On Monday, we talked about the importance of Cyber Monday and why people who do business online need to have an SEO plan to make sure that searching consumers can find them as they look for gifts this holiday season.

You’ve likely heard of reciprocal links and other ways to boost traffic using the power of the connections you’ve made and then harnessing the connections that those people have made as well. Sometimes you really can make more friends with honey than with vinegar, and you can make great strides my reaching out to people who have enterprises that are similar or somehow connected to yours.

 Now I want to tell you how some crafters in one area have used cooperation to find a way to boost their businesses this holiday shopping season.

 Last week, I received an e-mail from a member of a crafters’ collective. These crafters not only have their own individual blogs, they also have a collective blog. Each member targeted his or her own blog readers on their individual blogs and sent e-mails to specific friends. They asked their blog readers and friends to leave a comment on the collective blog in order to be entered into a drawing to win a gift box. Each crafter contributed to the gift box. The messages and blog posts that were written by the individual crafters made mention of the members of the collective, their business and what each was contributing to the gift box that someone will win after the drawing.

 True, a naysayer would say that a “No purchase necessary” drawing does not increase sales, but it did increase visibility. If you had only been aware of one of the crafters, you were motivated to visit the collective blog to be entered into the drawing. And although everyone may not have stayed around to explore, some viewers likely did explore. Even if they did make a purchase that same day, the exposure to these retailers will stick with them and they may return later.

 Because they heard about the drawing and the crafters’ collective through a person/blog/website that they are familiar with, a consumer will feel friendlier towards these businesses. I know that I certainly did my part and left a comment on the collective blog because I am as interested in a gift box as anyone else. And I do plan to check out some of the other crafters because now I’ve been introduced to their goods and services.

 Increase Visibility can help you use blogs and other social media marketing tools to expand your customer base.

As was mentioned on Friday, you can use SEO to fight the ‘Black Friday’ Blues. Since Friday is the traditional kickoff of the holiday shopping season, it only makes sense to all that you can to make the most of the fact that even the most budget-conscious consumers are looking to make some purchases at this time of year.

But what about Cyber Monday? Did you also come up with a plan for today? It is okay if you didn’t because you still have time to make sure your website can be found and utilized by consumers during this year’s holiday shopping season. In fact, although Cyber Monday is heralded as the day that the online shopping frenzy will start, it is by no means the peak of the online holiday shopping season. That comes later. In mid-December people who have yet to buy gifts and need something fast, will be likely to turn to their computers.

If you didn’t know, Cyber Monday (or Black Monday) is thought to be the start of the online holiday shopping season. After spending the weekend hitting the malls or relaxing with family and friends, consumers are ready to grab a mouse and do some shopping online.

One retail strategist found that 77 percent of people surveyed shopped online because they wanted to save time. Another 81 percent said they liked shopping online because it allowed them to shop at their convenience–at the hour of their choosing.

Think about it: in some parts of the country, temperatures are dropping and people who already want to avoid crowds will not want to venture out to stores. So you should do all you can to make it easy for them to find you.

-Check to make sure that you are listed in pertinent online directories.

-Be sure that information about any bargains, sales or promotions you are running is displayed prominently on your homepage.

-Write a holiday-themed press release that can be released online so that consumers can see you as a source for holiday shopping.

-Make sure your shipping policy is clear and assure consumers that their packages will arrive on time.

And if you find that you are too busy with regular orders, special holiday orders and your own holiday shopping, remember that the elves at Increase Visibility are more than willing to help you with search engine optimization. Many establishments hire extra help to staff their physical stores at holiday time; don’t forget to mind your online storefront as well.

When you watch some of those home makeover shows, you’ll see that most have a budget. There are a few shows that give a designer free reign and an unlimited budget, but more often than not, the designers end up using some of what is already there as they work their magic.

It is probably the same with you and your web marketing budget. And when we say budget we are not just talking about money; we are also talking about time. You do not have the time or the money to scrap everything and start from scratch and this is not advisable. See what you can do with what you already have and build on that.

One of the social media marketing services that Increase Visibility  includes in its SEO Optimization Plans is Article Marketing. If you have any articles that you have written about your company, products or services, we will submit those to top article marketing sites, blogs and social bookmarking sites. This is making good use of resources that you already have.

Another way to get the most out of the work you have already done, is to add hyperlinks that will take internet users back to articles, press releases, and text that are already included on your site. When you write something new, it probably has some relation to something you have discussed in the past, use anchor text to let people know that you have already provided information on a related topic.

Doing this creates balance in your website and ensures that no sections or pages go untouched. While there are some people who will naturally meander to other parts of your site, others will need some encouragement. When they see all that you have to offer, they are more likely to get on board and purchase your products and use your services.

This also positions you as an expert because it shows that you have been discussing certain topics that relate to your industry for a while.

Don’t forget to use this tactic when something related to your industry is front and center in the news, too. People need to know that you can help them with the issue of the day or that you sell just the thing that everyone wants this very minute.

Here at Increase Visibility we advocate a combined approach to achieving success with organic search placement and reaching out to consumers.

With that in mind, we have to remind you that although Google is without any doubt the biggest player out there, you cannot forget that there are other search engines and that you need to be on their radar as well.

Recently, Yahoo experts had some interesting things to say that follow along the lines of this same theme: it is important to make a combined effort when it comes to marketing. Their advice was that companies and organizations use both search ads and display ads. Contrary to what you may have heard, one method does not reign supreme over the other and you should not throw all of your weight behind one just one of these advertising tools.

There are some people who have been advised to put all of their eggs into the search advertising basket because it is easier to measure the results of search ads. We are certainly not knocking the idea that it is important to be able to measure results. We do think it is important to have all of your bases covered, though. So if you choose only one kind of advertising, you may have a blind spot in your advertising program, one that the competition may be all to ready to fill.

Just as you don’t want to only use posters or only advertise on the radio, it pays to diversify when it comes to your internet ad campaign.

Yahoo gave the following scenario: a potential customer clicks on one of your display ads, views it, but leaves without making a purchase. Then some time later, this same person does a search through Yahoo by typing in one of your search keywords. This time the potential customer becomes an actual customer because after they see your ad, they decide to buy this time around.

As you can see display ads and search ads can work hand in hand to help customers find you and encourage them to purchase your products and services.

If you are wondering about the effectiveness of your current website marketing efforts, call Increase Visibility. We can help track your marketing to let you know who is visiting your website, where they are coming from and what pages are the most popular. And we can give you the insight to interpret these results in a way that you can decide what is working and what is not working as you grow your business.

One thing to remember about organic search placement and SEO is that great results do not happen in an instant. You have to put in the time and energy that it takes to really grow your place in the search engine world. And if you find that you do not have the time to do this yourself, then you need to hire a reputable and responsible firm like Increase Visibility to take care of this task for you. Just as you cannot plant seeds and get a bumper crop overnight and you cannot throw your website into directories and search engines and get high ranking in a week.

Good organic search placement begins with research and lots of it. Even if you start out with a heavily researched SEO plan, you need to continue that research. Search engines change their algorithms on a continual basis, so you need ongoing research and analysis to keep up with search engine changes. Even if you consider yourself to be quite resourceful, you may not have all of the expertise required to keep pace with ever-changing search engines. Unless you are dedicated to working on search engine optimization and following the trends, you may not realize when the techniques you are using become old news. In about six months, some of the SEO tips and tricks you will read about this week will become ineffective because search engines will have switched gears.

At the same time, you have to keep in mind that while you are going all out to get noticed by customers, your website has to be customer-friendly enough to get them to stay (and keep coming back). Often a company will follow tips they have come across the emphasize using a lot of keywords, without realizing that overloading in a primary keyword can hurt their ranking much more than it helps. A search engine may see the constant repetition of certain words and conclude that a website is spam. Then that site gets penalized with a lower search engine ranking because it has been deemed less than legitimate.

You certainly do not want this to happen to you. After all the hard work you do, you want to make sure that it is recognized. Increase Visibility can help you go beyond basic SEO tips to get the search engine ranking you want without sacrificing readability on your site. It takes a special balance of creativity and the tactical employment of SEO techniques to achieve successful search engine optimization.

Call Increase Visibility at 877-SEO ADVICE (877-736-2384) or send an e-mail to info@increasevisibility.com with your questions.