You’re probably thinking “what is search engine optimization?” Here’s the official answer according to Wikipedia: “Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.” Say what!

Here is my definition of what these words mean: maximize your search engine ranking. That’s it. That wasn’t hard, was it? Let’s take it out a little further. You want to have your blog site or website appear first when someone searches for you. It doesn’t have to be just Google; it can be Bing, Yahoo!, Ask, etc. You want to become so popular that your site(s) appear at the head of the list.

Now there are different ways that you can maximize your search engine ranking, but one of the ones that I would recommend for virtual assistants is by writing. There are many types of writing that you can do to increase your visibility. Pick one type or several; I’ll leave that to you. Let’s take a look at some areas that you can write while bringing new clients to your sites.

Articles

Articles are an excellent area to focus on. You don’t have to be an accomplished writer. Just write what you consider yourself to be an expert in. Then take those articles and submit them to article distribution sites that will send out your content to hungry publishers and content site owners.

Blogs

Here is where you can write content in your specific niche. Before you know it, readers will begin to recognize you as someone they can refer to if they have questions they need answers to. Your blog does not have to be some big, elaborate blog site, and you don’t need to know programming in order to have a blog. There are several free ones out there like Blogger or WordPress that will do just fine. Once you get going with your posts, you can become a member of blog directories.

Forums

Do you feel you have important information that you feel you could share? Do you like to take part in discussions? Then joining forums are an excellent way for you to do this. If you’re a virtual assistant like I am, you have a wide arena of topics that you can contribute worthwhile information; I can even point people to articles that I’ve written on my website or blog site. Hmmm…traffic - yummy delicious. I’m sure I see my ratings go up.

Press Releases

Do you have a newsworthy event happening at your virtual assistant business? Or perhaps you’ve reached a major milestone. Write about it and submit it to press release directories and help to increase your search engine visibility and ranking. Not only can you reach people globally, but you’ll be doing it through SEO.

Social Networking

Social media networking allows you to interact or socialize with lots of other people who share the same interests and activities as you. Consider being a member of a social network as being part of a close-knit community that you can share information with.

There are many places out there that allow you to socialize comfortably while maximizing your ranking on the Internet. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace are just a few of the more popular ones.

I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg for ways that you can write to increase your visibility. As a virtual assistant, you need to seize the opportunity to become well-known in the business and become more visible on the Internet. While you’re looking into the ways that I’ve mentioned in this article, keep your eyes open for other effective methods that you can increase the traffic to your sites, as well as maximize your search engine ranking. Good luck; I know you can do it.

One of most critical strategies to increase your article marketing for your own business, as well as your clients’ businesses is to expand your search engine visibility. Through trial and error, I have found the following techniques to be very beneficial.

Write articles

It’s not hard to write articles. You don’t have to be a certified writer or publisher. As long as you follow good down-to-earth grammar, punctuation, and spelling guidelines, you CAN write your own articles and not have to pay someone else to write them for you.

Have Your Articles Distributed Far and Wide

Choose a good content distribution service where you can submit your articles and let them do all the leg work for you in getting your articles out to the hungry publishers and content site owners. Once such site that I use is Content Crooner. They have over 2,000 sites that they distribute articles to.

Socialize

The advantages of belonging to social networking sites are multiple. Using social media can increase your visibility in search engines. Setting up profiles, commenting, adding friends - this can all contribute to raising your status as an expert in the search engines. By adding links to your comments and profile pages, you will eventually begin to see increased traffic to your website or blog. The increased traffic will, in turn, raise your page rank scores.

Contribute

Contribute what, you might ask. Contribute by commenting on other people’s blogs, commenting in forums, sharing articles on your website, and making helpful comments on other articles you read, if the site owner allows comments. By making positive, helpful comments, you are going to be recognized as an expert in your particular niche.  By doing so, people are going to want to learn more about you. They’re going to search you out in Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and other search engines.

Blog

You don’t have to have a blog that a developer creates for you that costs you a lot of money. You can create your own blog on websites such as wordpress.com or blogspot.com. When writing on your blog, you are using a journalistic mind frame - write from the heart while utilizing research material and/or personal experience to keep your reader’s interest up.

Promote

Here’s where a quality content distribution service like Content Crooner comes into play. You will want to take advantage of special features that the service might offer. For example, perhaps you can take advantage of special sharing options that a service might have or special partnerships in order to obtain prominent position on one or several top article marketing directories.

A virtual assistant needs to do multiple article marketing strategies in order to increase search engine visibility — not only for in order to become successful for your own company, but also for your clients. Now is the time to learn the techniques I’ve mentioned above and increase your value and your potential for success. Don’t wait; do it now!

About the author:

Pam Lokker is a skillful writer and proficient virtual assistant. Borlok Virtual Assistants is the place to get global expert VA services with quality and on-time delivery.

Stop! Click Here! to read more about Content Crooner.

There are quite a few article distribution sites out there that will allow you to submit your articles, and they will send your articles out wide and far. What are some questions you should ask yourself prior to signing up and entrusting your valuable written content to them?

Who will your articles be sent to?

One of the first things you want to know is what type of a publisher list they have. Do they have many, many publishers that they will send your articles out to, or just a few? Do their publishers have good Alexa or Google pagerank? It would be wise to check out some of the sites to ensure your articles will be sent to reputable, well-known companies.

What type of membership plans do they have?

Prior to becoming a member of an article distribution company, do a little homework and see what type of memberships or subscription plans they have. Do they have free memberships? If so, what type of benefits does a free membership entail you? Be sure to read the terms of agreement to see how they will bill you if you have to pay for a subscription. Many of them will use a specific payment processor, and the billing will be on recurring billing. Be sure you understand the terms of agreement; then print it and keep it.

What kind of distribution plan do they have?

Are your articles going to be distributed for a long time, or short spurts? Does the company you decide on allow your articles to be sent to new publishers as they sign on, or are they going to be sent to a static, non-changing list? The ideal solution would be to have your content go out to new publishers and content site owners as they sign up.

Will your articles be reviewed prior to being sent out?

Should you be fortunate enough to find a website that has live human review of articles once you submit them, I highly recommend utilizing this valuable feature. A major disadvantage of trying to manually submit articles to a wide variety of article submission places is trying to keep all of their requirements and guidelines straight in your head. A company that has reviewers spot check your articles for you will know all the guidelines and be able to give you professional feedback on how to improve your articles so they speed through the review process.

Can you schedule your articles to be sent out at a specific time?

Wouldn’t it be a blessing if you could write and submit your articles ahead of time and then be able to schedule their distribution for a certain day? There are content distribution places out there that will allow you to do this. Check this option out; it’s well worth being able to advance schedule.

Whatever website you decide to go with, make sure you do your homework in checking out the company with BBB and other consumer sites that will rate companies based on their service level, integrity, and other measures prior to making that all important leap, especially if you are going to get a paid subscription.

Is there a content distribution marketing company that I use that I would recommend? Yes, I personally use Content Crooner, and am very happy with them. They have excellent customer service, economical paid subscriptions, an extensive distribution list of publishers, and a knowledgeable review staff. Don’t just take my word for it, however. Do your own research and feel comfortable with your decision.