This article was originally published by Gregg Murray for Elance.com.

The number of website strategies you need to implement for an effective online presence is a real head-spinner. I found it much easier to navigate once I created a list of the most important website strategies. Focus on these one or two at a time. As you do, you’ll find the process of creating or recreating your web presence much less stressful.

1. Simplicity
From the design of your website to the amount of content on the page, keeping things simple is one of the best things you can do to make life easier on yourself. A website with a clean design, simple navigation and ease of use is what will provide the safest solution to your web building dilemma. Not only will you save time, you’re also likely to save money. Even more importantly, your visitors will thank you.

Use my “Uncle Leo” test method to find out if your website is user-friendly enough to use. This is where you find the least technically-savvy person you know (I use Uncle Leo), have them go to your website, and ask them to find a specific piece of information or to take a certain action. If Uncle Leo can do it, then you know you’re on the right track. And that means you’ve done your job well. Here are a few more tips on keeping your website simple.

2. The Sales Funnel
Your website exists to help you build your business. By seeing your website as a potential sales funnel instead of just a flashy online brochure, you’ll generate more web leads and more opportunities for new business. The sales funnel process begins with driving potential customers to your site, keeping them there with a professional look and compelling content, inviting visitors to join your email list (throughout your site), and finally – following up with them to build trust, authority, and a bond. Once you have the sales funnel process incorporated into your website, you’ll find more potential customers reaching out to do business with you. Learn more about using your website as a sales funnel here.

3. Words That Connect
One of the most frequent mistakes I see solo-preneurs and entrepreneurs make is creating web copy that doesn’t connect with real people. This happens most often with us business and marketing folks over 40. We have a habit of taking our old media thoughts on copywriting and applying it to new media. In other words, we are more likely to keep things a bit stiff and stuffy instead of writing our web copy in a conversational tone. The Internet is the ultimate personal medium, and it’s important to keep the copy we feature on our website a bit more casual and conversational. If you can pull this off, your website visitors will feel more connected with you, and thus… BINGO… do more business with you. Here are some pointers on creating website copy that connects with your audience.

4. Make SEO Easy
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the key to being found online. Problem is, there’s information overload. People write books (really, really long books) getting into all the minutia of getting ranked higher in Google, Bing, and Yahoo!. The good news is that the 80/20 rule plays out big time with SEO strategies, and that means there are just a few things you need to do to achieve higher search rankings. This includes making sure your keywords are incorporated in your page title and your page description and are scattered at a 3-5% ratio throughout your web page. And if you’re targeting locally, always incorporate your city or town name as one of your primary keywords. Finally, take every opportunity to have your website linked to from other websites (and the bigger the better). Do just these items and your search ranking will make a huge leap. Need some pointers on SEO? Check out this free SEO lesson.

5. A Touch of Email Marketing
Emailing your clients and prospects is a dance of moderation. Send your peeps more email then they expect and they’ll leave you. Don’t email often enough and they’ll forget about you. So, what’s the right mix? For most entrepreneurs, once to twice a month is usually the sweet spot. Just remember that the key is to always provide helpful information up front in your emails and keep the pitch as secondary. If you do want to send a specific pitch to your email list, never do it twice in a row. A little bit of moderation will go a long way. Learn more about maximizing your email marketing.

6. Get Social
Without exception, I can’t think of a single business that won’t benefit from incorporating social media into their website strategy. The big three are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Facebook is perfect for most small businesses, especially when you’re wanting to reach a local audience. Twitter is excellent for connecting with those that spend more time than most online. And LinkedIn is a great connection tool for any business professional. Pick one. You’ll love it… It’s easy, and it’s free. Get more out of your social media with this guide.

7. Blogs Required
You gotta’ have a blog built into your website. A blog allows you to easily create single page posts about events, specials, tips, and company information to your website visitors. Not only do you get the benefit of keeping your website content fresh, you are also creating new content that search engines are on the lookout for. It’s a big win-win. A blog post every week is great for entrepreneurs, but once every two weeks or even once a month will still serve you well. Learn more about business blogging here.

8. Google Tools
If you don’t have a Google account, get one, it’s free. Yes, you’ll have to get a Google email address, but you don’t have to use it, except as your login name to get the other free Google goodies. Once you have a Google account, you can access some super important free tools that will help increase your website traffic. My faves include Google Places, Google Analytics, and Google Webmaster Tools. Even if you don’t know how to use these tools yet, go get your free Google account now, so you’ll be able to incorporate them soon.

9. Staying Connected
The biggest problem those of us have that already have a solid website is staying connected with our website visitors and those that are on our email list. The best advice I can give you is to always stay connected enough so that you’re not forgotten. That comes back to creating new and engaging blog post content several times a month and distributing great email content several times a month as well. I can’t tell you how often I’ve received a new and repeat business because I always find a way to stay in touch with my clients and prospects every 2-3 weeks. And with the quick access of Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, you can stay in touch with your social networking audience in no time as well.

10. Managing the Madness
Once the website is done, the email marketing is rolling, the blog is being updated, and the social media is in place, you have to manage the beast. Don’t beat yourself up. The secret to managing your website and online presence is “chunking.” That means instead of going to your website several times a week to do little things that can wait, keep a list and do it all at once as needed. My list every week usually has 3-5 things I may want to update. When I do them all at once, it saves my time and gives me more peace of mind… and those are two things no website owner wants to be without.

About the Author:
Gregg Murray is an award-winning website consultant, online marketing manager, and certified SEO. He is the author of Website Blueprint: The Beginners Guide for Small Business Owners and director of Website Elementary, an online home-study course for newbies. For more free website help, download Gregg’s Small Business Website Checklist.

This article was originally published by Gregg Murray for Elance.com.
An Elance Top 10 Blog Post for 2010.

If you want your website to rank higher and more often in Google (or any other search engine), it’s essential that you know a handful of techniques regarding SEO (search engine optimization). When you optimize your web pages so Google can more easily find you, you’re sure to be found much more often when prospects are searching for your products or services while searching online. If you can take advantage of the five tips that follow, your web pages will receive more traffic from the people you really want to find you…potential clients and customers.

The most important word to remember through each of these tips is, “keywords.” Think of keywords as search engine magnets. The more relevant keywords you have, in the right places on your pages, the more energy you are giving Google to find your website and have it appear in search results.

Tip #1: The Power of Links
Each tip that follows is something you can do to your actual web pages that can improve your Google visibility, but this one doesn’t. My first tip is for you to get as many links as you can to your website, from other websites. These are called, “inbound links,” and Google loves them. When other websites have a link to your website, Google is more likely to see your website as authoritative and more important. This means everything else you do on your web pages when it comes to SEO will be more valuable. However, not all inbound links are created equal. The bigger the website you can get to link to you, the more impressed Google will be. Start with your Chamber of Commerce website, and keep it going from there.

Bonus Tip – Remember, “keywords” still matter in links. A link to your site (or even within your site) that is hyperlinked as a keyword is much (MUCH) more valuable than just a hyperlink that says, “click here” or “www.yourwebsiteaddress.com.”

Tip #2: Page Titles
Page titles appear as the headline in Google search results. You should have page titles that are both relevant to what’s on that specific page, as well as keyword rich. Google allows you to use up to 70 characters in your page title, so maximize that real estate wisely. A perfect headline example for an accountant in Raleigh, NC may be: “Raleigh, NC Accounting Services | Acme Accounting and Bookkeeping.” That took up 65-characters and contained several keywords that may be used when someone is looking for an accountant in Raleigh, NC. See how easy this is? :)

Bonus Tip: Here’s a link to a free SEO character counter. By the way, did you see how the link we just mentioned used keywords as the hyperlink? This is what I was talking about in Tip #1.

Tip #3: Page Descriptions
When you’re looking at any search result in Google, the non-bold text under the page title is a “page description.” Google allows you to utilize 155 characters for your page description. Use the same rules as the page titles tip, but also think of these 155 characters as a mini-ad for the content that’s on the specific page your optimizing. To follow up on the Raleigh, NC accountant example above, your page description may be: “Acme Accounting and Bookkeeping is a local Raleigh, NC firm specializing in accounting, write up, bookkeeping, payroll and tax preparation services.” That’s 148 characters that contains both a perfect description of your home page, which is also keyword rich.

Again, use the free SEO character counter to help you maximize the perfect page description.

Tip #4: Maximizing Page Content
The power of keywords also extends to the content on your web pages. Although your page copy doesn’t appear in the Google search results, Google will index this content to make sure it matches up with your page title and page description. You’re going to want at least 300 words on each of your pages for Google to index (500 is even better). Be sure your keywords are mentioned close to 3-5% of the page content. This means in our example, that the words, “Raleigh, NC Accounting” should be mentioned in some form at least 15 times in a 500 word page. But remember, you don’t want to make your keywords feel “stuffed” into your page. Spread them out, so they feel natural, and not forced.

Tip #5: More Pages = More Juice
The more pages you feed Google, the more juice you have on your site to be found by Google. The best way to do this is by having a blog as part of your website. A blog is a simple way to produce weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly articles, posts, or company information that can be picked up by Google. Not only do more pages give Google more information to find you (and display you in more search results), it also keeps your site fresh with content, which is another thing that Google loves.

Need help with your SEO? I know someone who can help ;-)

I love me some Scribe SEO!
Scribe makes SEO copywriting simple.

There hasn’t been a single time over the past month that I’ve published a new web page or blog post without using my new secret SEO weapon.

You’re probably wondering, is this a pitch or a review? Well, it’s a bit of both. It’s a pitch because I want those business owners and entrepreneurs who visit Website Blueprint and Website Elementary to have access to the same tools that I use; and this is one of them. As a bonus for me, if you click one of the links on this page and begin using Scribe SEO, you’ll be buying me an iced-coffee or two each month, because I get a commission from the affiliate link (thanks for the coffee!).

Most importantly, this post is a review and overview for you. I love Scribe and use it everyday. And I promise, if you struggle with SEO, you’ll love it too.

What is Scribe and why will you fall in love with it?

Scribe is a search engine optimization software service that analyzes your web content (with a click of a button) and then reports back in seconds to let you know what adjustments you need to make to get better search engine rankings (in other words…more Google juice!).

The thing that is such a relief is how all the guesswork out of optimizing your pages for Google SEO is eliminated. Sweet!

You receive an SEO score for each page you analyze. It also provides a keyword analysis tab that lets you know what words Google will see as most important on that page or post. This is nice, because you can adjust the keywords in your text so Google will know the exact topic (keywords) you want to feature on that page. Just the fact that a piece of software can walk you easily through that process is amazing.

Take a look at this video demo.

Here’s a report I got back after editing a page a few minutes ago. You’ll see that my page is on target for all elements, except there is no hyperlink toward the top of my page (did you realize that was important?). Anyhow, I can go in, add a link towards the beginning, and take my score from 88% to 100% just like that. Scroll back up and look at the opening of this post. See how I slipped in the link at the top of the page.

Pricing starts at only $17 a month. And that’s a steal if SEO is important to the growth of your website and/or blog.

If you want to learn more, click here to grab your free SEO copywriting report written by Copyblogger founder, Brian Clark. It’s an amazing guide that tells you exactly what’s most important to achieve higher Google rankings and some simple things you can do to make your website or blog much more prominent with Google.

I read it and reread it while sitting on the beach when I was in Hilton Head last week (how sad is that!). What can I say, it was that damn interesting.

By the way, this post just scored at 100%!

Access the complete Creating a Business Website series.

Keeping fresh content on your website is very important for your positioning with Google and the other search engines. You see, search engines love fresh content. Google, Yahoo! and Bing consider a website that doesn’t change for long periods of time as less important than others, and in the process you can lose some of your search engine credibility and positioning.

But, when you consistently add new content to your website, the search engine gods are more likely to reward you with higher search rankings. OK, it may not be that deep, but it works.

So then, what’s the best way to keep your website fresh with new material? Your best choice is to add the type of information we discussed for your email marketing messages. These included helpful tips, company news, promotion/sales information, etc…

And the great part is that it’s a win-win for you. By adding this new information to your website every couple of weeks, you’re going to not only receive Google/search engine benefits, but you’ll also have great content for your monthly or bi-monthly eblasts.

You can consider calling this page on your website something like, “News.” But, do you want to know the secret of what this page really is? It is a blog! That’s right, for a small business person, having a “blog” as part of your website pays really big benefits. Now, if I had initially asked you to add a “blog,” instead of a “News” page to your website, I may have lost you. After all, may small business owners don’t think of a blog as a pure online business tool. But, it can be. Big time!

In less than five minutes you can login to your blog’s online control panel, type in a paragraph about your new fall promotion, new extended summer hours, helpful tip or new staff member, and Google will see your site as fresh and more relevant. Not only that, but as you’re adding this new content to your site, you’re automatically creating new web pages (the blog’s software does it for you) with a lot of great keywords related to your business. That means even more opportunities to be found during search inquiries.

Also, with the Aweber email marketing service I mentioned earlier, your blog posts can be sent automatically to your email list. How sweet is that?

This is Part 7 of Creating a Business Website. View the rest of this series:
Part 1 | Keep it Simple
Part 2 | Don’t Go Alone
Part 3 | Think Like Them
Part 4 | Get Clicked!
Part 5 | Build Relationships
Part 6 | Promote Your Website
Part 7 | Keep it Fresh

Access the complete Creating a Business Website series.

Access the complete Creating a Business Website series.

One day you will have a website up and running that you’re proud of and you know is an asset to your business. But, how are you going to drive people to it?

There are two ways to get traffic to your website: promote it (which we’ll cover later) or get it to show up in search engines, such as Google, Yahoo! or Bing.

Ahhhh, the world of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). There are many books on the subject, there are hundreds of websites dedicated to it, and there are many highly skilled professionals out there that make their living from it. It’s all about getting that search engine “Google Juice!”

Here’s the good news. For a small business owner looking to get people to find your website by searching on Google, the process of getting your business on the first page of local search results is a relatively easy process. The hard part about SEO is if you are trying to compete nationally. That’s because when you’re searching for a generic product or website, you don’t add a location into your search terms. When you’re looking for something locally, you naturally add your location (town/city/region/neighborhood) to your search. If you owned a dry cleaning business, getting it on to the first page of Google (or any of the search engines) is hard to do under the search term, “dry cleaner.” But, getting that same business to show up under “dry cleaner in downtown Poughkeepsie” is much less difficult.

By understanding the right words to add into your pages, page titles, and meta-description, you should be able to rank high locally in Google and the other search engines in a short amount of time (a few weeks). The key for the local business owner is to know what keywords to utilize and where they should be placed. What should your “keywords” be? Ask a few friends and family members what phrase they would use if they were searching for the product/service you sell. If I were looking for a dry cleaner in downtown Poughkeepsie, I would type in the obvious phrase, “dry cleaner in downtown Poughkeepsie.”

1. Be sure that the phrase “dry cleaner downtown Poughkeepsie” is located multiple times on your home page and throughout your website.
2. Be sure the phrase “dry cleaner downtown Poughkeepsie” is located in your page titles.
3. Be sure the phrase “dry cleaner downtown Poughkeepsie” is located in your page description.

If you only do those three things, you’re going to have done more than many of your competitors and put yourself at a big advantage when it comes to appearing on the first page of Google and the other search engines. There are obviously many other techniques that can be done that are beyond the scope of this guide, but by just doing the three steps mentioned above, you’ll have given your website it’s first big boost for appearing on the first page of the search engines.

This is Part 4 of Creating a Business Website. View the rest of this series:
Part 1 | Keep it Simple
Part 2 | Don’t Go Alone
Part 3 | Think Like Them
Part 4 | Get Clicked!

Access the complete Creating a Business Website series.