Search Engine Optimization and the Wedding Professional Part 2: Guest Post by Alison Wren

Today, we're welcoming back Alison Wren of Wedding Business Success a UK based web site dedicated to educating wedding professionals on sound business practices. In case you missed the first post, Alison is here to share her knowledge on the matter of Search Engine Optimization and Wedding Professionals.

Step 5 – DIY or not?
It is possible to do your own SEO, but you will need to invest a lot of time in:

• learning about SEO
• carrying out the work required
  

Calling in a professional will certainly bring results more quickly so you need to balance the
up-front costs with the benefits they will bring.

My advice would be to find an SEO expert for the initial work – a good one will advise you on what needs to be done and ensure you don’t make any mistakes (doing the wrong thing can result in search engines penalising your website and it disappearing from the results). The best way to find an SEO consultant is through recommendation – sadly there are some people who call themselves experts who are either incompetent at best or worse, unethical. NEVER hire an SEO company who cold calls you – the good ones hardly ever need to advertise.

Step 6 – It’s all about content
Search engines love good, relevant content, and so do other web users. And if you have great content, other sites will link to yours and the search engines will love you even more –simple!

YOU are still the best person to write informed articles for your site, so even if you have hired an SEO expert or already rank well, adding great content to your site regularly is a must.

Top Tips:

• Write for customers, not search engines. Your website still has to convert those visitors into paying customers.
• Use your keywords – make sure your main phrases are on your home page and also your location(s).
• Add a blog to your site – and keep it updated.
• Exchange articles/blog entries with other wedding sites in exchange for links.
• Register your site with Google Places (www.google.com/local)
  

Step 7 – Keep Going
SEO is never finished – it’s an ongoing process of keeping your site updated, monitoring your web traffic and staying ahead of the opposition.

Finally, if you’d like to find out more about SEO there are loads of websites out there. http://www.seomoz.org is a good place to start.

Alison Wren is the editor of Wedding Business Success – a website dedicated to helping wedding businesses start up and grow. She is also the owner of leading UK based DIY wedding stationery specialist The Wedding Crafter which she set up 6 years ago having finally escaped from a career in IT. You can follow Alison on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/alisonpwren