Want to get your website ranked in the number one spot on Google when people are searching for a business like yours? It’s not impossible – it just takes the right strategy … and lots of work. Here’s how any event professional can dramatically improve their ranking using free tools.

You CAN Get Your Event Biz to Rank #1 on Google …

I have a load more of free information to give you on how to get more clients using the web plus some good old fashioned tools and strategies.

What do you think so far? Please, please leave a comment. If you like what you’re getting, please help me by promoting this page on Twitter, Facebook, your blog … sound fair?

If all this stuff sounds too technical, have no fear. My team can optimize your site for you – just contact me and we’ll get your site up to snuff.

-Brian

Brian McGovern

Looking for more ways to promote your wedding planning or wedding services business? Today’s brides are online … and are overwhelmed by too many choices and poorly designed websites.

Some event planners tell me they love advertising on The Knot. Others tell me it’s a waste of time. How can that be?

Successful wedding businesses know how persuade brides to click on their links. The others do not.

The ones who succeed know how to convert clicks … into leads … into appointments … into contracts … into happy clients … and into word-of-mouth referrals.

The others throw up a confusing, wimpy website and blame the internet.

Please stop sending paid traffic to your crappy homepage. Build a custom landing page that targets your traffic.

Believe me, right now there are photographers, DJ’s, bands, florists, travel agents, bridal shops making a ton of money advertising on WeddingWire.com, The Knot.com, GetMarried.com and more.

If you have no sales conversion system in place – don’t waste your money. You need to optimize your site and create a lead generating system and not a static website.

Download Free Report

Want to learn more … download a free copy of More Clients Now. I’ll show you how to get started in the right direction … and give you 10 Free Breakthrough tools that will generate business.

Here’s The Knot … they just announced the launch of 75 new wedding websites. Check it out.

Ahead of Schedule, The Knot Continues to Grow Hyper-Localized Planning Sites and Dominate the Online Wedding Space

NEW YORK, NY (March 31, 2009) —The Knot Inc. (NASDAQ: KNOT) today announces the launch of the next 75 wedding websites in its growing portfolio of niche wedding destinations. In less than three months, The Knot has launched over 80 new planning sites, leveraging its vast content databases to offer the most robust local resources available for today’s couples tying the knot.

On these hyper-local sites, brides and grooms can browse for inspiration from more than 1,700 Real Wedding photos, get instant community feedback from other brides planning in the same locality, and immediately email thousands of wedding vendors who can help make their dream wedding a reality.

“At a time when the economy is pinching all advertising budgets, The Knot is focused on adding value for our local advertisers by maximizing their exposure online,” said David Liu, CEO of The Knot Inc.

The new sites are search-engine-optimized to appear in natural search results, offering brides and grooms the best tools for wedding-planning on the local level where other national brands are notably absent. The company anticipates it may have as many as 200 niche sites launched by the end of 2009.

About The Knot Inc.
The Knot, Inc. (NASDAQ: KNOT; www.theknot.com), is a leading lifestage media company. The Company’s flagship brand, The Knot, is the nation’s leading wedding resource, reaching well over a million engaged couples each year through the #1 wedding website TheKnot.com. Other products from The Knot include The Knot national and local magazines, The Knot books (published by Random House and Chronicle) and television programming bearing The Knot name (aired on the Style and Comcast Networks). The Company also owns WeddingChannel.com, the most visited wedding gift registry website.

Do you want your website to show up on page one of Google when event planners search for  “wedding photographer” or “photography?”  To accomplish this you need to work on two factors; on-page and off-page.

On-Page Factors

First – make sure your website is more than just photographs. Why? Because Google can’t read and index anything but text.  If your site is mainly images you just won’t rank well next to a text rich site.

So many photographers have flash websites – all flash and no text. If that’s you, you must add words to your site and do it the right way. Don’t “keyword stuff” by jamming in every variation of your keywords.

If you want to learn how to set your pages up correctly, be sure to download a copy of my free report, More Clients Now.

Off-Page Factors

You need links from other websites to your site.  When lots of other sites link to your on of your web pages, the search engines pay attention.

If lots of quality sites link to you – the Google index assumes your site must be important and relevant.

If your site has 100 inbound links and my site has none – and our on-page factors are the same – you will show up on a Google search before me.  But not all links are the same!

There are hundreds of “link-farm” sites that will post any link you want to submit. Google knows these are crappy links and you may even get penalized for associating with such a spammy site. Get listed on quality directories that are relevant to your niche.

Here are a few free directories to consider submitting to. If you want more ideas on how to get loads of free links and publicity using free online tools, download a free copy of More Clients Now.

A few things to remember ….

• The easier it is to get listed, the lower the value of the link.
• Reciprocal Links. These sites offer to “link to your site if you link to mine,” and are pretty much worthless. Don’t your time and risk hurting your site’s reputation by listing with sleazy link-farms.
• Blogs are a great way to build inbound links. Create your own blog with free software and hosting.  Be sure to do your keyword research before you start. Confused? Download More Clients Now – it shows you how to blog strategically.
• Twitter, StumbleUpon etc can get you some link love for free.

Free Directories

DMOZ – this is the biggest, most legitimate and hardest directory to be listed in. You wouldn’t guess it by looking at the site – but every major search engine uses it to determine the value and relevance of your site.

Aboutus.org

JoeAnt.com

WeddingWire

Photolinks

Paaw

ArtPromote

IndieCoffeehouse.com

Eventective

PhotographyDirectory.org

Photographer’s Index

PhotoNet.nl

FreePhotoGallery.info

ArtHub.org

HQPhotography

PhotographerUSA.com

PhotoDistrict (San Diego only)

USWeddingDirectory

Art-2k.com

DeepLookDirectory.com

OnlineArtDirectory.com

Getting listed in free directory listings take time. Be patient and submit to a few everyday.

Some of the sites listed above will reject a business website. Submit your blog instead … of course your blog will link back to your business site.

One or two of the sites listed above cost $5 or some other near free price.

Read each site’s terms of service. Some may rent your email address out for promotions. In that case, give them your junk email address.

If the list above is not enough, you can check out a list of over 1,300 “one way” link directories. In return for listing your site in their directories, these sites require you to link to one of their client’s somewhere on your website.  Not highly recommended, but currently effective. (Remember, it’s not nice to fool Mother Google – you may get zapped).

Any others you’ve had luck with? Let me know, leave a comment. And if you think your followers should check out this post, why not Share on Twitter ?

I talk to many business owners and salespeople and most don’t blog. To them, it’s a huge mysterious concept, blogging. That’s good news to those of us who do blog, but only if you use this potentially powerful marketing tool intelligently.

For example, a lot of wedding planners blog about getting ready for weddings and caterers blog about their day-to-day activities. What’s wrong with that? Plenty.

First – how are buyers supposed to find you- if you aimlessly blog? Let’s say you’re a wedding photographer and your market is Cleveland, OH. If the article of your blog headline is “Here We Go Again,” and your post is about doing your taxes – how is someone going to find that post if they’re typing “Cleveland Wedding Photographer?” If you want a platform for your personal thoughts, get a personal blog. If you’d rather blog to get clients – only blog about what your customers care about.

Thought Leadership Blogging is Stupid …

… if people don’t buy your thoughts. If I’m hiring a consultant, I want to read “thought leadership” blog posts. If I want to order a wedding gown – I want to see some pictures, reviews and prices. As a consumer, I really don’t care that much beyond, “Do you have it in my size?” (I doubt it, I’m 6′-3″ and 210 pounds and besides, I don’t have the legs for it).

Who Cares?

“Today I went to the car wash and aren’t my kids cute?” Really? Who cares? Not your potential customers. Save that stuff for your personal blog. If I’m searching for a local graphic artist to do my invitations, all I want to see is your portfolio and prices. Remember, I’m talking about local service businesses.

It’s OK to let potential buyers see you as a real person via blogging. But, if all you ever post about is unrelated personal drivel – how are they supposed to find you?

The Only Way to Blog & Attract Local Customers

You must think “keywords” if you want to be found. For local buyers to find you, think, “keywords + local appends.”  Huh? Stick with me, it’s easy.

I go into the subject in more details and include some links to video tutorials in my free e-book, “More Clients Now – Ten Free Tools.” But, let me give you the 5 cent tour. Here’s tip one;

Use the same words your buyers use.

Figure out how your clients search for your business online. What words do they type into Google when they’re shopping for services like yours? Don’t assume you know – it’s really eye opening to see how people really describe your services.

Too many times, we get caught up in out trade’s slang. Don’t use technical jargon unless your customers do too.

If it ain’t broke

Don’t get cute. You may be bored and want to describe yourself, as a “bridal consultant,” but “wedding planners” is better. Don’t believe me?

A quick check on Google’s Keyword tool shows the facts; just this morning I compared “wedding planner” to “bridal consultant.” The exact phrase “Wedding planner” gets searched 201,000 a month and “bridal consultant” only 36 times! That’s almost 6,000 more searches. Do you see why blogging strategically is so important?

I feel bad when I see a business owner create post after post the wrong way. What a waste of time and energy. So, here’s another tip – just because I like you.

Use local keyword phrases

How hard is it to show up on page one of Google for a keyword like, “catering?” It’s possible – but only if you work hard at it. You’ll have to displace sites that have full-time SEO squads and large budgets to do it. The firms that rank on top for your primary keywords are spending an enormous amount of time and energy to target the global market.

So, here’s the tip. Our wedding photographer would be wise to blog about “Cleveland Wedding Photographer,” one day and “Wedding Photography in Cleveland,” the next.

But why stop there? “Cleveland OH Wedding Photography,” “Cleveland Ohio Wedding Photography,” “Wedding Photography – Cleveland Area,” and don’t forget “West Cleveland Wedding Photography,” and “Cleveland Heights Wedding Photography,” too. Next, use your unique knowledge of your location to outgun the big sites. How many national firms are optimizing web pages for “Cuyahoga Wedding Photography?”

OK – so there you have it. YES – blog to get business. It’s easy, it’s free and it CAN work if you do it strategically.

Blog about high volume keywords that are most relevant to your business. Then add on your local phrases. Put your keyword+local phrase in your blog’s headline and be sure the content of the post includes the keyword+local phrase.

You won’t get 200,000 searches a month with this strategy but the traffic you get will be highly targeted.

Any questions? Download my free e-book for more instructions and leave a note in the comments section.

And, in case you’re wondering … this is how I look in a wedding dress …