuade your visitor to look a little more closely at the information you provide and which will hopefully give him the answers he is looking for.

Understand that you’ve been careful enough to get him to your landing page, but how do you encourage him to read on a little further? The next item to consider as part of your strategy is that of the first impression created as your visitor clicks to open your site. You have achieved something very special by getting him this far, so don’t waste the opportunity.

Try to have a good look at your landing page – through someone else’s eyes. Is it visually appealing and does it look like a professional business site? Whatever happens don’t overload the page with gimmicks and a heavy sales pitch. Your visitor hasn’t arrived to buy anything! He’s looking for information, remember. Ensure that the key information about the business opportunity you offer is clearly and concisely presented.

Long and involved stories from individuals who claim to have moved from poverty to riches in a flash, will not impress. You do need (genuine) testimonials, preferably verifiable, from those who have succeeded, but don’t overdo this aspect.

The chances are that your visitor is someone just like you or me, and who is in the same sort of predicament that prompted you to start off on the long road to one of the top home-based businesses available on the ‘net. Describe what you did to reach your decision. How did you decide on the particular business opportunity you selected from your search? Give an idea of your search criteria and discuss the steps you took to get where you are, right now.

Some visitors may be impressed by claims of instant riches, but they will be in the minority. Of greater value will be your personal story, even telling about some of your mistakes along the way. A human touch will show your reader that you are a real person, rather than the operator of a slick website aimed at separating your visitor from his cash as quickly as possible, only to leave him high and dry thereafter.

If we have convinced you to re-examine your site, from your visitor’s perspective, then this article will have met its purpose. If you are proud of your site, and ready to promote it and stand by it, you’re already halfway to success. Good luck!