Why is my coaching website not getting more traffic?

This is a frequent question asked of us here at Free Coaching Resources. It's a very good question, too. And there is a surprising answer, too.

Most web designers and coaches that do their own websites use Google's free keyword tool. There's nothing wrong with that, but you are only getting a small part of the picture of what people are looking for on the web. Google's free keyword tool uses adwords as its metric to show which keywords are getting traffic. This means that it is not showing the organic searches, only the paid adwords results. On a best case scenario, if your site is at the top of adwords, you can expect 47% of the traffic that it shows. If you are not in the top spot, the drop in percentages is exponential.

There are plenty of organic searches done. When I say organic, I mean search engine listings based on content on the web. If you write an article for an article directory, and back link it to your site, this creates a search engine listing for your site.

Before you go writing an article, please read the entirety of this post. One article will not rank you on the first page of Google. It might not even rank you on the 100th page of Google in a keyword search. It takes lots of articles, which creates backlinks to start showing up. How many? That's an excellent question.

Each keyword, whether "long tail" or "short tail" has a set of results that Google has indexed for it. The indexes are fluid, in that they change when new content is produced. Google loves fresh, original content and rewards the producers of it with higher search engine rankings.

But, content and backlinks are not the only piece of this puzzle. There are other factors, like domain age (how long a website has been up), directory listings (DMOZ and Yahoo), authority backlinks ( sites with .edu or .gov that link back to a site) all factor into search engine results.

Don't let your head explode yet. Take a breath. Instead of doing all of these search metrics by hand, which takes a lot of time, and constantly changes, you can do it all in one place.

I found a remarkable tool that allows you to do all of this with out having to use multiple tools to accomplish this. Market Samurai has an excellent tool that does all of the computations for you, and then lets you download it into a csv (spreadsheet) file.

 

 



I first discovered Market Samurai about 2 months ago, and I was hooked! All of the tools I had used before that now seem obsolete. I have used it to determine which keywords are the best value keywords, and which are the easiest to get.

Market Samurai lets you set the phrase to broad ratio, and then generates a list of keywords from your root keyword. Then, it will analyze this for you in real time and have the results in minutes. They factor in adwords and organic traffic. After this, it will organize them in order or the most valuable or least valuable, according to your preference.

Just because you think a keyword is good, or perfectly relates to your website, if it's not getting any traffic, it's a worthless endeavor.  For instance, the keyword "online life coaching" sounds like an excellent keyword to try for. There's a decent price on the cost per click adwords. But, if you research further, you will see that on a broad match, there are only 75 searches on the best day. And an exact match keyword search has less than 10 searches globally per day!  There is even stiff competition for this less than favorable keyword.

Don't be fooled by high priced Google Adword pay per click prices. This only means that websites are bidding higher to get this keyword without knowing how much someone will buy on a click through.          

Another mistake people make in selecting keywords is creating a keyword they think will do well. For instance, the keyword "life coaching audios" may sound good, but it does not even index or rank in search engine traffic ratings.

Basically, to give a synopsis of what I just said: Do not try to pick a keyword you think will do well, and expect everyone to come to you.

You must find out where the traffic already is, what they are looking for, and make sure you are there and easy to find.

If you go fishing, you don't just go to water standing on the side of the road and expect to catch fish, or any fish for that matter. You must go where the fish already are. This is true with websites. Go where people are already searching.

If you do not select keywords, Google will do it for you, and you will not be happy with their choices. They will not index you for the best keywords. They will index you for the most common keywords showing up on your page.

The best feature of Market Samurai, in my opinion, is the SEO Competiton feature. Once you have keywords selected, you can then search and see who the top 10 are for each keyword in the global searches. They create a spreadsheet of this showing the domain name, domain age, pages on site, backlinks, and several other metrics used in determining these results. Best of all, they show you which of your competitors will be easier to outrank.

You do not have to have the best site on the web, but you do need a site that is better than your competitors. If you find out that a new site has a number 1 ranking and only has 15 backlinks, you can outrank them by getting 16 backlinks. There are several variables to this equation, but I hope you see where I am going. Market Samurai can show you which keywords that you can rank for, that are profitable, and you can see results for.

I consider this my favorite tool in my seo marketing and website building endeavors. They have tutorial videos that are free which show you how to use their product proficiently. Best of all they have a free 12 day trial for new users. You don't even have to use a credit card for the free trial. You can also use this for as many sites or keywords as you like. My advice is give it a try. You will be surprised at the results. I know I was.

As always, if you have any questions about the products I profile here, email me at info@100coachingtips.com

And, I have made some changes. We now have an optin box here on our blog. Look at the upper right corner. Sign up and you can start downloading over $1700 in free coaching resources. Or, you can go to our main site at www.100coachingtips.com

Wishing you More Clients, More Money, and More Life!

Respectfully yours,

Steve Davis

Monitor SEO results on the fly

Today's free coaching resource is one that I have used at various times over the last 3 years. SEO Quake is a free toolbar program that allows you to monitor seo in real time. You can track your own website or your competitors. From talking with several web designers and programmers, most use SEO Quake for a time, but not an everyday part of their business.

As far as seo tools for beginners go, this is an excellent learning tool. Basically, you go to www.seoquake.com and download the toolbar to your browser. Important note: SEO Quake will not work in Internet Explorer browsers. It works well in Mozilla Firefox. There are other browsers that it may work in, but my suggestion is to be safe, use Firefox. When you go to their page, you will find instructions for downloading the toolbar and where to find Firefox if you do not have it already.

There are several indicators that you can monitor from the SEO Quake toolbar. Indicators like Google page rank, Bing search engine results, Yahoo, and Alexa site ranking, to name a few. If I just lost you on these terms, don't worry. There are plenty of resources on how to understand these terms and how they apply to you and your website. You can find videos and tutorials by doing Google searches that will be a trove of information to help you.

A great feature of SEO Quake is the ability to look at any site and see the search engine metrics. You can analyze competitors, similiar sites, and any other site you want to see stats on. If you were to do this research yourself, it would be very time consuming. The ease of use and simplicity factor way in heavy on making this a valuable resource. You can also look at which keywords a website ranks for and get a listing of backlinks.


Before hearing the backlash from SEO Quake critics, let me say, this is a good tool. It is not a perfect tool. As far as free coaching resources, it is good, but not great. There are still imperfections in this software, but it will give you an idea of where your website stands in the world of SEO. It is not the gold standard of SEO resources. There are problems with site age, and search engine spider results. But, don't let this keep you from looking at this site.

There are better SEO tools out there, but most of them are monthly subscriptions, or 1 time large purchases. If your coaching practice is in the position to buy programs like this, I would suggest doing so. However, most of our readers are just starting out and cash flow is not at the level to invest in expensive programs to get higher search engine rankings.

It is always an eye opening experience to look at how your website ranks. Don't worry. Everyone's site could use some work. If you are not ranking where you want to be, don't get upset. Take a breath, and look for ways to improve your site.

The weekend is finally here. Please have a safe and happy weekend.

Also, contact me if there are any types of resources you would like to see mentioned in our blog. Email me at info@100coachingtips.com

Also, there are free coaching resources waiting for you at www.100coachingtips.com . Sign in and download and build the coaching practice of your dreams.

Respectfully yours,

Steve Davis

Red Hot Internet Publicity

Today's free coaching resource comes to us by way of Amazon Kindle. Red Hot Internet Publicity is an information packed book that teaches new coaches and experienced pros, the ins and outs of getting more website traffic.

Perusing through this book, I must say it is very comprehensive in its scope. Starting out with SEO and your website, and then social media, blogging, and driving traffic, it delivers ideas on how to make your web presence "red hot."

There are the basics as well as advanced tips for everyone to have a website that gets more traffic, more prospects, and converts more sales.

Click here to get this free Kindle ebook

If your website needs a makeover, or it is not making you money, this is a book you need. In coaching, the purpose of your website is to make you money. Your coaching website should not be a hobby, but a cash machine. It should be built to accomplish this. Before you start building your site, you should keep this in mind.

I know some of you may be saying, "This is not what I signed up for when I decided to become a life coach." But, sales and marketing is the life blood of any business. Your coaching practice is your business, and it should reflect it, as well.

If you are doing this solo, without a web designer, I suggest taking it a little at a time. Don't try to accomplish it all at once. You will be overwhelmed. If you do have a web designer, this will give you something to point out the direction you want your site to go. Remember, your site does not have to be the best on the web, but it must be better than your competitor's.

I especially like how the author broke down each facet of social media. Again, from my own experience, and my client's experience, start with one social media network. And, as you gain experience and proficiency, you can add another. The main purpose of your social media presence is to drive traffic to your site.

There is so much more to this book, as well. How to do effective blogging. Using video to drive more traffic to your site. And, some very good information on building mobile friendly websites.

There are added resources at the end of this book that can help you find the right web hosting company and design a vibrant, thriving website that builds your coaching practice to the level you desire.

Please get this free coaching resource, and let me know what you think. Email me at info@100coachingtips.com

And for my new readers, you can get over $1700 in free coaching resources to download at www.100coachingtips.com . Simply sign in, and download these tools from some of the best coaches in the business. These resources are yours to keep.

The weekend is fast upon us. Let's enjoy, recharge, and plan for an exciting week.

We at 100 Coaching Tips wish all of you: More Clients, More Money, and More Life!

Respectfully yours,

Steve Davis

Paul Berry wants to reinvent website design

Today's free coaching resource is a bit of a surprise. Before reading an article earlier today, I had never heard of Rebel Mouse. It was created by Paul Berry. Paul created The Huffington Post in 2007, from scratch. He built one of the most dynamic websites in history.

Now he has revolutionized websites for everyone. Now you can create a website without any prior website building experience, and it will pull your social media posts in and post them on your site. Its purpose is to help create a visual presence on the web with social media. How does this differ from FlipBoard and other similiar sites? Mainly, it is editorial control. You can move items around on your page, and change or delete items as well.

Rebel Mouse can also be embedded into other sites such as Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr, and Weebly. If you would like to see an example of a Rebel Mouse site, check out http://paulcarr.com/.
This is just one example of how a Rebel Mouse site can be designed.

It seems that this may be a sign of coming websites in the next wave of websites with continually updated fresh content. He has struck such a chord in the internet sphere that Yahoo and Mashable are testing his service. I looked at some of his clients and the first one that popped out at me was Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Being a free coaching resource, it has to meet certain criteria. Namely, it has to have at least one feature that is free. Rebel Mouse does have a beginner package that is totally free. You can upgrade if you want more premium features.

I am going to be checking out some of the Rebel Mouse features myself, and see if it will enhance the overall experience of our 100 Coaching Tips site. I am going to keep our basic site premise, though. I don't know exactly how it will work. I would suggest taking a look at his site and see if this is something that would interest you. I am not saying change your websites to complete Rebel Mouse. I can see this working for some of my coaching clients who have trouble trying to build a WordPress site. Remember, there is more than one flavor of ice cream for a reason. We all like different things.

Again, check this out, see what you think, and let me know. Either here in the comments section, or email me at: info@100coachingtips.com.

For my new readers out there, please claim your free coaching gifts from us. They are valued at over $1700. Go to www.100coachingtips.com, sign up and you can start downloading. No waiting period, no strings attached.

Our mission is simple: Help Life Coaches Make More Money.

Until next time, we wish you: More Clients, More Money, and More Life!

Respectfully yours,

Steve Davis

Free SEO Toolbox

Today's free coaching resource is buffet of all you can use SEO tools. SEO and content creation and content repurposing is a critically important factor in getting you website discovered and keeping it at the top of search engine rankings. But, more content may not be better. If, you content is not original, or at least 70% original, you might get penalized by search engines.

Being penalized by search engines bad, but not neccessarily the death knell of your site. The worst case scenario is the search engines will block your site from being listed due to duplicate content, or plagiarized content.

In the days before Google Penguin and Panda, if you needed content, you went to a competitor's site and swiped content, 100%. Many people didn't change it, not even a word. Today, that will get you blocked by every search engine there is. I strongly urge you not to copy anyone's content.

The advent of Penguin and Panda not only prevents you from swiping someone's content, but will also ding you if you are posting duplicate content as well. Duplicate content is when you re-use a page or blog with no changes, while citing the work as 100% original. If you do this too many times, you can ruin your name with search engines.

All of this said, I do recommend re-purposing your content. How is this done? You take the article or blog post that you have just written, and re-write it using different wording, but it still has the same overall theme. This can be burdensome to say the least, if you are doing this with no help. It reminds me of school, when we used to do "research" papers by re-writing what the Encyclopedia Britannica said. I'm not saying I did it. It's just what I heard.....Um,yeah

But, there is good news out there. I have found a free seo tool website that allows you to use their seo tools not only free, but 100% no strings attached. No signing in, no registering, and no agreements. This is not a free trial, then an ongoing monthly expense. This is one of the best tools for seo beginners I have found yet.

www.smallseotools.com









This is so much more than just an article checker or rewriter. It lets you check Google page rank, check backlinks, and do reverse IP checking just to name a few features. Personally, I have purchased programs that did not do this much. It also has an article rewriter that is one of the easiest to use that I have ever seen. And it has a web "pingler." This is their own term for a pinger. A pinger or pingler lets you notify search engines when you have a new web page or blog posted.
 Otherwise, you have to wait for them to get to you.

They also have a backlink creator. Let me issue a word of caution here. Be very careful letting someone else generate backlinks for you. Too many backlinks at a time sets off alarms at search engines, letting them know it is fake. Also, never buy backlinks. This is prohibited by search engines, and is a sure way to get your website knocked off the search engines for good.

I do recommend you check out www.smallseotools.com . It is a great resource on the web. If you are just starting out, this can be a game changer for your coaching business.

Also, if you want to contact me: info@100coachingips.com. I am always happy to hear from you, and answer any questions. I also appreciate your kind comments.

And, if you haven't already, please obtain your free coaching tools worth over $1700. Go to www.100coachingtips.com and sign up. You can then begin downloading these tools, no strings attached.

Ahhh, the weekend is over far too fast. Back to the grind. I hop everyone has a great week.

And remember..... we wish you: More Clients, More Money, and More Life!

Respectfully yours,

Steve Davis

Get more traffic to your coaching website

I could take an old saying and revise it: You can never be too rich, or have too much website traffic.
Corny, but true. We can all use more traffic to our sites. And, if you are like me you are deluged by people wanting to sell you their latest "traffic getting" secret weapon. And, if you are also like me, you have spent more money than you can remember on those products and have little or nothing to show for it.

If you have tried to find just some basic information on increasing website traffic, you may be confused by the plethora of results. So many different techniques to implement. It's like getting a part time job just to get people to your site.

Let me say at the front, there is no way to drive thousands to your site daily when you have been averaging 5 visitors a day. The only exception to this is if Oprah mentions your website on one of her shows. By the way, Oprah, I'm waiting......

There are ways to implement certain things that will get you more traffic. It builds steadily and progressively. This is a process that works over time, not an explosive overnight growth.

My friend, Sarah Santacroce, at www.simplicityadmins.com has developed a simple and practical way to get more traffic. 21 Ways to Get More Traffic is a guide that will work for anyone, not just coaches, to get more website traffic.

Simply click here to get today's free coaching resource








And, if you are new to our blog, which blogger analytics tells me many of you are, you can get over $1700 in free coaching tools and resources at www.100coachingtips.com. Just sign up and you can download with no waiting on a confirmation email.

If you would like to contact me: info@100coachingtips.com

From all of us at 100 Coaching Tips, we wish you More Clients, More Money, and More Life!

Respectfully yours,

Steve Davis