Posted in Marketing

Putting a strategy in place that optimises your website for organic traffic from search engine results is your best bet for guaranteeing the increase of traffic to your site. Below are 5 simple and easy tips for doing this.

1.Work out your SEO Strategy

So the first step is to actually sit down and create (and then implement) your SEO strategy. This often stresses people out because they consider it to be an immediately time-consuming task that only shows results in the long term. In reality, this isn't the case. Once you understand the basics of building your SEO strategy, you'll be well on your way. New to SEO and how to utilise it on your site? There are literally hundreds of websites that offer self-help like moz.com/learn/seo

2. Don't make SEO complicated

People often associate SEO and SEM with words like time-consuming, complicated, and long-term, but in reality SEO is much simpler than you might think. SEO is a combination of two factors: on-site content and off-site link backs. That means that your website content should be SEO friendly, with titles and headers that incorporate popular search terms so people can find your content, and you should get as many reputable websites as possible to link back and reference your site so your search ranking improves. Really there's not much more to it than that.

3. Content is still king, baby

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your site is to create valuable and interesting content that is highly 'shareable' and relevant to a large group of people. Of paramount importance is having a clear and concise title for your blog or article. You want it to be so compelling that people cannot help themselves but click the link to view your content. You need that little one-liner to convey all the information about the content of the page while being seductive enough to get people to actually click on it. At the same time you don't want to just create a title that gets people to click on the link, but has absolutely nothing to do with the content of the page.

This is where keywords come into play. You could try using a keyword analysis tool like Google's Keywords Tool to find out which terms related to your industry are the most highly searched for on the web. From there you can list the relevant terms that relate to the content of your post, helping you to craft an interesting title that incorporates highly searched for keywords. Then, when someone is looking for an article on your subject, they'll be able to find it.

And once they've clicked your seductively worded title and landed on your page, the content should excite (or at least amuse!) them so much that they have an intense desire to share your awesomely amazing content with the rest of the world! (see next point)

4. Optimise haring tools and utilize social media

Social Media is a great way of getting your name out there and helping people discover your posts and products. RSS feeds, social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, and blogging can all be considered a part of social media. Utilizing many of these outlets and channels can help you reach a larger audience and help promote your content when users share and distribute your content.

Also check out: StumbleUpon, Chime.in, Digg, Reddit, Slashdot, Newsvine and Pinterest!

5. Build symbiotic relationships with influential people

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your site is to target influencers in a particular industry to try and get them to help you increase your audience. The best way to do this is to form a mutually beneficial relationship with influencers, by sharing their posts and content, or advertising for them on your site. You want to create a relationship that will make both of you happy.

Advertise: Offer specials in advertising on your site or free advertising if other sites feature you.

(Email me for some resources if you're still having trouble crafting a catchy title to highlight the awesome content of your post, or if you can't figure out what to write about in the first place to drive traffic to your site.)

Be terrific in the traffic!

Have some fun with your car signage and get noticed

Some businesses spend serious amounts of money having their vehicles sign-written, and in some cases fully vinyl wrapped, but just put the business name, logo and phone number, with absolutely NO information about what they do, or any reason why you should call them!

BORING!

Look at your work vehicles today and ask yourself: If a passer-by didn't know anything about this business would they:

1. Know what our business does?
2. Remember the business name, phone number or web address well enough to look it up later?
3. See a compelling reason to call the business?

I've seen vehicles with logos on all sides, but the business name doesn't give the first clue to what the business does or what problems it solves, and there was no tagline or mission statement to give any hints.

Others do have a tagline...but the tagline was "Serving the local community" Umm...serving them by doing WHAT?!

Here's a thought if your tagline could apply to any business, not just yours, (even worse, if it could apply to a completely different industry) then it's POINTLESS. Ditch it immediately and think of something that expresses your USP Unique Selling Point.

So, is your business missing a massive mobile marketing opportunity to get more business?

Here's some questions if you've got a business vehicle of any description:

• Is it signwritten? If not, why not?
• If yes, does it actually tell people what you do? (Hint: a company name like "ABC Plastering" doesn't count!)
• Does it give people a compelling reason to call you?  ("Established whenever", "For all your whatever needs" don't count!)
• Does it convey professional contact information? (Yet another hint: email addresses like plastering1969@yahoo.com absolutely scream "AMATEUR!" register a domain name and get a proper email address!)

One last thing don't make any text so small that you need to be too close to the back of the vehicle to read it. Remember, traffic is doing 60+ km/hr  you do not want them to get 1 metre from your bumper to find out if your business might be worth contacting!

However, there are a handful of wine companies who really go that extra mile when it comes to designing and printing labels for their bottles. Here are some of my favourites.

1. Boarding Pass Shiraz

Many people indulge in a bottle of wine during a long flight and this exceptionally creative label design makes that experience even more fun. The wine label is essentially designed in the style of a boarding pass with essential boarding information replaced with wine information. It looks great and no doubt goes down well onboard.

2. B Frank Wine

This label is only half designed for you; you have to do the other half yourself. B Frank Wine allows you to fill in the label yourself and let your co-drinker know why you're drinking with them. For example, "I'm only drinking with you becauseI'm about to fire you and you don't know it yet". The design is minimal and makes drinking a great wine even more fun!

3. Neil Ashmead GTS

Elderton Wines of Australia has bottled a wine in tribute to auto (and wine) enthusiast Neil Ashmead. The Neil Ashmead GTS, or "Grand Tourer Shiraz" features a racing-styled label bearing Ashmead's signature. The bottle's coolest attribute, however, is its' six-speed stick shift screw-on cap. It just makes you want to grab it like a gear shift and pretend to drive!

4. Honey Moon Wine

Lauren Golembiewski created the Honey Moon Wine concept as an annual gift to past and prospective clients in celebration of a budding summer. The "honey moon" is the first full moon of the month of June, known as the perfect moment to begin the harvest of honey. While the bottle is certainly an achievement of its own, Golembiewski also created the honey moon font to go with the label.

5. Laughing Stock Wine

The designers at Laughing Stock Wine took a literal approach to designing their label. A stock ticker twists and wraps around the bottle, displaying the basic details of the wine contained within - very quirky. The name of the wine is displayed as a stock symbol, "LFNG", with the vintage year below it. In all, the design does an excellent job of conveying the character of the brand.

Do you have a favourite label?