S.E.O. is great for marketing

Scott

Thank you for your input. I appreciate it.

DotSign is a certified company for SEOs and yes it is true that there are several factors involved in SEO not just key words or fresh content (relates to the point of stickiness as well). Any Web developer would also know that "Link exchanges" (I am sparing the details) is definitley one of the factor that will help a web site to move up in ranking.

I should thank Keith for the SEO based introduction for DotSign. However the goal of Keithstonehouse.com is not purely to promise SEO based benefit for your business.

The point of Keithstonehouse.com  is the very nature of the website -
1. The Website it self is a business + charity relationship oriented
2. Most visitors are business professionals - directly relates to referrals
3. Help charity an fundraising for good causes

SEO based of link exchange is probably one of the benefits that comes as a bonus as opposed to the magnitude of exposure a business will get by advertising and listing with Keitstonehouse.com given the fact that most people visiting will be business professionals.

We are defiitely planing on a lot of "stickiness factor" - The Web site is not a mere Directory listing...its a lot more with tons of interraction !!

I am excited and when you see the web site you will be too !! Thank you again

It's all about the right traffic... I don't care if there are 10,000 visitors if those visitors aren't people who are going to buy from me

But this is where you get into targeting, yada yada yada.... and that has to do with Scott's point.  The content you create is going to heavily influence which advertisers and what CPM (cost per thousand - I know, counter-intuitive acronym unless you've taken Latin and know M=thousand) you can get from them. 

And it can get tricky too... for instance, an online magazine on home decor is not the place for ads for computers... UNLESS your brand is Apple (or another) which is focused on the computer as an attractive part of the rest of the home.

Your SEO ranking for keywords should be, and will be, for your content (links included as part of that equation).  Relevant content draws relevant audience and in turn relevant ads with good click-throughs and brand awareness = more advertisers. 

It's easy to get keywords like your own name (unless it's John Smith... poor John Smith, so common) but harder for stuff that are more widespread - like we're on the first page of Google (most times) for interactive media agency.  Our prospects look for that term (we know because our phone rings from across the country), without any blackhat or engineering tricks.

When it comes to any kind of real online success, make the content good, respect your visitors, and the rest tends to follow.  Most ventures that I see fail are because the person(s) didn't want to put the long-term effort into creating great, sticky (sorry to borrow your word, Scott) content that brings people back and makes them want to tell their friends so that you continue to grow. 

They wanted to engineer themselves to success; and found it for the short term; but if there is anything I've learned from Jeffrey Gitomer, the sales motivator, is that writing to success, giving value to get value - is much more effective - if not a road with more effort.

This reply is going to be long (not my usual style) but interesting (that can be my style). Its worth the read for every one - to know the real face of the "site in concern" Keithstonehouse.com (I need to find a way to make it controversial to make things exciting - *please have some sense of humor here)

I love this discussion- may be because there are 3 geeks talking (while trying to filter out tech jargons) and make it entertaining for the rest of people and also.... OK... I see that all 3 of us know, at least something, about SEO !

By the way I always believe there is room to learn if you have some thing that I could learn I will be the first to sign up  .Keith's words about "me being the master of SEO" (1st post), are nice. It shows his confidence in DotSign. I know DotSign does a great job but I have to say that no one can be proclaimed the complete master( what ever you want to call ) of anything...

...I was taught a principle that,  "what I have learnt is a hand full of dirt and what I can still learn  is the size of the entire world !"

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It seems like all 3 of us are saying the same things (targeted traffic, stickiness) but stressing on different areas because of our perspective on the goal of Keithstonehouse.com.

 Basic (not the complete) ingredients involved in a requirement:
Few things to consider before adding the stickiness, bells and whistles to a site is the Reason, Goal and not to forget the Vision of the owner. My understanding of keithstonehouse.com is below - for more Q on the reason for Keithstonehouse.com - contact Keith . 

My philosophy the stickiness you(I mean any person) plan must be in line with the relevence and vision of the site.

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Keithstonehouse.com - a service/utility and not a sales website for business owners (both "Post your info" and "get found") . A site for people who are passionate about charity and giving !

Target Traffic:
1.  Businesses - both advertising and looking for services & vendors.
2.  People who want to support charity and fundraisers events

 Reason:

1. Being the networking super butterfly who gets asked for business referrals all the time, Keith wants to make his life easier but pointing to his collection in his website!


2. Support charity and fundraising events, spread the word about them.


3. Helping business owners to grow (exposure, Web site linking "the small  part of SEO as referred" etc

 Goal:

            1. To help Michigan businesses/people with finding right services & vendors right away - in an easy way.
            2. Free listing opportunity for business at NO COST. 
            3. Support charity and fundraising events

Free benefits + how your paid Ad space listing makes a difference:

1. Free listing exposure and opportunity to be found by another business looking for your service


2. Paid ad space higher chance and prominent way to get found by specific business people.


3. A part of the Ad space cost will be used for supporting in organizing and costs involved with Charity and Fundraising events.

- So support it with a good heart and get noticed as well 

Fresh / ever changing contents in KeithStonehouse.com: Stickiness without deviating from the service purpose of the site.

1. The growing business directory itself (core nature of the site)


2. Business event, charity and fundraising updates - people who support will definitely come back


3. Forum/Blog where Keith, you, me everyone can contribute and support each other as business owner and other children etc through charity fundraising events.


4. More periodic offers, free web spotlight position, info and plans of business + fun get together  (e:g current plan  of " Whirly ball")

And more (somebody stop my head from spiting out ideas...)

Note: I never said anywhere just linking to keithstonehouse.com alone will make your website#1 in google rank , it will help though . That's why DotSign is here to help you with SEO!!

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At DotSign we plan Web site stickiness, in terms of content, as 3 steps (filtering out details):   

1. Motivating the (right) traffic to visit your Web site and catching their attention.


2. Providing effective / interesting content at any giving time


3. Encourage returning - We also think about building the mind set and letting visitors know that when they visit next time the content will be different fresh etc

Note: I am not including about incorporating a stylish simple layout, common sense navigation, fast loading pages, interactiveness yada yada - all of it is by default anyway in our designs. Please see our Portfolio - http://www.dot-sign.com/portfolio_web1.html

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Targeted Marketing
I agree (actually never denied in the first place) with driving the right traffic to achieve max. Targeted result etc..etc.... as mentioned by Jeremiah. It increases the efficiency of sales, if we are talking about a sales oriented site but Keith stone house is service/utility oriented. But still the idea of target and stickiness is not neglected. The ad space that Keith sells is not the main reason of the site. 

Leaving with 1 last thought:

By the way, if you can increase the hits on your site and driving more traffic at no or very minimal additional cost - Why not take it? I am sure as Web developers you know what additional hits can do to your site  

I would rather spend the minimal cost (or at no cost) get more hits in addition to the targeted marketing and targeted audience.