Tells How to Increase Google Rankings and Enhance Site Traffic Using Just 15 Easy Steps

Amazon.com 5 star rating by Midwest Book Review

“Stephen Woessner’s SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION tells how to increase Google rankings and enhance site traffic using just 15 easy steps, from adding anchor links to content to creating custom page titles. It’s an outstanding survey for any interested in search engine operations and how to improve business visibility online. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews”.

Book description: The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization is ideal for small business owners who want to learn an efficient and effective process for dramatically improving their Web site s search engine rankings and doubling their site s monthly unique visitors. Guaranteed!

Stephen Woessner, of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Small Business Development Center, is a search engine optimization (SEO) expert. But more importantly, Woessner has owned four businesses and understands the significant time and cash constraints faced by business owners every day. Because of this, Woessner placed increasing efficiency and effectiveness at the core of the 15-steps allowing a business owner to maximize results in as little time as possible. A business owner does not need to know technical skills, like Web programming, to be successful at SEO. Instead, business owners will rely on their marketing skill and the ability to think like their customers and prospects, versus an ability to write HTML or other form of Web programming. Business owners will learn how to select keywords that are proven performers, blend the keywords into site content, boost site popularity, and more. Woessner explains with precision how business owners can use SEO to achieve measurable results. This practical and tactical guide includes a free SEO toolkit and other valuable resources that will help business owners increase the return on investment generated by their Web sites. Business owners will also receive a detailed blueprint with specific checklists to follow throughout the 15-step process.

Lastly, this book can also serve as an excellent resource to business owners who are considering outsourcing their SEO work to a third-party. Developing a working knowledge of the 15-step process will make any business owner a more informed consumer. This book is also an ideal resource for marketing and advertising agency professionals who want to expand their services and need to develop a proficiency in SEO as efficiently and effectively as possible.

I can’t believe that the competition is almost here! It has been a long, and sometimes stressful, seven weeks getting ready for Saturday night (November 28th). Katie and I have worked hard on our Paso Doble and Samba routine. And we could still use help with sponsorships. Remember, every dollar you sponsor us with counts as an additional point in our overall score. And, every dollar goes directly to the American Red Cross. Just download our poster and fill out the sponsorship form or call the Red Cross at 608.788.1000 to sponsor Katie and me. We would greatly appreciate your help!

So, some people have asked me where the “Google Guru” thing came from. I actually got the nickname from a reporter with Wisconsin Public Radio who interviewed me shortly after the publication of my book The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization. Apparently the nickname is catchy because it stuck! And I confess…I kind of like it!

After the Dancing with the La Crosse Stars competition, I will post some videos and other behind-the-scenes photos. I am so excited for Katie and I to get on stage but really nervous too. Being in front large groups of people and giving a speech or teaching a class is comfortable for me…but thinking about doing the Samba in front of 900 people is starting to make my stomach turn. What did I get myself into?

But Katie has been a great teacher. I could not have asked for a better partner. She is outstanding and has worked hard to prepare me well for the competition. I just need to trust in all of our prep work and that will give me the confidence I need to keep from tripping over myself! Saturday night is going to be so much fun. I am really looking forward to it…but will be very relieved when it is over, too.

The UW-Madison participants were exceptional! They asked some tremendous questions and the discussion was very productive. For example, several of the business owners in the group were gracious enough to allow me to use their Web sites as tangible examples. And during the process, we uncovered a couple of optimization problems with one of the Web sites. These problems were likely causing problems as Google attempted to index the site’s content. The problems were simple fixes and will lead to dramatically improved Google rankings. This provided the group with great hands-on examples of my 15-step SEO process. And I enjoy making these live SEO sessions as practical and tactical as possible.

My UW colleagues (left to right: Tara, Julie, and Barry) at the UW-Madison Small Business Development Center run a top notch business education program within the Wisconsin School of Business. The room was packed with about 30 business owners and managers from the Madison area. The group asked about 50-60 great questions during the session. Awesome!

And when the class was over, several of the participants asked me to sign their copies of my book. I always get a kick out of doing that! I love it.

And I have been invited to teach the class again in the upcoming spring and fall semesters. It was a great day. Total happiness!

It is so easy for small business owners to learn how to optimize their Web site’s content and produce significant results. What an amazing example of entrepreneurship and creativity!

The story ran today (October 25th) on the front page of the Business Section. The story brought so many people to Amazon.com to check out my book (The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization) that it skyrocketed to the #14 best selling book in its category! Super awesome!.

Read the full story on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Web site.

However, despite the efficiency and effectiveness of my SEO process, I am frequently asked by business owners during my live SEO training programs the following question: “Yeah but Stephen…within your 15-steps, are there any steps you think are the most critical?” And my answer is always the same. Absolutely! In fact, there are three steps within the overall process that focus on optimizing what I call the three most valuable pieces of real estate on any content page. They are: 1) page title, 2) META Keywords, and 3) META Description.

In fact, if you did nothing else after reviewing this post or reading my book, I strongly urge you to optimize your page titles, META Keywords, and META Descriptions on each page you plan to leverage as part of your strategy to bring more traffic to your Web site. Based on my experience, you will be much farther ahead than the vast majority of your competitors by taking advantage of this real estate.

So what are page titles, META Keywords, and META Descriptions? And where can you find them?

Page Title

The page title is the white text over the blue background in the upper left corner of your browser window. It doesn’t matter if you are using Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. The position of the page title is the same. And it is possible to place the most searched keywords inside the page title so instead of reading something generic like “Company XYZ’s Services”, the page title should include keywords relevant to the specific content of the page. Google also uses a content page’s page title to create the link it displays within its search results. By including most searched keywords related to content page within your page titles, you are making the link to your Web site more attractive for users to click on when they see it within Google’s search results. Including keywords within your page title helps Google rank your content page higher and you increase your opportunity to attract more visitors to your Web site. A nice double bonus!

META Keywords Field

The META Keywords field is part of the HTML source code within a content page. It was very common in the past for business owners and Web developers alike to put 20, 30, or as many 50 keywords inside the META Keywords field in an effort to make a content page rank well for everyone. This tactic does not work at all anymore. Google wants specific content pages (See step 9 of my 15-step process) versus pages that try to be everything to everyone. Consequently, you should reuse the same most searched keywords from the page title by placing them directly into the META Keywords field. This accomplishes two things: 1) it further clarifies the theme of the content page for Google and 2) it creates keyword repetition and consistency, which are extremely important to Google. Some participants in my live SEO training programs have questioned whether or not the META Keywords field is even relevant anymore. I always affirm that yes it is, when it used properly. Syncing the META Keywords field with the page title is the perfect strategy.

META Description Field

The META Description field is the final piece of valuable real estate. Writing a quality META Description is critical because Google uses this content to create the little snippet of text displayed underneath the various links within its search results. A properly formatted META Description should be 23 words or less and repeat the same search keywords used within the page title and META Keywords field.

So why are the three pieces of real estate so critical to your success? Because these are the first places that Google looks when “indexing” or cataloging your content pages into their database. Placing keywords into these fields gives Google an immediate overview of what a particular content page is about. And because Google values these fields so highly, it uses the keywords found there to create the search results it displays. And then searchers see the keywords within the Google results because the words are bolded within the links and snippet descriptions. So next time you do a Google search, pay attention the links and the description snippets. I suspect you will uncover some opportunities and see how easy it would be to jump past your competitors in Google’s rankings.

Selecting the Most Searched Keywords

Now, there’s one more thing. Selecting keywords that deliver proven results is the critical first step to this process. If you use the wrong keywords, you will be wasting your time. Chapter 4 of The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization will walk you step-by-step through the keyword selection process so you never waste time optimizing content around ineffective search keywords. Only select search keywords that are proven performers!

I wish you the best of success!

Atlantic Publishing is the company I worked with to publish The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization. Atlantic Publishing is solely focused on non-fiction business oriented titles so my book was a good fit for what they typically bring to market.

Since being introduced on August 19th, my book has sold very well on Amazon.com (it has sold out three times in the last five weeks), Target.com, Borders.com, Barnes & Noble.com, as well as various retail locations throughout the United States. It is even available in some public libraries. And the reviews from readers have been very positive. These are outstanding initial results!

So now it is time to share the powerful 15-step search engine optimization process that I detail in the book with as many small business owners as possible. To do that, Atlantic Publishing created “SEO Week”, which begins tomorrow morning!

SEO Week is focused on sharing valuable excerpts from The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization. In addition, SEO Week will share many of the frequently asked questions that I am asked by business owners during the live SEO training programs I teach on campus. The fact that all of this incredible content is being shared makes SEO Week the perfect opportunity for small business owners to learn a lot of helpful tips regarding how to drive more traffic to their Web site for very little cost.

SEO Week will also generate some great exposure for The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization via interviews with business-oriented journalists representing print and radio audiences throughout the United States. For the next several days, I will be on the phone with dozens of journalists describing how any business owner can sit down and optimize their Web site following the 15-step SEO process I developed. This is not a geek book…anyone can do this! The interviews are an exciting opportunity to share this powerful message with a large number of small business owners in a very short period of time. Effective and efficient!

But overall I am looking forward to SEO Week because it is the perfect way to help small business owners generate more cash from their Web site in less time. Learning search engine optimization has never been more important than in today’s economy. Search engine optimization is inexpensive as well as being a highly efficient and effective strategy for generating Web site traffic.

See you during SEO Week!

The discussion was terrific and the Web site that I chose to highlight was Trane.com. Great company, great Web site, and they have made a significant investment in their Web strategy. Trane really communicates their brand story well online and they recognized about 10 years ago how significant of a marketing channel Web could be. Read the full “10 Great B-to-B Web sites” article.

Katie and I were paired up because I wanted to do some form of Latin-romantic dance because I thought it would be unlikely that any of my fellow Stars would attempt something this challenging. And Katie really enjoys Latin dancing and is great at it. But I suspect she wasn’t too excited when I confessed that I have zero dance background! Katie definitely has her work cut out for her but she has a real eye for choreography and is so darn organized. Her sense of humor is terrific and we laughed a ton during our first practice session. I think we will make a great team and take a real run at the title!

Katie and I have decided to do a combination of two dances for our two minute routine: the Paso Doble and the Samba. Unreal! Last Sunday was our first practice session and Katie taught me four Samba steps that we affectionately nicknamed Tiger, Mantis, Monkey, and Snake. The nicknames make the dance steps easier for me to remember…and yep…I stole the names from Kung Fu Panda. Such an awesome movie!

One of the downsides to our training schedule is that I had to leave on October 12th for my book tour work in Ohio and will be gone until the 24th. While I am out of town, my fellow Stars are able to get in more training sessions, so I am sort of behind, and the training just started. But, I promised Katie that I would practice Tiger, Mantis, Monkey, and Snake while in Ohio and we would hit the ground running again on the 25th. Super awesome!

And while I am gone, our music is being professional cut together and more costume ideas are being developed. Katie and I are going to bring the house down on November 28th. “Dancing With the La Crosse Stars” is performed in front of a live audience of about 800 people. Insane! Get your tickets early because the event always sells out fast!!!

The participants who attend my search engine optimization classes typically are business owners or managers, or soon-to-be business owners. So the efficiency and effectiveness of my 15-step search engine optimization process was perfect for this group because they don’t have the time or money to invest toward things that don’t work and produce measurable results. And I will never suggest a business owner invest their resources toward something that isn’t proven, which is why I guarantee a person’s results when they implement my 15-steps. I get positive feedback all the time, and business owners are impressed with how easy search engine optimization is when they focus on what works and forget the rest.

And the Kent State conference center is easily one of the best facilities I have ever been in. It is unreal. The Kent State staff members lovingly refer to their facility as “The Palace” and I can see why. Every room is any instructor’s dream and the catering is impeccable. Today’s participants were treated to breakfast including fresh fruit, waffles, and a vast coffee bar. And lunch was even more impressive…a buffet that included cocktail shrimp, salad bar, two different entrees, and desserts galore! It was an amazing experience. And Willie Shoemaker and Jeanne Cramer (left to right) from Kent State were so hospitable. I hope I am invited back because I would accept in an instant!

During the class, I demonstrated each of the 15-steps to my SEO process. The really great thing about the live search engine optimization classes is that it gives me the opportunity to use real, tangible examples from the business owners to answer questions or to illustrate points. For example, I used two of the Web sites from a couple of the owners in attendance to demonstrate three of the steps in the SEO process and we actually researched several of the keywords relevant to their business. This is a great hands-on process that is only possible in real-time and this typically exceeds participant’s expectations…and I enjoy making the classes as practical and tactical as possible.

All in all, it was a great day! And then my publisher let me know that they were going to do a national media campaign on the book’s behalf to schedule some additional interviews and exposure. The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization has sold out three times in the last four weeks on Amazon! Hopefully this is an indication of really good things to come. Check out the full schedule of my upcoming search engine optimization classes.

Can’t attend any of the live search engine optimization classes? Order your copy of the DVD Learning Series and The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization.