Good to see Dave Pasternack working so hard to to link build. Jim Boykin, if you’re looking for a new, incredibly hard working link ninja, Dave may be your guy. Hey, you have to give him some credit…he is up to # 2 in the Google rankings. He really wants that $1,000 dollars.

Update: The DP bio page has now fallen to # 7

He’s added a nice footer link on the Did-it site, and as Greywolf pointed out  , Dave Pasternack has been spamming MyBloglog (Dave…have you been watching those incredibly educational Gary Ruplinger videos?). He’s also been all over the SEO blogosphere leaving comments on people like Oilman’s Dave Pasternack page and even no name bloggers like myself. I didn’t see anything over at the Dave Pasternack page at Threadwatch.

I will give him some props though. He’s taking advantage of the whole situation. He’s even created some pretty funny mugs, t-shirts, etc to sell over at Cafepress. I really do hope you sell some of those things. Here’s some ideas though to increase your sales at cafe press.

1. Add an apron to the list of your products (you know…in case your baking a cake or something)

2. Offer the same items but without your face on them (they’re much more attactive without your mug on a mug)

3. Add some “SEO is not rocketscience” toilet paper.

 Continued success with the link building. You’re doing a great job! 

Many business owners know the importance of having a website. What most don’t know however is that just having a website is not enough. If you’re expecting to have a website built for you and then watch your business take off and allow you to retire early, you’re in for a big suprise. The reality is that most business websites on the Internet fail to generate any kind of revenue for their company. Why? Because they lack important elements that are common to most successful websites on the Internet today. These three essential elements are:

1. High Visibility
2. Appealing Design
3. Compelling Content

High Visibility: No website can even have the opportunity to help you grown your sales without website visitors, right? If a consumer does not know your web address, the only ways that they can find you is if they find you is through searches on Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK, etc.  or on a web directory like Hello San Diego, Superpages, Yahoo Directory, etc. The reality is you need to appear in the top 10 results for targeted keyword phrases. For example, let’s say you are a personal injury attorney here in the San Diego area. You’d want to appear on the 1st page of the search engines when someone types into Google “San Diego personal injury attorney”. High visibility is essential element # 1.
Appealing Design: Too many business owners have a basic looking website that is not graphically appealing and thus does not keep site visitors on the site. In analyzing web stats, you can always tell when site visitors don’t care for the design by looking at the pages per visit statistic. If most visitors are leaving after seeing only one page of your site, most likely your web site’s design is poor, outdated, or not user friendly. Studies show that website visitors make a decision about your site in under 3 seconds (some studies have shown that people an impression is made on a visitor in a split second). Here’s a tip: Don’t let your wife’s cousin’s son do your site desing for you. Cheaper up front yes, but it will cost you revenue in the long run. Have a professional website design company do your site for you. A visually appealing website will help you keep visitors on our site long enough to read through your site’s content, which is element # 3.

Compelling Content: What is it that people first read about your small business when they visit your website? Is it the same canned content that they see on everyone else’s site? Or does it give them reasons why they should be doing business with you?  Does is simply list what you do or does it give your site visitors more information about you and why you do these services better thatn your competitors? The content needs to be good not only for your site visitors but also for the search engine spiders. The content on your website is also one of the factors in how search engines rank websites. A few lines of text on your site is not enough. Have original, unique content on your site. Be a resource for your site visitors and you will be rewarded in the end.

So I love SEO, but being a white hat SEO, I’m not really interested in optimizing for certain things since they are known for being black hat arenas. Gambling, real estate, adult sites, etc, those all have terrible reputations for the worst spam on the web. That being said, I have a buddy who does real estate investments and I’m going to test out the waters and see what I can do for him.

I’m a firm believer in target marketing and I’ve seen many of my clients have great success through target marketing to niche keyword phrases. If you’re thinking about doing SEO in a very competitive arena, it may take a while before you can start ranking for your main terms. My philosophy has always been to target the phrases that nobody else has. One of the most important things that any SEO company can do (and where so many SEO companies fail) is to properly set expectations for your clients. Promise the world, and they expect the world. So, let them know they they are not going to rank for (in my example) “real estate investing” right away. It will happen down the line, but for now our goal is to target niche terms that will bring targeted traffic to the site.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in the business world is the importance of working with the right clients. More business is not always a good thing if your client causes you headaches. A few months ago I took on a new client who, right off the bat, I had a bad feeling about. I didn’t want him as a client, I was already incredibly busy at it is, but he convinced me about what a great client he would be. The first rule of thumb is that anybody that claims to be low maintenance is definitely not. That should have been my first sign to run like hell. But no, I didn’t listen to my intuition. Over the course of the first three months I listened to him critique the site design, suggest changes and then make new changes on an everyday basis. He’d suggest a change, then make another one which contradicted his earlier change and he had no shame about it. He would also constantly call, asking if the changes he’d requested had been made. “Um, no, not yet. You just sent me that email 3 minutes ago and those changes will take a  few hours”. Incredibly impatient man. So, eventually I finished his site. “This is the only website I’ve ever liked, and I’ve seen thousands. I love it”. So after the site was finally finished, I began optimizing his site. Within just 7 weeks, I got him to the 1st page of Google and Yahoo for all his main keyword phrases. I highly doubt it was no coincidence that right after he found out how high he was ranking, he called and said “Please cancel all the services you’re doing for me”. Many clients don’t believe that SEO is a regular monthly thing. However, if you don’t continue to improve and work on a site, it will tank in the rankings. I was perfectly fine with that to say the least. I didn’t want to work for this miserable man anyways. I sent him my final bills, he said he would pay them (with the exception of one charge) and then a few days later decided not to pay. I know he never intended to pay, he was trying to weasel out of it. “I’m going to have another SEO firm check your work”. “What’s there to check?”, I replied. “You’re on the 1st page of Google and Yahoo for all your keywords”. No response of course. Long story short, he turned around and sued me for all his money back that he’s paid me. Well, at least the $7,500 limit that small claims court allows (out of the $8600 he paid me). He actually owes me money since he never paid me a cent for optimization. He’s done this before with other people (I spoke with his last service provider and he did the same thing with her). Funny thing is I knew that this guy would pull something like this. He is an extremely unhappy man, constantly talked about his poor child hood, and has many things to say about many people. The great thing is that his rankings have completely tanked and have now dropped out of the top 300 results in Google. Never have I been so happy to see someone’s rankings drop. One of his competitors, my current client, now ranks # 1 on Google for every one of the keywords he wanted. Thank you, idiot, for the motivation you have provided me. My clients will ALWAYS rank above his site (especially now that his site fell out of the Google rankings). Moral of the story is to choose the right clients to work with, document as much as possible through email and paper trails in case something like this happens to you.

High Rank Websites focuses on helping businesses who are serious about high visibility on the search engines. By high visibility, I’m talking targeting a 1st page ranking on the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN for targeted keywords and phrases. This blog is focused on SEO, SEM and web design.