Google is Not the Only Game in Town

As an organic SEO specialist I don't work with PPC unless it is to supplement targeted traffic while waiting for natural SEO to kick in. However, even such limited exposure teaches something valuable about organic search: Google is not the only game in town.

We all know this of course but 99 percent of us still strive against heavy odds to dominate Google rankings. And, of course, we are not trying to beat Google. We are trying to beat the millions of people trying to beat us.

So what did I learn from PPC? That 80 percent of my ad budget gets swallowed up by Google while yielding only 20 percent of the sales. But here's the real kicker... I spend the other 20 percent on MSN Live Search and it accounts for eighty percent of sales. It is kind of crazy when you think about it. It should be just the opposite.

This realization made me think long and hard about Google regarding ROI. As an SEO and Internet marketing consultant I still do a lot of work on Google, but I advise clients more than ever to at least consider MSN and Yahoo. And here's the best part. Just about anyone can nail a top spot on MSN in a few weeks, with just a few hours work. I will show you how right now.

First of all, it is important to know that you only have to worry about four major components when optimizing for MSN: Domain name, content, onsite links, and inbound links. Second, you should know that you need just one page on your Website. Really! That said, here we go.

1.) The domain name accounts for about 40 percent of SEO success. What you need to do is find your exact keyword phrase as your domain name ending in .com, .net, or .org. Never be shy about placing dashes in between each word in the domain name or even just a couple words. If you have a four word keyword phrase as your domain, you have 81 possible combinations of the domain name, per extension! That means 243 possible domain names between .com, .net and .org extensions. It's all about adding dashes, which MSN counts as spaces or nulls anyway.

2.) Next is your content. All you need is 250 to 400 words describing your product or service. Keep the text natural sounding and do not try to force in keywords. Just try to place your main keyword three to four times on the page; twice in the first paragraph, once in the middle of the page and once at the end. You will also want to bold two or three keyword instances to make it stand out. Remember to use the actual BOLD tag and not the STRONG tag because it does not work as well on MSN.

3.) The onsite linking could not be easier. Just make any three of your keywords into the anchor text of a link that goes right back to the same page. In other words, use your keywords as links that link back to the homepage, which is your only page.

4.) And finally, generate as many quality inbound links as possible. Do not even bother with reciprocal links. They do not count for much. Post to blogs or submit free articles with resource boxes pointing back to your site with the main keyword as anchor text. These are two of the quickest ways to get great inbound links.

This simple formula works for me every time. Enjoy!