Green Marketing 2.0| SEO SEM Social Media Consulting - Lorna Li

10 Ways to Get a Website Indexed Fast

lorna li — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 06:00:08 +0000

Been researching ways to get a website indexed faster than 48-72 hours. If a 2-3 day indexation time frame is OK for you, then here are fast, easy ways you can get your site indexed by Google.

Ping your website and individual pages using free tools like Ping-o-matic or Pingoat
Stumble it on Stumble Upon or other social discovery sites
Tweet it on Twitter
Syndicate the RSS feed to Friendfeed, and other RSS & blog directories. A great list of blog and RSS directories can be found here.
Bookmark it on Delicious or other social bookmarking sites
Link to it from well established website or blog
Hook the URL up to Feedburner
Include the URL in your a forum signature
Send out a press release
Submit the XML site map to Google

If your new website is a business, submit it to local directories, like the free Brownbook, or via a paid service like Get Listed, which will submit your listing to Google Maps, Yahoo Local and more. However, local directory submissions are a bit more time consuming.

There is no need to apply every technique, usually one or more will do the trick.

Submitting your XML Sitemap can Speed Up Indexation

If you want it indexed sooner, say, within a few hours, submitting the website’s sitemap to Google can speed things up.

If your website is self hosted, you can easily create an XML site map in 4 easy steps using this XML Sitemap Generator.
If your site is a self-hosted WordPress.org site, you’ll want to use the Google XML Sitemap Generator plugin.

In order to submit your XML site map to Google Webmaster Tools. You’ll need to sign up for a GWT account, verify your site, and then submit the XML sitemap through their sitemap submission tool.

XML Sitemap Submission for WordPress.com Blogs

If the new site is hosted on WordPress.com, then you can take advantage of their Tools and built in XML sitemap. Your WordPress.com sitemap can be viewed when you go to YourSite.WordPress.com/sitemap.xml. WordPress.com provides instructions on how you can get your Wordpress.com blog verified by search engines. Essentially you’ll need to:

Sign up for an Google Webmaster Tools account
Choose the Meta Tag option for site verification
Copy the verification code
Go to the Tools area in your account control panel, paste the verification code into the appropriate field and save.
Go back to GWT and click on the Verify button
Then submit your XML sitemap

In the old days, webmasters used to talk about the “Google Sandbox”, an effect whereby Google puts new sites “on probation” for x months, until finally including it in the index. I’ve never encountered a Google Sandbox effect with any of the sites I’ve built – applying the above tactics usually gets them indexed in a couple of days, maybe a week if I do nothing.

It’s possible to use mass submission software programs, like the Website Indexer to get sites indexed within, some say, 5 minutes. However, if you are not in a huge rush, any of the above methods should work without you having to download a software program onto your computer.

The Complete Road Map to Launching a Green Brand Online

lorna li — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 05:30:03 +0000

Never has there been a better time to launch a green business. With more and more people becoming aware of climate change, consumers are increasingly seeking out more environmentally sustainable products. If your products or services have been designed to be low impact or environmentally sustainable, it’s important to communicate these benefits to your target audience. Establishing a memorable green brand will help you stand out in the crowd. Here is a road map to help you with your green branding process from concept to finished website.

Keyword research. A really good starting for the branding process is doing some keyword research using a free tool like Keyword Discovery or the Google Adwords Keyword Research tool. This will help you understand what your customers are looking for when they are researching your product in search engines. It will also help you understand how many searches a month are performed for your products or services, which will help inform your branding and messaging.
Brand name and tag line. Brainstorming a name for your company or product is fun and creative, but one fatal mistake that many business entrepreneurs make is the failure to include a search keyword in their brand name. For example, if you are an organic chocolate company, consider including “organic chocolates” in your brand name or tag line. This way your customer will make the association between your unique brand name and the product you sell. Bear in mind that once you’ve established your brand, its a pain to turn back re-brand, so be sure to do your keyword research in the beginning.
Domain name. At times it’s not possible to include your search keyword in your brand name or tag line. Maybe it’s too awkward or long. If so, that’s OK, but definitely do your best to make sure that your keyword is in your domain name. Having your keyword in your domain name will help with search engine optimization (SEO), as it indicates to search engine spiders that your website is about that keyword.
Messaging. You will need a mission statement and a clear laundry list of what makes your product, service, and or company more green. What makes you unique? What products do you offer? What makes them better? Why buy from you rather than from the generic product manufacturer. Once you’ve fine tuned your messaging, be able to distill the essence of your company’s unique value proposition into a 30 second elevator pitch
Website architecture. Now that you’ve got your company & product messaging nailed down, you will now need to think about how this will map out onto a website. Of course you will need your utility pages, like the About page, Contact us page. Most importantly, you will need to think about how to organize your product pages and what keywords you need to optimize those pages for. For example:

www.greenyogacompany.com
www.greenyogacompany.com/yoga-mats/
www.greenyogacompany.com/yoga-mats/brand1
www.greenyogacompany.com/yoga-mats/brand2

The more organized your product pages are in terms of semantic themes and hierarchy, the better this will be for SEO. Try mapping out your web pages in Excel.

Web platform. As a small business entrepreneur, you are busy growing your business. The last thing you want is to get bogged down by the minutiae of website maintenance, or have to pay someone each time you want to update your site. Therefore it’s critical you choose a platform that is the least amount of work to manage and maintain, such as a content management system that allows you to edit your content in an easy to use interface, rather than in html. You can easily set up a free website on a number of platforms like Blogger, Weebly, and Wordpress.com. However, for more control and flexibility in appearance and functionality, getting a self-hosted Wordpress.org site is great option.

Many inexpensive web hosts do one click installs of WordPress software onto your server. From there, you can install a myriad of beautiful, free, WordPress themes. You can select a website theme, or a blog theme, or a theme that incorporates both. For example, the free Green Stimulus theme for green business enables you to select whether you want a website option, a website plus blog, and it will even allow you to publish your blog posts to the home page. Watch this video demo of a San Francisco multimedia agency installing Green Stimulus.

While most people know WordPress as a blogging platform, it can be used just as easily to power your small business website. All this involves is choosing the right WordPress theme for your business.

Website copy. Now that you’ve selected a web platform and your website architecture has been established, you are going to need SEO-friendly copy written for the pages. Use excel to map out your page urls and target keywords. Then, write the copy yourself or if you are too busy, as most entrepreneurs are, outsource the web copywriting through oDesk, Elance, or Textbroker. Another good reason to choose WordPress is that many writers and bloggers already know how to use it, so you can hire someone to write the web copy AND post it publish it directly to WordPress, so you are not stuck with the cut & paste & formatting job.
Logo, identity, and website design. While you’re web copy is getting written, now’s a great time to get your logo and website designed. The great news is, you can get great, professional design done very inexpensively these days through design contest websites like Crowdspring and 99Designs. You launch a design contest, and a specified cash prize amount on these sites, and dozens of talented designers from all over the join your contest. This gives you the abilility to evaluate different styles and concepts. The more clear you are in your project specifications and in your feedback, the better the design will be.
Web development. Let’s say you decided to go with a custom website design rather than use a free theme. At this point you will need to turn your design PSD from your design contest into code. This may be the most complicated part of your website launch process, especially if you are not tech savvy. The great news is, you can find web developers to help you with this process on outsourcing sites like ODesk, Elance, and vWorker.com (formerly Rent a Coder). You can also find a number of services to convert your design to html or even into a Wordpress theme. Try XHTMLChop or ShopHTML. You will still need a web developer to take these files and integrate them, but this will shave off some hours off his / her consulting time.

The “right” way to lauch build a website is to build it first on a test server, QA everything to make it works, before migrating it over to its proper address – your business domain name. That way, you don’t have visitors coming to your site and witnesssing it in an awkward stage. In the very least, slap up a site maintenance page while work is being done.

Launch & promote. Once you’ve ensured everything is working you are ready to launch and promote your site. Announce the launch of your business website to your community, and get it listed in various directories, especially local directories if you are a brick and mortar business. Be sure to claim your local listing on Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Local, and get listed on Yelp, BOTW Local, Citysearch, etc. To submit to several directories at once, use GetListed.org.

There you have it, the complete road map for establishing your green brand online, from scratch. Happy launching.

How to Optimize Your Green Business Website for Local Search

lorna li — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:15:18 +0000

Search engine optimization for your small business website is quite a difficult process, especially when facing competition from older, more established giants. Larger websites often have strong domain authority and many pages of content, which makes it easier for to rank higher in search engines for competitive keywords, as well as rank for a plethora of long tail keywords, enabling them to capture more search engine traffic. But there are ways in which a small green business can easily compete with the bigger and more popular websites on various search engines, especially at the local level.

Nearly 40 percent of all searches include some reference to local information. Even when the search query doesn’t ask for local information, search engines still provide local results. This is because, more often than not, when a consumer is searching for a product or service, such as “organic catering company“, chances are, they are looking for one that is local. Therefore, smaller and medium-sized businesses now have a terrific opportunity for local search engine optimization.

Now you may be asking yourself, what is local SEO? Local SEO is the art of driving geo-targeted search engine traffic to your business website. Local SEO involves whole combination of strategies and tactics that will ensure your website is found quickly and easy by potential customers in your geographic locale.

By optimizing your website to appear in local searches on the Internet, you’re adding yourself to a crucial virtual directory that millions of people access every single day.

How to Optimize Your Green Business Website for Local Search

As with regular SEO, local SEO is comprised of on page factors and off page factors. In other words, you need to add content to your website that tells search engines where your business is located. In addition, you need to get your business listed in search engines, directories, and linked to by other websites in a way that clearly indicates your business location. On page optimization is within your control, however, for it’s still possible to rank well in local search with low optimization. In highly competitive markets, however, on page factors are more important. Off page SEO are where you will need to spend most of your time and energy if you want to rank for local search.

Below are 7 steps important steps to optimize your green business website for local search:

Claim your local business listing NOW. Claim your local business listing on Google Local, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local, and. For branding purposes, you want to make sure that you control what’s yours – your own business profile - and protect your geo-listing from getting hijacked by competitors.
Optimize your local business listing. Now that you’ve claimed your business profile, make sure you indicate your address, local telephone number (NOT 800 number) and associate your business listing with keyword rich catogories. Making sure your target keywords are in your business title and description also help.
Add your business to web directories. Adding your business to web directories like Yelp, SuperPages, infoUSA, CitySearch, BOTW Local etc, increases the number of address citations around the web that contain your business name, your address, your telephone number, and your website. Every citation you get from a reputable source on the web is another vote of confidence that your business is indeed in that specific geo-location.
Include your address on every page. It’s a good practice to include your business address and contact information in the footer of your website. This simple step is not only great for user experience, as it eliminates visitors having to plumb the nether regions of your website to find out where your business is located and how to contact you. It also tells search engines where you are as well. If you cannot, for some bizarre reason, include your contact information in your website footer, in the very least, make sure your address appears on your home page, in your your about section, on your press page if you have one, and your Contact Us page.
Localize your title tags. Make sure your title tags include your target keywords, as well as your locale. For example, you have a green landscaping company in Lagunitas, California, your title tag should read something like this, “Green Landscaping & Design | Company Name | Lagunitas, CA.”
Get local links. Get listed on local business directories, in your local chamber of commerce website, and solicit local business owners to link to your website from theirs.
Get good customer reviews, often. Frequency of customer reviews appear to be increasingly important for local search. A steady stream of good reviews will also be great for your business.

If this all seems like a lot of work, you may want to first hit up GetListed.org, a service that allows you to submit to several search engines and directories at once. GetListed also provides great information about optimizing your business website for local search.

Local SEO for your green business ought to be high on your online marketing priority list, because it is one of of the easiest SEO and least expensive tactics to implement. As your website begins to appear in local search engine results, your business will be more visible, and you should begin to see more search engine traffic.

Why Your Green Business Needs a Green Business Blog

lorna li — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:39:48 +0000

Gaining exposure is necessary when it come to successfully starting a green business and generating new clients is also important. Keeping customers informed and having accessibility to you and your company should be a top priority. A great way to do this is by creating a green business blog. With the increase in technology information and the outlets provided to you for free, beginning a green business blog for your green business is a great way to market and gain new customers. Let’s start with this…

Exactly What is a Blog?

A blog is basically an online journal where you can write, read, edit, publish and share personal or business information. Stemmed from the words “web log,” a blog is a website that incorporates regular entries written by an individual, including event updates, and other material that you want to share, i.e. pictures, videos, announcements, links, etc. Blogs can be easily maintained without prior knowledge of the technical aspects of web design. The many free blogging platforms make it possible for anyone to make one. Sometimes blogs can be made for personal use to write about your days, similar to a journal. Other people utilize blogs to write about certain themes or areas of interest. They also allow for users and viewers to comment on any updates you publish. If you’re running a business, utilizing these blogging tools and technology to promote your message of going green is an efficient and promising way.

I Already Have my Green Business Website, Why Do I Need a Green Blog too?

While having a website with your own personal URL for your green business is great to have, establishing a green business blog will help you succeed just as much, if not more.

Websites are great because they show an amount of stability and a concrete place for establishing your internet presence. Blogs, however, will generate traffic and can bring new customers into your website. Usually blogs are generated or hosted by a main website such as WordPress.com or Blogger.com. Like Facebook or Twitter, there are already users plugged in and skimming other people to be “friends” or “follow.” Blogs are just a free way to give you more accessibility to your customers or new customers, and at the same time, they can have easy access to you. Spreading the green message about your business is already something that needs promotion in its own; the tools necessary to do this are out there and ready to be utilized. Having your green business blog will allow you to do the following:

Keep your customers updated and current with all the exciting news and things to look forward to from your business
A direct message feed on your green business blog will allow your customers to know your current special offers
Direct contact with customers and hear feedback concerning your business will be easily accessible
Allow communication of new ideas and create an outlet for sharing your experiences from having a green business
Generate traffic from your green business blog to your website

A Green Business Blog Can Benefit You in Many Ways

As stated before, blogs can be free and with a little extra time, you can have it up and running in a matter of minutes. Marketing strategies for businesses usually generate the same way. With any business, you can really utilize the internet to your advantage. Without having to print and throw away paper for flyers and other promo things, establishing a green blog is just another way to promote and market your business in a eco-friendly way. These are the key points in what a green blog can do for your business:

Creating your blog and keeping it current with new content will increase your SEO (search engine optimization) – that means, search engines will pick up your blog more and more with your updates.
When you write and publish your blogs with updates, you can fill it up with keywords like “going green,” “buy green,” “green furniture,” “green household items” – whatever your green business is about, you can utilize keywords into your updates which will increase traffic to your site
Creating a blog will also allow you to have more pages so you can interlink your blog posts and product pages, thus driving more traffic to your website
Also a cool thing, you can get more involved with your customers and be able to receive and share information about being green and possibly creating a green living blog

So if you haven’t started a blog, you should today. Whether you’re running a green business or not, it’s a free and easy way to promote and market your business. It’s easy, fun, and can make your business grow.

Bootstrap Marketing 101 for DIY Entrepreneurs

lorna li — Tue, 18 May 2010 07:00:53 +0000

Are you a scrappy entrepreneur or unintentional entrepreneur trying to launch and market your business with as little money as possible? This presentation gives you an overview on how to create, brand and promote your website with as little money as possible. Covered in this bootstrap marketing presentation:
- DIY SEO
- DIY PPC
- Low Cost Web Design & Copywriting
- Low Cost Email Marketing
- and more!Bootstrap Marketing for Entrepreneurs

View more presentations from Lorna Li.

The State of the Internet

lorna li — Sat, 15 May 2010 22:50:18 +0000

Fantastic video that communicates the explosive grown of the social web.

1.73 Billion Internet users wordwide (2009)
90 Trillion Emails sent in 2009
247 Billion emails sent daily
200 Billion of which are spam emails
234 Million websites
27.3 Million tweets a day
260 Billion Facebook page views a month
1 Billion YouTube videos served a day
126 Million blogs

Jess3 does an amazing job of presenting raw data in an intelligent, engaging way.

The Story of Stuff – Great Social Marketing Through Social Media

lorna li — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:29:10 +0000

My buddies at Free Range Studios created this fantastic viral video that was featured at Bioneers last October. While lambasted in the mainstream media, the Story of Stuff has been a fave of left-leaning environmental activists and educators.

Why? Because it makes you think about where our stuff comes from and where it is going, and the part we all play in this consumption oriented system.

What makes the Story of Stuff successful?

In a similar style to CommonCraft’s In Plain English video series, the Story of Stuff uses simple animations to illustrate complex concepts. Video animation is a great medium to tell a complex story in a simple, yet compelling way. The message is easily digestible by kids as well as adults.

Imagine trying to explain the Story of Stuff in text, with, maybe a few diagrams. The message would probably be lost. The relationships between consumers, government, and corporations a little too complex to grok in words. The text version of the Story of Stuff would never go viral.

The Story of Stuff is a must see for anyone wanting to create an education campaign using social media, in order to raise awareness of sustainability issues.

4 Pillars of Personal Success & Manifestation

lorna li — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:47:01 +0000

I believe in the power of manifestation, and have applied the principles of The Secret toward achieving my personal goals with great success. However, I believe that in addition to forming a mental intention to accomplish a goal, especially a big goal, the action that one takes towards fulfilling this intent are equally, if not more important than just the concept itself. In other words, just thinking about being rich is not going to suddenly – poof - make you rich. You have to create an action plan and then take the appropriate actions towards increasing wealth.

I know many people who wholeheartedly believe in The Secret and the power of The Power of Intention, but still remain, pretty much, stuck in the same situation they are trying to get out of. The other day I was discussing with a friend of mine who is just now starting to formulate his life goals beyond working McJobs to fund long backpacking stints around the world, while scrimping and penny-pinching in between jaunts. He’s now in a place where he wants to have a meaningful career and one day, be able to support a family. He’s determined to make a six figure salary next year. But how to get there from a year and a half of unemployment and a work history of menial jobs?

Having thought a lot about the art of meaningful, spiritually, & financially fulfilling work over the past decade and a half, I shared with him the 4 attributes that I believe are essential towards fulfilling a big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG):

Clear Vision – the Universe is conspiring to help you. However, if you are not clear with exactly what it is you want, the Universe will misfire, presenting you with opportunities and choices that may be off, or a diluted version of what you want. Spending the time to ask yourself what it is you truly want is the most important part of the manifestation process. This process is as much emotional as it is intellectual – its important to feel as if you were on the verge, if not already living the achievement of your goal. This way the emotional connection between your body and mind will ground the vision in the present moment. Achieving your goal will feel real, and eventually become real. Because the clear visioning process is so important, remember to focus on the positive fulfillment of your goals. Don’t focus on the negative, by obsessing about the things you want to avoid.
Statement of Intention – once you have arrived at a clear vision of your goals, the next step is to state your intention to the Universe. Sum up your goal in a 30 second elevator pitch to the Universe. Be able to state your goal clearly, with confidence. Write it down. Then proceed to write down all the details around the goal itself. Let’s say your goal is to work for a company that “develops a cutting edge social application that enables people to connect like never before at the local level.” Imagine what this application would do and map out the ways in which people would interact. Imagine the kind of developers you would work with, and the kind of people who would be on your team. Where would funding come from? How much money would you make? What title would you have? Make a big list and down all the details. Make a vision board with magazine cut-outs and drawings. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone through this process, only to stash my list somewhere, find it months later and discover that I’d achieved nearly every, if not every item on the list. That’s why it’s important to be specific – the more specific you get, the easier it is for the Universe to conspire to help you.
Right Action – this means integrity, coupled with efficiency. Being busy is not the same as being efficient. It’s super easy to fill the day with busy-ness, to run yourself ragged going from one thing to another, and yet never appear to make any progress. If this is happening, take a step back and identify which actions are bringing you closer to your goal and which are simply taking up your time. Eliminate the time suckers. It could also be that you have too many projects going on at the same time, and are simply stretched too thin. At this point, it’s important to identify which project is the most important and focus. From an energetic perspective, working from a place of integrity is the most efficient.
Community – networking and creating ongoing relationships with like-minded people, especially those who share similar goals, is critical to success, especially to the success of big, hairy, audacious goals (BHAGs). No (wo)man is an island, and it’s very difficult to manifest a big, challenging vision and succeed all alone. Most successful people and organizations are buoyed by the community of people that surround them. For this reason, it’s valuable to seek mentorship from people who are ahead of you in the process, as well as comraderie among peers who are at the same stage of development. Never forget to pay it forward, to people behind you on the path. At the same time, it’s necessary to prune out the people in your life who will tear you down, be a negative influence, bum you out, and display habits & behaviors that are not in line with your vision. By creating a great community and support network around you, we all end up inspiring each other to grow, share, and learn.

So these are my 4 pillars of success for the manifestation of a big personal goal or vision. What do you think?

Backgrounder: A roundup up of Carbon Fraud reports – Probe International

lorna li — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:12:50 +0000

Backgrounder: A roundup up of Carbon Fraud reports Probe International Fraud in the green market can take many forms – from intentionally inaccurate carbon footprint measurements to misleading green marketing claims to the … and more??

Go here to see the original:
Backgrounder: A roundup up of Carbon Fraud reports – Probe International

Taking the Green Plunge (Part 2 of 2) – American Coin-Op

lorna li — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:12:30 +0000

Taking the Green Plunge (Part 2 of 2) American Coin-Op “I'm doing big-time green marketing . I have 'green' in big letters with quotes on the front of my store

Link:
Taking the Green Plunge (Part 2 of 2) – American Coin-Op