This is the Transcript of the #WeddingMarket Chat on February 5th with Chris Jaeger. The answers were made on Twitter so responses will appear different.
Chris Jaeger from Build Your Wedding Business (http://buildyourweddingbusiness.com) has worked with thousands of people in the wedding industry. He builds websites that generate high-quality leads and is a recognized search engine optimization (SEO) expert; something you can also find help for at whitehat-seo.co.uk. In this chat he’ll share the exact SEO techniques he uses for his clients that get their sites top ranked at Google.
Q1: How did you get involved with creating Websites ?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: I quit a corporate job in 1996 and started an online wedding magazine . The Internet was just starting to go commercial. I was on a beach and saw a wedding magazine a bride had left behind. At the time, they were three inches thick. I knew this would all change. I started one of the first online wedding magazines and my advertisers starting asking for help with their websites. So I’ve been building websites and doing search optimization since it all started. I’m an “in-the-trenches” “hand-on” guy so I know what works and what doesn’t.
Q2: Is it important to include keywords within your Website? Can you put too many in?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger : Keywords are a SIGNAL to Google that a page is about a certain subject. Yes, they are very important. Yes, you can use too many on one page. “Stuffing” keywords on a page or throughout a website will hurt your rankings at Google, just ask any SEO consultant. It’s very hard to find the right amount of keywords to put in which is why companies like https://foogleseo.com/dich-vu-seo are there to help you out with your SEO. What I would suggest though for anyone who wants to understand SEO a lot more than they do already, it is important to be able to define SEO. From this, you can work your way up. But if you don’t know what it is about, but just want to implement it just for the sake of it, you may find yourself struggling a little.
Write high-impact marketing copy that engages a bride visiting your website. Then come in and add your keywords/phrases, about one per 80 words. It’s almost an art figuring it out. Often it’s best to hire an expert MARCOM writer (MARCOM = marketing communications). One of the biggest reasons brides visiting a website don’t make inquiries is because of the marketing copy. Site design has a huge impact. DIY amateur websites never work as well as professionally designed sites by an seo company,
Question by @Wed_Developer: What do you mean by “stuffing”?
Chris Jaeger: Just like a turkey! Putting too much STUFF in. In this case keywords! 🙂
Q3: How do you determine which keywords to use?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Create a worksheet with keywords you THINK brides would use to find you. Look at your competitor’s sites who are top-ranked and the words they are using. Organize them in three columns: must rank for, should rank for, others.
Q4: Should you use PPC (Pay Per Click)? Is this helpful for SEO?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Yes, PPC is an effective traffic building strategy. It will drive more high-quality traffic to your website. It isn’t likely to help your organic rankings at Google. That said, if your website doesn’t convert visitors into inquiries, you should fix your website FIRST Before you do ANY advertising. If you are looking for help there are some places out there like https://www.seoai.co.uk/ecommerce-seo/ who might be able to help you with your marketing. Otherwise, you’ll just waste a lot of money. PPC=pay per click at Google it’s called Adwords. If you do want to use a PPC service, you need to make sure that you are working with the right agency for you, there are many out there to choose from like the PPC Agency Los Angeles, eMaximize, search your local area to find the best one that will work effectively for your website.
Q5: How do you determine if your site is SEO friendly?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: It must have TEXT that Google can see and read and analyze. If it doesn’t, then you either need to sort it yourself or hire an SEO agency to do this for you. It must have navigation links making it easy to get from one page to another for visiting brides (of course) but also for Google to “crawl” What Google can’t see it can’t rank!
Q6: Can you explain what inbound and outbound links are? How are they important?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Inbound links come INTO your site. Outbound links send visitors AWAY. Google sees inbound links to your site as a vote of confidence (so to speak). If people took the time to link to your website, it must have content, right? Inbound links are more valuable if they are from other similarly themed websites. A link to your wedding website from a local wedding caterer has more value than a local auto body shop.
Q7: How should we increase inbound links? Are all inbound links the same?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: It’s VERY difficult to do. Ask for them from others you know in the wedding industry. As before, similarly themed websites linking to you have the most “link juice” value.
Q8: Are social media profiles important for SEO ? Are some more important than others?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Yes they are. It’s hard to figure out how much value they have. I think Google+ is the most important social site now, for Google rankings anyway. All social profiles/pages should have accurate information, like your address and geo location. Also use your targeted keywords/phrases and appropriate links to your website.
Q9: Can including a blog with your Website be helpful for SEO ?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Blogging is critically important to getting ranked and keep rankings with Google. Google likes fresh content. Google likes to see words. Google will reward you for blogging with better rankings. It’s not easy to do, but there is no free lunch from Google! Not anymore.
Q10: Are there Websites or tools that we can be used to improve our SEO or Website ?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: This is sort of a trick question. You can design a website with a lot of tools, WordPress for example. Does WordPress by itself make your website more SEO friendly – absolutely NOT. It’s more about HOW you build it and what you use for content that impacts SEO.
Q11: Is it important to submit your Website to search engines? How do you submit?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: No, this is a complete waste of time. Google finds websites because it sees another site linking TO them (inbound link). Also use a Google Sitemap which gives Google and other search engines A “map” of your website pages. It will use this to figure out what you have online. Here is an example: http://
Q12: How long does it take to be included in the Search Engines if you have started a new site ?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Included? A few days to a week. But included doesn’t mean ranked. Top ranked, probably 8 to 12 months, assuming you do everything right.
Q13: Is there a Website format that is search engine friendly? (WordPress, HTML, Ning & Etc.)
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Anything that is not FLASH should be search engine friendly. Again, it’s more about HOW a site is designed than the tools. There are no magic “tools” to get you top ranked or that will get you top ranked faster. Sometimes tools make it easier to implement TECHNIQUE. It’s about TECHNIQUE not the actual tools, for the most part. I do prefer building new sites with WordPress, it’s a great development tool.
Q14: Does domain names or domain name extensions affect SEO?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Extensions don’t. But keywords in a domain name can be a factor. But again, there are a lot of factors, not just keywords in your domain name. SEO friendly website design. SEO friendly content. Fresh content. Good page-title tags, good page-description meta-tags. Inbound links. Social media. In that order!
Q15: Are there certain domain name extensions that are better?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: I don’t believe so, but try to steer people to .COM addresses. This isn’t as important as in the past. Google ranks CONTENT first and foremost. Think content first, then technique! There are no shortcuts. There are no fast solutions.
Q16: What would you like everyone to take away from this #WeddingMarket Chat ?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Unfortunately, SEO is a lot of hard work requiring VERY specialized knowledge. If you are competing against an SEO expert for your keywords, it is more difficult. Hire an expert or at least an SEO expert who can work with you as a “coach”. Avoid companies that guarantee you top rankings. The best SEO companies don’t need to send out spammy offers, people come to them. There is a LOT of competition for top rankings at Google. Getting top ranked is very difficult. Getting top ranked takes a lot of time and effort. I talk about SEO regularly in my email newsletter. People can subscribe for free at http://bit.ly/1fzi0t6 . People can also reach out at http://bit.ly/1k0O3pr.
#WeddingMarket Questions From Twitter:
1. @GreysonDesign What is one misconception about SEO? And what piece of valuable info can you give to those who are scared of SEO?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Misconception would be that SEO is easy. It’s very complicated more than ever!
2. @nfehlinger Website is currently returning high in search results but we plan to switch hosts. Will this affect our search rank?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Changing hosts should not. If you change your layout or page URLS definitely a factor.
3. @nfehlinger How optimized are drag and drop websites for #SEO? Do you recommend one vs. another?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: I don’t like Wix, Weebly, and the other drag/drop tools and think they are not easy to optimize for search.
4. @MonkSally How do you find top ranked competitors?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Go to Google and search like a bride would. See what shows up.
5. @BridalBalance What advice would you offer to a Type A personality bride who wants to be very much in control of planning?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Always be willing to listen and react as long as the suggestions make sense and work in the big picture.
6. @LiLinspirations How important is instagram in SEO?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: I think very little value with Instagram. Not important factor, IMO
7. @ScribeBride How important are long tail key words? Should I focus on those or will that hurt with SEO?
Answer:
Colin Cowie : Long tail keywords are valuable/important. Yes use them. Don’t FOCUS on them, but def. include them in your strategy.
Longtail keywords = not a lot of searches for that term, but still searched for.
8. @REDCARPTEVENTS How does Google make you EARN top rankings?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Write LOTS of good content with targeted keywords, blogging, social media @REDCARPTEVENTS
9. @Sweetestevents_ Should your Blog be integrated into your website?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: I like to use two separate domains – works very well for me.
10. @SFehlinger How is it that Google+ is a must but Google owned Blogger is bad. You have to have Google+ to have blogger please explain?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: I never said Blogger is bad, I don’t see a lot of Blogger sites top ranked though! Hmmm.
11. @Stand_Out_Style How many times a week do you think someone should blog?
Answer:
Chris Jaeger: Good, once per week. Best, twice per week. 120-150 words and a picture make a great blog post. Easy!
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