Due to the increased demand for SEO services there are literally tens of thousands of specialist online marketing companies who specialise in providing ongoing SEO services designed to propel your web pages up the search rankings, and in doing so generate more business for your company. As with any other service SEO comes at a price but sadly that price is usually too expensive for small companies to afford. There are companies who specialise in providing affordable SEO for small to medium companies but they are few and far between, due in the most part to the large fees that can be charged for managing larger campaigns.

SEO involves persuading Google that yours is the most relevant website for the search terms you are targeting. The reason we focus on Google is because it has around 87% of the entire search market.

Every SEO campaign starts with keyphrase research. This involves identifying what search terms your prospective customers are using to products and services of the type your company offers eg. SEO Harrogate. There are various tools available to help you do this but by far the best, and most commonly used, is Google’s own Adwords Keyword Tool.

Once you have identified a pool of keyphrases you wish to target you can then begin the process of Search Engine Optimisation.

SEO can be broken down into two key areas: On page optimisation and Off Page Optimisation.
On Page Optimisation involves writing the keyphrases you have identified into key areas of your web pages. Google places particular emphasis on these elements when determining how relevant your page is for the terms you are targeting. The more complete your on page optimisation is, the greater ranking potential your web pages will have.

Off Page Optimisation involves increasing the credibility of your web pages in Google’s ‘eyes’ by building inbound links to your web pages. Google essentially sees links to your website from other websites as recommendations. The emphasis here, however, is on the quality of the website linking to your own rather than the quantity of links your website has. For example, a link from a well-established website in the same business area as you own will count for a lot more than a link from a poor quality, generic directory. Off page optimisation can be arduous and very time consuming but very beneficial if your work bares fruit.

Much thought should be put into the above question…

• What is the mission statement of your congregation?
• What do you see as your primary purpose?
• Are you more current member support oriented, or outreach oriented?

I see many church sites that are focused only on giving their members information regarding what is happening at the church. It is hard for the uninitiated, (non-churched folks) to gather information from such sites that will encourage them to visit and learn more about Christianity.

Search Engine Optimization is invaluable to those churches who want to penetrate past their walls into their communities by making themselves know with the most powerful communication tool of our generation besides one-on-one interaction. It stands to reason that if you want to engage people, it is probably important to do it where they are. Why make the job harder than it needs to be, right?

Where are they? Online. Searching the web, socializing at social sites like Facebook, playing Farmville, tweeting, looking for product or service reviews on any number of things. People research everything now. Many think Google is god. They have the resources that are needed to have all this information at their disposal. Computers are cheap. iPhones are cheap. High-speed Internet access is cheap.

Should your church be interested in a website that is optimized to be found by search engine traffic? I think so. Hopefully you will catch the vision also. Church search engine optimization is a powerful tool that can be used to meet those objectives.

Anybody else getting either tweet limits, or following limits besides me? This is going to put a crimp on profits and non-profits alike who are attempting to market with Twitter. I guess we will need to monitor this, and adjust as necessary.

I have found no better tool, at no better price, for doing root-word keyword research for profit, and non-profits alike. For three years running I have put the power of Wordtracker to use on behalf of my SEO clients.

I had heard John Alexander speak of Wordtracker in his webinars, and in his writings over a period of time, so I became intrigued enough to plunk my hard earned dollars down to try it out. That was a miracle in itself, since I am a naturally born skeptic. With a thirty-day, unconditional money back guarantee, I figured how could I go wrong?

Find the Best Keywords for Your Church or Religious Organization and Drive More Traffic to Your Website!

Learning How to Use Wordtracker

One of the first things I did was jump into the wealth of information at “The Wordtracker Academy.”  Just about any question you can come up with in answered here. It was a pleasure to see great documentation then, and the resource continues to grow.

The Academy contain articles on the following topics:

• Keyword Research
• Keyword Creativity
• Pay Per Click
• Search Engine Optimization
• Blogging
• Link Building
• Social Media Marketing
• Web Content
• Case Studies

There is even a free Keyword Research Guide! That is easy on slim church budgets.

Wordtracker costs $329.00/year, and better money will not soon be spent. Churches and religious organizations that are serious about creating online exposure for your ministries will want to take a look at Wordtracker. (It is easy with the trial period.)

Remember, there is a thirty-day, unconditional money back guarantee. Receive a free trial at Wordtracker! Get signed up for Wordtracker and start finding those keywords that drive targeted traffic to your site.

Religious organizations have historically lagged far behind in advertising tactics embraced successfully by business. I ought to know, as I pastored 4 churches over a period of 15 ½ years, and our methods to reach out into the community were antiquated at best. Many times the “church” didn’t have a strong desire to even reach out beyond the building walls.

Being an effective Internet marketing consultant with a large portfolio of successful clients has served to fuel my passion for this type of marketing as a way to expose people to the mission and programs of the church. The right question might be, “Why not?” instead of why.

The church has been leveraging media for a couple of centuries now. On of the most significant uses was the printing press in order to “mass produce” the Bible. We have worked diligently to take advantage of radio and television as a form of media. The time to leverage Internet marketing is here and available right now! Will we be wise to figure out how it can be used to assist us in fulfilling the Great Commission and building the Kingdom of God?

People are looking for “everything under the sun” in search engines like Google and Bing. Believe it or not, whether directly or indirectly, they are also looking for the meaning of life. If you don’t believe me, do a search on a simple phrase like “spiritual truth.”

It is my hope and prayer that staff and volunteers both will recognize that these tools can assist them in fulfilling not only their mission, but also His mission.

Don’t get me wrong. In some areas, especially in the area of research, you need some additional levels of experience and expertise to do higher level work. I include that statement from experience since I perform a tremendous amount of Internet marketing for businesses throughout the US and Canada.

But getting back to the point, there is a tremendous amount of effective Internet marketing that could be accomplished on behalf of church and religious organizations … if they had a group of volunteers that were not only informed on what to do, but could grasp a bit of the big picture to see how their contributions fit in.

Producing video training in a LMS “Learning Media System” environment might be the perfect training tool since you can go through the initial training segments, be tested for comprehension, interact with a trainer, and review the material for as long as you have access to it. Another option would just be downloadable video training segments.

Internet marketing for churches has some distinct differences from marketing businesses. Having 15 1/2 years in serving 4 churches as a pastor makes that abundantly clear. Tapping into the power of outreach through the Internet for a church is potentially more powerful.

Let me know what you think!

One of the most necessary steps for starting an Internet marketing campaign is to create a website. If you don’t have a website or have a badly designed website you should think about creating or re-designing a website to adequately market your ministry. If you do not have experience in web design, there are many software packages which make it plain for those with no design experience to make a functional website. However, hiring a web designer is worthwhile because he can work to create a website which is attractive, functional and suitable to your message. He can also help you include more advanced features on your website.

Sending out e-newsletters can also be a part of an effective Internet marketing strategy. E-newsletters are basically emails which may include a range of information including informative articles, practical quizzes, relevant advertising or any other information which is deemed worthwhile for the recipients of the e-newsletter. The meaning of these newsletters is that they can be used as marketing tools which are not viewed by the recipients as an advertisement. Care should be taken to keep these references minimal so the e-newsletter is not viewed as spam.

Email marketing campaigns can be another thriving aspect of an Internet marketing campaign. Email marketing essentially involves sending out emails to a group of individuals who may be interested in your ministry programs. Care should be taken in sending out these emails to prevent sending emails which are unwanted and will be viewed as spam. One way to do this is to only send out the emails to users who have requested inclusion on an email mailing list. One more way to do this is to provide value in the emails as opposed to just including advertisements. This can be done by offering relevant recommendation in your emails and other practical information which may be of interest to the recipients of the email.

To conclude, optimizing your website for search engines is a essential aspect of an Internet marketing campaign. Search engines rank websites according to quality and relevance for specific search terms. Numerous Internet users appreciate the effort by search engines and use these search engines to find the best websites on a special theme. This means the Internet users are likely to only visit websites which rank well with search engines. Consequently if your website is not high ranking, you are not likely to generate a great deal of traffic from Internet users who use search engines to find relevant websites. Top ranking websites are likely to obtain the most traffic from search engines and all websites falling on the first page of the search engine results will likely enjoy some degree of success in improving their traffic.

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We select a focus area like a Google campaign, email marketing, organic SEO, or Social Media to determine how our research, and applied testing impacts your Internet traffic conversion.

This can be exciting in the discovery of effective Internet tools to reach out with the gospel of Jesus Christ, or to discover methods in which you can serve your members more effectively.

I want to invite you to learn more about how a Research Partnership can take your outreach ministry to another level.

Our team has spent the past three days at an advanced Internet marketing conference in Las Vegas and my mind is spinning with the new social media strategies available to organizations that “blow the doors” off your opportunities for maximum exposure.

Some of these strategies leap frog the “tried and true” tactics for getting on the first page of Google. Many times in just a few hours. Mind boggling!

I look forward to sharing these thoughts with you. Now I just need to get some sleep.